Young Adult Books with a Mystery Twist are My Favorite
I love to read young adult books and I have since I was in middle school (I’m 26 now.) YA mystery is exactly what it sounds like: a mystery novel with a young adult protagonist. Young Adult is typically a bit less explicit than adult mystery novels, so in that way they are closer to Cozy Mysteries.
Even though I’m not in high school (or college!), I like to read YA mystery books because they leave a little more room for the amateur sleuth to make mistakes. They have the freedom to be a bit more impulsive, take more risks, and often go after the antagonist even if they aren’t trained to do so. It just makes it interesting.
“Young adult mystery/thriller fiction is a broad genre of teen fiction containing elements of the mystery and thriller adult genres. Young adult mysteries focus on solving a crime, usually a murder. The protagonist, always a young adult, tries to piece together the available clues in order to discover the crime’s perpetrator.”
Book Country, 2016
Now, I am not defining YA mysteries as ONLY those that include a crime (or murder) but also just those that have a looming mystery thread throughout the books that the protagonist must solve. These kids are not usually involved with law enforcement or chatting it up with coroners (unless their name is Owen) so these books don’t have to follow the same code as adult mysteries.
Please note that while I do provide Amazon links to the books here, I don’t actually have affiliate links for those right now. But since I also link to MY own books, then obviously if you buy those then I will benefit from them.
This is Why I Write Young Adult Mysteries
I don’t exclusively write mystery books for YA. My science fiction mystery series is geared for adults, but I’ve found that a lot of my readers are also teenagers. When I realized that there was a lot of crossover with my audience, I decided to sit down and write the Veronica Mars meets Pretty Little Liars series for Kindle Vella: The Disappearance of Susannah Dane. I have had this story bouncing around in my head for years, so it has been a really fun project to work on.
I am publishing the books on Kindle Vella, which uses an episode system (rather than chapters.) My book is currently on Episode 26, which just released this past week! I have 31 episodes planned for this book and I’ve already begun plotting the next one.
5 Young Adult Mystery Books
One of the biggest reasons that I love to write young adult books is because I also love to read them. On today’s post, I thought I would share 5 of my favorite YA Mystery books. These books are not necessarily “new” releases, since I fell in love with most of them when I was still a teenager. But they are essentially timeless and all of them are wonderful.
I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You
This book series is fantastic. It’s not a typical sleuth situation, since the main character is actually a spy in training. But the whole idea of a spy boarding school, cute boys that she must keep her secret profession from, and looming mystery/thriller threads make this book series an absolute win.
Pretty Little Liars
Sara Shepard’s YA mystery series Pretty Little Liars includes 16 books and a killer television show. Of course, you have probably heard of, seen, or read at least one of these and all of them are pretty darn good. Especially the first few books are gripping.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
These books were all the rage when I was in school. Literally every kid in my class was dying to get down to the library and check it out. While this series is also not a traditional mystery, it has mysterious elements that keep you guessing.
The Hardy Boys
The Hardy Boys are going through a bit of a resurgence with The Hardy Boys TV Show on Hulu. This classic is still really fun to read. It’s also an interesting to look at these books with today’s perspective. How have they changed and evolved to fit the current cultural narrative? While you might be in it for the adventure, it’s also kind of fascinating to read the history of this enormous book series. And if you want to enjoy the narrative, with some more updated cultural references, you could always check out the show. After all, the first book was released in 1927, so the series has done a lot of evolving over the years.
In the same vein, you might consider reading the original Nancy Drew series. I went down a rabbit hole learning about Carolyn Keene and her ghostwriters a while back and it’s very interesting. The stories themselves, in both these series, are somewhat predictable and formulaic which makes for a relaxing read (but more interesting when you consider the history.)
Peeps
If you’ve known me for any length of time, you know that I was a Scott Westerfeld superfan in high school and his books hold a special place in my heart. I discovered Peeps after I finished the Uglies Series and I was kind of… shocked? The series are very different in terms of tone and content and I couldn’t believe that one author had written them both. But his writing still won me over. It’s much grittier, a little more ‘grown up’ and very intriguing. There’s a lot going on in this series. It’s kind of mystery, kind of horror, kind of apocalyptic, and it does definitely center around a mysterious epidemic. So, be warned that this one might be too topical for today.
And Don’t Forget Me!
If you haven’t read The Disappearance of Susannah Dane yet, you can get caught up now. The first 3 episodes are free to read (so you can see if it’s your flavor or not) and don’t forget to keep checking back for new episodes!
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