Each year, Orem Library staff compile a list of our favorite books, movies, and music released in that year. Here’s our list of the best teen books of 2023. This list includes fiction and nonfiction books for teens. Add these new releases to your “To Be Read” list, or check them out from the library today!
Best Teen Fiction of 2023
One of Us is Back
By Karen M. McManus
Teen Fiction
A member of the Bayview Crew disappears and everyone feels like they could be next, but the situation suddenly worsens when someone unexpectedly returns to Bayview.
A Study in Drowning
By Ava Reid
Teen Fiction
Entering a contest to redesign late author Emrys Myrddin’s estate, aspiring architect Effy Sayre arrives at Hiraeth Manor where she meets a stodgy young literature scholar who draws her into a battle against dark forces – both mortal and magical – that threatens to consume them both.
Curious Tides
By Pascale Lacelle
Teen Fiction
Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best–until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess. To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz–a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend.
Flowerheart
By Catherine Bakewell
Teen Fiction
Clara’s magic has always been wild. But it’s never been dangerous. Then a simple touch causes poisonous flowers to bloom in her father’s chest. The only way to heal him is to cast an extremely difficult spell that requires perfect control. And the only person willing to help is her former best friend, Xavier, who’s grown from a sweet, shy child into a mysterious and distant young man. Xavier names a terrible price in return, knowing Clara will give anything to save her father. As she struggles to reconcile the new Xavier with the boy she once loved, she discovers their bargain is only one of the heavy secrets he’s hiding.
What the River Knows
By Isabel Ibañez
Teen Fiction
Set in 1884, nineteen-year-old Inez travels to Egypt after the sudden death of her parents to uncover the truth about their deaths, and as she attempts to unravel the mysteries her parents sought, she becomes a pawn in a larger game that threatens to kill her.
Best Teen Graphic Novels/Nonfiction of 2023
The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich
By Deya Muniz
Teen Graphic Novel
Lady Camembert wants to live life on her own terms, without marriage. Well, without marrying a man, that is. But the law of the land is that women cannot inherit. So when her father passes away, she does the only thing she can: She disguises herself as a man and moves to the capital city of the Kingdom of Fromage to start over as Count Camembert. But it’s hard to keep a low profile when the beautiful Princess Brie, with her fierce activism and great sense of fashion, catches her attention. Camembert can’t resist getting to know the princess, but as the two grow closer, will she able to keep her secret?
Hungry Ghost
By Victoria Ying
Teen Graphic Novel
Valerie Chu is quiet, studious, and above all, thin. No one, not even her best friend Jordan, knows that she has been binging and purging for years. But when tragedy strikes, Val finds herself taking a good, hard look at her priorities, her choices, and her own body. The path to happiness may lead her away from her hometown and her mother’s toxic projections, but first she will have to find the strength to seek help.
Hidden Systems: Water, Electricity, the Internet, and the Secrets We Use Every Day
By Dan Nott
Teen Graphic Novel
What was the first message sent over the internet? How much water does a single person use every day? How was the electric light invented? For every utility people use each day, there’s a hidden history below the surface – a story of intrigue, drama, humor, and inequity. This graphic novel provides a guided tour through the science of the past – and how the decisions people made while inventing and constructing early technology still affect the way people use it today.
Accountable: the True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed
By Dashka Slater
Teen Fiction
When a high school student started a private Instagram account that used racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as “edgy” humor. Over time, the edge got sharper. Then a few other kids found out about the account. Pretty soon, everyone knew. Ultimately no one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the account’s discovery. Not the girls targeted by the posts. Not the boy who created the account. Not the group of kids who followed it. Not the adults–educators and parents–whose attempts to fix things too often made them worse. In the end, no one was laughing. And everyone was left asking: Where does accountability end for online speech that harms? And what does accountability even mean?
Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story
By Sarah Myer
Graphic Novel
Bullied by her classmates, Sarah, a Korean American girl growing up in a rural community with few Asian neighbors, channels her rage into her art and cosplay until it threatens to explode.
