2016 YA Releases I Can’t Wait to Read

2016 is shaping up to be a great year for YA releases; many of my favourite authors have interesting, intriguing, clever, and/or fun new releases coming out. It’s always awesome when some of your favourites have new books being released, because you know you’re almost guaranteed a good read. This list of five 2016 YA releases consists almost entirely of authors I’ve read before, except for #5.

The Leaving by Tara Altebrando
(release date: June 7, 2016)

Tara Altebrando always seems to incorporate interesting and original concepts into her stories, whether it’s the history of Coney Island and carnival sideshows in Dreamland Social Club, or the contrast between the fakery of Las Vegas attractions and their real-life European counterparts in What Happens Here. It will be interesting to see her tackle thriller/suspense.

Essential Maps for the Lost by Deb Caletti
(release date: April 5, 2016)

I will read anything Deb Caletti writes. End of story. I love her prose, and she has a way of perfectly capturing certain feelings and incorporating little details to make a story feel so real. Her newest has secrets and falling in love and tragedy and depression and alternating perspectives, and somehow incorporates the children’s novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (which I never got around to reading when I was younger, but maybe Caletti’s latest will inspire me to check it out).

Kids of Appetite by David Arnold
(release date: Sept. 20, 2016)

David Arnold’s first book, Mosquitoland, was amazing, so I’m excited for his sophomore release. According to his website, Kids of Appetite is about:

1. A coded mission to scatter ashes across New Jersey.

2. The momentous nature of the Palisades in winter.

3. One dormant submarine.

4. Two songs about flowers.

5. Being cool in the traditional sense.

6. Sunsets & ice cream & orchards & graveyards.

7. Simultaneous extreme opposites.

8. A narrow escape from a war-torn country.

9. A story collector.

10. How to listen to someone who does not talk.

11. Falling in love with a painting.

12. Falling in love with a song.

13. Falling in love.

I can definitely say I’m intrigued.

Places No One Knows by Brenna Yovanoff
(release date: May 17, 2016)

Brenna Yovanoff’s books can be strange in a good way, and this looks like no exception. I devoured her book Paper Valentine, which is less paranormal/horror/fantasy than her other books (genres which are not really my thing). Places No One Knows is apparently like this as well – more contemporary realistic with some elements of magical realism and fantasy. It involves dreams and waking up in other people’s dreams and connecting and sharing parts of yourself with another.

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
(release date: March 1, 2016)

Just recently I got into watching BBC’s Sherlock. I’m super late to the game, I know, and I have no idea why. It’s so totally my thing: mysteries, clever deductions, sometimes snarky dialogue… I mean, I grew up reading Nancy Drew mysteries and playing Nancy Drew computer games. I wanted to be a detective, and had a magnifying glass and a spyscope for peering around corners! I had a notepad where I could record clues and suspects! Anyway, all of this is to say that I’m looking forward to A Study in Charlotte. It’s a sort of modern re-telling of Sherlock Holmes in which Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson are the descendants of Sherlock and Watson, respectively. They attend a Connecticut prep school and of course there is a suspicious death and much investigating and many twists and turns, I’m sure.