If you lived in the YA world, it's likely one or both of your parents, your favorite siblings, the grannie who raised you, your first crush, and/or your best friend all died last week. Barring that, they'll be dead ten pages from now--which will either send you into an existential quandary someone will need to pull you out of, or have you hunting for a killer that trained investigators can't seem to catch. Good luck with that...

This list is for all YA novels that feature dead parents, siblings, important relatives, girl/boyfriends, or friends as a part of character history or the starting gun for character motivation.

NOTE: If you see a book listed here erroneously, please leave a note for me so I can remove it. Thanks!

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Please only list books published with traditional presses (large or small; no self-published please) that are published in hardcover or paperback (ebook is fine, as long as hc or pb also are available)