Hello, it’s the end of the year, so we thought we’d share our favourite UKYA books we read this year. Many of these are 2024 releases, but there are some older and 2025 titles in here too! Titles are listed alphabetically by author surname.

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YOUNG GOTHIC/CHILDREN OF NIGHT, by M. A. Bennett

Who: Beth
Genre: Gothic Horror/Thriller
Series: duology

Beth says: As a Gothic Horror nerd this was a DELIGHT! I adored the way she blended classic gothic horror stories with the setting that birthed Frankenstein and The Vampire, whilst playing with horror archetypes and rules whilst subverting them at the same time.

Full of fascinating actual Romanian lore, incredible twists, and creepy mystery the found family continue to discover more about their supernatural sides, try to reconcile their darkness and their light whilst also navigating their relationships with each other.

Read her full review of book one here and book two here. Find the first book on Goodreads here.

FIND ME AFTER, by A. Connors

Who: Sifa
Genre: Sci-Fi
Series: standalone

Sifa says: FIND ME AFTER is a genre-bending exploration of illness and consciousness. This book straddles a lot of genres – sci-fi/dystopia, horror, romance. It’s a really nice mixture, weaving an eerie world between life and death that’s just a little off, enough to be unsettling as it’s not quite familiar enough. Then there’s the post-zombie-apocalypse feel of the world that lets you know something is about to go wrong, and the warmth of the budding relationship.

Read her full review here. Find on Goodreads here.

THE ONES WE LEAVE BEHIND, by Clare Furniss

Who: Sifa
Genre: Dystopia
Series: standalone

Sifa says: THE THINGS WE LEAVE BEHIND is a thought-provoking, heartbreaking, but ultimately hopeful tale of a country turning on itself and a young girl’s attempt to survive and find safety.

It is chillingly possible, drawing on recent political events to create a world that feels like only a few bad electoral votes away from reality. It makes for unsettling reading at times as you see things happen that are far too believable – some of which is already happening.

Read her full review here. Find on Goodreads here.

NETTLE, by Bex Hogan

Who: Beth and Sifa
Genre: Fantasy
Series: standalone

Sifa says: NETTLE is a gorgeous faery tale, drawing from a wide range of stories.

The book has all the seductive charm and dangerous of faeries. They are capricious and beautiful and cruel here, treating humans as playthings and hating the sight of them. The faeries are both more than and less than human all at once. This duality is mirrored by the atmosphere of the book.

Read her full review here. Find on Goodreads here.

LAST SEEN ONLINE, by Wren James

Who: Beth
Genre: Thriller
Series: standalone

Beth says: Wren James ALWAYS delivers. Spinning true crime meets fandom meets thriller and first love with expert precision, Wren James builds on the brilliant and unhinged online story “An Unauthorised Fan Treatise” with this book.

This was so gripping, the reveals, the twists! I was hooked. I burned through it poolside, literally I got sunburn because I couldn’t put it down and I LOVE the ADHD rep that is Delilah.

Read her full review here. Find on Goodreads here.

MOTH TO A FLAME, by Finn Longman

Who: Beth and Sifa
Genre: Dystopia
Series: final book of trilogy

Sifa says: MOTH TO A FLAME is s a much gentler book than the previous two instalments. It’s a book about healing, tearing down walls, and building back better. It’s about acceptance of the past and finding a way to move on. It’s about justice and freedom and culpability – how scapegoats are often used to avoid states owning up to the part they had in it all. It’s about community and finding less violent ways to enact change.

Read her full review here. Find on Goodreads here.

SOME LIKE IT COLD, by Elle McNicoll

Who: Sifa
Genre: Romance
Series: standalone

Sifa says: SOME LIKE IT COLD is a cosy, wintry romance centring an autistic woman and the expectations and demands to mask placed on her. There was something cathartic – so incredibly painful but also freeing – to see that laid out on the page.

And yet for all that painful openness, this is a love story that centres autism, that says you do not need to hide any part of who you are to be acceptable, to be worthy, to be loved. It’s so empowering.

Read her full review here. Find on Goodreads here.

LOVELESS, by Alice Oseman

Who: Sifa
Genre: Contemporary
Series: standalone

Sifa says: LOVELESS is a big hearted tale about aroaceness and society’s pressure to be in a relationship with someone.

This is a book about friendships. About the strength and importance of them and how they are not second place to romances. It is a celebration of the fierce love between friends, old and new, and how group projects and passions can bring you closer together.

Read her full review here. Find on Goodreads here.

A LANGUAGE OF DRAGONS, by S. M. Wilson

Who: Beth
Genre: Fantasy
Series: first book

Beth says: Rounded out by a diverse and clever cast [the author] challenges and reveals a world of oppression, injustice, and intolerance as Viv slowly realises everything she had believed in was a lie to prop up a corrupt government.

Peppered with vicious twists, and gutting kicks to the feels, A LANGUAGE OF DRAGONS is a brilliant opener to what I hope will be a brilliant series. As a linguist this is exactly my kind of Dark Academia, and other reviewers have made parallels with BABEL and they’re right – just less magic and more dragons.

Read her full review here. Find on Goodreads here.

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What UKYA have you loved this year?