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 55  There are a total of 70 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "All my rage"
Star rating for All my rage
Author:
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
A family extending from Pakistan to California, deals with generations of young love, old regrets, and forgiveness.
Book cover for "All the rage"
Star rating for All the rage
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
After being assaulted by the sheriff's son, Kellan Turner, Romy Grey was branded a liar and bullied by former friends, finding refuge only in the diner where she works outside of town, but when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing and news of him assaulting another girl gets out, Romy must decide whether to speak out again or risk having more girls hurt.
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 "Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe"
Star rating for Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe
Series:
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before.
Book cover for "The astonishing color of after"
Star rating for The astonishing color of after
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
After her mother's suicide, grief-stricken Leigh Sanders travels to Taiwan to stay with grandparents she's never met, determined to find her mother--who she believes turned into a bird.
Book cover for "The beauty that remains"
Star rating for The beauty that remains
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
Autumn, Shay, and Logan, whose lives intersect in complicated ways, each lose someone close to them and must work through their grief.
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 "Brighter than the sun"
Star rating for Brighter than the sun
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
"After the loss of her mother, high school junior Soledad finds herself struggling to balance classes and her new job in California to support her family in Tijuana, Mexico, in this thoughtful story about identity, immigration, and family"--
Book cover for "Challenger deep"
Star rating for Challenger deep
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
"A teenage boy struggles with schizophrenia."--
Book cover for "Clap when you land"
Star rating for Clap when you land
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people... In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance -- and Papi's secrets -- the two girls are forced to...
Book cover for "Code name Verity"
Star rating for Code name Verity
Series:
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive while keeping secret all that she can.
Book cover for "The cost of knowing"
Star rating for The cost of knowing
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Sixteen-year-old Alex Rufus's curse of seeing the future distracts him from being and doing his best, but when he sees his little brother Isaiah's imminent death, he races against time, death, and circumstances to save him.
Book cover for "Darius the Great is not okay"
Star rating for Darius the Great is not okay
Series:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
Clinically-depressed Darius Kellner, a high school sophomore, travels to Iran to meet his grandparents, but it is their next-door neighbor, Sohrab, who changes his life.
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.

16. Dig

Book cover for "Dig"
Star rating for Dig
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
Five white teenage cousins who are struggling with the failures and racial ignorance of their dysfunctional parents and their wealthy grandparents, reunite for Easter.
Book cover for "Early departures"
Star rating for Early departures
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Jamal's best friend, Q, doesn't know that he died, and that he's about to die again. He doesn't know that Jamal tried to save him. And that the reason they haven't been friends for two years is because Jamal blames Q for the accident that killed his parents. But what if Jamal could have a second chance? A new technology allows Q to be reanimated for a few weeks before he dies permanently. And Q's mom is not about to let anyone ruin this miracle by...
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 "The fault in our stars"
Star rating for The fault in our stars
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.