While fantasy, romance, and love have plenty to offer teens, there's a case for character-driven fiction that takes their everyday lives seriously. A difficult parent relationship, a friendship falling apart, or a secret too painful to share can make for a story as compelling as any imagined world. In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Priyanka Pradhan, Dubai-based journalist and award-winning author, known for Tales from the Himalayas and her latest book, Wrong Turns Only, shared a few book recommendations that every young adult should consider reading.
Also read | More Days at the Torunka Café is a cosy read where lives, stories and struggles intertwine
“What I love most about these books is that they present teenagers with hard truths and let them make up their own minds. They hold the power of empathy and self-discovery in a way that makes young readers question and articulate what it means to be human,” said Priyanka.
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
15-year-old Xiomara from Harlem has a devout mother who micro-manages her life, so she writes poems in a notebook nobody is allowed to read. Anyone raised by a strict and controlling parent will recognise themselves in her and her need for space. Told entirely in verse, The Poet X gives Xiomara a voice on the page before she finds the courage to use it aloud.
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
Darius, an Iranian- American teenager living with depression, struggles to express himself. When he travels to Iran, unexpected friendships, self-discovery, and reconnection with his roots finally help him feel at home in his own skin. Funny and tender, the novel shows how being understood by one person can change the way you see yourself.
The Grasshopper's Run by Siddhartha Sarma
It is 1944, and the Second World War has reached India's Northeast region. After a Japanese colonel orders the massacre of a Naga village, Gojen, a teenager, goes after him to avenge his closest friend. The vivid war setting makes this an absorbing read, but it is young Gojen's fierce loyalty and his handling of grief that will stay with teen readers.
Mosquitoland by David Arnold
After her family breaks apart, 16-year-old Mim Malone learns that her mother is ill and boards a bus from Mississippi to Ohio to find her. Mim is witty, stubborn, and sometimes wrong about the people around her. The strangers she meets along the way challenge what she believes about family and whom she can trust.
Wrong Turns Only by Priyanka Pradhan
It follows fifteen-year-old Tashi, who reluctantly joins her estranged mother on a road trip along India's coastline, and finds the road is the easy part. Questions of belonging, identity, and forgiving a parent are tougher to navigate.