A Queer Volleyball Romance, Rural Horror, and More New YA Books for May 13, 2026

The Scavenge Moon comes only every few years, and when it rises, so, too, does the Breimar Stag. The creature, with unmissable golden eyes, is a prize for those who dare take the chance. Those who want to hunt the stag only have until the moon sets to capture it, and if they do, they’re granted the ability to see the death of one person of their choosing. If they fail to catch the stag, the stag chooses one of the hunters to die.

Katrin, who has lived near the forest all of her life, is in charge this year of bringing the hunters to the game. The baron who is in charge of the region has deemed her so. She’s happy to watch them fight one another in the game, as none of them seem to care about the land, its people, or its lore.

But when the baron chooses Katrin’s cousin as his own target, Katrin realizes that only by the baron’s dying can she keep her family and her lands safe. She’s convinced she’ll need to join the stag hunt now–that is, until it becomes clear there is something else stirring in the woods. That something else is leaving a trail of dead bodies and is far more dangerous than the stag.

Told through diary entries, text messages, and book reviews, Garrett’s latest book follows 17-year-old Mira Howard. Her mother has denied a man named Richard entry into her father’s funeral, and Mira cannot make sense of it. But a little snooping reveals that Richard was her father’s boyfriend. Even though she knows she shouldn’t, Mira reaches out to Richard to connect with him–and to better understand the queer father she never got to know.

Queer herself, Mira finds solace, comfort, and help with Richard, in addition to better learning about who her father really was. But the longer Mira maintains this relationship with Richard, the harder it is to keep it secret from her mother and family. She wants so badly to know why her father’s queerness was an issue, especially as she herself comes to understand her own identity better.

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Cedar was young when tortured souls woke up the machines, destroyed them, and set technology back decades. This moment was known as Autumn.

Now, 10 years later, Cedar has just experienced a family tragedy and is forced to move to the rural town of Sawblade Lake. But something is haunting Cedar there. It’s a long, rancid-smelling shadow. The thing is hellbent on getting Cedar, going as far as to prey on their new queer family.

Cedar’s beginning to see where and how the thing has woven through their life. It was there when their mother died inexplicably. There when their family went missing. There in the house where they grew up. It goes back as far as The Autumn, and now Cedar must dig deeper into themselves to understand what the thing is and what it wants with them.

This is a story that’s being compared to Compound Fracture and The Last Bookstore on Earth. It’s post-apocalyptic, it’s horror, and it’s very, very queer.

Ellie forces herself to do everything Right. By dating the Right person and acting the Right way, she can avoid being made fun of or seen only for her autism. But when Ellie’s “Right” boyfriend dumps her before they’re supposed to go to beach volleyball camp together, she’s distraught. All of her plans are out the window.

Now, she’s going to get her boyfriend back. First up, going to Camp SMASH, which will help her get her reputation back. Too bad she’s paired up with Sierra, a volleyball legacy. Sierra, a girl who Ellie thinks might make getting her boyfriend back way more complicated than she bargained for.

Sierra, the girl for whom Ellie begins to think that breaking all of the “Right” rules is the Right thing to do.

Gloria and Xia have things in common, but they couldn’t really be more different from one another. Gloria is popular, and she and her Christian friends are beloved in their school. Xia tries to pretend she’s anyone but who she really is–lesbian–and her commitment to school or relationships with her peers is zero. But the two begin to form an unlikely friendship, and as they do, the tender parts of themselves come to the forefront. Xia wants to be alone for a reason, and Gloria is navigating the shame and anger that come with being kicked out of her house for being gay (she’s currently sleeping beneath the gym bleachers).

Despite the secrets the girls hide from themselves and each other, their relationship is growing more intense. They can’t resist being together, even when it means their secrets start to come to the surface.

Carina needs to reinvent herself. She’s going to head to Jamaica, her mother’s homeland, and work as an au pair for the wealthy Hall family on the island. She’s excited to escape the nonstop parade of online hate and rumors. Everything here in Jamaica is dreamy.

While the Halls are precise about the way they like things done, Carina can roll with it. But soon, she’s having weird experiences in their home, and they’re getting worse every single night. It’s clear that something, or someone, is out to get Carina, but to figure that out, she’ll need to untangle whether it’s coming from the Halls, from their estate, or from somewhere in her past.

This is a creepy and atmospheric horror novel.

Grace Woodhouse was a killer on the field. She was a star kicker and had Division 1 prospects. But then she came out as transgender and quit football.

It’s senior year, and Grace is navigating everything. A new self. New friends. Then, there’s her former teammate asking her to please come back and play on the football team again.

Grace is hesitant, but she decides to go back. Now, her biggest challenges are less about the opposing team. They’re about navigating homophobia, feelings she may still harbor for her ex, and coming to understand her past, her present, and her future.

Ossie’s basketball injury causes his entire life to change in an instant. Once able to get by in his wealthy, mostly-white prep school–something so different from his own Yonkers community–now, he’s faced with the reality that he truly stands out at school. Being invited as part of an elite writing program, he finds two new friends–both marginalized students themselves–as well as a passion for diverse literature.

A white teen in Ossie’s writing program believes that Ossie, as well as his friends, were invited to the program based on their identities, rather than their skills. It leads to that white boy creating a video that goes viral, rallying against what he believes is a woke program with so-called woke reading assignments.

This is a story about diversity and about students coming to understand the power of their stories, their voices, and their own brands of activism. Ossie finds support and help from his new friends, but he makes plenty of mistakes along the way and, in doing so, better understands himself and that his own means of activism are his power. The relationship dynamics in this book are raw, real, and honest.

(Psst: in one of the final episodes of Hey YA, I had the chance to talk with Frederick Joseph about his book and about being an activist).