Read it and Weep

A list of books that are emotional YA reads. YA novels are made up of books for a wide age range (12-18 years old) and includes a variety of different topics and interests. Not all titles will be appropriate for all readers*

Showing 1 - 20 of 21  There are a total of 70 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "American road trip"
Star rating for American road trip
Description:
Brothers Teodoro and Manny Avila take a road trip to address Manny's PTSD following his tour in Iraq, and to help T. change his life and win the heart of Wendy Martinez. Includes information and resources about PTSD.
Book cover for "Ander & Santi were here"
Star rating for Ander & Santi were here
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Nonbinary teen Ander is ready to leave their family's taquería and focus on their art, but when Santi, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, begins to work at the restaurant, the two teens spark a romance made complicated by immigration police.
Book cover for "Blood like magic"
Star rating for Blood like magic
Series:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
After failing to come into her powers, sixteen-year-old Voya--a Black witch living in near-future Toronto--is forced to choose between losing her family's magic forever, a heritage steeped in centuries of blood and survival, or murdering her first love, a boy who is supposedly her genetic match.
Book cover for "Bright burning stars"
Star rating for Bright burning stars
Author:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School since childhood, where they've formed an inseparable bond forged by respective family tragedies and a fierce love for dance. When the body of a student is found in the dorms just before the start of their final year, Marine and Kate begin to ask themselves what they would do to win the ultimate prize: to be the one girl selected to join the Opera's prestigious...
Book cover for "Dear Evan Hansen"
Star rating for Dear Evan Hansen
Author:
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
Evan goes from being a nobody to everyone's hero and a social media superstar after a chance encounter with Connor just before his suicide leads others to believe Evan was his only friend.
Book cover for "Elsewhere"
Star rating for Elsewhere
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
After fifteen-year-old Liz Hall is hit by a taxi and killed, she finds herself in a place that is both like and unlike Earth, where she must adjust to her new status and figure out how to "live."
Book cover for "Far from the tree"
Star rating for Far from the tree
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:
Three teenagers, biological siblings separated by adoption, explore the meaning of family in all its forms -- how to find it, how to keep it, and how to love it. "Grace, Maya, and Joaquin are siblings who are unaware of one another's existence, until Grace gives up her own child for adoption-and feels compelled to seek out her biological family. Maya, Grace's loudmouthed younger sister, is quick to search for traces of herself among her bio siblings....
Book cover for "Finding Audrey"
Star rating for Finding Audrey
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
Fourteen-year-old Audrey is making slow but steady progress dealing with her anxiety disorder when Linus comes into the picture and her recovery gains momentum.
Book cover for "Godly heathens"
Star rating for Godly heathens
Series:
Ouroboros volume 1.
Description:
Seventeen-year-old Gem Echols hides their mental health challenges and mysterious dreams in the small town of Gracie, Georgia, but when a newcomer reveals a shocking claim of being reincarnated gods together, Gem's life takes a perilous turn as they embark on a deadly adveenture, where their past and present collide.

10. Heroine

Book cover for "Heroine"
Star rating for Heroine
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
When a car crash sidelines Mickey just before softball season, she has to find a way to hold on to her spot as the catcher for a team expected to make a historic tournament run. Behind the plate is the only place she's ever felt comfortable, and the painkillers she's been prescribed can help her get there. The pills do more than take away pain; they make her feel good. With a new circle of friends--fellow injured athletes, others with just time to...
Book cover for "I'll give you the sun"
Star rating for I'll give you the sun
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
At thirteen, Jude and her twin brother, Noah, were incredibly close. At sixteen, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways. Then Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they...
Book cover for "The last true poets of the sea"
Star rating for The last true poets of the sea
Author:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
Inspired loosely by Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, teenaged Violet is shipped off to Maine after her brother's hospitalization, where she searches for the lost shipwreck that her great-great grandmother survived and for answers about her family's long struggle with mental illness, all while falling in love.
Book cover for "Letters to the lost"
Star rating for Letters to the lost
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Juliet still writes letters to her mother after her death and when Declan finds one beside her mother's grave, he writes back, sharing his pain with her, but soon real life interferes, and Juliet and Declan discover truths that may tear them apart.
Book cover for "Lost in the Never Woods"
Star rating for Lost in the Never Woods
Average Rating:
2.5 stars
Description:
When children start to go missing in the local woods, eighteen-year-old Wendy Darling must face her fears and a past she cannot remember to rescue them in this novel based on Peter Pan.
Book cover for "A monster calls"
Star rating for A monster calls
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill--an ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss.
Book cover for "Picture us in the light"
Star rating for Picture us in the light
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Daniel, a Chinese-American teen, must grapple with his plans for the future, his feelings for his best friend Harry, and his discovery of a family secret that could shatter everything.
Book cover for "Summer bird blue"
Star rating for Summer bird blue
Description:
After her sister and songwriting partner, Lea, dies in an automobile accident, seventeen-year-old Rumi is sent to Hawaii with an aunt she barely knows while she and her mother grieve separately.
Book cover for "Thirteen reasons why"
Star rating for Thirteen reasons why
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
When Clay Jenkins receives a box containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends the night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death.
Book cover for "Tyler Johnson was here"
Star rating for Tyler Johnson was here
Author:
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
When Marvin Johnson's twin brother, Tyler, is shot and killed by a police officer, Marvin must fight injustice to learn the true meaning of freedom.
Book cover for "We are okay"
Star rating for We are okay
Author:
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
After leaving her life behind to go to college in New York, Marin must face the truth about the tragedy that happened in the final weeks of summer when her friend Mabel comes to visit.