Young Adult Genres: Science Fiction
New month, new book list series! This month I’m diving into young adult titles! Over the past few months, I’ve shared picture books, chapter books, and middle grade stories, and I don’t want to leave out the teenagers, so here we go! Young adult novels are geared toward kids from ages 12 – 18. Most often, the protagonists of YA novels are on the older end of the age range and experiences. It’s important to remember that while some younger teenagers will be mature enough to handle many YA books, they won’t be appropriate for all younger readers!
Let’s dive into science fiction for teens! I think that science fiction is one of those genres that people have strong feeelings about – they either love it or won’t go anywhere near it. And while I know teens are known for their strong opinions, I’d like to think I tried sharing some unexpected science fiction books that might draw them in. Science fiction is often set in the future when technology has evolved beyond what we can imagine today, but that doesn’t mean you need to be a science “nerd” to enjoy these books. They are just as much about character development and setting as they are common science fiction tropes. The titles included in this list deal with climate change and the environment, out of control viruses, virtual reality, space battles, and high tech empires, but they’re also about family, friendship, and romance. So, before your teens knock these titles, make sure you’ve got a good hook for each one and see if they’ll give them a try!
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Young Adult Genres: Science Fiction
All Better Now by Neal Shusterman
A deadly and unprecedented virus is spreading. But those who survive it experience long-term effects no one has ever seen before: utter contentment. Soon after infection, people find the stress, depression, greed, and other negative feelings that used to weigh them down are gone.
More and more people begin to revel in the mass unburdening. But not everyone. People in power—who depend on malcontents and prey on the insecure to sell their products and convince others they need more, new, faster, better everything—know this new state of being is bad for business. Surely, without anger or jealousy as motivators, productivity will grind to a halt and the world will be thrown into chaos. Campaigns start up to convince people that being eternally happy is dangerous. The race to find a vaccine begins. Meanwhile, a growing movement of Recoverees plans ways to spread the virus as fast as they can, in the name of saving the world.
It’s nearly impossible to determine the truth when everyone with a platform is pushing their agenda. Three teens from very different backgrounds who’ve had their lives upended in very different ways find themselves at the center of a power play that could change humanity forever.
Chaos Grid by Lyndsey Lewellen
When mankind’s attempts to control nature backfire, Texas descends into a wasteland. Storms rage and ravenous beasts roam the Outer Grid. The only safe havens rest inside the tech-obsessed domed cities. But when her parents are murdered inside the Plex City dome, seventeen-year-old Juniper Conway wants revenge.
Ties to her extended family threaten to pull her back as she runs from city to city. The Plex is endangering its citizens by legalizing a deadly nano drug, and Juniper’s family needs her help to deliver the counteragent. Saving the city who orphaned her goes against everything she stands for. The only way out is to brave the wasteland.
Juniper joins a shipping crew fearless enough to transport food across the Outer Grid. But when a string of bad luck turns lethal, she fears something, or someone, is dragging her back to the Plex. As her world sinks into chaos, Juniper must decide if revenge is worth the lives of the crew she has come to love.
Cold Wire by Chloe Gong
The future is loading…
To escape rising seas and rampant epidemics, most of society lives “upcountry” in glistening virtual reality, while those who can’t afford the subscription are forced to remain in crumbling “downcountry.”
But upcountry isn’t perfect. A cold war rages between two powerful nations, Medaluo and Atahua—and no one suffers for it more than the Medan orphans in Atahua. Their enrollment at Nile Military Academy is mandatory. Either serve as a soldier, or risk being labelled a spy.
Eirale graduated the academy and joined NileCorp’s private forces downcountry, exactly as she was supposed to. Then Atahua’s most wanted anarchist frames her for assassinating a government official, and she’s given a choice: cooperate with him to search for a dangerous program in Medaluo or go down for treason.
Meanwhile, Lia is finishing her last year upcountry at Nile Military Academy. Paired with her academic nemesis for their final assignment, Lia is determined to beat him for valedictorian and prove her worth. But there may be far more at stake when their task to infiltrate Medaluo and track down an Atahuan traitor goes wrong…
Though Eirale and Lia tear through Medaluo on different planes of reality, the two start to suspect they are puzzle pieces in a larger conspiracy—and the closer they get to the truth, the closer their worlds come to a shattering collision.
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall of China. It doesn’t matter that the girls die from the mental strain.
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it’s to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But when she gets her vengeance, it becomes clear that she is an Iron Widow, a rare kind of female pilot who can sacrifice males to power up Chrysalises instead.
To tame her frightening yet valuable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest male pilot in Huaxia, yet feared and ostracized for killing his father and brothers. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will take over instead, then leverage their combined strength to force her society to stop failing its women and girls. Or die trying.
The Nightmare Virus by Nadine Brandes
When dream technology goes wrong, a virus spreads across the globe, trapping people in a universal dreamscape. They call it the Nightmare Virus.
Cain Cross is determined to find a cure… if he can decipher his brother’s chicken-scratch formula notes. But when he gets infected, he has only 22 days until he’s trapped in the mental prison forever. Now, every time he falls asleep, he must fight in a Nightmare Arena until he earns his freedom to live in the “new world” that exists only in the mind.
Then he finds a way to manipulate the Nightmare―to change it by mere thought.
Forced to navigate a world of nightbeasts, mistblades, and half-truths, Cain turns his focus to survival. When the Emperor offers him a LifeSuPod―and access to a cure―in exchange for a dangerous favor, Cain thinks he’s found a way out. But Cain’s new power threatens to take him on paths that jeopardize his very soul.
Will he continue searching for a cure, or will he swear allegiance to the Nightmare? And the bigger question might be… will he even have a choice?
Soulmates by Rebecca Danzenbaker
Two hundred years after World War III, the world is at peace, all thanks to the soul-identification system. Every eighteen-year-old must report to the government to learn about their past lives, a terrifying process known as kirling. Good souls leave the institute with their inheritance, a career path, and if they’re lucky, a soulmate. Bad souls leave in handcuffs.
It’s a nerve-wracking ordeal for Sivon, who, given her uncanny ability to win every chess match, already suspects her soul isn’t normal. Turns out, she was right to worry. Sivon’s results stun not only her, but the entire world, making her the object of public scrutiny and anonymous threats.
Saddled with an infuriating and off-limits bodyguard, Sivon is thrust into a high-stakes game where souls are pawns and rules don’t exist. As deaths mount, Sivon must decipher friend from foe while protecting her heart against impossible odds. One wrong move could destroy the future lives of everyone Sivon loves, and she can’t let that happen, even if they’ll never love her back.
Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
Jamal Lawson just wanted to be a part of something. As an aspiring journalist, he packs up his camera and heads to Baltimore to document a rally protesting police brutality after another Black man is murdered.
But before it even really begins, the city implements a new safety protocol…the Dome. The Dome surrounds the city, forcing those within to subscribe to a total militarized shutdown. No one can get in, and no one can get out.
Alone in a strange place, Jamal doesn’t know where to turn…until he meets hacker Marco, who knows more than he lets on, and Catherine, an AWOL basic-training-graduate, whose parents helped build the initial plans for the Dome.
As unrest inside of Baltimore grows throughout the days-long lockdown, Marco, Catherine, and Jamal take the fight directly to the chief of police. But the city is corrupt from the inside out, and it’s going to take everything they have to survive.
Virch by Laura Resau
In the year 2154, virtual reality is an enticing escape… but just for the privileged. For others, like sixteen-year-old Liv, reality means living by a contaminated bay that’s sickened her little sister to the brink of death.
Determined to find a cure, Liv ventures to a mysterious tropical island to infiltrate a tech empire owned by the world’s most powerful man. When she encounters his son, Wolf, she’s shocked. He isn’t the shallow celebrity portrayed in the virtual world-he’s an idealist with heart, committed to righting his father’s wrongs. And when Wolf promises to help save her sister, he might just capture Liv’s heart, too.
But as Liv and Wolf confront a danger beyond anything they could have imagined, they must unravel the deadly scheme at the core of the tech empire. And their world starts to crumble . . . just as they’re falling in love.
The Warning by Kristy Acevedo
Like most high school seniors, Alexandra Lucas is caught between living in the moment and an unknown future. Her anxiety disorder doesn’t make that any easier. But she’s coping―until her train stops on the way home from a concert with her boyfriend. At first, she’s worried about breaking curfew. Then terror echoes through their train car.
A mysterious doorway has appeared beside the tracks, and a hologram claiming to be a human from the future shares a sinister warning. A comet is on a collision course with earth. All life there will end in six months’ time. To survive, people must step through one of the many portals that have opened around the world.
The holograms claim to offer safety. But how can anyone be sure? Stay or go―everyone must make their own choice. Alex’s family, her friends, her boyfriend all have different ideas. Alex is only sure of one thing: she wants to decide for herself. But every decision comes at a price.
