YA Thriller Books

The best young adult thrillers & teen fiction mysteries.

The Lightning People Play, a Big-Hearted YA Novel by Tim Cummings

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The Bottom Line: A big-hearted YA novel that transforms fear and family fracture into something thrilling, strange and beautiful.  Kirby Daniel Renton’s family has been destabilized by the departure of one of his fathers, who he calls Pop. Kirby is convinced that his younger brother Baxter’s seizures are the result of Pop’s disappearance, reading the illness through the raw logic of grief rather than medicine. Curiously, during his seizures, Baxter claims to see mysterious […]

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the breaking of time

The Breaking of Time: Chronicles of the Arvynth by J.J. Hebert

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The Bottom Line: A winning blend of the supernatural and family adventure that crackles with heart and imagination. Five stars.  The Breaking of Time opens in a quiet New England suburb with a startling confession. Daniel Ward, devoted husband, father, and unassuming accountant, admits that the life he has built is a carefully constructed fiction. He is far older than he appears, and he has spent years

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Colony, a Shockingly Great YA Sci-Fi Thriller by Ron Wolff

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The Bottom Line: A shockingly great YA Sci-Fi thriller that earns its suspense and pays it off repeatedly. Highly recommended for any sci-fi fan.  At a time when establishing an outpost on Mars seems more plausible than ever before, Ron Wolff’s Colony opens – appetizingly so – with a detailed schematic diagram of Hellas Station, a base for human colonization and scientific exploration. What follows next is

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Miles in Time, a Dazzling YA Sci-Fi Thriller by Lee Matthew Goldberg

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The Bottom Line: A dazzling and poignant exploration of time, memory and the fragile courage of youth. Miles in Time opens as Miles Hardy, a 14-year-old aspiring detective living in the sleepy town of Frontier, Iowa, is jolted awake by a bang that seems to fracture reality itself. Dreaming of melting clocks — a clever nod to Salvador Dalí and the book’s time-centric themes — he awakes to find the acrid scent

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Best Fantasy Thriller of 2024: The Witchfinder’s Sacrifice by Rande Goodwin

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The Bottom Line: This bewitching young adult fantasy thriller was voted Best Fantasy Thriller of 2024 in the BestThrillers.com Book Awards. Rande Goodwin’s award-winning novel The Witchfinder’s Serpent introduced us to teenager Nate Watson, who stumbled across the world of witchcraft in his Aunt Celia’s mansion when a powerful demonic bracelet permanently wrapped itself around his arm. In Goodwin’s second series entry, The Witchfinder’s Sacrifice, the relationship between Nate and the serpent is increasingly fascinating.

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Oversight, an Ingenious YA Science Fiction Novel by Dennis Batchelder

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The Bottom Line: YA sci fi fans should flock to this ingenious tale of reincarnated teenagers vying for control of their world. Highly recommended.  Told from the point of view of a 17-year-old computer geek, Zelly, Oversight begins with one of the more provocative statements in recent memory: “Ying wants me dead before I turn nineteen.” Zelly and Ying attend “bootcamp” together, a sort of

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Fan Mail, an Emotionally Explosive Coming-of-Age Thriller by Joseph Lewis

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The Bottom Line: An emotionally explosive and life-affirming coming of age story wrapped within a simmering crime thriller. Fan Mail is a coming of age story centered around the lives of seven brothers – two biological, and five adopted – in the Evans family. Several of the boys are sophomores at WIsconsin’s Waukesha North High School, where a car bomb wreaks havoc in the school

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The Serpent Underneath, a Brilliantly Nuanced Dystopian Thriller by Julie A. Fragoules

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The Bottom Line: Fans of Margaret Atwood and Suzanne Collins will relish this under-the-radar dystopian thriller featuring a fascinating post-apocalyptic America and an enigmatic anti-hero.  In a world devastated by socio-economic collapse, survival in America is a daily struggle. Eighteen-year-old Haven Segreti, recruited from her family’s isolated compound, is forced to serve as a member of a government “pack” – a unit of elite teens trained

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River of Wrath, an Epic Coming of Age Thriller by Alexandrea Weis and Lucas Astor

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The Bottom Line: The dynamic duo of Weis and Astor make magic together. A rising body count, a dark pact among unlikely friends and a wholly evocative world propel this small town mystery to epic heights. Highly recommended. Until three unsolved murders rocked tiny St. Benedict, Louisiana, the town hadn’t had a single murder since 1942. As River of Wrath opens, local sheriff Kent Davis

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Discovery of the Five Senses, a Satisfying Young Adult Superhero Novel by K.N. Smith

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The Bottom Line: Recommended for young adults, is a truly fresh superhero story that generates plenty of innovative suspense.  Danville Heights is an idyllic small town. People are friendly, the land is fertile and lush, the homes are charming and the community is quiet. But a nearby forest grove holds secrets that will lead to a high-stakes adventure for a group of local boys. Having

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