11 New YA Books You'll Love If Revenge, Contagious Plagues, & Superheroes Are Your Jam

In Renegades, The Lunar Chronicles author Marissa Meyer trades in fairy tale princesses for superheroes. After society crumbled, a syndicate of prodigies with extraordinary abilities helped restore peace and establish justice. These Renegades are adored by the world — except for by the Anarchists, especially Nova, who holds a grudge against the superheroes for not saving her mother and infant sister from being murdered. Now, at age 16, Nova's powers to put people to sleep have been cultivated by the Anarchists and she seeks to infiltrate the Renegades and exact her revenge.

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Alert to fans of the Mara Dyer series! Michelle Hodkin is returning to that world for a new series, the Shaw Confessions, and is kicking it off with The Becoming of Noah Shaw. Turning the lens away from Mara and onto the titular Noah, a fan favorite of the original series, Hodkin explores the world through his point of view. Of course this is a must-read for Mara fans; through Hodkin does a bit of recapping of the original Mara Dyer books, I'd recommend you take the time to read the unique suspense series before diving into this sequel-of-sorts. (You won't regret it.)

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I adore a great friendship story in YA, and Anna Priemaza really delivers in the heartwarming Kat and Meg Conquer the World, about finding a friend in a difficult universe. Kat and Meg suffer, respectively, from anxiety and ADHD, which often manifest in opposing ways but, in both cases, cause the women to struggle connecting and forming relationships with people. But when the two are paired for a science project they discover a mutual love for YouTuber LumberLegs who plays a World of Warcraft-type game, Legends of the Stone. This common ground helps them begin a friendship that just might help them each overcome their hardships and navigate a complicated and often scary world.

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Last year, Traci Chee introduced us to a compelling world where reading and books were unheard of, and she kicked off an adventure that she continues in the magical, epic The Speaker, part two of her Sea of Ink and Gold series. Sefia and Archer are still on the run from the Guard, and they're still uncovering secrets of their pasts and their futures from the Book. Now, they're on a mission to save the boys being held captive. Chee now introduces us to even more new characters and weaves us through storylines and twists and turns in this page-turning sequel that will have you aching for the next book.

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Taliah Abdallat was raised by her Jordanian-born mother, who has kept her father's identity secret, only referring to him as a "boy from back home." But when Tal finds her mom's box of letters from none other than famous rock star Julian Oliver, she believes he is her biological father and writes several un-returned letters to him. So when Julian shows up on her doorstep and asks Tal to travel with him to visit his own dying father, she agrees, so she can find out the whole story her mother has been keeping secret all these years. The plot itself is incredibly compelling, and Jasmine Warga executes the a family drama with grace, romance, and poignancy.

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Hadley tells her story in chapters marked THEN and NOW: Now? Now she's being treated in a psychiatric hospital after attempting suicide. The "then" unfolds to figure out why. Ten hours before the "now," Hadley survived a private plane accident that took the lives of her parents. Her beloved 10-year-old sister Lila, thankfully, wasn't on the plane. But the story takes us back even further as we see that Hadley and Lila's father was horrifically abusive, and Hadley tried to draw his violence away from her sister and onto her. Things got even worse when Hadley started dating Charlie Simmons, which her father forbade. Amy Giles' debut novel is haunting and powerful, and it delves into the psyche of a strong woman under the control of an abuser.

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Zivah, a Daran healer, and Dineas, a soldier, both contracted the plague that's gripping their world. Zivah survived, but now she's "rosemarked" — splotched with red and very contagious. She's supposed to live out her days in isolation, and eventually she will die from the disease. Dineas gets the plague too, but he survives "umbertouched" — splotched with brown and immune. Now the two join together on a high-stakes mission to infiltrate and spy on their oppressors. The result in a page-turning, political-tinged fantasy that fights against prejudice and racism. Oh, and don't worry, a sequel is coming.

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Meri Miller lives in Soldotna, Alaska — a.k.a. Slowdotna — a small town where nothing ever happens, but she dreams of living a big, adventurous life in New York City or L.A. or anywhere her VW Bug can take her. But she's also terrified of a future far away from everything and everyone she knows. Over the course of the novel, Meri struggles to accept her BFF's new romantic relationship, her brother's accident, her grandmother's death— alongside all those senior-year questions of where to go to college and the status of relationships.

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Marcos Riveras wants more from his life. He wants his mother to take his side and to choose him over her racist, abusive boyfriend. He wants out of his poor Tampa neighborhood, Maesta. He wants to be able to open up emotionally to the friends in his crew. He wants his best friend to not be dealing drugs. But he feels lonely and stuck. When he joins a class that aims to help underachieving students reach their potential, he bonds with tough girl Amy and theater nerd Zach and begins to realize he isn't alone.

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Emily Suvada's concept for her novel This Mortal Coil feels like a Black Mirror episode mixed with a Walking Dead one, and I mean that in the best possible way. In this world, people can implant tech that allows them to re-code their DNA — and teenage Cat, the daughter of a world-famous geneticist, is one of the best gene hackers. But when a devastating plague hits, her father is kidnapped by an organization looking for a cure. He finds the cure — but then he dies. Now, it's up to Cat to decode it and save everyone.... but who can she trust?

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Drawing comparisons to a modernized Forever by Judy Blume, I Never is a sex-positive, hetero high school relationship story about a teen girl debating to have sex for the first time. Janey has never had a boyfriend or even been kissed, but her seemingly happy parents' recent divorce announcement has her thinking more about love, relationships, and sex. So when the hottest senior in school, Luke, earnestly asks her out, she embarks on a new, exploratory relationship.

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