Celebrating Jane Austen at 250, The Death of a YA Horror Legend, & More YA News

If there’s one word for the world of young adult literature in the year 2025 it’s this: quiet. Sure, we’ve had some big book releases and some big adaptations hit screens, but on the whole, there has been little news about the world of YA. This isn’t entirely surprising, though. YA simply isn’t covered by as many verticals as it once was. That’s by choice and by force, as many outlets which once covered teen literature are either much tinier than they once were or they’ve shuttered all together. Of course, we can’t discount where and how entering into the fifth year of book censorship, which targets YA books more than any other category, as part of the quieting.

This doesn’t mean books aren’t being promoted. They are. Social media outlets like TikTok have been a boon for spreading the word about books, especially the front-list, bigger budget YA titles. But that kind of buzz and excitement over books isn’t the same as news or criticism or in-depth stories about YA more broadly.

All of that is food for thought as we roll into October. We’re a month into the busiest time in publishing, and the YA news roundups continue to stay quiet. There are not as many stories to share. Frankly, it’s a major bummer, given that YA books continue to matter. It’s a bummer there aren’t more spaces highlighting YA books in critical ways and that there isn’t more news about the cool things being done to YA books–and especially inclusive YA books that serve as windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors to our diverse population of teen readers.

Here’s what’s been happening in YA over the last month. Let’s hope that we see an uptick in stories as the year slip-slides ever closer to the end.

• Here is the incredible longlist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. So many great YA (and middle grade!) books included.
• YA author Diane Hoh–especially well-known for her 90s horror–died at the age of 88.
• All of the rad YA speculative fiction that hit shelves in September.
• Alex Brown shares their picks for most anticipated YA speculative fiction for September and October at Reactor.
• I got to write a great piece over at School Library Journal this month. Dive deep into Jane Austen as she’s been revisited, remixed, and retold in YA literature, in honor of her 250th birthday.
• What’s there to know about My Life with the Walter Boys, Season 3?
• Love good YA fantasy and science fiction? Then you’ll want to check out the winners of this year’s Dragon Awards in YA.
• While we’re in the world of YA prizes, here are the titles on the 2025 Young Adult Prize shortlist. This one honors work that contributes to Australian literature.
• YA author Britney S. Lewis talks about the problem of missing and poorly treated Black girls in YA fantasy.
• Everything there is to know about the adaptation of Lauren Roberts’s Powerless romantasy series.
• Jawbone by Monica Ojeda is getting adapted into a horror film.
• Publishers Weekly wrote a piece that I’d been hoping to cover at some point, as I’ve alluded to it several times in this newsletter over the last year (and they do a GREAT job of covering it!): the rise of the YA novella in 2025.
• Jenny Han talks about the ending of The Summer I Turned Pretty. . . and hey, there’s going to be a movie!
• We Were Liars is officially getting a second season.
• How Twilight changed young adult literature forever.
• Sales of YA fiction in paperback and hardcover dropped so far this year. There was a slight uptick in sales of nonfiction in paperback, though.
• I’ve been wondering when we might see Kody Keplinger release another YA book, and hey, there’s one coming next spring. It’s a cult book!

Since you’ve got some bonus time with such a short news roundup, why not add some more books to your TBR? Catch up with some of last month’s new YA fiction releases and new YA comic and nonfiction releases.