List
11 YA Books for Adults
Collection
Of course anyone can read YA! Here's a few books to get you started if you've never read anything in the YA genre as an adult. From dystopian fiction (Scythe and The Grace Year) to romance (Instructions for Dancing) to fantasy (This Woven Kingdom and Strange the Dreamer), there's a little something for every reader.
The Diviners
Published in 2012
Seventeen-year-old Evie O'Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of occult-based murders thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thick of the investigation.
Truly Devious
Published in 2018
When Stevie Bell, an amateur detective, begins her first year at a famous private school in Vermont, she sets a plan to solve the cold case involving the kidnapping of the founder's wife and daughter shortly after the school opened.
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
Published in 2017
Vowing to make his yearlong escapade across Europe his last hurrah before taking over the family estate, Henry "Monty" Montague and his best friend Percy find themselves in the middle of a dangerous manhunt involving pirates and highwaymen.
The Grace Year
Published in 2019
Tierney James, sixteen, struggles to endure the year in which she and other young women are banished to the wild until, purified, the survivors are allowed to return home and marry.
This Woven Kingdom
Published in 2022
"To all the world, Alizeh is a disposable servant, not the long-lost heir to an ancient Jinn kingdom forced to hide in plain sight. The crown prince, Kamran, has heard the prophecies foretelling the death of his king. But he could never have imagined that the servant girl with the strange eyes, the girl he can't put out of his mind, would one day soon uproot his kingdom--and the world"-- Provided by publisher.
The Astonishing Color of After
Published in 2018
After her mother's suicide, grief-stricken Leigh Sanders travels to Taiwan to stay with grandparents she never met, determined to find her mother who she believes turned into a bird.
Ain't Burned All the Bright
Published in 2022
"A smash up of art and text that viscerally captures what it means to not be able to breathe, and how the people and things you love most are actually the oxygen you most need"-- Provided by publisher.
Salt to the Sea
Published in 2016
"As World War II draws to a close, refugees try to escape the war's final dangers, only to find themselves aboard a ship with a target on its hull"-- Provided by publisher.
Scythe
Published in 2016
""In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed ('gleaned') by professional reapers ('scythes'). Two teens must compete with each other to become a scythe--a position neither of them wants. The one who becomes a scythe must kill the one who doesn't"-- Provided by publisher.
Strange the Dreamer
Published in 2017
In the aftermath of a war between gods and men, a hero, a librarian, and a girl must battle the fantastical elements of a mysterious city stripped of its name.
Instructions for Dancing
Published in 2021
"After picking up a book from the library, Yvette--who has given up on love--gains the ability to see how other people's romantic relationships will end"-- Provided by publisher.