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Mystery/Thriller

3 of the Best New Hard-Hitting YA Thrillers for Your TBR

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Tirzah Price

Senior Contributing Editor

Most of Tirzah Price's life decisions have been motivated by a desire to read as many books as humanly possible. Tirzah holds an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and has worked as an independent bookseller and librarian. She’s also the author of the Jane Austen Murder Mysteries, published by HarperTeen, and Bibliologist at TBR: Tailored Book Recommendations. Follow her on Twitter @TirzahPrice.

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I love a good mystery or crime thriller, and it’s so exciting to see many excellent books in this genre popping up lately! I’m super excited for Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley to hit shelves next month (Native mystery thriller in the vein of Veronica Mars!) and I recently devoured a 2020 release called None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney on the recommendation of fellow Rioter and All the Books cohost Liberty Hardy. To keep the thrills coming, here are three brand-new, hard-hitting YA thrillers that I’m excited about this month!

The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe

This was an emotional thrill ride! Nora had just been caught making out with her girlfriend Iris by her ex-boyfriend Wes — which is awkward because they’re all friends and Wes didn’t know about their new relationship. Now, Nora has to meet Iris and Wes at the bank to deposit cash they made in a fundraiser. She expects it to take an awkward five minutes, but is shocked when two men begin holding up the bank. Caught inside an increasingly volatile situation, Nora’s brain immediately begins strategizing. Because what no one knows? Nora is the daughter of a con artist, and she’s no stranger to sticky situations. She’s determined to see them all out alive, and she’s willing to fight for what she wants. This is an action-packed book that moved between Nora’s past and her dangerous present to tell a suspenseful story about a girl who’s played many parts, but now has to figure out who she is when it counts the most.

The Obsession by Jesse Q. Sutanto

If this tagline doesn’t grab you, I don’t know what will: “A classic sort of love story…except somebody might wind up dead.” This is about Logan and Delilah, two teens who get caught up in a deadly dance. Logan loves Delilah, and he knows almost everything there is to know about her. He watches her all the time, even has video cameras trained on her house. When he witnesses her murder her mom’s abusive police officer boyfriend, Logan’s love isn’t diminished. He’s determined to make Delilah his…but when he inadvertently reveals too much about his hobby of watching her every move, Delilah realizes that Logan has irrefutable video evidence of her crime. She managed to rid herself of one abusive creep. Can she do it again?

The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis

If you like your crime thrillers with a dash of Edgar Allan Poe–inspired horror, then you’ll definitely want this book, which is out next week. A loose retelling of “The Cask of Amontillado,” this story is about Tress Montor, whose parents disappeared years ago while taking her best friend Felicity home. No one knows what happened to them — except maybe Felicity, but she’s not saying anything. No longer friends, Tress is determined to pry the truth from her, so she lures her to an abandoned house in the woods with the intent of trapping her in an old coal chute and bricking it up. Tress figures that this has to get Felicity talking…and if it doesn’t, then oh well. Revenge will be hers either way. This is the first in a duology!


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