5 of our favorite YA novels that came out in 2022
It’s the end of 2022 and that means we get to look back on the young adult novels we read that were published throughout the year!
Every year brings us new YA novels that we can’t wait to read, whether they’re sequels to beloved books or they sound absolutely fantastic. 2022 was no exception. Our list this year includes mysteries, road trip stories, and a lot of contemporary.
Here are five of our favorite YA novels that were released in 2022, in no particular order.
1. Family of Liars by E. Lockhart
The hotly anticipated prequel to We Were Liars, E Lockhart brings us back into the fold of the Sinclair family, taking us back to 1985. Told from Johnny’s mother Caroline’s perspective, she tells her son’s ghost a story of her past. The worst thing she’s ever done and kept a secret for so very, very long from everyone but her sisters.
The twists and turns of this YA novel will keep you turning the page just to see if you can figure out what happens next. And it sets up perfectly a solid family history that even elevates We Were Liars, which is impressive. Plus we’re always up for anything that takes place on a private island.
2. Exactly Where You Need to Be by Amelia Diane Coombs
It’s a true crime podcast fanatics mixed with a road trip sprinkled with some awkward romantic tension in said road trip. It’s the absolutely perfect mix of everything we want in a YA novel.
Florie’s OCD and over-worrying mother have kept her from living life, and now that her best friend Kacey is heading off to college in the fall while Florie stays home for a gap year… and maybe that’s not for the best.
When she and Kacey win tickets to see their favorite true crime podcast’s live show in California, Kacey ropes in her brother (Florie’s crush) to secretly drive them while their parents are out of town and occupied. What could go wrong?!
Coombs tackles the mental health issues head-on, wrapping it up in the stakes of making sure the road trip goes off without a hitch. You’ll find yourself wanting to see if Florie and Kacey manage to pull it off.
3. Message Not Found by Dante Medema
If you’ve ever lost anyone close to you, you’ll know how badly you want to get just one more text from them. Dante Medema’s Message Not Found is a look into what happens when that happens.
Well, kind of. Bailey loses her best friend Vanessa unexpectedly and under mysterious circumstances that have her doubting how much she knew Vanessa. So she takes pieces of her moms’ AI programs and creates a chatbot of Vanessa, feeding it years of texts and emails to give it her personality, and starts texting with her, trying to figure out the mystery that may just be why Vanessa died.
Medema truly encapsulates the overwhelming emotions that come with grief and how complicated they can be, even on the best days. And how many we shouldn’t take for granted even the smallest conversations we have with our loved ones?
4. It Sounds Like This by Anna Meriano
Listen, if you were a band geek in high school (or still are), this book will give you flashbacks, especially if yours was an intense marching band.
Yasmín is just trying to be a good daughter, make the first chair in flutes against her BFF Sofia, and impress college admission boards and her band crush. But an anonymous band gossip Instagram account posts videos of freshmen getting harassed and Yasmín reports it, leading to the entire low brass section of the band getting suspended.
This means they have no low brass section and Yasmín has to fix what’s happened, pivoting to playing the tuba and taking on a bunch of freshmen who are just as clueless about brass instruments as she is. It goes deep into high school band culture and found family and is a very cute, heartwarming read.
5. Dead End Girls by Wendy Heard
If you’re an avid true crime podcast listener or documentary watcher, you’ve probably had the intrusive thought of “I could pull this off and not get caught.”
Enter Dead End Girls by Wendy Heard. Maude takes her own accidental death into her own hands, planning on disappearing on a family trip to Hawaii, laying low for a while, and starting a new life abroad in England. The only problem is that within two days of arriving, her step-cousin Frankie discovers her plan.
And Frankie wants in.
Where Heard takes us from there involves an insane amount of twists and turns that will honestly give you whiplash. Dead End Girls is a page-turner that keeps you guessing until you read the final page.
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