# The 34 Best Young Adult Novels of the 2010s

> A decade of teen reading that swung between dystopian rebellions, quiet first loves and verse novels about growing up fast. Some of these sold millions; a few mostly won over librarians.

*By YPB Team · Published October 31, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-34-best-young-adult-novels-of-the-2010s*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **An Ember in the Ashes** — score 1000/1000
   Sabaa Tahir's 2015 fantasy inspired by ancient Rome, told by a slave turned spy and an elite soldier.
2. **The Fault in Our Stars** — score 848/1000
   John Green's 2012 love story about two teenagers who meet in a cancer support group.
3. **The Raven Boys** — score 814/1000
   Maggie Stiefvater's 2012 novel about a psychic's daughter and four prep-school boys hunting a sleeping Welsh king.
4. **The Poet X** — score 705/1000
   Elizabeth Acevedo's 2018 novel in verse about a Harlem teen finding her voice through slam poetry.
5. **Legend** — score 610/1000
   Marie Lu's 2011 dystopian thriller about a prodigy soldier hunting the Republic's most wanted criminal.
6. **Scythe** — score 610/1000
   Neal Shusterman's 2016 novel set in a deathless future where licensed scythes keep the population in check.
7. **Illuminae** — score 610/1000
   Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff's 2015 space thriller told through hacked files, chat logs and schematics.
8. **Code Name Verity** — score 553/1000
   Elizabeth Wein's 2012 World War II novel about two young women, a spy and a pilot, captured in occupied France.
9. **Daughter of Smoke & Bone** — score 553/1000
   Laini Taylor's 2011 fantasy about an art student in Prague raised by monsters, caught in an angel war.
10. **Aristotle and Dante** — score 553/1000
   Benjamin Alire Sáenz's 2012 coming-of-age story of two Mexican-American boys in 1987 El Paso.
11. **Mockingjay** — score 553/1000
   Suzanne Collins's 2010 finale to The Hunger Games trilogy, set during the rebellion against the Capitol.
12. **Everything, Everything** — score 553/1000
   Nicola Yoon's 2015 debut about a girl who is allergic to the outside world and falls for the boy next door.
13. **A Monster Calls** — score 488/1000
   Patrick Ness's 2011 novel about a boy visited by a tree monster while his mother is dying of cancer.
14. **Throne of Glass** — score 488/1000
   Sarah J. Maas's 2012 debut about a teenage assassin competing to become the king's champion.
15. **I'll Give You the Sun** — score 488/1000
   Jandy Nelson's 2014 Printz Award winner about artistic twins whose lives split apart after a tragedy.
16. **To All the Boys I've Loved Before** — score 488/1000
   Jenny Han's 2014 romance about a girl whose secret love letters are mailed to every boy she ever loved.
17. **The Cruel Prince** — score 488/1000
   Holly Black's 2018 dark faerie fantasy about a mortal girl scheming for power in the High Court of Faerie.
18. **Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda** — score 413/1000
   Becky Albertalli's 2015 romantic comedy about a closeted teen and an anonymous email pen pal.
19. **All the Bright Places** — score 413/1000
   Jennifer Niven's 2015 novel about two teens who meet on the ledge of their school's bell tower.
20. **Cinder** — score 413/1000
   Marissa Meyer's 2012 science-fiction retelling of Cinderella with a cyborg mechanic in New Beijing.
21. **The Hate U Give** — score 413/1000
   Angie Thomas's 2017 debut about a girl who witnesses a police shooting of her childhood friend.
22. **Me and Earl and the Dying Girl** — score 413/1000
   Jesse Andrews's 2012 darkly funny novel about an amateur filmmaker befriending a classmate with leukemia.
23. **Children of Blood and Bone** — score 413/1000
   Tomi Adeyemi's 2018 West African-inspired fantasy about bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha.
24. **Eleanor & Park** — score 325/1000
   Rainbow Rowell's 2012 romance between two misfit teens in 1986 Omaha, bonded by comics and mixtapes.
25. **Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children** — score 325/1000
   Ransom Riggs's 2011 novel built around vintage photographs of children with strange abilities.
26. **We Were Liars** — score 325/1000
   E. Lockhart's 2014 suspense novel about a wealthy family's summers on a private island and a lost memory.
27. **Six of Crows** — score 222/1000
   Leigh Bardugo's 2015 fantasy heist novel following a crew of criminals in the city of Ketterdam.
28. **Red Queen** — score 222/1000
   Victoria Aveyard's 2015 fantasy about a commoner girl in a world ruled by people with silver blood and powers.
29. **One of Us Is Lying** — score 222/1000
   Karen M. McManus's 2017 mystery about four students suspected when a classmate dies in detention.
30. **Dear Martin** — score 222/1000
   Nic Stone's 2017 novel about a Black prep-school student writing letters to Martin Luther King Jr. after a racist encounter with police.
31. **A Court of Thorns and Roses** — score 222/1000
   Sarah J. Maas's 2015 faerie romance loosely retelling Beauty and the Beast.
32. **Divergent** — score 0/1000
   Veronica Roth's 2011 dystopian novel about a girl who fits none of her society's five factions.
33. **The Sun Is Also a Star** — score 0/1000
   Nicola Yoon's 2016 romance unfolding over a single day in New York, the day before a girl's family is deported.
34. **Long Way Down** — score 0/1000
   Jason Reynolds's 2017 verse novel set during a sixty-second elevator ride after a boy's brother is shot.

Tags: books, 2010s, fiction, young adult