From small town coming-of-age stories to fantastical and futuristic worlds, there’s something for every fiction reader this season. Here are the YA novels by Canadians on our radar this fall.
In the conclusion to the House of the Dead duology, Wren must challenge both the living and the dead in order to prevent total war. Ghostsmith is a dark fantasy young adult novel following the aftermath of Bonesmith when the protagonist, Wren, was shocked to discover her once thought dead mother was alive and could control the undead. Alongside her friends Leo and Julian, Wren is on the run from both her power-hungry parentage and the magic that courses through her veins.
Ghostsmith is out now.
Nicki Pau Preto is a young adult writer and former graphic designer currently based near Toronto. She is also known for the Crown of Feathers trilogy.
Line Drive to Love is a queer coming-of-age novel about a talented softball player stuck between her passion for the sport and a budding romance with a fellow player. Rory wants to be the best pitcher there is but with her father’s ALS diagnosis as well as trying to date the charming Shanti she starts to feel overwhelmed. From softball to family to summer romance, can Rory step up to everything on her plate?
When you can read it: Sept. 3, 2024
Angel Jendrick is a writer of romance and poetry currently based in P.E.I. She is also the author of Secret Me.
The Unfinished is a YA horror novel that delves into the Kanien’kehá:ka culture. In the town of Crook’s Falls lies a pond within a forest hiding long lost horrors and monsters. When Avery comes across the murky waters she’s unprepared for the hauntings that follow her home as more townspeople go missing. After her best friend vanishes, Avery turns to the Elders for help despite never feeling a connection to the stories she heard growing up.
When you can read it: Sept. 10, 2024
Cheryl Isaacs is an Indigenous writer of the Kanien’kehà tribe in Ontario. Her literary work has appeared in numerous Indigenous publications and she was named one of CBC Books’ 30 writers to watch in 2024. The Unfinished is her first novel.
Life above and below the city streets meet in the YA dystopian novel The Great & the Small. Ananda is a teenage girl with a unique connection to animals and is plagued by haunted dreams. Fin is a rat living in the sewers beneath the city and he is determined to prove himself to his uncle, otherwise known as the “Beloved Chairman” of the Tunnel. When Ananda and Fin meet by chance, their paths converge; that is, if only the Chairman can be stopped from launching a war between rats and humans.
When you can read it: Sept. 17, 2024
Andrea Torrey Balsara is an Ontario writer and illustrator of books for children and young adults. She is also the author of The Nightingale’s Song and Mouse Tales.
Set in a private boarding school in 1984, The Beauty of Us follows three young women as they navigate family hardships back home and fitting in as racialized people at Thornton College. Zahabiya is a keen 15-year-old sent to Thornton only to find herself the target of 17-year-old Leesa’s bullying. Nahla is a newly graduated teacher haunted by the ghost of her predecessor, Mademoiselle Leblanc. As all three of their lives become more interconnected, can they grow to help one another?
When you can read it: Sept. 17, 2024
Farzana Doctor is an Ontario-based novelist, activist and psychotherapist of Indian ancestry. She is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Seven and the novels All Inclusive and Six Metres of Pavement, which won a 2012 Lambda Literary Award. She was the recipient of the 2011 Dayne Ogilvie Prize from the Writer’s Trust of Canada for an emerging lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender writer and the 2023 Freedom to Read Award.
A Constellation of Minor Bears tells the story of Molly, her brother Hank and his best friend Tray. When Hank suffers a traumatic brain injury while indoor climbing, Molly is devastated to embark on their planned graduation trip without him. Tray, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to mind. This infuriates Molly who’s harbouring layers of resentment towards him surrounding her brother’s accident.
But as the two trek through the wilderness together, they’ll have to hash it all out and band together for the journey’s twists and turns.
When you can read it: Sept. 24, 2024
Jen Ferguson is a YA author, activist and academic of Michif/Métis and Canadian settler heritage, based in Los Angeles. Ferguson has a PhD in English and creative writing. Her debut novel, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, won the 2022 Governor General’s Literary Award for young people’s literature — text.
If We Tell You follows identical twins Cameron and Lewis Larsen who have lived relatively uneventful lives up until this point. After their parents inexplicably kill two unwanted attendees at a suburban barbecue and then leave, the twins are left completely in the dark… except for the instructions to go to Edinburgh, Scotland. Set on a mysterious search for answers about their parents, the twins go undercover as one person, only to sense someone following their tracks. Will their bond as siblings be enough the protect them and uncover the truth about their family?
When you can read it: Oct. 1, 2024
Nicola Dahlin is a Canadian Scottish writer currently living in Calgary. If We Tell You is her first novel.
Fledgling: The Keeper’s Records of Revolution is the first book in a YA science fiction duology set amidst two earths on the brink of self destruction. When the dutiful Raisa of Upper Earth is arranged to be married to Lein, the Crown Prince of Lower Earth, Raisa obliges in the hopes of preventing further war. Lein’s cousin and recently imprisoned Nada has a different idea: stop the royal wedding and spark a revolution. As tensions rise between both worlds, the paths to tyranny or peace become more and more blurred.
When you can read it: Oct. 8, 2024
S.K. Ali is a writer and teacher from Toronto. She is best known for her YA novels Saints and Misfits, Love from A to Z and is the co-editor of the middle grade anthology, Once Upon an Eid which won the Middle East Book Honor Award in 2020.
When Ollie Cheriet’s song becomes popular online he’s approached to write an album, go on tour and fulfill all his dreams as long as he can learn to manage his stage fright. As the pressure of being in the spotlight grows, his new touring partner Jesse begins to make him feel more at ease. In the coming-of-age novel Under All the Lights Ollie explores what it means to be an artist in the spotlight while he learns more about his anxiety disorder and bisexuality.
When you can read it: Oct. 8, 2024
Maya Ameyaw is a writing instructor and author based in Toronto. Her books include the YA novel When It All Syncs Up and the anthology Brilliance is the Clothing I Wear.
Written in verse, Light Enough to Float is a thoughtful story about being a teenager with an eating disorder. Evie is a young girl yearning for a place and time before, when she felt in control of her body. After being admitted to an inpatient treatment facility, Evie is attending therapy and calorie loading every day — working with her caregivers to find love and understanding for herself and others.
When you can read it: Oct. 8, 2024
Lauren Seal is an Alberta-based writer and librarian. She is also the poet laureate of St. Albert and mentors a spoken word youth choir. Light Enough to Float, Seal’s first novel in verse, was inspired by personal experiences with anorexia.
Returning to Richard Van Camp’s fictional town in the Northwest Territories, Fort Simmer, Beast is a YA novel of magic and tradition set in the 1980s. Lawson Sauron has always tried to keep the peace alongside his family on the Dogrib side of “the Treaty” with the Cranes family, who are Chipewyan. When Silver Cranes finds himself indebted to an eerie spirit set on destroying the peace of the town, Lawson and the community must face a decades-old conflict and ghoulish tales.
When you can read it: Oct. 12, 2024
Van Camp is a Tłı̨chǫ Dene writer from Fort Smith, N.W.T., who has written 26 books across multiple genres. His graphic novel A Blanket of Butterflies was nominated for an Eisner Award and his children’s book Little You, illustrated by Julie Flett, was translated into Bush Cree, Plains Cree, South Slavey and Chipewyan.
Survival of the Goodest is a young adult environmental adventure told in the graphic novel format. Sable’s destiny has always been to take on the role of the Kerpathic, a messenger sent on behalf of her remote island community through the surrounding forests to pass on their culture and remedies. Stepping into the call of a Kerpathic after her father is injured, Sable discovers the task at hand may be more dangerous than she thought. When a rare animal on the island is threatened, she is determined to protect the people and creatures in the place she calls home.
When you can read it: Oct. 17, 2024
Marianne Boucher is an artist and writer based in Kirkland Lake, Ont. She previously worked as a court illustrator for 30 years. Boucher’s graphic memoir, Talking to Strangers, was listed as one of CBC Books’ best Canadian comics in 2020.
Defy tells the story of 17-year-old Darius hell-bent on saving the life of his younger sister, Mahlah, within a dystopian world. Zalmon is a city where the course of everyone’s lives have already been prescribed by a book. Everything from life to the day of your death is set, including the impending Death Date of Mahlah, who’s only just turned 13. Darius works to hijack the system and save his sister, only to learn the truth about his city and what a life with choices is really worth.
When you can read it: Oct. 26, 2024
Sara de Waard is a Métis writer and educator currently based in Port Colborne, Ont. She is also the author of the YA book White Lies.
For She is Wrath reimagines The Count of Monte Cristo as a Pakistani romantasy novel about a girl named Dania and her lost love. Dania is wrongfully imprisoned and plotting her revenge against Mazin, the boy at fault for her punishment. By way of a hidden djinn treasure and dark magic, Dania escapes with another prisoner and sets out to avenge her family. Still, when old flames meet, her feelings for the boy she used to know grow more complicated, as does the price she’ll ultimately have to pay for vengeance.
When you can read it: Oct. 29, 2024
Emily Varga is a Pakistani Canadian writer of YA fantasy. She currently lives in western Canada where she works as a lawyer. For She is Wrath is her first novel.
Ever since Sam’s dad was diagnosed with ALS three years ago, going about his regular life as a 14-year-old boy has been next to impossible. In Dear Dad, a young adult novel about a father seeking medical assistance in dying, or MAID, Sam is struggling to be supportive of his father’s choice. Meanwhile, it’s 2014 and everyone is suddenly talking about ALS because of the viral ice bucket challenge. When the pressure comes to be too much for Sam he makes an impulsive decision to run away from home and take a job in the countryside as a farmhand. Exploring the complex and emotional experiences of disability, death and fatherhood, Dear Dad follows Sam as he searches for his way back home.
When you can read it: Nov. 5, 2024
Laura Best is a Nova Scotia-based writer of books for young people and adults. Her other novels include the 2018 Silver Birch Award winner Cammie Takes Flight and her adult book Good Mothers Don’t.
Stranger Skies is the sequel to the dark academia fantasy novel Curious Tides. In Stranger Skies, the students of Aldryn College for Lunar Magics are stuck in different worlds at different times. Emory and Romie follow their dreams to a rotting version of Wychwood where a dark force seeks to destroy other realms. Baz and Kai are lost in a past version of their school, trying to reach the others. All connected by the fictional book Song of the Drowned Gods and its author, Cornus Clover, the paths of these four heroes are destined to meet.
When you can read it: Nov. 5, 2024
Pascale Lacelle is a French Canadian writer of young adult fantasy currently based in Ottawa. Her first novel was Curious Tides.
An Unbalanced Force follows Ethan Granger, a teenager who’s lived a life of wealth and privilege due to his father’s mysterious business. After his dad slips up on a work detail, Ethan begins to worry that his dad is lying about the true and nefarious dealings of his job. So, he hires a private eye and sneakily follows his father in a thrilling adventure to reveal well-kept family secrets.
When you can read it: Nov. 9, 2024
Valerie Sherrard is a writer of books for children and teens born in Saskatchewan. She is the author of over 30 books, including Birdspell and Standing on Neptune, a novel written in verse. Sherrard is currently based in Miramichi, New Brunswick.
In the epic urban fantasy conclusion to the Hollow Star Saga, five friends are up against the powers of good and evil that threaten the balance between human and faerie worlds. In A Wild and Ruined Song, Arlo Jarsdel has literally lost herself, forced to share a body with Ruin. While Arlo fights to get back to herself, Celadon, Vehan and Aurelian are plotting against the crown and Nausicaä is fighting to save her girlfriend. Tested to the limit, can the fae of Toronto unite one final time?
When you can read it: Nov. 12, 2024
Ashley Shuttleworth is a YA author originally from British Columbia and now based in Ontario. A Dark and Hollow Star was their debut book.
