Every reader knows a book or series that they absolutely love but no one else has heard of. With the recent events and new information coming forward about certain YA authors, I feel like it is a good time to highlight some authors that I love and highly recommend you should read! While there is a lot of discourse and conversation going on right now that you should look into, let’s take a chance to instead highlight books and authors that I feel are underrated or underappreciated!
Thorn by Intisar Khanani
Published: March 24, 2020
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 512
Goodreads
A princess with two futures. A destiny all her own
Between her cruel family and the contempt she faces at court, Princess Alyrra has always longed to escape the confines of her royal life. But when she’s betrothed to the powerful prince Kestrin, Alyrra embarks on a journey to his land with little hope for a better future…
Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zdrok
Published: February 12, 2019
Publisher: Tor Teen
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Pages: 368
Goodreads
Paris, 1887.
Sixteen-year-old Nathalie Baudin writes the daily morgue column for Le Petit Journal. Her job is to summarize each day’s new arrivals, a task she finds both fascinating and routine. That is, until the day she has a vision of the newest body, a young woman, being murdered–from the perspective of the murderer himself…
Soulswift by Megan Bannen
Published: November 17, 2020
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 480
Goodreads
Gelya is a Vessel, a girl who channels the word of the One True God through song. Cloistered with the other Vessels of her faith, she believes—as all Ovinists do—that a saint imprisoned Elath the Great Demon centuries ago, saving humanity from earthly temptation.
When Gelya stumbles into a deadly cover-up by the Ovinists’ military, she reluctantly teams up with Tavik, an enemy soldier, to survive. Tavik believes that Elath is actually a mother goddess who must be set free, but while he succeeds in opening Her prison, he inadvertently turns Gelya into Elath’s unwilling human vessel…
The Bitterwine Oath by Hannah West
Published: December 1, 2020
Publisher: Holiday House
Genre: YA Paranormal Fantasy
Pages: 320
Goodreads
Every fifty years, a cult claims twelve men to murder in a small Texas town. Can one girl end the cycle of violence – and save the boy who broke her heart?
San Solano, Texas, is a quaint town known for its charm, hospitality, and history of murder. Twice now, twelve men have been brutally killed, and no one knows who did it. A shadowy witch? A copycat killer? Or a man-hating murderess?
Glimpsed by G.F. Miller
Published: January 5, 2021
Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA Contemporary Fantasy
Pages: 384
Goodreads
Perfect for fans of Geekerella and Jenn Bennett, this charming, sparkly rom-com follows a wish-granting teen forced to question if she’s really doing good—and if she has the power to make her own dreams come true.
Charity is a fairy godmother. She doesn’t wear a poofy dress or go around waving a wand, but she does make sure the deepest desires of the student population at Jack London High School come true. And she knows what they want even better than they do because she can glimpse their perfect futures…
Meme by Aaron Starmer
Published: September 8, 2020
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA Thriller
Pages: 368
Goodreads
For fans of One of Us Is Lying, a tense, psychological thriller for the internet age about the destructive combination of self-important goals and self-serving plans.
No one is going to miss Cole Weston. A loner without friends or family and an unhealthy obsession with the darker corners of the internet, Cole had become increasingly violent toward his ex-girlfriend, and threaten to do so much worse. So it was only logical–only right, really–that his former friends took it upon themselves to rid the world of Cole Weston…
These are all five star reads for me and I HIGHLY recommend you check them out! I tried to include a variety of genres to fit everyone’s taste, but honestly, these are all such good books you should just read all of them! I know I’ve mentioned some of these titles before, but I really do love them and think that everyone should read these books.
Let me know if you decide to pick up any of these books and let me know what are some underrated or underappreciated books I should check out!
We Write At Dawn 