I don’t know who is making decisions in Publishing Land, but it seems like everyone got together and decided to release as many young adult science fiction, fantasy, and horror books as possible in September and October. It took me ages to whittle this list down to my most anticipated, and it’s still clocking in at 35 titles. Some interesting highlights: we seem to be on an upswing in terms of dystopian and science fiction this season, horror and vampires going like gangbusters, and All Fantasy Must Be Romantasy Now still has us in a stranglehold. Lots to choose from this fall.
Thrills & Chills
The Unfinished by Cheryl Isaacs
Avery, a Kanyen’kehá:ka (Mohawk) and white teen, needs a running scholarship to get out of her small hometown of Crooks Falls. While on a run, she encounters a black water pond that calls out to her, something she learns is part of the old local legend of the Ragged Man. Soon, others in town start vanishing. For most of her life, Avery has felt disconnected from her Indigenous heritage. But when her best friend and crush Key also goes missing, Avery must reconnect with her culture and ancestors to protect the people she loves. (Heartdrum; September 10, 2024)
Ruin Road by Lamar Giles
Cade is one of the only Black kids at the elite school Neeson Preparatory Academy in a predominately white part of Virginia. He has planned his entire future on getting drafted to the NFL, a dream that gets even more distant every time a high school game is canceled due to another bomb threat. A run-in with a racist white woman and some cops leads him to a strange pawn shop where he makes a desperate wish. Everyone in town starts acting fearless. At first it’s fun and bold, but it quickly turns violent. Cade unleashed something wicked and now he’ll have to put it back. Or else. (Scholastic Press; September 17, 2024)
Such Lovely Skin by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne
Horror takes on gaming. Viv, despondent over her role in the accident that took her baby sister’s life, turns to Twitch streaming. While testing out a new horror game, she reveals her secret to an NPC, unwittingly opening a door to a demonic doppelganger who wreaks havoc on her life. Viv, a chronic liar, can’t seem to convince anyone that something awful is happening to her, all except Ash, a nerdy boy she used to bully. Her lies come back to haunt her. (Page Street YA; September 17, 2024)
We Are Hunted by Tomi Oyemakinde
Never ever ever go to an isolated island filled with strange creatures and mysterious technology. Femi learns that lesson the hard way when he follows his father on a business trip to Darlenia, the resort island owned by a world-famous genius. A theme park full of strange wildlife and careless tourists goes about as well as expected in this horror novel loosely inspired by Jurassic Park. (Feiwel & Friends; September 17, 2024)
The Dark Becomes Her by Judy I. Lin
Ruby lives a strict, dutiful life as the eldest daughter of Taiwanese Canadians. She has always been able to see strange figures moving in the shadows, but has been able to keep them at bay. Until now. After her younger sister Tina is possessed by one of those spirits, Ruby finds herself in the crosshairs of an ancient conflict. The two factions, a malevolent temple and the guardians dedicated to battling it, have put not just Tina and Ruby at risk but all of Vancouver’s Chinatown. (Rick Riordan Presents; October 1, 2024)
Killer House Party by Lily Anderson
I love a good “everyone’s trapped in an abandoned murder house” horror story. Arden has worked her butt off to make valedictorian so she can enroll in medical school, but instead her parents spend all her tuition money on the decrepit Deinhart Manor. So she and her friends Remi and Maddy May decide to throw the graduation party to end all graduation parties at the mansion and use the money they make charging an admission fee to fund Arden’s first year at college. Of course, they don’t anticipate the house actually eating people. (Henry Holt & Company; October 1, 2024)
Queer Horror
Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White
A hundred years ago, the sheriff of Twist Creek County, West Virginia, killed the coal mine strike leader. In 2017, that dead man’s descendents, the Abernathys, are still battling local law enforcement. Miles Abernathy—sixteen, autistic, trans, and socialist—tries to take on the latest sheriff by proving Sheriff Davies was responsible for a terrible accident that nearly took the life of Miles’ father and killed several others. Another death, this one at Miles’ hands, triggers a new round of violence and retribution. All the while, Miles is haunted by that first dead Abernathy. Generational trauma made real. (Peachtree Teen; September 3, 2024)
Old Wounds by Logan-Ashley Kisner
While on a road trip from Ohio to California, two trans teens end up stranded in Lebanon Junction, Kentucky, a tiny town in the back of beyond. Erin is a trans girl and Max is a trans boy, but both get caught up in the locals’ hunt for new girls to sacrifice to the Bullitt Beast, a monster they believe protects their town from flooding. Escaping Lebanon Junction and its bloodthirsty monster will be the hardest thing they’ve ever done. (Delacorte Press; September 10, 2024)
They Thought They Buried Us by NoNieqa Ramos
Yuiza is one of the only students of color at the all-girls school Our Lady of Perpetual Mercy, and trying to both keep up with classes and earn enough money working a side job to pay for tuition is enough to make anyone crack. Strange things happen at school, and something isn’t right with the faculty. Although they love horror movies, living in one is another matter entirely, especially when the monster is white supremacy. (Carolrhoda Lab; September 10, 2024)
Magic with a Twist
Faeries Never Lie: Tales to Revel In edited by Zoraida Córdova, Natalie C. Parker (Untold Legends #3)
Fourteen YA authors take on the fae in this collection of stories spreading across time and space. We have creatures from Chinese folklore and fairy princes, deals gone bad and dreams to torment. Authors include: Nafiza Azad, Holly Black, Dhonielle Clayton, Zoraida Córdova, Christine Day, Chloe Gong, Tessa Gratton, Kwame Mbalia, Ryan La Sala, L.L. McKinney, Anna-Marie McLemore, Natalie C. Parker, Kaitlyn Sage Patterson, and Rory Power. (Feiwel & Friends; September 24, 2024)
The Ancient’s Game by Loni Crittenden
Kellan practices makecraft, a magic for carving metal, but on the island of Nanseau, doing unlicensed makecraft is illegal. The night before the Eighty-Fourth Annual Makers’ Exposition, Kellan is offered the opportunity of a lifetime. Madam Mesny takes her on as her apprentice. All Kellan wants to do is learn enough makecraft to save her ailing guardian, Edgar, but instead she finds danger at every turn. In order to win the competition to join the Guild of Engineers, she’ll have to figure out what is threatening Nanseau. (HarperCollins; October 29, 2024)
The Wild Huntress by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Every five years, two kings host the Wild Hunt. The prize is priceless—a boon from the immortal Otherking—but the competition can be deadly. Three teens band together to attempt the Wild Hunt. Prince Pryderi, son of King Dyfed, doesn’t want the throne but does want his father’s respect. Branwen needs to win so she can ask for the cure to her mother’s mysterious illness. Gwydion, another prince, wants to stop his tyrannical brother from taking the throne. They’re working together now, but only one can win… (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; October 1, 2024)
Folklore & Mythology
Night Owls by A.R. Vishny
A new paranormal romance featuring estries, female vampire-like creatures from Jewish folklore that can shapeshift into birds. Two sisters, Molly and Clara, have thus far been able to keep their true natures a secret even in the bustling metropolis of New York. Molly wants nothing more but to tell her girlfriend Anat the truth. Clara tries to keep Boaz, an employee with an intense crush on her, at a distance. When Anat is possessed by a dybbuk, the sisters must rely on Boaz’s talent for seeing the dead. (HarperCollins; September 17, 2024)
The Forbidden Book by Sacha Lamb
In Russia, seventeen-year-old Jewish kid Sorel is about to be married against her will. Instead, she runs away, seeking independence and opportunity. In disguise as a man named Isser Jacobs, Sorel finds more than she bargains for. Isser is a wanted man with a sinister connection to Sorel’s father’s blackmarket business, but the longer she spends pretending to be him, the more of herself she discovers. (Levine Querido; October 1, 2024)
Gentlest of Wild Things by Sarah Underwood
This seems to be the season of twins in YA fantasy. Eirene and her twin, Phoebe, live on the island of Zakynthos, controlled by Leandros, a descendent of the god Eros. Leandros uses Desire, a magical potion, to force his will over the women of the island, and when his teenage wife dies he sets his sights on Phoebe. To save her sister, Eirene agrees to a series of tests. With the help of Leandros’ disabled daughter Lamia, the two girls set out to expose Leandros. (HarperCollins; October 1, 2024)
Legend of the White Snake by Sher Lee
When Prince Xian’s mother is bitten by a white snake, the only thing that can spare her life is his spirit pearl. But the white snake swallows the pearl, condemning the mother to a long, painful decline. Years later, Xian travels to the city of Changle at the behest of a prophecy that will reunite him with the white snake. There he meets and falls for Zhen, a handsome stable boy with a dark secret: he is the white snake. The pearl gave him the ability to shift into human form. Love and duty collide in this xianxia-influenced queer fantasy. Inspired by the ancient Chinese folktale of the same name. (Quill Tree Books; October 15, 2024)
Past Is Present
To the Bone by Alena Bruzas
We’re going back to 1609 during the “starving time,” the winter when nearly 70% of the 214 English colonists at James Fort (also known as Jamestown) died. Ellis, a teenager indentured to the wealthy Collins family, arrives in the New World full of hope at all the fresh possibilities. She finds love with Jane, but also fear with Henry Collins’ abuse. As relations with the Powhatan people deteriorate—as in the English raiding and destroying their land, villages, and food and the Powhatan people retaliating—food becomes scarce. By winter, Ellis and the survivors are confined to the fort where the bodies start piling up… and then disappearing. (Rocky Pond Books; September 10, 2024)
Under the Heron’s Light by Randi Pink
An alternate history set in the Great Dismal Swamp (a large swap that straddles Virginia and North Carolina where many self-liberated Africans hid in during slavery) in 1722. Babylou Mac, in a fit of rage, kills the white man who killed her enslaved mother. To protect her three siblings, she escapes with them into the swamp, where they encounter the supernatural. Today, Atlas returns to his family’s land for their annual Bornday cookout. When his granny disappears in the swamp, Atlas goes in after her. (Feiwel & Friends; October 15, 2024)
A Vile Season by David Ferraro
Vampire hunters nearly kill Count Lucian, but he manages to escape. With his powers greatly reduced, he seeks refuge with the vampire god Vrykolakas. To prove his worth, Vrykolakas sends him on a quest to win the hand of Duke Ambrose Harclay and expose the identities of the vampire hunters, but it’s the Duke’s younger brother Maxwell who snags his heart. Described as queer vampires plus Bridgerton, this seems like it was written specifically for me. (Page Street YA; October 22, 2024)
The Future Sucks
The Art Thieves by Andrea L. Rogers
It’s 2052 and a new plague is spreading across the globe. This is on top of the rapidly worsening climate crisis and dangerous, massive environmental disasters. Stevie, a Cherokee teen who is working to save up money for college now that she’s just graduated high school, meets Adam, a new art intern at the museum where she works, who claims to be from the year 2201. The apocalypse is coming, and he wants to salvage some important artwork before everything falls apart. Steal some art, save the future? (Levine Querido; October 8, 2024)
Fledgling by S. K. Ali (The Keeper’s Records of Revolution #1)
Raisa, the daughter of the Guardian of Upper Earth, is about to enter an arranged marriage with the crown prince of Lower Earth, Lein. Their union will spark a sharing of technology and culture, but also launch a genocide against the rebellious Ahraar. Nada and her twin Nayf, the grandchildren of a deposed ruler, are recruited by the Ahraar to disrupt the wedding by kidnapping Raisa. Dystopian YA is back! (Kokila; October 8, 2024)
Love Is in the Air
Spells to Forget Us by Aislinn Brophy
Aoife and Luna are two girls whose futures have been decided for them. Aoife is the daughter of social media influencers who refuse to honor her wishes for privacy. Luna is the daughter of a powerful line of witches and is about to be crowned the head of the Boston Witch Council, whether she wants to or not. When the two decide to start dating, Luna must cast a spell that could have devastating future repercussions. One of those ripple effects is that they discover they’ve actually dated before and their memories were erased by a previous incantation. Luna and Aoife meet-cute again and again, and each time it gets harder and harder to let go. (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers; September 17, 2024)
This Fatal Kiss by Alicia Jasinska
As a rusałka, Gisela is a water nymph bound to the river where she died. The only way to break free of the grip of the water goblin Wojciech is to be kissed by a human. Kazik, the grandson of a local witch, fails to exorcize her, instead turning her into a frog who is rescued by the very attractive Aleksey. Gisela strikes a bargain with Kazik. She’ll keep his waning magic a secret if he helps her get that kiss. Trouble is, both Kazik and Gisela want to kiss Aleksey. And before you get your knickers in a twist about yet another love triangle in a YA fantasy, let me leave you with this: polyamory. (Peachtree Teen; September 24, 2024)
The Door in Lake Mallion by S. M. Beiko (The Brindlewatch Quintet #2)
Dunstan has big dreams that don’t match up with reality. Living in the lakeside town of Knockum is hard enough with juvenile macular degeneration, and even harder when being the weird outcast gets him tossed into Lake Mallion by some classmates. Dunstan expects to drown, but instead winds up at the gates of Geodom of Jet, an underwater civilization of reptilian creatures. They immediately take a shine to him, especially Prince Ven. (ECW Press; October 8, 2024)
Dark Academia
Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma (Immortal Dark Trilogy #1)
Kidan and June, two Black girls of Ethiopian descent, are the heirs to a once powerful magical lineage known as House Adane. June goes missing from the prestigious Uxlay University. Her sister Kidan arrives at the school to investigate and finds more than she bargains for. Kidan believes the vampire Susenyos Sagad is involved in her sister’s disappearance, but there are deeper and darker conspiracies at play. (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; September 3, 2024)
Zodiac Rising by Katie Zhao (Descendants of the Zodiac #1)
Back during the Second Opium War, the magical statues representing the 12 zodiac signs were stolen from the Chinese families who drew power from them. These powers were bestowed upon them by the Jade Emperor in the early days of territory that would eventually become known as China. Now, the descendents of those powerful ancestors carry the curse from that theft. Five teens—a vampire, a fox spirit shapeshifter, a werewolf, a shaman, and a psychic—enrolled at the elite Earthly Branches Academy band together to recover the statues and restore their families’ greatness. (Random House Books for Young Readers; October 1, 2024)
Don’t Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews
Andrew, a queer Australian teen currently in the process of realizing he’s ace, is suddenly alone at his boarding school Wickwood Academy when his twin sister starts ignoring him. His only friend is Thomas, an artist who takes Andrew’s strange stories and brings them to life in art. When Thomas turns up at school with his parents missing and bloodstains on his clothes, Andrew follows him into the woods around the school…and catches him battling monsters. Not just any monsters, the monsters Andrew created and Thomas drew. (Feiwel & Friends; October 29, 2024)
Death Is Not the End
Till the Last Beat of My Heart by Louangie Bou-Montes
Jaxon is devastated when the body of his best friend Christian is brought into his mother’s mortuary. After an unexpected and unprecedented resurrection, the two boys work to keep Christian hidden and Jaxon safe. Setting things right, aka letting Chrisitian be dead again, requires a sacrifice Jaxon isn’t sure he’s ready to make. (HarperCollins; September 10, 2024)
Haunting Melody by Chloe Spencer
Melody is ghost hunting royalty. Her parents are famous ghost hunters, and she’s been following them all her life. Her First Sacred Hunt should be easy, but when her ghost turns out to be a wraith, the hunt turns into a disaster. Struggling with her mental health, her parents relocate to a small island town to recuperate. And hunt. A ghost has so far killed several dudes, or so it seems. And then there’s that cute ghost Cyrus who Melody feels drawn to but who also doesn’t know she’s dead. Cyrus may be more connected to the other deaths than she realizes. (Tiny Ghost Press; October 1, 2024)
Outcasts, Outlaws, & Rebels
Heir by Sabaa Tahir (Heir #1)
A new Sabaa Tahir novel is always cause for excitement, especially when she’s returning to the world from her stellar Ember in the Ashes series. Set 20 years later and with a mostly new cast (old characters pop up from time to time), Heir follows three teens through different timelines. Aiz seeks revenge on the person who destroyed her orphanage. Quil is about to be crowned the new emperor of the Martial Empire despite desperately not wanting the responsibility. Sirsha has no one after she was driven out of her community for a terrible crime. (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers; October 1, 2024)
For She Is Wrath by Emily Varga
In this Pakistani-inspired adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, Dania is tossed in jail for a year for a crime she didn’t commit. Noor, another prisoner, tips her off to some magical zoraat seeds that Emperor Vahid used to conquer Dania’s homeland. With djinn magic and a pile of gold, Dania and Noor return to the city of Basral to take on not just the boy who betrayed her but the entire imperial machine. Coincidentally, this is the second remix of The Count of Monte Cristo this fall. Over in adult science fiction, Suzan Palumbo has crafted a brilliant novella with an anti-colonial bent. Both are worth reading. (Wednesday Books; October 29, 2024)
Gods & Monsters
Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas (The Sunbearer Trials #2)
Set in the immediate aftermath of The Sunbearer Trials, the conclusion to this queer fantasy duology brings in two POVs. Teo, who refused to take part in the tradition to sacrifice a semidiose, works to undo the apocalypse, while Xio reckons with their role in setting the Obsidian Gods free and causing said apocalypse. Teo, his bestie Niya, and his crush Aurelio descend into Los Restos to rescue other semidioses in a last ditch effort to restore the sun to Reino del Sol. (Feiwel & Friends; September 3, 2024)
Aisle Nine by Ian X. Cho
Jasper doesn’t remember who he is or where he’s from. All he knows is that portals to hell opened and demons poured out and now he’s stuck working a deadend job as a clerk at the Here For You discount mart. Oh, and there’s a portal on aisle nine. Kyle, a trainee in the Vanguard monster killing vigilante group, holds a grudge against Jasper, for reasons he doesn’t remember, but that doesn’t stop him from having feelings for her. It doesn’t help that he also starts having visions of the end of the world. (HarperCollins; September 24, 2024)
Red in Tooth and Claw by Lish McBride
Is that… is that a western??? It’s been ages since we’ve gotten anything from the Weird West contingent in young adult speculative fiction. Sixteen-year-old Faolan is in big trouble. Everyone in town thinks she’s a boy, and if they find out she’s really a girl they’ll force her to get married, even with her unsettling red hair and gray eyes. Scheming to steal Faolan’s land after her grandfather’s death, the Mayor sends her off with a gunslinger to a creepy cult called the Settlement. Blood, death, and monsters ensue. (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers; October 8, 2024)
Rest in Peaches by Alex Brown
Quinn may be at the bottom of the social pecking order during the school day, but during sporting events she’s beloved by everyone—as the school mascot Peaches the Parrot. When her costume is sabotaged during a performance and her identity is revealed, everyone is pissed. Making matters worse? The real parrot the PTA recently bought goes missing just as someone else dressed in another Peaches mascot outfit starts killing people. Note: This is a different Alex Brown from the one who wrote this book list. (Page Street YA; October 15, 2024)
