1. Heroine by Mindy McGinnis

Heroine is a whirlwind story about a high school student, Mickey Catalan. Mickey is an all star catcher for her school softball team and is destined for a bright future before she gets into a car crash with her best friend. She breaks her hip and has to find a way to stay on the field. When her doctor prescribes her OxyContin, her life is suddenly changed with this new found “miracle drug” that makes her feel invincible. Mickey finds a new group of friends who all enjoy the same habit, making this book the perfect picture of the teenage opioid pandemic.

2. You’d Be Home Now by Kathleen Glasgow

Emory Ward is the typical high school girl, aside from her mom being the mayor of her small town and her older brother being a drug addict. Her life completely changed the night of the accident where she watched the death of her beloved classmate, Candy MontClair, with her own eyes. The car crash that sent her brother, Joey, to rehab and his best friend, Luther, to juvie. Emory struggles with finding herself and trying to save her brother from himself in this tale of teenage self discovery.

3. The Words We Keep by Erin Stewart

After “the night of the bathroom floor”, Lily’s head is permanently haunted by the image of her older sister, Alice, a type two bipolar who has been living in rehab since the incident. Lily meets Micah. Micah has a depressive disorder and has been in rehab with Alice, until he transfers to Lily’s high school. Lily avoids Micah like the plague in an attempt to keep her sister’s secret. The two collide when they become partners for an English project where Lily finally finds herself in the words.

4. Boys of the Beast by Monica Zepeda

After the death of their grandmother, cousins Matt, Ethan, and Oscar take off on a four day road trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico in Grandma Lupe’s 1988 Ford Thunderbird. The three boys are complete strangers who just happen to be related. However, they find that they have more in common than they could have ever thought in this young adult comedy.

5. The Obsession by Jesse Q. Sutranto

College student, Delilah, meets college stalker, Logan. Delilah’s rough home life makes her a perfect candidate for Logan’s obsessive behavior. The rest of the world would consider setting cameras up in someone’s room or breaking in through the bathroom window to smell their clothes crazy, Logan calls in “romance.”  Delilah is tired of men trying to control her life and Logan was her last straw. The Obsession walks through what could happen if you push the wrong person just a little too far.