Dramatic Books for Young Adults Your Students Will Love

If you’ve spent any time on a high school campus, you know there’s nothing teenagers love more than DRAMA. If there is tea to be spilled—about other students, teachers, celebrities—they’re on top of it. So, when you’re looking for good YA books to read and recommend to your students, it will come as no surprise that it’s really hard to go wrong with titles that have LOTS. OF. DRAMA.

Of course, dramatic books for young adults can run the gamut from day-to-day high school drama that looks a lot like what you see on your campus, to drama of the rich, famous, and royal, to drama ripped straight from the headlines, and some of the best dramatic books for young adults aren’t necessarily books we’d feel comfortable recommending from the front of the classroom (looking at you, A Court of Thorns and Roses ?, One of Us Is Lying, and Grown). But this is definitely a category we love, and we know your students will be here for it, too.

Whether you’re looking for good YA books to read as you’re stocking your classroom library, hunting down good First Chapter Friday recommendations, or just building your own TBR list, you can’t go wrong with these dramatic books for young adults (all of which we would feel comfortable recommending in our own classrooms).

6 Very Dramatic Books for Young Adults

Admission by Julie Buxbaum

If you were captivated by the 2019 Varsity Blues scandal, this is the book for you. Chloe Wynn Berringer, daughter of B-list celebrity Joy Fields, opens her door one morning to find, not the teal eye shadow palette she ordered the night before to test for prom, but seven men in FBI-emblazoned bulletproof vests who are there to arrest her mother on multiple fraud charges in a countrywide college admissions scandal.

What starts as a behind-the-scenes look at life when your face is plastered all over the Internet and your famous mom goes to prison becomes a surprisingly poignant reflection on what Chloe was willing to turn a blind eye to and how it feels when your parents don’t trust you to get into college on your own merit.

(Bonus recommendation for you, not your students: Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman’s Girls with Bright Futures highlights the extremes to which wealthy private school moms will go to get their children into the college of their dreams; it’s fun and juicy, perfect for a summer read!)

American Royals by Katharine McGee

What if America offered George Washington a crown instead of electing him president? If you love all the drama of the British royal family but would rather escape real life and not once again debate the merits of Harry’s or William’s decisions, bury yourself headfirst in the lives of teenage descendants of the House of Washington. You’re in for a treat.

American Royals is the first book in a series detailing the pressures and hijinks of growing up in a royal American household: there’s Beatrice, heir to the throne (and first woman to inherit it) who must marry a member of the American nobility despite her feelings for her bodyguard; Samantha, who gets into all kinds of trouble as the ignored “spare”; and Jefferson (America’s heartthrob), who explores a relationship with family friend Nina (even though she’s a “commoner”) while his ex-girlfriend Daphne tries to social climb her way back to a marriage proposal that will secure her future as a princess.

The series is a delight full of drama, and it’s not too hard to imagine this is what an American monarchy would look like in 2023.

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

Speaking of the British royals, no one does drama like them. The true story of Lady Jane Grey is dramatic enough: Edward VI (son of the quite dramatic Henry VIII) dies at age 15, leaving his throne to his cousin Jane (a devout Protestant) instead of his older sisters, Mary (a Catholic) and Elizabeth (yes, that Elizabeth). Nine days later, Mary was queen and Lady Jane Grey was imprisoned in the Tower of London; seven months later, Lady Jane Grey was beheaded (and did we mention she was only 16 or 17 and newly married?).

But what if we turned the Catholic vs. Protestant conflict into a conflict between those who can transform into animals and those who believe humans should remain . . . human? What if Lady Jane’s new husband spent his days as a horse and his nights as a man? What if the whole story took on the tone of The Princess Bride?

“The Lady Janies” (as the authors call themselves) boldly and shamelessly rewrite history in a delightful story that kept us turning pages to find out just what happens next. This is a dramatic book for young adults that ticks all the boxes.

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

If you prefer your drama to be more fictional than ripped straight from the morning newspaper or the pages of history, Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen is a good place to turn. Mare Barrow is a Red, possessing regular red blood and thus destined for a life of service. When the royal family finds out that she is, in fact, Silver, possessing silver blood and superhuman abilities reserved for the elite, they have a conundrum. When they pass her off as a long-lost Silver princess and declare her engagement to one of their sons, Mare is swept into a wild world of rebellion, betrayal, and danger at every turn.

While the novel has similar vibes to dystopian titles like The Hunger Games and Divergent and fantasies like Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses, it weaves a new story all its own.

Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean

Appropriately described as “The Princess Diaries meets Crazy Rich Asians,” Jean’s novel tells the story of Izumi Tanaka who, after growing up with a single mother in northern California, learns her father is actually the Crown Prince of Japan. Izzy travels to Japan and is immediately swept into a world of glamor, gossip, intrigue, and scandal as she tries to get to know her father and falls for her grumpy (but very handsome) bodyguard.

The drama is fun, but the novel also gains some depth from its exploration of Izzy’s struggles to fit in as Japanese in her mostly white school in California, and as American in the Japanese royal family. Those who have exhausted their supply of dramatic books for young adults that address that royal family will enjoy reading about the exploits of a new one.

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

Compared to the other novels we’ve included in this post, Tweet Cute seems downright low-key, confining its drama to the lives of two (relatively normal, but definitely precocious) high school students. But when those two relatively normal high school students (Pepper and Jack) get involved in a Twitter war while simultaneously (and without realizing it) flirting on an anonymous chat app called Weasel (which, by the way, Jack created), there is definitely drama.

Pepper runs the Twitter account for her family’s restaurant, Big League Burger, and when Jack, who works at his family’s deli, believes Big League Burger has stolen his grandmother’s grilled cheese recipe, he is determined to take them down, Twitter style. Hijinks ensue, of course, and we saw this one showing up on lots of Reading Check-In activities when we recommended it to our students for First Chapter Friday.

Which categories are at the top of your list when you’re looking for good YA books to read and recommend? What dramatic books for young adults have you devoured lately? Reach out to us at [email protected] or on Instagram @threeheads.works.

If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to our monthly First Chapter Friday Nearpods: we send out FIVE free quick and easy First Chapter Friday activities each month using high-interest YA books we think you and your students will love. Looking for other YA books to suggest to your students or use for your own FCF activity? Check out the YA book section of our website for all our recommendations.