New YA Book Releases for October 8, 2025

Soojin Han’s older sister Mirae drowned mysteriously in the river that slithers through their town. Soojin knows she shouldn’t use her ancestral magic, but she decides that bringing Mirae back is worth the risk. At first it is–the sisters are reunited and it’s cause for joy and celebration.

But then Mirae becomes restless and hungry, and she’s driven to expose the truth of her family and their history. Mirae is out for revenge. As the town finds itself feeling her wrath in the form of extreme weather, Soojin is regretting her decision to bring Mirae back.

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Violet Costantino just wants to get through this year without much trouble. Last year was tough. She had a panic attack during her theater class’s final performance and that made her realize she may not be cut out for acting in the way she hoped.

This year, somehow, she’s cast as the lead in the school’s Halloween play. Violet’s a little reluctant, especially because the two love interests in the play happen to be people with whom she already has a history. She’s also drawn into the Dark Cove Theatre Society, a glamorous and mysterious group that’s making her rethink the idea that she’s not cut out for acting.

But there’s one big thing she can’t stop thinking about: there’s a curse on the Dark Cove Theater Society, supposedly, and it causes one cast member to drop out of the big show before opening night without any good reason. Is Violet willing to make that gamble?

The Watcher is an all-seeing beast who resides near a small seaside Oregon town. People believe it’s there while also disbelieving it’s there. Case in point? When Shay and her girlfriend Lauren have a fight about whether they should go public with their relationship, The Watcher awakens. Lauren is hurt pretty badly, but both girls do survive. Too bad the town doesn’t believe it was The Watcher that led to the injury and Shay is desperate to prove it was.

Enter Zoe. Zoe is a photographer whose teacher tells her to be a little more daring in her art. That’ll help her get a scholarship for art school. Shay asks Zoe to work with her in order to take a photo of The Watcher. It’d benefit them both–daring subject matter for photography and clearing Shay’s name–but it’s not going to be easy.

This one’s getting comps to Sawkill Girls and Twin Peaks. A queer supernatural mystery? I’m in.

Looking for a fantasy inspired by the classic Wuthering Heights? Add this one to your TBR.

Jia Yi was killed by an enemy’s sword, but she finds herself alive again and realizes that being alive now comes with an unexpected power. She can move between life and death, and this exposes her to a spirit realm with others like her. Among those ghost spirits? A long-time crush who broke her heart through betrayal.

But Jin plans to do nothing with this power. That is, until her grandmother dies. The circumstances are mysterious, and Jin wants to know what happened.

Teaming up with her former crush who betrayed her and a long-time enemy isn’t what Jin wants to do, especially because they’re untrustworthy. But she’s desperate to save her grandmother if she can, even if it means her own well-being is at stake.

This one is being pitched as as Squid Game meets Dear Justyce, but I’m definitely getting some Gretchen McNeil #MurderTrending here, too.

After being convicted of a capital crime, 18-year-old Eternity Price has the opportunity to have her death row sentence overturned. She’s taking part in Last Chance Live!, America’s most popular reality TV show. Eternity just needs to convince the audience she deserves a second chance. If she loses, she doesn’t get to appeal her sentence and she’ll be executed within days of the decision.

Besides the obvious challenges, Eternity is struck by the fact she’s finally made real friends. They’re her competitors. Does she sabotage them and secure her own victory? Or does she give up her own life for the first people with whom she’s ever had real, meaningful relationships?

Jordyn is stoked to be living on her own and studying prelaw at a historically Black university. She’s making all kinds of new friends and is digging her roommate situation. But when one of those roommates tells her that her brother Devonte is being released from prison, Jordyn isn’t prepared to see him hanging out on her couch. He needs a play to be for a bit while he picks up the pieces of his life, and Jordyn is fine with that.

Devonte takes on the role as wise older brother while he’s with them and hands out all kinds of advice to people on campus. As much as Jordyn wants to believe it’s all being done in good faith, she’s also convinced there’s something darker going on with him. He’s building a following that’s unsettling.

So when one of Jordyn’s roommates goes missing, she has to team up with an unexpected person on campus to figure out what’s going on and untangle the web of lies that Devonte has so carefully constructed.

17-year-old Bo and her two siblings were once placed in three separate foster homes, and Bo makes them all the promise that will never happen again. They’re all now under the roof of Uncle Jack, who is deeply abusive. So when Jack learns that Bo is really good at boxing, he decides to take advantage of that. She’s been put into an underground fight club tournament. Bo’s not thrilled, but she knows there’s money to be made that could help her and her siblings get out of their situation faster.

The fighting ring is anything but kind, and when Bo’s cutman is arrested, Jack brings in a new one. He happens to be one of Bo’s classmates, and while their relationship grows closer and closer as the big tournaments draws nearer, Bo worries he may go to the authorities if he finds out just how abusive Jack truly is.

Weymouth is a haunted island off Nova Scotia, wherein 11 houses shelter 11 families. Mabel is among the last of House Beuvry, and she spends her time readying the house for the once a decade storm that hammers the island. It’s not just a storm in the sense of wind and rain; it’s a storm that opens the portal between the living and dead, too.

Miles Cabot is new to the island and quickly realizes it’s no normal place. He also meets and realizes that Mable is no ordinary girl. But the two of them have an immediate spark. That spark isn’t just about their romantic feelings. It’s possible their connection could be deadly.

So when an island elder dies suspiciously, Mable’s life is tossed upside down again. As if preparing for the storm and navigating feelings with Miles weren’t enough, Mable’s also got tension mounting with her sister. She’ll need to get her living world in order or else it’ll be a whole other catastrophe when the island’s veil becomes permeable.

Margot’s spending her senior year of high school as an intern at Healing Hearts Inc. It’s a company that created a pill which can erase a person’s heartbreak. Now nursing her own heartbreak after her and long-time boyfriend Isaac broke up because their paths will be diverging next year with college on the way, Margot’s debating taking one of the pills. But something about that decision doesn’t feel right.

So when Isaac walks into Healing Hearts Inc, Margot’s convinced he’s going to take one of the pills to get over his side of the heartbreak. That’s not the truth of why he’s there. He’s not necessarily ready to get over it.

But then the two of them overhear a really bad secret about the pill and are caught eavesdropping by big wigs at Healing Hearts Inc. Now, the former couple are realizing they need to work together to uncover the truth about the pill and the company. That might change the state of their own heartbreak, too.

There are people with a lot of money in the small town of Streetlight and then people without a lot of money. Kady doesn’t have much, but her boyfriend Nik does, and Nik’s part of an exclusive club of wealthy boys in town called the IV Boys. Despite how much Nik loves Kady, the IV Boys don’t accept her at all. She doesn’t fit their image.

There is one boy, Aaron, who is kind and accepting of her, and it’s because he’s not actually from Streetlight. But he can only do so much to keep her company while Nik’s away at school.

On Halloween, Kady has a chance encounter that gives her the power to twist and to hold time. She’s looking forward to using this new power to hold onto the best moments with Nik while he’s away.

It won’t be easy, though. The IV Boys want to take her down. It all begins with a rumor that she and Aaron have been having a romantic relationship. Then it gets a lot darker, a lot faster. Kady will try to use the power she’s been given to unearth the secrets in Streetlight and keep herself safe, but it might be too late.