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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4.31 avg rating — 870,668 ratings
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4.14 avg rating — 1,560,632 ratings
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4.05 avg rating — 250,153 ratings
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18

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3.62 avg rating — 811,764 ratings
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19

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4.17 avg rating — 246,500 ratings
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20

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22

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4.09 avg rating — 174,892 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 3,371,908 ratings
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24

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3.70 avg rating — 1,474,627 ratings
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25

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4.07 avg rating — 2,143,288 ratings
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26

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4.07 avg rating — 635,339 ratings
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27

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3.95 avg rating — 477,665 ratings
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28

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4.12 avg rating — 225,952 ratings
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29

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3.69 avg rating — 52,881 ratings
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30

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3.88 avg rating — 345,089 ratings
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31

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4.06 avg rating — 282,791 ratings
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32

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3.80 avg rating — 3,835,127 ratings
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33

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3.69 avg rating — 410,663 ratings
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34

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4.24 avg rating — 1,334,681 ratings
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35

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3.78 avg rating — 33,901 ratings
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36

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3.79 avg rating — 6,221 ratings
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37

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3.76 avg rating — 494,781 ratings
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38

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3.74 avg rating — 290,097 ratings
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39

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4.26 avg rating — 6,757,961 ratings
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40

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4.16 avg rating — 154,148 ratings
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41

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3.79 avg rating — 50,686 ratings
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42

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4.42 avg rating — 1,198,289 ratings
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43

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4.55 avg rating — 1,127,076 ratings
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44

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3.82 avg rating — 12,980 ratings
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45

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3.77 avg rating — 335,086 ratings
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46

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4.37 avg rating — 1,192,269 ratings
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47

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4.10 avg rating — 676,326 ratings
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48

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3.80 avg rating — 100,763 ratings
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49

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4.31 avg rating — 1,459,051 ratings
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50

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3.75 avg rating — 82,576 ratings
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51

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3.89 avg rating — 1,579,896 ratings
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52

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3.56 avg rating — 4,339 ratings
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53

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4.15 avg rating — 15,538 ratings
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54

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4.05 avg rating — 1,652,154 ratings
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55

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3.87 avg rating — 29,894 ratings
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56

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3.89 avg rating — 132,833 ratings
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57

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3.72 avg rating — 614,273 ratings
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58

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3.82 avg rating — 37,415 ratings
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59

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3.60 avg rating — 230,508 ratings
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60

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3.84 avg rating — 704,029 ratings
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61

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3.96 avg rating — 463,671 ratings
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62

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4.09 avg rating — 193,153 ratings
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63

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3.63 avg rating — 37,640 ratings
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64

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3.70 avg rating — 166,064 ratings
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65

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4.28 avg rating — 699,359 ratings
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66

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3.73 avg rating — 74,526 ratings
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67

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3.90 avg rating — 83,842 ratings
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68

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3.65 avg rating — 62,294 ratings
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69

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3.97 avg rating — 1,269,927 ratings
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70

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3.74 avg rating — 6,058 ratings
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71

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3.98 avg rating — 11,870 ratings
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72

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3.85 avg rating — 730,277 ratings
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73

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3.87 avg rating — 15,291 ratings
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74

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3.79 avg rating — 13,456 ratings
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75

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3.91 avg rating — 53,144 ratings
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76

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3.90 avg rating — 70,080 ratings
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77

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4.25 avg rating — 82,136 ratings
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78

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3.92 avg rating — 738,855 ratings
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79

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3.76 avg rating — 60,007 ratings
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80

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3.95 avg rating — 109,785 ratings
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81

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3.73 avg rating — 19,581 ratings
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82

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3.75 avg rating — 5,497 ratings
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83

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3.65 avg rating — 17,508 ratings
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84

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3.57 avg rating — 46,870 ratings
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85

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3.83 avg rating — 21,989 ratings
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85

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3.85 avg rating — 15,648 ratings
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87

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3.45 avg rating — 7,711 ratings
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88

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 66,476 ratings
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89

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3.89 avg rating — 633,043 ratings
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90

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3.98 avg rating — 203,083 ratings
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91

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3.84 avg rating — 20,342 ratings
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92

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3.71 avg rating — 32,153 ratings
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93

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3.84 avg rating — 6,459 ratings
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94

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3.88 avg rating — 1,965 ratings
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95

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3.92 avg rating — 35,801 ratings
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96

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3.75 avg rating — 44,820 ratings
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97

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 27,956 ratings
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98

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3.75 avg rating — 6,522 ratings
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99

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3.81 avg rating — 7,788 ratings
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100

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3.88 avg rating — 99,258 ratings
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516 books · 289 voters · list created June 5th, 2011 by A (votes) .
45 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


A 3805 books
1095 friends
Nicole 257 books
11 friends
Chloe 925 books
21 friends
Anna 6691 books
423 friends
Heidi 277 books
2124 friends
Hira 4549 books
866 friends
Jessica 5461 books
348 friends
Sarah (YA Love) 3286 books
827 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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