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 — 870,925 ratings
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4.14 avg rating — 1,562,085 ratings
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17

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4.05 avg rating — 250,170 ratings
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18

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3.62 avg rating — 811,903 ratings
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19

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4.17 avg rating — 246,603 ratings
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20

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3.97 avg rating — 2,764,174 ratings
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21

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4.58 avg rating — 3,600,457 ratings
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22

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4.09 avg rating — 174,948 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 3,374,084 ratings
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24

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3.70 avg rating — 1,475,305 ratings
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25

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4.07 avg rating — 2,144,244 ratings
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26

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4.07 avg rating — 635,555 ratings
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27

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3.95 avg rating — 477,729 ratings
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28

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4.12 avg rating — 225,968 ratings
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29

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3.69 avg rating — 52,885 ratings
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30

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3.88 avg rating — 345,131 ratings
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31

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4.06 avg rating — 282,892 ratings
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32

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3.80 avg rating — 3,837,329 ratings
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33

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3.69 avg rating — 410,746 ratings
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34

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4.24 avg rating — 1,335,673 ratings
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35

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3.78 avg rating — 33,910 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 — 494,878 ratings
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38

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3.74 avg rating — 290,186 ratings
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39

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4.26 avg rating — 6,762,385 ratings
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40

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4.16 avg rating — 154,201 ratings
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41

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3.79 avg rating — 50,693 ratings
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42

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4.42 avg rating — 1,198,961 ratings
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43

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4.55 avg rating — 1,127,856 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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3.77 avg rating — 335,131 ratings
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46

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4.37 avg rating — 1,193,128 ratings
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47

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4.10 avg rating — 676,542 ratings
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48

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3.80 avg rating — 100,767 ratings
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49

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4.31 avg rating — 1,459,664 ratings
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50

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3.75 avg rating — 82,587 ratings
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51

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3.89 avg rating — 1,580,473 ratings
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52

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3.56 avg rating — 4,338 ratings
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53

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4.15 avg rating — 15,542 ratings
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54

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4.05 avg rating — 1,653,263 ratings
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55

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3.87 avg rating — 29,903 ratings
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56

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3.89 avg rating — 132,860 ratings
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57

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3.72 avg rating — 614,448 ratings
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58

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3.82 avg rating — 37,420 ratings
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59

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3.60 avg rating — 230,595 ratings
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60

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3.84 avg rating — 704,176 ratings
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61

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3.96 avg rating — 463,705 ratings
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62

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4.09 avg rating — 193,193 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 — 166,077 ratings
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65

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4.28 avg rating — 699,724 ratings
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66

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3.73 avg rating — 74,556 ratings
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67

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3.90 avg rating — 83,852 ratings
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68

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3.65 avg rating — 62,307 ratings
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69

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3.97 avg rating — 1,270,388 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 — 11,872 ratings
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72

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3.85 avg rating — 730,460 ratings
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73

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3.87 avg rating — 15,292 ratings
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74

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3.79 avg rating — 13,454 ratings
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75

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3.92 avg rating — 53,151 ratings
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76

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3.90 avg rating — 70,164 ratings
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77

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4.25 avg rating — 82,158 ratings
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78

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3.92 avg rating — 739,096 ratings
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79

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3.76 avg rating — 60,019 ratings
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80

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3.95 avg rating — 109,800 ratings
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81

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3.73 avg rating — 19,588 ratings
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82

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3.75 avg rating — 5,498 ratings
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83

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3.65 avg rating — 17,510 ratings
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84

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3.57 avg rating — 46,877 ratings
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85

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3.83 avg rating — 21,988 ratings
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85

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3.85 avg rating — 15,652 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 — 66,495 ratings
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89

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3.89 avg rating — 633,376 ratings
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90

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3.98 avg rating — 203,128 ratings
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91

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3.84 avg rating — 20,346 ratings
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92

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3.71 avg rating — 32,157 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 — 1,966 ratings
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95

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3.92 avg rating — 35,807 ratings
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96

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3.75 avg rating — 44,829 ratings
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97

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 27,960 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 — 99,263 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 6693 books
423 friends
Heidi 277 books
2124 friends
Hira 4552 books
866 friends
Jessica 5465 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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