Reluctant Young Adult Reads

Identical

By Ellen Hopkins

Sixteen-year-old identical twin daughters of a district court judge and a candidate for the United States House of Representatives, Kaeleigh and Raeanne Gardella desperately struggle with secrets that have already torn them and their family apart.

The Compound

by S.A. Bodeen

Eli and his family have lived in the Compound for six years. The world they knew is gone. Eli's father built the Compound to keep them safe. Now, they can't get out. He won't let them. Dad asked me if I wanted to see more of the Compound. I didn't. We would have to wait fifteen years before it would be safe to go outside. This left more than enough time to see the rest of the Compound. Our new world. A world I would soon hate.

Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

Wake

by Lisa McMann

Ever since she was eight years old, high school student Janie Hannagan has been uncontrollably drawn into other people's dreams, but it is not until she befriends an elderly nursing home patient and becomes involved with an enigmatic fellow-student that she discovers her true power.

Frostbite

by Richelle Mead

While on a school skiing trip, guardian-in-training Rose faces everything from misunderstandings between friends to fights among factions of Moroi as reports of horrific Strigoi attacks raise tensions, ultimately leading Rose and some of those closest to her into a battle that teaches her much about life, death, and love.

Sucks to Be Me: The All-true Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire

by Kimberly Pauley

When sixteen-year-old Mina is forced to take a class to help her decide whether or not to become a vampire like her parents, she also faces a choice between her life-long best friend and the boy she has a crush on versus new friends and possible boyfriends in her mandatory "vampire lessons."

Scat

by Carl Hiaasen

Nick and his friend Marta decide to investigate when a mysterious fire starts near a Florida wildlife preserve and an unpopular teacher goes missing.

Suckerpunch

By David Hernandez

Shy, seventeen-year-old Marcus and his sixteen-year-old brother, Enrique, accompanied by two friends, drive from their home in southern California to Monterey to confront the abusive father who walked out a year earlier, and who now wants to return home.

Gamer Girl

By Marianne Mancusi

Struggling to fit in after her parents' divorce sends her from Boston to her grandmother's house in the country, sixteen-year-old Maddy forms a manga club at school and falls in love through an online fantasy game.

Like Sucks

By Abel, Jessica, and Soria, Gabriel

Life sucks for Dave Marshall. The girl he’s in love with doesn’t know he exists, he hates his job, and ever since his boss turned him into a vampire, he can’t go out in daylight without starting to charbroil. Undead life in its uncoolest incarnation yet is on display in this cinematic, supernatural drama told with gallons of humor and hemoglobin. In striking, colorful, B-movie style artwork and light-hearted, intelligent writing by Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria, and Warren Pleece, Dave Marshall’s story comes alive – in a vampiric kind of way.