This Wall Street Journal article sparked a frenzy of booklovers speaking in defense of "dark" YA fiction. Whether you're using this list to try censor your child's reading, or to guide your next trip to the bookstore or library, it's here to help.

Me, I plan on reading them all.
1

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3.62 avg rating — 814,717 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 876,394 ratings
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3.97 avg rating — 2,833,633 ratings
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20

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4.58 avg rating — 3,654,064 ratings
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4.17 avg rating — 249,150 ratings
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22

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4.09 avg rating — 175,906 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 3,433,826 ratings
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24

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3.70 avg rating — 1,490,597 ratings
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25

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4.07 avg rating — 2,167,300 ratings
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26

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4.07 avg rating — 640,039 ratings
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27

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3.95 avg rating — 478,931 ratings
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28

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3.69 avg rating — 53,025 ratings
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29

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3.88 avg rating — 346,120 ratings
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30

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4.12 avg rating — 226,223 ratings
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31

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3.80 avg rating — 3,891,050 ratings
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32

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4.06 avg rating — 284,843 ratings
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33

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3.69 avg rating — 412,314 ratings
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34

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3.73 avg rating — 291,986 ratings
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35

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4.24 avg rating — 1,364,665 ratings
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36

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3.78 avg rating — 34,086 ratings
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37

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3.76 avg rating — 496,542 ratings
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38

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4.26 avg rating — 6,879,846 ratings
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39

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3.79 avg rating — 6,219 ratings
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40

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4.16 avg rating — 155,289 ratings
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41

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3.79 avg rating — 50,881 ratings
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42

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4.42 avg rating — 1,216,587 ratings
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43

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4.55 avg rating — 1,146,522 ratings
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44

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3.82 avg rating — 12,979 ratings
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45

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4.31 avg rating — 1,473,019 ratings
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46

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3.77 avg rating — 336,269 ratings
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47

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4.37 avg rating — 1,214,589 ratings
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48

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4.10 avg rating — 680,343 ratings
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49

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3.80 avg rating — 100,800 ratings
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50

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3.75 avg rating — 82,684 ratings
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51

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3.89 avg rating — 1,596,619 ratings
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52

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3.56 avg rating — 4,347 ratings
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53

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4.15 avg rating — 15,582 ratings
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54

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4.05 avg rating — 1,683,341 ratings
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55

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3.87 avg rating — 29,936 ratings
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56

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3.72 avg rating — 617,978 ratings
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57

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4.28 avg rating — 707,373 ratings
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58

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3.82 avg rating — 37,533 ratings
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59

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3.89 avg rating — 133,413 ratings
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60

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3.60 avg rating — 232,242 ratings
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61

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3.84 avg rating — 707,944 ratings
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62

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3.96 avg rating — 464,739 ratings
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63

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4.09 avg rating — 194,022 ratings
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64

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3.63 avg rating — 37,717 ratings
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65

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3.70 avg rating — 166,302 ratings
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66

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3.73 avg rating — 75,056 ratings
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67

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3.90 avg rating — 84,032 ratings
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68

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3.65 avg rating — 62,415 ratings
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69

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3.97 avg rating — 1,284,483 ratings
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3.85 avg rating — 734,133 ratings
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71

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3.79 avg rating — 13,465 ratings
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72

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3.91 avg rating — 53,222 ratings
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73

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3.90 avg rating — 71,547 ratings
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74

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4.25 avg rating — 82,537 ratings
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3.92 avg rating — 743,676 ratings
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76

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3.74 avg rating — 6,058 ratings
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77

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3.98 avg rating — 11,889 ratings
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78

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3.87 avg rating — 15,328 ratings
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3.76 avg rating — 60,219 ratings
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80

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3.95 avg rating — 110,167 ratings
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81

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3.73 avg rating — 19,635 ratings
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82

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3.75 avg rating — 5,503 ratings
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83

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3.65 avg rating — 17,538 ratings
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84

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3.57 avg rating — 47,030 ratings
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85

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3.83 avg rating — 22,003 ratings
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86

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3.45 avg rating — 7,707 ratings
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87

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3.98 avg rating — 204,149 ratings
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88

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3.84 avg rating — 20,391 ratings
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89

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3.85 avg rating — 15,682 ratings
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89

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3.70 avg rating — 32,239 ratings
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91

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3.84 avg rating — 6,470 ratings
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92

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3.88 avg rating — 1,971 ratings
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93

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3.86 avg rating — 1,048,728 ratings
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94

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3.92 avg rating — 35,821 ratings
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95

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3.75 avg rating — 44,930 ratings
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96

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3.89 avg rating — 641,724 ratings
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97

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 66,848 ratings
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98

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3.99 avg rating — 28,079 ratings
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99

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3.76 avg rating — 6,524 ratings
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100

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3.80 avg rating — 7,787 ratings
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552 books · 289 voters · list created June 5th, 2011 by A (votes) .
45 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


A 3952 books
1093 friends
Nicole 257 books
11 friends
Chloe 925 books
21 friends
Anna 6881 books
423 friends
Heidi 277 books
2120 friends
Hira 4740 books
870 friends
Jessica 5567 books
348 friends
Sarah (YA Love) 3286 books
827 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by A (new)

A Guys, I'm out of votes (you're limited to 100) but there are so many more books. Please vote for your favorites and add others that are missing. Ellen Hopkins, Elizabeth Scott, Walter Dean Myers--so many others--add them, please! Thanks and please continue to spread the word.


message 2: by Beth (last edited Jun 05, 2011 11:50AM) (new)

Beth G. Pssst, you know you've got The Chocolate War on here twice? You could take one off and add a different book. :) And it looks like The Lost Hero is on twice, too. Another slot!


message 3: by A (new)

A There's a handy duplicates-remover link that I just used in the edit menu but on my personal 100 I had no duplicates. :/

I can think of so many more! Love Drugged by James Klise In the Path of Falling Objects by Andrew Smith ...

Folks, if you have a "YA saves" story or blog post, please go to http://bit.ly/read2live and leave a link at the bottom of the post--I'd sure love to read them.


message 4: by Kristena (new)

Kristena Beth wrote: "Pssst, you know you've got The Chocolate War on here twice? You could take one off and add a different book. :) And it looks like The Lost Hero is on twice, too. Another slot!"

And Stargirl, too, I think.


message 5: by A (new)

A I got it! I'll probably hit the duplicates button once a day. Thanks for the eagle-eyes, though.


message 6: by Mike (new)

Mike Mullin Okay, how exactly does The Giving Tree belong on this list? It's not YA, and I'm not sure what it saves, unless someone was thinking about loggers?


message 7: by A (new)

A Mystery to me, Mike. When I get home, I'll be removing any non-YA titles... I can hit the remove duplicates link fairly easily daily but I think the other I'll have to do once a week. Apparently it's not enough to just ask people to stick to YA! ;)


message 8: by A (new)

A Ok, guys--I deleted a bunch of picture books, middle-grade books, and adult books too far on the adult side to be YA, as well as some novels too old to be considered contemporary... I kept novels that are contemporary YA, adult titles with YA relevance (see http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yal... for some examples), and middle-grade books with teen main characters. I'm sure they'll crop up again, but I'll try to go through the list once a month. In the meantime, please keep in mind, the list is for "dark" books for young readers :)


message 9: by ~☆~Autumn (new)

~☆~Autumn What was dark about Anna and the French Kiss?


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