Top Ten Teen Fantasy from Booklist Magazine
After a night of partying, Liz wakes up to her dead body thumping against the side of a boat—and she begins to investigate her own drowning. Perfect for teens who like complex and supernaturally disturbed characters.
The Drowned Cities. By Paolo Bacigalupi. Gr. 9–12.
Two damaged children, Mouse and Mahlia, are the focus of Bacigalupi’s brutal novel that further explores the dystopian world depicted in the 2011 Printz winner, Ship Breaker. A propulsive page-turner.
Froi of the Exiles. By Melina Marchetta. Gr. 9–12.
In this second installment of the Lumatere Chronicles (following Finnikin of the Rock, 2010), Froi is sent on a deadly mission into the neighboring kingdom of Charyn, where he discovers tangled webs of deception.
The Galahad Legacy. By Dom Testa. Gr. 7–10.
This powerful final book in the Galahad series finds the battered crew having to make a number of impossible choices: take the offer of the advanced Dollovit race to live in controlled comfort or gamble it all on the harsh conditions of Planet Eos.
Grave Mercy. By Robin LaFevers. Gr. 9–12.
In this dark, sophisticated novel set in the late fifteenth century, Mortain, the god of death, has sired 17-year-old Ismae to be his handmaiden.
Human.4. By Mike A. Lancaster. Gr. 7–10.
This fast-paced plot follows 15-year-old Kyle Straker as he relates a story of great historic value to beings of the future. But what kind of beings?
The Obsidian Blade. By Pete Hautman. Gr. 8–12.
In this killer start to a trilogy, Tucker Feye, hoping to find his missing parents, steps through a “diskos” and is wormholed back through time.
The Scorpio Races. By Maggie Stiefvater. Gr. 8–12.
Once a year, the island of Thisby hosts the Scorpio Races, a beachside contest involving man-eating water horses and riders who often perish in the process. Against this thrilling backdrop, a love story blooms.
Ship of Souls. By Zetta Elliott. 2012. Gr. 6–9.
Gritty realism meshes with poetic mysticism in this novel about Dimitri (“D”), who thinks he’s found a one-of-a-kind “bird,” which is actually a being named Naru who needs help rescuing the souls of dead soldiers located at Manhattan’s African Burial Ground.
The Wikkeling. By Steven Arntson. Illus. by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini. Gr. 5–8.
Henrietta and two friends are being followed by a lurching apparition called the Wikkeling that demands to know, “Where do you go?” Terrazzini’s silhouette artwork adds to the delightfully creepy tone of this fascinating dystopia.
