13 Best YA Books 2023 List
Steph LOVES a “Best of the Year” list, especially when it comes to books. You can bet she’ll be checking out every “Best YA Books 2023” list that can be found, making sure we haven’t missed any essential recommendations. Naturally, we had to compile our own as well.
We recommended 230 books to you and your students this year (give or take . . . we tried to avoid counting duplicates). And while we stand by all of them, there are certainly a few that we loved more than others.
We thought about a top 10 list with our best YA book pics 2023, but we had too much trouble narrowing the choices down, so we ended up with 13. Close enough, right?
Our Top Picks for the Best YA Books 2023
We’ve discussed each title in more detail in other blog posts, which are linked below, but we’ve included a short note here telling you why we loved each book so much. So without further ado . . .
As You Walk on By by Julian Winters
One of our books about high school dances, we loved Theo and his Breakfast-Club-type group of friends that forms in the upstairs bedroom of a party after Theo’s disastrous attempt to ask his crush, Christian, to prom. We especially loved how much the characters sounded like the actual teenagers we’ve seen in our classrooms.
The Black Queen by Jumata Emill
Also featured on our high school dance themed list, Emill grabbed us quickly with her murder mystery: we really wanted to know who murdered the school’s first Black Homecoming Queen, Nova Albright, and left her body in a local slave cemetery.
The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan
Of course we had to read Rick Riordan’s latest Percy Jackson novel, and just like the rest of Riordan’s series, we loved it. Updated with 2023 references aplenty, the story of Percy’s latest quests (to earn letters of recommendation for college) was a delight.
Chloe and the Kaishao Boys by Mae Coyiuto
Coyiuto’s charming rom-com about Chloe, who is determined to go to USC for college to study animation, and her family, who is determined to make her fall in love so she won’t want to leave the Philippines, is a lot of fun. But beneath the engaging story, we think many students will relate to Chloe’s eccentric family and anxiety about life after high school.
Dear Medusa by Olivia A. Cole
Our list of Greek-mythology-inspired titles was full of pleasant surprises, and Cole’s novel-in-verse about Alicia’s efforts to heal from sexual abuse at the hands of a teacher at her school was one of our favorites of the year. The story is beautiful, uses the Medusa allusion perfectly, and covers a host of important topics (race, sexuality, and female oppression). Do be sure to check out our content warning on the original post before recommending this one to your students.
The Dos and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar
Steph read this one while home from work with a cold, and in addition to being the perfect escape (and perfect for modern teens), it re-sparked a passion for The Great British Baking Show that got her caught up on the last two seasons. Shireen is a contestant on the first Junior Irish Baking Show, and she’s determined to get publicity for her parents’ donut shop, You Drive Me Glazy. Too bad she’s paired with her ex-girlfriend Chris for the first challenge . . .
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Going Dark by Melissa De La Cruz
Gone-Girl-ish thriller for the young adult crowd? Count us in. When social media influencer Amanda Ashley goes missing just before she and her boyfriend Josh are supposed to fly home from Italy, Josh thinks she’s blowing off some steam and will be home soon. But it’s not long before #WhereisAmeliaAshley has gone viral, the police have found blood in Josh’s suitcase, and we’re not sure who we can trust to tell us what happened.
Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert
Steph (who has OCD herself) really wanted to like this one, and Hibbert delivers. Bradley is living with OCD (and functioning quite well). Celine is determined to ace a survival course in the woods so she can win the grand prize and show her father what he’s missed by not being part of her life. When Bradley shows up at the survival course, too, they’re forced to get over their longtime rivalry and discover that, perhaps, they’re perfect for each other.
Seven Percent of Ro Devereux by Ellen O’Clover
This one caught us by surprise: it’s a fake dating book for modern teens, but it had surprising depth to it. Ro Devereux created an app of the childhood game MASH for her senior project, and when it goes viral and gets bought up by a software developer, she finds her world spinning wildly out of control. But there’s also a lot about family, grief, and discovering who you are, and we enjoyed Ro’s journey.
Sing Me to Sleep by Gabi Burton
Another mythology-inspired book we loved, Burton’s novel tells the story of Saiorse, a Siren living in hiding in the kingdom of Keirdre, afraid her secret work as an assassin will be discovered. When she finds herself working for Prince Hayes to track down the mysterious woman (her) behind a string of murders, her life gets complicated quickly! We loved Saiorse (despite her bloodlust), and Burton kept us turning pages, eager to find out what happened next.
They Hate Each Other by Amanda Woody
Most of our fake dating recommendations tended toward light and silly, but Woody’s novel had some depth to it. Jonah and Dylan hate each other, but they start “dating” just to get their friends (who assume they’d make a great couple just because they’re both gay) to leave them alone, but as they get drawn into each other’s mental health and family issues, they each realize they may have misjudged the other. We’d recommend saving this one for older students.
Throwback by Maureen Goo
Kate’s husband is a huge Back to the Future fan, so when we discovered this gem for our list of books about high school dances, we were predisposed to fall in love. And we weren’t disappointed! Goo’s novel about Sam, who finds herself at high school in the 90s trying to help her mother Priscilla win the race for Homecoming Queen, was a lot of nostalgic fun.
We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride
McBride has quickly become one of our new favorite authors. Her novels in verse, which tackle topics like grief and depression, gorgeously express emotional experiences that are often hard to put into words. Her novel about Whimsy, recovering in a mental hospital after a suicide attempt, is excellent.
Clearly, if there’s one of our YA blogs that you should check out this year, it’s our list of books about high school dances (since half of them made the list), but all in all, it was a good reading year from beginning to end. We absolutely hope you’ll share your Best YA Books 2023 lists with us! You can find 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 that we think you and your students will love. Looking for 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.