5 YA Books With Settings On Mysterious Islands

5 YA Books with Settings on Mysterious Islands

10/6/2020

Have you ever wanted to read a YA book that takes place on a mysterious island? I have (and I also wrote one). The islands are always full of mysteries, no matter if the book’s genre is contemporary, magical, science fiction, or a combination of these.

So if you’re dying to read a YA book with a setting on a mysterious island, check out these five options below.

SUMMER OF SALT BY KATRINA LENO

Practical Magic meets Nova Ren Suma’s Imaginary Girls and Laura Ruby’s Bone Gap in this lush, atmospheric novel by acclaimed author Katrina Leno.

Georgina Fernweh waits impatiently for the tingle of magic in her fingers—magic that has touched every woman in her family. But with her eighteenth birthday looming at the end of this summer, Georgina fears her gift will never come.

Over the course of her last summer on the island—a summer of storms, falling in love, and the mystery behind one rare three-hundred-year-old bird—Georgina will learn the truth about magic, in all its many forms.

SAFE BY DAWN HUSTED

A girl with book-smarts. A boy with muscles. An island with an impenetrable perimeter.

Penny hopes to follow in her family's footsteps as the lead scientist. As a third-generation survivor of the apocalypse, she lives on a protected island and plans a future with her high school boyfriend. But a mandatory blood test might destroy all she holds dear.

When her boyfriend knocks on her door, Penny's thrust into a dangerous world with deadly animals and even deadlier people. Penny must escape the island and discover the truth behind its existence if she wishes to survive.

THE PRICE GUIDE TO THE OCCULT BY LESLYE WALTON

When Rona Blackburn landed on Anathema Island more than a century ago, her otherworldly skills might have benefited friendlier neighbors. Guilt and fear instead led the island’s original eight settlers to burn “the witch” out of her home. So Rona cursed them. Fast-forward one hundred–some years: All Nor Blackburn wants is to live an unremarkable teenage life. She has reason to hope: First, her supernatural powers, if they can be called that, are unexceptional. Second, her love life is nonexistent, which means she might escape the other perverse side effect of the matriarch’s backfiring curse, too. But then a mysterious book comes out, promising to cast any spell for the right price. Nor senses a storm coming and is pretty sure she’ll be smack in the eye of it. In her second novel, Leslye Walton spins a dark, mesmerizing tale of a girl stumbling along the path toward self-acceptance and first love, even as the Price Guide’s malevolent author — Nor’s own mother — looms and threatens to strangle any hope for happiness.

JANE, UNLIMITED BY KRISTIN CASHORE

Jane has lived an ordinary life, raised by her aunt Magnolia—an adjunct professor and deep sea photographer. Jane counted on Magnolia to make the world feel expansive and to turn life into an adventure. But Aunt Magnolia was lost a few months ago in Antarctica on one of her expeditions.

Now, with no direction, a year out of high school, and obsessed with making umbrellas that look like her own dreams (but mostly just mourning her aunt), she is easily swept away by Kiran Thrash—a glamorous, capricious acquaintance who shows up and asks Jane to accompany her to a gala at her family's island mansion called Tu Reviens.

Jane remembers her aunt telling her: "If anyone ever invites to you to Tu Reviens, promise me that you'll go." With nothing but a trunkful of umbrella parts to her name, Jane ventures out to the Thrash estate. Then her story takes a turn, or rather, five turns. What Jane doesn't know is that Tu Reviens will offer her choices that can ultimately determine the course of her untethered life. But at Tu Reviens, every choice comes with a reward, or a price.

WE WERE LIARS BY E. LOCKHART

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
Read it.

And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

Share this blog post with your reader friends, and let me know what you think of these books! If you have another one to add to the list, comment below. Happy reading!