Top YA Books That Appeared On Best Of 2025 Lists
The young adult book realm of 2025 is definitively chaotic in the best way possible. We aren’t just getting the usual YA books with tropes of “boy meets girl” or “chosen one saves the apocalyptic world from a vague evil.” No, the authors this year decided to wake up and choose violence – emotional violence, specifically. We are seeing a renaissance of storytelling that feels less like a product churned out for BookTok and more like legitimate, gut-wrenching art that just happens to feature protagonists under the age of 25.
5 YA Books That Are Essential Reading
We realize you don’t have time to sift through forty-plus mediocre releases to find the gems. That’s why we’re here. We’ve grabbed the absolute standouts – the books that are going to be dominating your feed and ruining your sleep schedule – so you can pretend you’re ahead of the curve. Here are the 5 YA books of 2025 that you actually need to care about.
1. “Sunrise on the Reaping” by Suzanne Collins
We knew this was coming. You can’t talk about the YA books best of 2025 without bending the knee to the queen herself, Suzanne Collins. “The Hunger Games” franchise has been carrying the dystopian genre on its back for nearly two decades, and just when we thought we were free, Panem pulled us back in.
“Sunrise on the Reaping” is the prequel we deserve, taking us back to the Second Quarter Quell – yes, the one Haymitch Abernathy won. If you thought “Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” was a lot, prepare yourself. We finally get to see exactly how a young Haymitch outsmarted the Capitol and the emotional toll that turned him into the cynical mentor we met in the original trilogy. Collins isn’t just cashing in on nostalgia here; she’s expanding the lore in a way that feels necessary, not forced. It’s brutal, it’s political, and it’s going to hurt.
2. “Oathbound” by Tracy Deonn
If you haven’t boarded the “Legendborn” train yet, what are you even doing? Tracy Deonn has single-handedly revitalized the “chosen one” trope by injecting it with actual stakes, history, and a magic system that feels dangerous. “Oathbound,” the third entry in the cycle, sees Bree Matthews dealing with the fallout of severing ties with everyone she loves in order to keep them safe – classic hero complex behavior, but we forgive her because the stakes are literally life or death.
Deonn is a master at blending “Southern Black Girl Magic” with high fantasy elements like the Arthurian legend, and “Oathbound” promises to be the most intense chapter yet. Bree has made a bargain with the Shadow King, and if we know anything about fae bargains or shadow monarchs, it’s that things are going to go south very, very quickly.
3. “The Otherwhere Post” by Emily J. Taylor
Sometimes you just need a fantasy that feels like a warm hug – if that hug also involved investigating a crime. “The Otherwhere Post” is delivering major cozy-but-creepy vibes. We follow Maeve Abenthy, whose life imploded after her father committed a horrific crime. Or wait – did he?
Maeve isn’t convinced, so she does what any rational teen protagonist would do: she joins a magical post office (the Otherworld Post) to learn scriptomancy and clear his name. It’s giving dark academia meets “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” but with higher stakes and more family trauma. Emily J. Taylor has a knack for whimsical world-building that doesn’t feel childish, making this one of the most unique standout titles for the best of 2025.
4. “The Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel” by Maggie Stiefvater, et al
Okay, is this technically a “new” book? No. Do we care? Also no. Maggie Stiefvater’s “The Raven Cycle” is undisputed royalty in the YA canon, and seeing it adapted into a graphic novel is the excuse we all needed to make it our entire personality again.
Illustrated by Sas Milledge, this adaptation breathes new life into the story of Blue Sargent and her boys. The visual format is perfect for Stiefvater’s atmospheric, dream-like writing style. If you’ve never experienced the agony of the Blue/Gansey dynamic or the frantic energy of Ronan Lynch, this is the perfect entry point. And for the die-hards, seeing the ley lines and Cabeswater visualized is going to be a spiritual experience.
5. “I Am the Swarm” by Hayley Chewins
We love a protagonist whose emotions literally manifest as danger. In “I Am the Swarm,” Hayley Chewins introduces us to a world where feelings turn into insects. It sounds weird on paper, but in practice, it’s a stunning metaphor for teenage angst and repression.
Nell’s anger manifests as swarms of wasps, which is actually relatable. This is a novel in verse, which might scare off some readers, but don’t let it. The format makes the story feel emotional and immediate, stripping away the fluff to get straight to the moving core. It’s a story about self-discovery that doesn’t feel preachy, and the body horror elements keep things edgy and interesting.
Best of 2025 YA Books
If you’ve been feeling burnout from the same old dystopian trilogies (yeah, we see you, late 2010s), then the 2025 YA books lineup has been effectively a palette cleanser. From gritty, unapologetic horror to romances that actually make you feel something other than second-hand embarrassment, this past year has been completely stacked.
