New young adult books for October 2023
by Sophie Green
Looking for some new YA titles to read this October? Take a look at our top picks, from a super sweet Hearstopper-style romance to an epic fantasy with vengeful gods.
Find more recommendations for young adults
If You'll Have Me, by Eunnie
For fans of Alice Oseman's Heartstopper series.
Momo Gardner is the kind of friend who's always ready to lend a helping hand. She's introverted, sensitive, and maybe a little too trusting, but she likes to believe the best in people. PG, on the other hand, is a bit of a lone wolf, despite her reputation for being a flirt and a player. Underneath all that cool mystery, she's actually quick to smile, and when she falls for someone, she falls hard. An unexpected meet-cute brings the two together, kicking off the beginning of an awkward yet endearing courtship. With their drastically different personalities, Momo's overprotective friend, and PG's past coming back to haunt her, Momo and PG's romance is put to the test.
Bad Magic, by Derek Landy and P.J. Holden
The beginning of Valkyrie and Skulduggery's epic story, told in graphic novel form.
A small town in the middle of Ireland, a string of unexplained deaths and a monster on the loose. Better call in the experts. When Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain drive into Termoncara, they discover a town with a dark past and a people haunted by their own secrets. There is a creature stalking the streets - a creature who delights in cruelty, who feeds off the little hatreds, who grows stronger with every drop of blood spilled.
The Door of No Return, by Kwame Alexander
First in a new trilogy from the author of The Crossover and Booked.
Dreams are today's answers for tomorrow's questions. Eleven-year-old Kofi Offin has dreams of water, of its urgent whisper that beckons with promises and secrets. He has heard the call on the banks of Upper Kwanta, where he lives. He loves these things above all else: his family, the fireside tales of his father's father, a girl named Ama, and, of course, swimming. But when the unthinkable - a sudden death - occurs during a festival between rival villages, Kofi ends up in a fight for his life. What happens next will send him on a harrowing journey across land and sea, and away from everything he loves. Yet Kofi's dreams may be the key to his freedom.
Borrow The Door of No Return →
The Night Hunt, by Alexandra Christo
From the author of To Kill a Kingdom.
Enter a world of Gods and monsters. Atia is an immortal who feeds on fear and nightmare. As the last of her kind, she hides in the shadows of the world to escape the wrath of the vengeful Gods. Silas is a Herald, carrying messages and ferrying the dead, as punishment for a past he can't remember. Atia would never dream of allying with someone like him, but when she breaks a sacred law and the gods send monsters to hunt her, Silas offers an irresistible deal: he'll help her take on the Gods and get vengeance for her family.
But in return, she must help him break the curse that binds him and restore his humanity. All they need to do is kill three powerful creatures: a vampire, a banshee and one of the very Gods who has destroyed both their lives. Only together can they finally rewrite their destinies.