8 Contemporary YA Standalone Novels I Grew Up Reading That Still Bring All the Feels

Contemporary young adult fiction has come a long way since I was a, well, young adult—but these books have stayed with me.

I was a huge contemporary YA reader in the past. As a teenager, I was always searching for myself in stories, and found pieces of myself in contemporary YA that had relatable characters in relatable (or not) situations. 

Back when the YA category wasn’t the massive market it is now, the books felt a lot quieter and more character-driven, instead of the fantasy and dystopian blockbusters we see today. 

Yet, for some reason, these “quiet books” are the ones that have stayed with me the longest. 

These are a few books I read between 14-20 years old that still bring all the feels when I reread them now. 

On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

This book wrecked me. Told in dual narrative threads—past and present—which intertwine and reveal the truth about the protagonist’s past she has been trying to uncover. This book (and the one below) inspired my Peter Pan contemporary No Room in Neverland, by telling it in dual narrative and by having the MC’s core memory unlocked as part of the climactic revelation. I will forever rave about this book. So much emotions in one innocuous looking YA book—what a gut punch! 

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Another book that destroyed me because WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?!?! I still haven’t had the courage to reread it because I don’t know if I can go through that traumatic revelation again. I can’t summarise this book without giving away the plot, but suffice to say that it has found family and unreliable narrator as its main tropes. 

Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley

Another Aussie author I love. There’s something in those waters that make them write such moving, poignant, emotional, heartfelt contemporary books. This one’s about a girl dealing with grief and bonding with her male best friend through their love of books. I’m a sucker for the friends-to-lovers trope, so this one got me in the feels. Also, who doesn’t love letters as a plot device?? 

Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer

Speaking of letters as a plot device, here’s one by the one and only Brigid Kemmerer. Before she pivoted to fantasy, she wrote YA contemporary, and I really love how raw and cracked open her characters are, the way she pares them down and reveals who they are through their interactions with each other. 

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

I just love Cath Crowley’s books. They’re so YA in voice, and this one is hilarious (it also low-key inspired Until Morning, my dreamscape love story!). There’s also so much poetry in her prose, without being too purple and try-hard. I wish she would continue writing YA—I NEED more of her writing—but it seems like Words in Deep Blue is her last YA book? 🥲

Storm-wake by Lucy Christopher

There’s just something about Aussie authors. Her debut novel, Stolen, had me GRIPPED. (Seriously, I missed my bus stop because I was so engrossed in it.) Storm-wake swept me away with its lush prose and almost otherworldly setting. I remember vividly the first time I read this book. I was on my way to the office, and this book transported me away from my 9-to-6 life and into its pages. Absolutely magical. Highly recommend.

The Truth About Forever / What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

Before Jenny Han and the slew of YA contemporary romance writers, there was Sarah Dessen, whose first book was published in 1997. I’ve read every single one of her books, and they formed a huge part of my teenage reading diet. It’s hard to pick a favourite because each one is so distinct (even though they’re all YA contemporary set in the same world/community—so you can find easter eggs here and there), but I really loved The Truth About Forever and What Happened to Goodbye for different reasons. 

The Truth About Forever is about a girl and her workaholic mother dealing with the loss of her father and she finds a new group of friends that pull her out of her tidy, orderly world carefully planned by her mother. What Happened to Goodbye is about a girl who moves to a new town with her father after her parents’ divorce and she becomes an avoidant in relationships as a result (her fear of impermanent people drives her to leave people first so she doesn’t get left behind). 

I guess the reason I love these two books the most is because I see a part of myself in these characters and can relate to the MCs really well.

Dessen’s stories are very character-driven (she goes DEEP) and her prose is equal parts comforting and insightful. Her narrative voice is extremely compelling and she’s such a skilled writer, I found myself adopting her writing style back when I was a teenage writer still finding my voice. 

Final note

I realise most of these YA contemporary books I still love are character-driven, written with lyrical, thoughtful prose, and involve LOTS of character transformation/development. 

YA contemporary isn’t “easier” to write than fantasy, as I’ve heard some people say. Just because there’s less world-building involved and no magical system to establish doesn’t mean the characters aren’t as complex. In fact, I might even go so far as to say contemporary is sometimes harder to write, because it pares away all the bells and whistles and forces you to dig really deep into your characters and flesh out a strong arc for them. Remember—the easier it is to read, the harder it is to write. 

I can only hope that I’ve absorbed the lessons I’ve learned from reading these authors’ works and bring those qualities into my own writing too. Because if I can make one person feel the same way about my writing/books as I do about these books I’ve listed, then that is the absolute biggest satisfaction and achievement! 🥹💕

Check out my books and let me know?

I’ve had three YA contemporary novels published so far, one with Straits Times Press (my debut, which is now out of print) and two with Penguin Random House SEA:

• Until Morning is about a girl who meets the elusive nocturnal artist of her dreams in her dreams, and they help each other find a reason to wake up and face reality, which is often not as pretty as dreams. 

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Blackwell’s

• No Room in Neverland is a dark Peter Pan retelling meets We Were Liars about a girl who has to delve into her fragmented memories of Neverland (stories her mother used to tell her) with a long-lost childhood friend in order to remember what happened to her parents. 

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Blackwell’s

• Lambs for Dinner is about a girl dealing with the loss of her father and falls for a red-flag boy with a dark past. (I wrote this when I was 20 and had some deprogramming to do when it comes to love and relationships LOL good thing it’s out of print now—maybe someday I’ll rewrite this and self-publish it.)  

Buy: Straits Times Press

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