NPR's 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels

Recently, NPR turned to its audience to vote for their favorite teen novels. Today, they published the results. You might notice some of your favorites on there. Was there anything they missed? They've definitely caught a lot of my favorites, but here are a few that I would add:

How to Say Goodbye in Robot
by Natalie Standiford
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I will say that I listened to this as an audiobook and I was blown away by the production. Reading it as a text might be a completely different experience, but the story has really stuck with me and I think that will resonate no matter what the medium. A teenage loner befriends the new girl at school and they bond over a shared obsession of a local radio show, featuring a bizarre array of callers. The story between the teenagers is emotional, realistic, and heartbreaking.

The Life As We Knew It trilogy
by Susan Beth Pfeffer
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I just recently discovered these books and I'm hooked. I read the first book about a year ago, but I just finished the second two and I cannot recommend these enough. These books are survival novels at their best: the moon is hit by an asteroid and falls out of orbit, causing massive tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, and intense climate changes, also causing food shortages, disease, and chaos.

Where Things Come Back
by John Corey Whaley
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This is one of the best teen books I've ever read. The book follows the stories of two teenagers, one on a mission trip to Africa and another in rural Arkansas, dealing with the disappearance of his brother. The characters and dialogue are realistic and it is some of the best writing I've ever seen in the YA genre. It might take a few chapters to feel your way through the book, but it is definitely worth it.

Wither
by Lauren DeStefano
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Anybody who reads this blog knows about my obsession with Wither. I sneak it on to almost every book list I make, I was a total dork when I met the author, and I recommend it to everybody I can. I'm not as crazy about Fever, but that's only because I love Wither so much and I miss characters that were in the first book (however, I know they'll be back in the third book, Sever, which is due in February). Set in a future where a disease causes women to die at age 20 and men to die at age 25, girls are kidnapped off the street and sold into polygamist marriages in the hopes of breeding a new, healthy generation. The story follows Rhine, a girl desperate to escape her marriage, even if it means giving up her plush surroundings for the harsh world outside.