9 Powerful YA Books about Grief

Misbah and Toufiq wed in an arranged marriage in Pakistan and move to California, where they open and run the Clouds’ Rest Inn Motel in the Mojave Desert.

Years later, Misbah is dying, Toufiq is an alcoholic, and their teenage son Salahudin is trying to pick up the pieces, keeping the motel afloat while managing his own grief, conflict with his best friend Noor, and racism at school. As the story unfolds through the alternating perspectives of Misbah, Salahudin, and Noor, we uncover numerous sources of pain, grief, and trauma in each character’s life.
Tahir’s story is beautiful and powerful, bringing to life a diverse perspective while reminding us of our shared experiences of grief, anger, family, and, ultimately, healing.

We think Jason Reynolds is one of the best young adult authors out there, and one of his most poignant (but lesser-known) books introduces us to Matt Miller. When the novel opens, Matt is returning to school for the first time since his mother died. His pain is palpable, and we eventually learn that his father has turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism, leaving Matt alone to manage both his grief and the family’s bills.

When the local mortician, Mr. Ray, offers Matt a job, Matt finds an outlet to process his own grief, a father figure, and a safe place to land when his burdens become too much.

Matt also meets Lovey and is drawn to her tough demeanor: she has plenty of her own grief to face, but she doesn’t allow it to pull her down the way he feels it is doing to him. Their relationship provides another source of healing for Matt, and the book, while sad, is also incredibly hopeful.

We’re so disappointed that Morris’s compelling, powerful novel hasn’t taken BookTok and #bookstagram by storm. Our hearts ached from beginning to end as we watched Alex Rufus navigate grief, family, and the particular challenges faced by young Black men in America.

Ever since Alex woke up in the hospital after the accident that killed his parents, he has seen a glimpse into the future of any person or object he touches. 

Most of the time, this unusual ability is annoying and distracting: he picks up the ice cream scoop at work and sees himself using it to scoop ice cream, he touches his car and sees it totaled, he touches his girlfriend Talia and sees them about to break up. Naturally, Alex avoids physical contact as much as he can, especially since there’s nothing he can do to change the future he sees in his visions.

When Alex touches his younger brother Isaiah and sees a vision of Isaiah dying in a few days, he is determined to do everything he can to change the future while also giving his younger brother a meaningful last few days. Alex learns a lot about his brother and Isaiah’s own unusual ability, one that allows Morris to explore the impact of generational trauma.

Morris’s novel is heavy but compelling, and we hope you and your students will love Alex and Isaiah as much as we did.

After 15-year-old Liz Hall is hit by a car, she finds herself on a cruise ship to a place called Elsewhere, where she meets another teenage girl with a mysterious hole in her head and a famous musician with a long history of drug addiction. It takes her a while to accept that she, like her new friends, has died, and when she finally realizes it, she’s mad. She didn’t get to be 16, earn her driver’s license, graduate from high school, go to college, or fall in love.

As she settles into Elsewhere, living with the grandmother who died before she was born, Liz learns she will start aging backwards until she becomes a baby and returns to Earth again to start life anew. This does not make Liz feel better: not only did she not live to age 16, but she’s not even going to stay the age she is now?

While it takes Liz a long time to make peace with her new situation, she starts to build a life in Elsewhere and realize the beauty of what she does have: a full life well-lived, no matter how short.

Zevin’s creative premise makes for an interesting story, and it’s a lot lighter than many of the other novels on this list. The thought-provoking ideas Zevin explores would make for a rich discussion, whether as a class or with individual students.

“Where are you guys? Text me back.”

In a moment of impatience, Carver Briggs texts his best friends Eli, Blake, and Mars. Not long after, he learns that the three boys have died in a brutal car accident. On the driver’s lap? A cell phone with an unfinished reply to Carver’s text.

Carver is left to deal with his grief, guilt, and, when Mars’s father asks the DA to investigate the accident, fear that he will be sent to prison for criminal negligence. Zentner (whose books The Serpent King and In the Wild Light we’ve already recommended) is masterful at portraying both raw emotion and hope amidst tragedy, and Goodbye Days is no exception. 

Shunned at school, Carver works through his own loneliness and painful emotions about the accident, which includes attending three “Goodbye Days” with his best friends’ families.

This is a hard read: Carver’s grief is evident and painful from the first page. But for our students who are processing grief of their own and those of us who struggle with anxiety and depression, it’s a powerful read. Zentner honestly portrays the inner life of teenage boys, teen boy friendships, and family dynamics. And in a world where it’s all too easy to reach for that phone, whether driving or not, it’s a heartbreaking reminder of the consequences of a careless action.

“Two summers ago our car broke in half / like a candy bar on the freeway & we all spilled / onto the pavement as crumbled as sticky caramel-peanut filling.”

McBride’s beautiful novel in verse caught us by surprise. We meet Moth two years after she has lost her entire family in a car accident and given up her passion for dancing. She lives with her aunt but feels lonely, isolated, and guilty for surviving, not to mention a burden to her aunt.

When Moth meets Sani, a Native American student at her school who struggles with depression, the two develop a strong bond. As they help each other work through their pain, Sani expresses a desire to find his own roots, and the pair set off on a road trip to the reservation in New Mexico where Sani’s Navajo father lives.

Along the way, Moth and Sani find healing and love before discovering an unexpected connection at the end of their journey. The extended metaphor of a moth moving through its stages of life beautifully reinforces the journey of self-discovery and healing Moth takes throughout the novel.

Meredith Fox and her parents are returning to the family vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard for the first time since Meredith’s twin sister Claire died eighteen months ago. Meredith’s cousin Sarah is getting married, and Meredith is looking forward to reconnecting with family and friends while also feeling apprehensive about carrying on family traditions without her sister. She’s been pretty much in hiding since her sister died (from everyone but her now ex-boyfriend Ben, that is), and she’s got plenty of relationships to mend.

Add in the groom’s charming brother Wit, however, and the family’s weeklong game of Assassin that Meredith is determined to win on her champion sister’s behalf, and things get complicated.

The buzz we’ve heard on the book is that it’s full of Taylor Swift references, but as more casual Taylor Swift fans than true Swifties, most of them went over our heads. Many students will be eager to listen to the official Spotify playlist Walther made to accompany the read. 

The book addresses teen love, grief, family, and that precarious time of life when you long for adventure but aren’t quite sure you’re ready to leave home. Despite its heavy topics, we think many of your students will enjoy this sweet and light beach read (which reminded us of a YA version of Elin Hilderbrand’s books about Nantucket).

High school can be rough for many of our students. Classes are rigorous, hormones are flying, important life decisions hover ahead, and that doesn’t even begin to take into account unique personal struggles and complications. 

Jessie has plenty of those additional complications: her mom died two years ago, her dad just got married to a woman he met online (who, oh, by the way, has a son around Jessie’s age), and Jessie had to move across the country to attend a new high school in California.

Needless to say, Jessie’s having a rough time, and then she becomes the target of bullying from the mean girls at school. Just when she’s about to give up and run back to Chicago, she receives an email signed “Somebody/Nobody,” or “SN,” offering her three pieces of advice to help her adjust to her new school.

SN and Jessie continue to exchange emails, and as Jessie meets new classmates, making friends and developing crushes, she constantly wonders if any of them could be her email pen pal. The story is sweet and will appeal to many of your students, but it also tackles real-life issues as Jessie navigates all the changes in her life.

In the early hours of September 5, Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio each receive the call everyone dreads. Death-Cast informs them this is their End Day, the day they will die. They don’t get details about how or when, but they know there’s no chance the message is wrong. 

Mateo’s dad is in a coma, his best friend Lidia is a single mother who lost her baby’s father a little over a year ago, and he’s lived an anxious life, preferring to stay inside and follow the posts of Deckers (those living their last day) instead of getting outside and making the most of living himself. He’s determined to say his goodbyes and then, for once, be brave enough to go out and live.

Rufus receives the call while in the midst of beating up Peck, the guy his ex-girlfriend Aimee has been seeing. Rufus wants to spend the day saying goodbye to Aimee and his fellow Plutos (foster kids living in the same home), but the altercation with Peck sets into motion a series of events that will have repercussions throughout the day.

When Mateo and Rufus find themselves alone, they put up profiles on the Last Friend app, and when they match, they spend the day helping one another say goodbye and live for the last time. The bond they make surprises them both, and despite the novel’s inevitable end, it made us think about what we would do if it were our last day, what it truly means to live, and what (or who) is most important.