Young Adult Books for Sept 2020
Whether it's thrillers, fantasy or comedy, our picks of Young Adult titles for September have everything you could need!
Punching the air by Ibi Aanu Zoboi, Yusef Salaam
From award-winning, bestselling author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam comes a powerful YA novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. Suddenly, at just 16 years old, Amal Shahid's bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it?
The cheerleaders by Kara Thomas
An all-new edge-of-your-seat thriller set in upstate New York about an eerie sequence of seemingly unrelated events that leaves 5 cheerleaders dead. There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook. First there was the car accident - two girls dead after hitting a tree on a rainy night. Not long after, the murders happened. Those two girls were killed by the man next door. The police shot him, so no one will ever know his reasons.
Monica's sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad. No one wanted to be reminded of the girls they'd lost. That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But for Monica, it's not that easy. She just wants to forget.
How it all blew up by Arvin Ahmadi
18-year-old Amir Azadi always knew that coming out to his Muslim family would be messy, but he wasn't expecting it to end in an airport interrogation room. Now, he's telling his side of the story to the stern-faced officer. Amir has to explain why he ran away to Rome (boys, bullies, blackmail) and what he was doing there for a month (dates in the Sistine Chapel, friends who helped him accept who he is, and, of course, drama) all while his mum, dad and little sister are being interrogated in the room next door.
A nuanced take on growing up brown, Muslim and gay in today's America, 'How It All Blew Up' is the story of one boy's struggle to come out to his family, and how that painful process exists right alongside his silly, sexy romp through Italy.
I, Ada: rebel, genius, visionary by Julia Gray
Ada Byron is rich and clever, but she longs to be free. Free to explore all the amazing ideas that come to her imagination, like flying mechanical horses and stories inspired by her travels. Free to find love and passion beyond the watchful gaze of her mother and governesses. And free to learn the full truth about her father, the notorious Lord Byron. Then Ada meets a man whose invention might just change the world - and he needs her visionary brilliance to bring it to life.
The reckless afterlife of Harriet Stoker by Lauren James
What if death is only the beginning? When Harriet Stoker dies falling from a balcony in a long-abandoned building, she discovers a world of ghosts with magical powers - shape-shifting, hypnosis, or even the ability to possess the living. As she learns more about their community, Harriet is willing to do anything to unleash her own power, even if it means destroying everyone around her.
But when all of eternity is at stake, the afterlife can be a dangerous place to make an enemy. Because who knows what grudges people have been holding onto for millennia, just waiting for a reckless girl to give them the chance to get vengeance.
Borrow The reckless afterlife of Harriet Stoker →
The lost book of the white by Cassandra Clare, Wesley Chu
Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood are settling into domestic life with their son Max when the warlocks Ragnor Fell and Shinyun Jung break into their loft and steal a powerful spell book. Realising that Ragnor and Shinyun are being controlled by a more sinister force, Magnus and Alec set out to stop them and recover the book before they can cause any more harm. With the help of Clary Fairchild, Jace Herondale, Isabelle Lightwood, and Simon Lovelace (who is fresh from the Shadowhunter Academy), they track the warlocks to Shanghai. But nothing is as it seems.
Ragnor and Shinyun are working at the behest of a Greater Demon. Their goal is to open a Portal from the demon realms to Earth, flooding the city of Shanghai with dangerous demons. When a violent encounter causes Magnus's magic to grow increasingly unstable, Alec and Magnus rally their friends to strike at the heart of the demon's power.
Second in the Eldest Curses trilogy, following The Red Scrolls of Magic.