The end of Summer brings that familiar feeling of nostalgia when we begin to reminisce about our school days no matter how old we are. In our attempt to reviveour childhood memories, we turn to young adult fiction for some inspiration.
So if you are a fan of One of Us is Lying and I Know What You Did Last Summer, then you will love our selection of young adult mysteries that will take you back to your school days. From high stakes twisty thrillers to thought-provoking puzzling mysteries, these gripping stories deliver both terrifying suspense and ming-boggling fun.
These Deadly Games by Diana Urban
“This young adult psychological thriller revolves around sixteen-year-old Crystal Donovan who gets a message on her phone during class wanting her to play a game. If she breaks the rules or tells anyone, her younger sister will die. Each task is meant to hurt someone important in her life. Will she play? Is it someone trying to take her team out of the upcoming state-wide gaming tournament? Or is something else motivating the kidnapper?
It seems everyone has secrets. How do they play into the story? Who can be trusted? Who is the kidnapper?
The author draws you into the story immediately. There’s terror, chills, intrigue and cunning. In addition to this, other themes abound. These include anorexia, domestic abuse, friendship, gaming, guilt, grief, blackmail, panic attacks, fear, terrible mistakes and much more.
The suspense, action, and twists kept me glued to the book. Readers that enjoy psychological thrillers and gaming will likely enjoy this novel.”-Pam G.
Buy it on AmazonAll The Lights We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
For Marie-Laure, a young girl, who lost her sight in her childhood, survival hangs on her ability to navigate labyrinths and trust her instincts. With the help of her father, Daniel LeBlanc, she learns to navigate the streets of Paris through miniature models and discovers the world through Braille books. Even in the darkest moments, when Marie-Laure’s family is forced to flee to Saint-Malo during Nazi occupation, the girl never loses hope. Her resourcefulness and resilience allow her to join the French Resistance, charms an enemy into an ally, and carry on her father’s mission to protect museum’s most prized possession.
Captivating and vivid, this Pulitzer-winning novel intricately weaves multiple threads through time and space, bringing the World War II setting to life.
Buy it on AmazonTwo Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus
Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery’s never been there, but she’s heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.
The town is picture-perfect, but it’s hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone has declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing…
Buy it on AmazonWe Were Liars by E.Lockhart
Following a fire accident, a girl is washed up on the beach suffering from amnesia. One year later, Cadence returns to her family’s private island haunted by dark secrets. In her attempts to expose the lies surrounding the privileged and reckless Sinclair family, Cadence embarks on a roller-coaster ride leading to heartbreaking truths about love, friendship and sacrifice.
Buy it on Amazon13 minutes by Sarah Pinborough
“This thriller of a story begins after the events that follow the death of sixth form student Natasha. She is pulled out of a freezing cold river one morning and resuscitated after being dead for thirteen minutes. As Tasha tries to figure out how she ended up in the river, she gets back in touch with her ex-best friend Becca, who came to visit her at the hospital out of concern for her former friend. As the pair try to solve the mystery of what happened, there are new twists and turns to be discovered at every chapter.
There’s always more to figure out in this book. The minute I thought I knew what was going on, something else was thrown into the mix that made me wonder where the plot was heading next. The final few chapters, when it’s clear what had really happened, were tense to read, throwing the characters into a thrilling race against time. And the ending was spectacular. Utterly creepy, but amazing.”-Katie
Buy it on AmazonCat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie
Unpleasant things are going on in an exclusive school for girls – things like murder… Late one night, two teachers investigate a mysterious flashing light in the sports pavilion, while the rest of the school sleeps. There, among the lacrosse sticks, they stumble upon the body of the unpopular games mistress – shot through the heart from point blank range. The school is thrown into chaos when the ‘cat’ strikes again. Unfortunately, schoolgirl Julia Upjohn knows too much. In particular, she knows that without Hercule Poirot’s help, she will be the next victim…
Buy it on AmazonHollow Pike by James Dawson
“Lis London moves to Hollow Pike after bullying in Wales made her want to leave. Instantly, she’s the new girl, and gets in with the popular ones. But somehow she’s also drawn to the strange trio of Kitty, Delilah and Jack, the outcasts who repeatedly get insults such as “gay” and “freak” thrown at them. New friends, new start, everything should be ok, shouldn’t it? But Lis has been getting recurring nightmares-she’s been running and someone’s trying to kill her. And the local legends of witchcraft are just legends, aren’t they? Still, for Lis and her new friends, they’ll learn that Hollow Pike’s history has more to it than maybe they can take.”-Nina
Buy it on AmazonThe Secret History by Donna Tartt
One of the most astonishing debuts of the twentieth century, this novel has earned an immense international audience and a worthy place among contemporary classics. Set at a private Vermont college, this story follows a group of five like-minded scholars bound by their love for classic studies. Under a watchful eye of their enigmatic tutor, they soon succumb to the allure of Ancient Greece, quoting philosophers and dreaming of immortality until the day when the shadow of death overcasts the life on campus. Exquisitely crafted, this memorable tale invites the readers to take a walk through a killer’s mind and explore a thin line between elitism and sociopathy in his shockingly nonchalant confession.
Buy it on AmazonThe Wishing Game by Patrick Redmond
“In the ‘present day’, a mystery man visits a fame-hungry journalist to fill him in on the events behind a terrible scandal that engulfed a minor boys’ public school 45 years before. Flashback to 1954, and we enter the claustrophobic, parochial Kirkston Abbey, where young Jonathan is being mercilessly bullied by fellow pupils and masters alike. When the unconventional, outspoken Richard takes him under his wing, it seems at last the tide will turn – but when it does, it’s in terrifying fashion. It seems everyone at Kirkston is hiding a secret, and as they come spilling out it becomes clear that Jonathan will pay a high price for his new friend’s patronage…
This is a stunning psychological thriller. A palpable sense of dread mounts from the very first page, and while you think you know what the outcome will be, there are enough twists and turns to confound your expectations.”-MJP
They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman
“It’s senior year of high school for Jill Newman and her best friends at Gold Coast Prep on Long Island. Freshman year was awful when her best friend, Shaila, was murdered, and Shaila’s boyfriend Graham confessed, but Jill and her friends have all (mostly) moved on from that tragedy.
Jill and her friends are Players, part of the exclusive, not-quite-secret society at school. There’s some serious hazing involved as a freshman, but when you’re a Player, your life—and in many ways, your future—are set.
When Jill starts getting texts proclaiming Graham’s innocence, she doesn’t know what to do. Her friends, who along with her were there the night Shaila was killed, tell her to leave it alone, let the past stay in the past. But if Graham really is innocent, that means someone else killed Shaila. Is it worth risking her friendships, her future, maybe even her life, to know the truth?”-Larry H.
Buy it on AmazonMissing Clarissa by Ripley Jones
In August of 1999, dazzlingly popular cheerleader Clarissa Campbell disappears from a party in the woods outside the rural town of Oreville, Washington and is never seen again. The police question her friends, teachers, and the adults who knew her–who all have something to hide. And thanks to Clarissa’s beauty, the mystery captures the attention of the nation.
Over twenty years later, Oreville high-school juniors and best friends Blair and Cameron start a true crime podcast, determined to unravel the story of what–or who–happened to this rural urban legend. In the process they uncover a nest of dirty small-town secrets, the sordid truth of Clarissa’s relationship with her charismatic boyfriend, and a high school art teacher turned small-town figurehead who had a very good reason for wanting Clarissa dead. Such a good reason, in fact, that they might have to make him the highlight of their next episode…
Buy it on AmazonThe Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
“The Inheritance Games follows Avery Grambs, a poor orphaned girl with a plan to work hard, get into a good school, and leave her life behind forever. But then something unbelievable happens. Billionaire Tobias Hawthorne leaves his fortune to Avery in his will, even though Avery has never met him, never seen him, and, as far as she knows, has no link to him whatsoever.
Even stranger, the will sets out a series of odd requirements. One being that Avery must spend at least one year in Hawthorne house, the family manor, and that she must allow Tobias’s disinherited family to live there with her.
Hawthorne House is a sprawling mansion of hidden passageways and dark secrets. The more time Avery spends there, the more she becomes convinced that the will, the letter she received alongside it, and the house are all clues to something bigger; that Tobias Hawthorne is playing a game from beyond the grave.
Add to this Tobias’s angry daughters, the media who won’t leave her alone, and the four Hawthorne grandsons and it’s clear Avery is in way over her head. Unlucky for her; pretty thrilling for us, honestly.”- E.May
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Stella
Stella is a Marketing Consultant and has been writing content for Full Text Archive since 2015. When she is not writing, she is meticulously planning our social and e-mail campaigns. Stella holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Russian Literature, which has provided a broad foundation from which she continues to explore the written world.
She spends her free time reading, visiting old castles and discovering new coffee shops. She can be reached at stella