2020 - Best Teen Fiction

A curated list from Basalt Regional Library.

Showing 1 - 20 of 24  There are a total of 38 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Beyond the break"
Star rating for Beyond the break
Description:
For fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han, Beyond the Break is a funny and gorgeous debut about a girl experiencing her first love. Well, second, if you count her faith...and that's where things may get complicated. Seventeen-year-old Lovette has two rules in life. One: no surfing. Not after her brother's accident. Two: absolutely, no dating. And going into her junior year of high school, she's pretty happy with that arrangement. She has friends, her...
Book cover for "Children of virtue and vengeance"
Star rating for Children of virtue and vengeance
Series:
Legacy of Orisha volume 0002
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"After Zélie and Amari bring magic back to the land of Orïsha, the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, forcing Zélie to fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath." -- Zélie and Amari have succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha, but the ritual was more powerful than they could've imagined. It has reignited the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with...
Book cover for "Clap when you land"
Star rating for Clap when you land
Average Rating:
2 stars
Description:
"Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people... In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance--and Papi's secrets--the two girls are forced to face...
Book cover for "Darius the Great is not okay"
Star rating for Darius the Great is not okay
Series:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Clinically-depressed Darius Kellner, a high school sophomore, travels to Iran to meet his grandparents, but it is their next-door neighbor, Sohrab, who changes his life. "Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He's a Fractional Persian -- half, his mom's side -- and his first ever trip to Iran is about to change his life. Darius has never really fit in at home, and he's sure...
Book cover for "Everything sad is untrue"
Star rating for Everything sad is untrue
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
At the front of a middle school classroom in Oklahoma, a boy named Khosrou (whom everyone calls "Daniel") stands, trying to tell a story. His story. But no one believes a word he says. To them he is a dark-skinned, hairy-armed boy with a big butt whose lunch smells funny; who makes things up and talks about poop too much. But Khosrou's stories, stretching back years, and decades, and centuries, are beautiful, and terrifying, from the moment his family...

6. Fable

Book cover for "Fable"
Star rating for Fable
Series:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
As the daughter of the most powerful trader in the Narrows, the sea is the only home Fable has ever known. Four years ago she watched her mother drown during a storm-- and the next day her father abandoned her on a legendary island filled with thieves and little food. To survive she kept to herself, learned to trust no one and relied on the unique skills her mother taught her. Fable enlists the help of a young trader named West to get her off the...
Book cover for "Felix ever after"
Star rating for Felix ever after
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
Felix Love has never been in love, painful irony that it is. He desperately wants to know why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. He is proud of his identity, but fears that he's one marginalization too many -- Black, queer, and transgender. When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages-- after publicly posting Felix's deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned-- Felix comes up with a plan for revenge....

8. Furia

Book cover for "Furia"
Star rating for Furia
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Seventeen-year-old Camila Hassan, a rising soccer star in Rosario, Argentina, dreams of playing professionally, in defiance of her fathers' wishes and at the risk of her budding romance with Diego. In Rosario, Argentina, Camila Hassan leads a double life. At home, she is a careful daughter, living within her mother's narrow expectations, in the shadow of her soccer-star brother, and under the abusive rule of her short-tempered father. On the field,...
Book cover for "The girl on the train"
Star rating for The girl on the train
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning, flashing past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stopping at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. Their life, as she sees it, is perfect ... until she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but now everything is changed. Rachel goes to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in the lives of everyone involved....
Book cover for "The gravity of us"
Star rating for The gravity of us
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
When his volatile father is picked to become an astronaut for NASA's mission to Mars, seventeen-year-old Cal, an aspiring journalist, reluctantly moves from Brooklyn to Houston, Texas, and looks for a story to report, finding an ally (and crush) in Leon, the son of another astronaut. Cal Lewis's volatile father has been picked to become an astronaut for NASA's mission to Mars. This means leaving Brooklyn-- and Cal's career plans as an aspiring journalist--...

11. Grown

Book cover for "Grown"
Star rating for Grown
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"When legendary R&B artist Korey Fields spots Enchanted Jones at an audition, her dreams of being a famous singer take flight. Until Enchanted wakes up with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night. Who killed Korey Fields? Before there was a dead body, Enchanted's dreams had turned into a nightmare. Because behind Korey's charm and star power was a controlling dark side. Now he's dead, the police are at the door, and all signs point...
Book cover for "The hand on the wall"
Star rating for The hand on the wall
Series:
Truly Devious volume 3.
Description:
At Ellingham Academy, three people are now dead. One, a victim of either a prank gone wrong or a murder. Another, dead by misadventure. And now, an accident in Burlington has claimed another life. Stevie Bell knows who Truly Devious is-- or thinks she does. But David disappeared of his own free will and is up to something. The missing Alice Ellingham and the missing David Eastman. Somewhere in this place of riddles and puzzles there must be answers....
Book cover for "The henna wars"
Star rating for The henna wars
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Nishat doesn't want to lose her family, but she also doesn't want to hide who she is, and it only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life. Flávia is beautiful and charismatic, and Nishat falls for her instantly. But when a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, both Flávia and Nishat decide to showcase their talent as henna artists. In a fight to prove who is the best, their lives become more tangled--but...
Book cover for "The Kingdom of Back"
Star rating for The Kingdom of Back
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"Desperate to be forever remembered for her music, Nannerl Mozart makes a dangerous pact with a mysterious stranger from a magical land, which may cost her everything"-- Born with a gift for music, Nannerl Mozart has just one wish: to be remembered forever. She delights audiences with her masterful playing, but has little hope she'll ever become the acclaimed composer she longs to be. She is a young woman in 18th century Europe, and that means composing...
Book cover for "The last true poets of the sea"
Star rating for The last true poets of the sea
Author:
Description:
The Larkin family isn't just lucky-they persevere. At least that's what Violet and her younger brother, Sam, were always told. When the Lyric sank off the coast of Maine, their great-great-great-grandmother didn't drown like the rest of the passengers. No, Fidelia swam to shore, fell in love, and founded Lyric, Maine, the town Violet and Sam returned to every summer. But wrecks seem to run in the family: Tall, funny, musical Violet can't stop partying...

16. Majesty

Book cover for "Majesty"
Star rating for Majesty
Series:
American royals volume 2.
Average Rating:
2.5 stars
Description:
In an alternate America, tensions are high as Beatrice prepares to become the country's first queen, while Princess Samantha and Prince Jefferson struggle to decide what their futures might hold.
Book cover for "Punching the Air"
Star rating for Punching the Air
Author:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:

New York Times and USA Today bestseller * Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor * Walter Award Winner * Goodreads Finalist for Best Teen Book of the Year * Time Magazine Best Book of the Year * Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year * Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year * School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * Kirkus Best Book of the Year * New York Public Library Best Book of the Year

From award-winning, bestselling

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Book cover for "Raybearer"
Star rating for Raybearer
Series:
Raybearer volume 1.
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Nothing is more important than loyalty. But what if you've sworn to protect the one you were born to destroy? Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as The Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince's Council of 11. If she's picked, she'll be joined with the...
Book cover for "Return of the thief"
Star rating for Return of the thief
Series:
Queen's thief volume 6.
Description:
Neither accepted nor beloved, Eugenides is the uneasy linchpin of a truce on the Lesser Peninsula, where he has risen to be high king of Attolia, Eddis, and Sounis. As the treacherous Baron Erondites schemes anew and a prophecy appears to foretell the death of the king, the ruthless Mede empire prepares to strike.
Book cover for "A song of wraiths and ruin"
Star rating for A song of wraiths and ruin
Series:
Description:
For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts his younger sister, Nadia, as payment to enter the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal--kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia's freedom. But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny;...