This Wall Street Journal article sparked a frenzy of booklovers speaking in defense of "dark" YA fiction. Whether you're using this list to try censor your child's reading, or to guide your next trip to the bookstore or library, it's here to help.

Me, I plan on reading them all.
1

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3.62 avg rating — 817,031 ratings
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4.05 avg rating — 250,790 ratings
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3.97 avg rating — 2,888,285 ratings
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4.58 avg rating — 3,695,292 ratings
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4.17 avg rating — 251,329 ratings
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22

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4.09 avg rating — 177,162 ratings
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24

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3.70 avg rating — 1,501,124 ratings
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25

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4.06 avg rating — 2,185,161 ratings
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26

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4.07 avg rating — 643,951 ratings
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27

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3.95 avg rating — 480,133 ratings
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28

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3.69 avg rating — 53,163 ratings
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29

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3.88 avg rating — 347,025 ratings
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30

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4.12 avg rating — 226,528 ratings
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31

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3.80 avg rating — 3,930,901 ratings
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32

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4.05 avg rating — 286,288 ratings
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33

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3.69 avg rating — 413,468 ratings
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34

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3.73 avg rating — 293,586 ratings
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35

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4.24 avg rating — 1,389,538 ratings
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36

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3.77 avg rating — 34,222 ratings
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37

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3.76 avg rating — 497,802 ratings
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38

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4.26 avg rating — 6,963,995 ratings
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39

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40

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4.16 avg rating — 156,227 ratings
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41

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3.79 avg rating — 51,155 ratings
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42

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4.42 avg rating — 1,234,022 ratings
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43

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4.55 avg rating — 1,164,655 ratings
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44

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3.82 avg rating — 12,981 ratings
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45

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4.31 avg rating — 1,483,492 ratings
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46

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3.77 avg rating — 337,196 ratings
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47

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4.37 avg rating — 1,235,569 ratings
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48

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4.10 avg rating — 683,236 ratings
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49

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3.80 avg rating — 100,922 ratings
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50

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3.75 avg rating — 82,783 ratings
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51

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3.89 avg rating — 1,609,239 ratings
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52

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3.56 avg rating — 4,348 ratings
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53

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4.15 avg rating — 15,610 ratings
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54

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4.06 avg rating — 1,706,178 ratings
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55

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3.87 avg rating — 29,971 ratings
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56

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3.72 avg rating — 620,509 ratings
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57

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4.28 avg rating — 713,316 ratings
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58

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3.82 avg rating — 37,618 ratings
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59

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3.89 avg rating — 134,043 ratings
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60

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3.60 avg rating — 233,628 ratings
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61

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3.84 avg rating — 710,915 ratings
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62

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3.96 avg rating — 465,581 ratings
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63

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4.09 avg rating — 194,696 ratings
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64

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3.63 avg rating — 37,831 ratings
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65

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3.70 avg rating — 166,533 ratings
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66

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3.73 avg rating — 75,596 ratings
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67

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3.90 avg rating — 84,219 ratings
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68

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3.65 avg rating — 62,586 ratings
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69

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3.97 avg rating — 1,295,671 ratings
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3.85 avg rating — 736,423 ratings
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71

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3.79 avg rating — 13,499 ratings
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72

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3.91 avg rating — 53,288 ratings
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73

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3.89 avg rating — 72,622 ratings
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74

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4.25 avg rating — 82,836 ratings
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75

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3.92 avg rating — 747,018 ratings
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76

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3.74 avg rating — 6,056 ratings
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77

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3.98 avg rating — 11,900 ratings
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78

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3.87 avg rating — 15,346 ratings
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79

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3.76 avg rating — 60,389 ratings
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3.95 avg rating — 110,435 ratings
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81

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3.73 avg rating — 19,661 ratings
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82

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3.75 avg rating — 5,511 ratings
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83

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3.65 avg rating — 17,548 ratings
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84

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3.57 avg rating — 47,221 ratings
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85

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3.83 avg rating — 22,015 ratings
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86

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3.45 avg rating — 7,703 ratings
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87

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3.97 avg rating — 205,138 ratings
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88

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3.84 avg rating — 20,425 ratings
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89

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3.85 avg rating — 15,703 ratings
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89

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3.70 avg rating — 32,306 ratings
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91

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3.84 avg rating — 6,486 ratings
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92

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3.88 avg rating — 1,972 ratings
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93

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3.86 avg rating — 1,052,338 ratings
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94

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3.92 avg rating — 35,829 ratings
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95

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3.75 avg rating — 45,019 ratings
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96

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3.89 avg rating — 648,931 ratings
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97

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 67,153 ratings
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98

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3.99 avg rating — 28,173 ratings
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99

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3.75 avg rating — 6,534 ratings
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100

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3.80 avg rating — 7,782 ratings
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552 books · 289 voters · list created June 5th, 2011 by A (votes) .
45 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


A 3805 books
1092 friends
Nicole 257 books
11 friends
Chloe 925 books
21 friends
Anna 6942 books
422 friends
Heidi 277 books
2118 friends
Hira 4875 books
910 friends
Jessica 5696 books
348 friends
Sarah (YA Love) 3286 books
825 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by A (new)

A Guys, I'm out of votes (you're limited to 100) but there are so many more books. Please vote for your favorites and add others that are missing. Ellen Hopkins, Elizabeth Scott, Walter Dean Myers--so many others--add them, please! Thanks and please continue to spread the word.


message 2: by Beth (last edited Jun 05, 2011 11:50AM) (new)

Beth G. Pssst, you know you've got The Chocolate War on here twice? You could take one off and add a different book. :) And it looks like The Lost Hero is on twice, too. Another slot!


message 3: by A (new)

A There's a handy duplicates-remover link that I just used in the edit menu but on my personal 100 I had no duplicates. :/

I can think of so many more! Love Drugged by James Klise In the Path of Falling Objects by Andrew Smith ...

Folks, if you have a "YA saves" story or blog post, please go to http://bit.ly/read2live and leave a link at the bottom of the post--I'd sure love to read them.


message 4: by Kristena (new)

Kristena Beth wrote: "Pssst, you know you've got The Chocolate War on here twice? You could take one off and add a different book. :) And it looks like The Lost Hero is on twice, too. Another slot!"

And Stargirl, too, I think.


message 5: by A (new)

A I got it! I'll probably hit the duplicates button once a day. Thanks for the eagle-eyes, though.


message 6: by Mike (new)

Mike Mullin Okay, how exactly does The Giving Tree belong on this list? It's not YA, and I'm not sure what it saves, unless someone was thinking about loggers?


message 7: by A (new)

A Mystery to me, Mike. When I get home, I'll be removing any non-YA titles... I can hit the remove duplicates link fairly easily daily but I think the other I'll have to do once a week. Apparently it's not enough to just ask people to stick to YA! ;)


message 8: by A (new)

A Ok, guys--I deleted a bunch of picture books, middle-grade books, and adult books too far on the adult side to be YA, as well as some novels too old to be considered contemporary... I kept novels that are contemporary YA, adult titles with YA relevance (see http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yal... for some examples), and middle-grade books with teen main characters. I'm sure they'll crop up again, but I'll try to go through the list once a month. In the meantime, please keep in mind, the list is for "dark" books for young readers :)


message 9: by ~☆~Autumn (new)

~☆~Autumn What was dark about Anna and the French Kiss?


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