,

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

by
4.35 avg rating — 9,709,839 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
4.35 avg rating — 4,068,972 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
4.12 avg rating — 3,644,497 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
4.05 avg rating — 626,004 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
5

by
4.12 avg rating — 2,760,135 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
4.62 avg rating — 4,047,461 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
3.96 avg rating — 1,728,322 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
3.84 avg rating — 1,018,372 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
3.96 avg rating — 125,298 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
10

by
4.13 avg rating — 4,321,722 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
4.24 avg rating — 1,968,106 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
4.50 avg rating — 3,730,442 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
13

by
3.91 avg rating — 960,231 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
4.39 avg rating — 2,830,228 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
4.31 avg rating — 870,751 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
4.14 avg rating — 1,561,110 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
17

by
4.05 avg rating — 250,165 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
3.62 avg rating — 811,814 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
19

by
4.17 avg rating — 246,540 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
20

by
3.97 avg rating — 2,762,305 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
4.58 avg rating — 3,598,905 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
4.09 avg rating — 174,921 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
23

by
4.31 avg rating — 3,372,600 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
24

by
3.70 avg rating — 1,474,831 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
4.07 avg rating — 2,143,593 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
26

by
4.07 avg rating — 635,394 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
27

by
3.95 avg rating — 477,704 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
28

by
4.12 avg rating — 225,960 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
3.69 avg rating — 52,882 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
30

by
3.88 avg rating — 345,097 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
31

by
4.06 avg rating — 282,824 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
3.80 avg rating — 3,835,840 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
33

by
3.69 avg rating — 410,694 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
34

by
4.24 avg rating — 1,334,997 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
35

by
3.78 avg rating — 33,903 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
36

by
3.79 avg rating — 6,221 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
37

by
3.76 avg rating — 494,812 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
3.74 avg rating — 290,123 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
4.26 avg rating — 6,759,393 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
40

by
4.16 avg rating — 154,163 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
3.79 avg rating — 50,687 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
4.42 avg rating — 1,198,521 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
43

by
4.55 avg rating — 1,127,331 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
3.82 avg rating — 12,981 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
3.77 avg rating — 335,102 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
46

by
4.37 avg rating — 1,192,549 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
4.10 avg rating — 676,396 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
48

by
3.80 avg rating — 100,765 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
4.31 avg rating — 1,459,243 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
3.75 avg rating — 82,580 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
3.89 avg rating — 1,580,107 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
52

by
3.56 avg rating — 4,339 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
53

by
4.15 avg rating — 15,538 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
4.05 avg rating — 1,652,494 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
3.87 avg rating — 29,900 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
56

by
3.89 avg rating — 132,843 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
3.72 avg rating — 614,321 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
3.82 avg rating — 37,416 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
59

by
3.60 avg rating — 230,538 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
60

by
3.84 avg rating — 704,070 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
61

by
3.96 avg rating — 463,686 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
62

by
4.09 avg rating — 193,174 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
63

by
3.63 avg rating — 37,640 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
64

by
3.70 avg rating — 166,076 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
65

by
4.28 avg rating — 699,469 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
66

by
3.73 avg rating — 74,536 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
67

by
3.90 avg rating — 83,849 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
68

by
3.65 avg rating — 62,299 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
69

by
3.97 avg rating — 1,270,086 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
70

by
3.74 avg rating — 6,058 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
71

by
3.98 avg rating — 11,870 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
72

by
3.85 avg rating — 730,356 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
73

by
3.87 avg rating — 15,293 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
74

by
3.79 avg rating — 13,454 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
75

by
3.91 avg rating — 53,147 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
76

by
3.90 avg rating — 70,111 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
77

by
4.25 avg rating — 82,137 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
78

by
3.92 avg rating — 738,937 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
79

by
3.76 avg rating — 60,012 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
80

by
3.95 avg rating — 109,789 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
81

by
3.73 avg rating — 19,584 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
82

by
3.75 avg rating — 5,498 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
83

by
3.65 avg rating — 17,509 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
84

by
3.57 avg rating — 46,872 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
3.83 avg rating — 21,989 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
3.85 avg rating — 15,649 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
87

by
3.45 avg rating — 7,710 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
88

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 66,486 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
89

by
3.89 avg rating — 633,162 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
90

by
3.98 avg rating — 203,099 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
3.84 avg rating — 20,343 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
92

by
3.71 avg rating — 32,155 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
93

by
3.84 avg rating — 6,459 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
94

by
3.88 avg rating — 1,965 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
95

by
3.92 avg rating — 35,806 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
3.75 avg rating — 44,824 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
97

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 27,961 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
98

by
3.75 avg rating — 6,522 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
99

by
3.81 avg rating — 7,788 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
100

by
3.88 avg rating — 99,260 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
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 6692 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?


back to top



Related News

At the beginning of each calendar month, Goodreads’ editorial team assembles a list of the hottest and most popular new books hitting shelves,...

Anyone can add books to this list.