Cover of Becoming a Queen. Young man with blond hair, wearing khaki shorts, is facing the other direction, and is holding a purple ball gown in front of him. He has his feet arched up as if he was wearing high heels. Cover of Becoming a Queen. Young man with blond hair, wearing khaki shorts, is facing the other direction, and is holding a purple ball gown in front of him. He has his feet arched up as if he was wearing high heels. Cover of Becoming a Queen. Young man with blond hair, wearing khaki shorts, is facing the other direction, and is holding a purple ball gown in front of him. He has his feet arched up as if he was wearing high heels. Cover of Becoming a Queen. Young man with blond hair, wearing khaki shorts, is facing the other direction, and is holding a purple ball gown in front of him. He has his feet arched up as if he was wearing high heels. Cover of Becoming a Queen. Young man with blond hair, wearing khaki shorts, is facing the other direction, and is holding a purple ball gown in front of him. He has his feet arched up as if he was wearing high heels. Cover of Becoming a Queen. Young man with blond hair, wearing khaki shorts, is facing the other direction, and is holding a purple ball gown in front of him. He has his feet arched up as if he was wearing high heels.

2024 Best Fiction for Young Adults, Winners and Nominees

Written by alamancelibraries on August 29, 2024. Posted in Book Reviews.

2024 Best Fiction for Young Adults, Winners and Nominees

YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) puts out a list every year of the best fiction titles of the year before. Anyone can recommend a title, and the blogging team chooses the top ten titles. Alamance County Public Libraries owns most of the titles already, and I’ve included a link to our request form if one of the titles we don’t have appeals to you!

Top Ten

Becoming a queen by Clay, Dan

Mark wore a dress for a talent show, and his boyfriend broke up with him. His older brother, whom he often turns to when he’s upset, is struggling with his own issues. So Mark puts on a dress again, and finds it offers escape from his pain and a chance to be his authentic self (and see others’ authentic selves).

Cover of Dear Medusa. Young lady is looking over her shoulder and almost frowning. She has bright red/pink hair, and there's painted snakes superimposed on top of her head and body, as well as a drawing of flames around her eye, and daisies below her.

Dear Medusa by Cole, Olivia A.

This novel-in-verse deals with sexual abuse of a high school student by a teacher. Alicia feels cut off from her classmates and the world until she finds a note from another survivor in her locker. Maybe she isn’t as alone as she feels she is, and there is hope for her and the other survivors to make it through this year.

Cover of Divine Rivals. The D and R look like typewriter keys. There are three blue flowers with orange centers and long thin stems on the cover, which has a black background with gold sprinkles.

Divine rivals : a novel by Ross, Rebecca (and Ruthless vows , second in the duology)

This historical fantasy/romance duology features Iris and Roman, who are rivals for the newspaper columnist job at the Oath Gazette. The world is in chaos, as the gods have woken, started a war, and mortals have to choose a side. Iris relieves her anxiety by writing letters and slipping them into her wardrobe. They vanish and end up in Roman’s hands, and he decides to answer. Thus begins an enemies-to-lovers story.

Cover of For Lamb. The background is beige. There is a tree in the upper right cover, stretching across the top of the book. In the center is the side view of a Black woman, looking toward the right. Below her, you see a white family, looking upward, as if looking at her or at the tree. To the family's right is a single stem of leaves, falling down.

For Lamb by Cline-Ransome, Lesa

Lamb Clark can’t change the fact that she is Black and living in Jackson, Mississippi in a time when looking wrong at someone White can get you lynched. She still is friends with Marny, the daughter of a local White doctor, because they have so much in common – a love of books and reading, controlling older brothers, and a parent that is not in the picture. But when Marny’s older brother George sexually assaults Lamb, and her older brother Simeon retaliates, a mob is formed by George to find and punish Simeon.

Cover of I Kick and I Fly. The cover is red and orange. You see a background of a city behind the bottom, and two people holding hands and running down the street, toward the viewer. The letters are "clear" and through them, you can see a woman standing in fighting position with her hands below her chin, ready to punch, standing in a black background.

I kick and I fly by Gupta, Ruchira

Heera is part of the Nat, a caste of nomadic people who are no longer allowed to ply their trade of entertainment via wrestling, acrobatics and juggling. They believe the only work for their women is prostitution. Heera is given a chance to escape that through a hostel teaching women kung fu, where she learns how strong she really is and the power she has as a woman.

Cover of Plan A. The cover is pink, the title is in black, with white words - Her Story. Her Choice - underlined and in white. You can see Plan B scribbled out behind the words on the cover.

Plan A by Caletti, Deb (not owned by the library; click here to request we purchase it)

Ivy and Lorenzo are taking a trip across the country, from Texas to Oregon. Their ultimate destination is a place where Ivy can receive a legal abortion. Lorenzo is determined to make this trip fun, from stopping in places with world-capital names like Rome, Oregon and Paris, Texas, to finding the corniest roadside attractions possible. But they also find other women who share their stories of reproductive experiences and decisions and chip away at the shame Ivy feels.

Promise boys by Brooks, Nick

J.B., Ramon and Trey are students at Urban Promise Prep School, a charter school that has very strict rules about everything. When the principal is murdered, these three boys are the prime suspects and must band together to figure out who actually killed him, and why.

Cover of Saints of the Household. Cover is orange, with two Indigenous people's heads, one on top of the other. There are plants pictured in their hair.

Saints of the household by Tison, Ari

Max and Jay try to keep their mother safe from their abusive father by intervening whenever they can and acting as a support for each other. When they see a friend in trouble, they beat up a classmate, but then question if that was the right decision. They use their doubt about their actions to explore their Bribri heritage and what kind of person they want to become.

Cover of Their Vicious Games. Black cover, pink lettering for title. Image of a hand, holding pearls and a perfume bottle. In the facets of the bottle, you see several faces and eyes, all scared or angry or screaming.

Their Vicious Games Wellington, Joelle (not owned by the library; click here to request we purchase it)

When scholarship student Adina gets in a fight with her former best friend, she loses her spot at Yale. The Finish, a competition held by the Remington family, can get her life back on track, but she has to survive a game that is not at all what she expected – a fight to the death.

Cover of Warrior Girl Unearthed. Cover is orange with leaves, handprints and flowers. There is a woman's face in the center of the book, with dark hair, dark eyes and a serious look. The bottom of the cover is green, and has a pattern of interlocking fish.

Warrior girl unearthed by Boulley, Angeline

Perry isn’t like her twin, who is excited to take part in the Kinomaage program’s internship. But after a car wreck involving a mother bear and her cubs, Perry’s aunt Daunis requires Perry to take part, too. Through her internship, she learns about “Warrior Girl,” whose remains and knife are in the university’s archives. She researches how to repatriate remains and funerary artifacts, and she and the other young adults fight for Warrior Girl to be returned to her people.

Other Nominees

Always the Almost by Underhill, Edward (not owned by the library; click here to request we purchase it)

Ander and Santi were here by Garza Villa, Jonny

As you walk on by by Winters, Julian

Bianca Torre is afraid of everything by Winans, Justine Pucella

Bittersweet in the Hollow by Pearsall, Kate

The buried and the bound by Hassan, Rochelle

The chalice of the gods by Riordan, Rick

Chaos theory by Stone, Nic

City of Nightmares by Schaeffer, Rebecca (not owned by the library; click here to request we purchase it)

Cruel illusions by Fuston, Margie

Delicious monsters by Sambury, Liselle