Fall is easily considered one of the most beautiful times of the year. The leaves gracefully fall to the ground in vibrant shades of yellow, orange, and red. Orchards fill up with bountiful fruits and vegetables. The smells of seasonal foods and drinks, such as pumpkin spice lattes, cider donuts, and pecan pie, fill the air.
While there are many ways to get into the fall mood, reading is a particularly cozy activity that can be done while sipping your fall drink of choice (a hot tea or hot cocoa, for instance). Nothing is more magical than curling up in warm blankets and reading an exciting new novel.
However, finding the perfect fall read can be a challenge, so here are five young adult mystery novels to get you in that perfect autumn mood.
- Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus
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From the New York Times best-selling author of One of Us is Lying comes another enthralling novel with three intertwining mysteries and an ending that will stick with you long after you finish the novel. The book tells the story of Ellery and Malcolm, two high school students who have grown up in the shadow of their relatives with mysterious ties. The novel begins when Ellery is forced to move in with her grandmother in the town where her aunt disappeared. There, she meets Malcolm, another boy at her high school whose brother was the prime suspect in a murder case five years prior. As threats appear around town and another girl goes missing, many secrets lurk in their small town. Perhaps everything is somehow connected in a chilling way that they must help unravel.
- The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
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This book is a new release from earlier this year with a unique mystery that starts slow but reels you in so hard that you can’t put it down. Bel’s mother vanished without a trace sixteen years prior. Everyone expects Bel to have answers as she was present during her mother’s disappearance. However, Bel was only a baby and had no recollection of what happened. Her mother is presumed dead, and the mystery becomes one of the most significant unsolved true crime cases in the world. Yet, out of the blue, Rachel Price returns, telling a story of a mysterious kidnapping that seems suspicious. As more and more cracks begin to show in her tale, it becomes evident to Bel that something much darker and sinister happened to her mother, and it is up to her to discover the dark and twisted truths her family has kept hidden.
- Sadie by Courtney Summers
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This book is told in two parts: half from the perspective of a determined Sadie whose younger sister was murdered and half as a podcast of a man who is desperately tracking Sadie’s journey to avenge her sister’s death before it’s too late. Sadie had been on her own for most of her life and took a more traditionally “motherly” role to her younger sister Mattie. So, when she gets the news that she’s been killed and the police are conducting an investigation properly, she takes matters into the hands: trying to get the truth of what happened and take revenge on the killer. Told almost like a puzzle, Sadie will leave you hooked from the first to the last page with an end that will haunt you.
- The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe
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Nora O’Malley, her ex, and her new girlfriend go to a bank to deposit fundraising money they raised. However, once they enter the bank, two men start robbing it and take them, along with everyone else in the bank, hostage. However, what the robbers don’t know is that Nora isn’t an ordinary girl: she is a master manipulator with a dark and twisted past who intends on getting out of the bank with her life; and she knows how to create a plan to do it. Told in two timelines: one in the present at the bank and one that slowly reveals Nora’s past and how she became who she is, this novel is sure to leave you on the edge of your seat and eager to discover all of Nora’s secrets.
- Cuckoo Song by France Hardinge
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One of the most peculiar and underrated novels I’ve ever read, “Cuckoo Song” is a book shrouded in mysteries and twists that will shock you. When Triss wakes up after an accident, she can instantly sense something is wrong and that she is no longer herself: she is always famished, leaves fall from her hair, she cries cobwebs, and her sister seems utterly terrified of her. Completely confused and scared, Triss embarks on a journey to discover what happened to her during that accident and what is wrong with her. Wherever you think this novel is going, trust me, it’s going somewhere completely different.
Hopefully these books will give you the fall season vibes you need and keep you hooked from the first to the last page. Happy reading!
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