YA science fiction books to look up first
If you came for titles rather than lists, here are well-known YA science fiction books to start your search with. Check a book’s description and age rating before handing it to a younger teen; the genre index and the longer lists follow below.
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: Katniss Everdeen takes her sister’s place in a televised fight to the death.
- Divergent by Veronica Roth: a future Chicago split into factions, where each teen must choose one.
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card: a boy sent to Battle School to train for a war against an alien enemy.
- Uglies by Scott Westerfeld: a society where a mandatory operation makes everyone “pretty”.
- Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff: a space-colony attack told through hacked files, transcripts and messages.
- Scythe by Neal Shusterman: a world that has conquered death, where a few people are trained to take lives.
- Cinder by Marissa Meyer: a science fiction retelling of Cinderella with a cyborg heroine.
- Across the Universe by Beth Revis: a spaceship carrying colonists to a new planet, and a girl who is woken too early.
- Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray: the Firebird series, about a girl who can travel between parallel worlds.
We mostly write YA science fiction and fantasy – because that’s what I love to read. Whenever I read a new book I love, I share it on this massive collection of my favorite books for teens.
However if you’re looking for something specific, I’ve also helped put together some genre-specific lists. I don’t have books in all these categories yet, but I will soon!
- The Best YA Sci-fi Dystopian Books for Teens
- The Best YA/Teen Fiction Books With Pirates
- The Best YA/Teen Fiction Books With Ghosts
- The Best YA Fairytale Retellings
- The Best Superhero Books for Teens
- The Best YA Vampire Books of All Time (Plus Seven You’ve Probably Never Heard Of!)
- The Best Mythology-Based Books for Teens
- The Best Dragon Books for Teens
- The Best YA Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic Books of 2016
- 28 Amazing Dark Fantasy/Supernatural Thriller YA books for fans of Fallen
- The Best YA/Teen Fiction Books With Zombies
- The Best Time Travel Books for Teens
Check out theYAshelf.com for more updated lists and YA book reviews.
Book lists on Urban Epics
The lists above live on my YA review site. These are the ones on this blog, by genre, plus the reviews I wrote when I was reading a book a week.
Dystopian, sci-fi and time travel
- 15 YA dystopian books for teens who loved Hunger Games and Divergent Rebellion, corrupt governments, and the next three projects I was plotting at the time.
- Must-read YA sci-fi books for Star Trek fans Exploration, moral dilemmas and crews that argue.
- Best sci-fi time travel books for teens Time travel is the hardest thing to plot. These authors pulled it off.
Fantasy, magic and myth
- Best fantasy and magic academy books A summer on the couch, and the books that earned it.
- Best books for teens based on Greek mythology My favorite YA built on the old myths, and more books based on myths and legends.
- 18 incredible fallen angel romances for young adult readers The books behind Scarlet Thread.
- 32 magical mermaid novels for young adult readers and why most mermaid romance disappointed me.
- Best waifus from fantasy novels Everyone lists book boyfriends. This is the other side.
- Harry Potter books: sorting reality from the controversy Can we still read Hogwarts the way we used to?
Free and cheap YA books
- 100 free fantasy books The summer bookfest with a pile of bestselling fantasy authors.
- Free YA fantasy books The Chinese New Year giveaway from Taiwan.
- That Moment When: a free anthology of young adult fiction 40 short stories from new YA talent, including mine.
- Dark Legends: 21 urban fantasy and paranormal romance books (boxset) The boxset Scarlet Thread was part of.
- The best books for teens: YA releases for summer The last of a summer of three-books-a-week giveaways.
- 91 Black Friday and Cyber Monday YA book deals From one Thanksgiving weekend; most deals have ended, the books are still good.
Reviews
- The Siren by Kiera Cass
- Ten Thousand Skies Above You (Firebird) by Claudia Gray
- Dreamland by Robert L. Anderson
- Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch
- Mirrored by Alex Flinn
- A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis
For bloggers and reviewers
- Best YA blogs and book reviewers Nominated by 12,000 readers at the end of 2015.
- YA book bloggers and YA book reviews: the group blogs I set up for reviewers, and why theYAshelf exists.
My own books are free to start: the series guide and free chapters has every opening, and the starter library sends the full first books.
More on Urban Epics: mermaid lore, scary stories and monsters, mythology guides, ancient history, writing advice.
