Sylvia Plath, Godly Chaos, and More New YA Book Releases for February 18, 2026

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We’re already more than half-way through the second month of the year. It’s both surprising how fast things have gone and how long 2026 has already felt. If there’s one thing we can celebrate, though, it’s this: the books we’re seeing hit shelves are keeping us entertained, informed, and up to our elbows in possibility. I don’t know about you, but as this winter drags on and on, I’m finding so much comfort and hope in reading.

New releases begin to ramp up this week, and we’ll see this pattern continue for the next several months. Of note for this week, though: there are no new series books publishing in either hardcover nor in paperback. Everything here stands alone, which for some readers–self included–is a real delight.

This week, be treated to mischief with the gods, a little love on ice, a Halloween party gone very wrong, and more. Whatever your genre of preference, there’s something calling your name.

New Hardcover YA Releases This Week

New Hardcover Series Releases:

Goodbye and Everything After by Mae Coyiuto

Nika’s father died five years ago and her family has never truly taken the time to grieve. They memorialize her father every year on the anniversary of his death, and they practice the Filipino belief of pagpag–that you can never go home after visiting a grave or the ghost of the dead will follow you.

This year, Nika’s mother’s new finance shows up at the cemetery during their visit, and her mother is furious enough to walk out and head home. This brings Nika’s father’s ghost back home, but only Nika can see him.

Nika uses this time to reconnect with her father, including learning about his history with her mother. As Nika herself begins to fall for Seph, her father’s memories of his own love with Nika’s mother are rekindled. Bit by bit, Nika’s father feels more and more alive and now, she’s worried about what happens when she loses him again.

All access members continue below for more of the best new YA out this week.

Love, Sivvy: A Novel Inspired by the Life, Letters, and Diaries of Young Sylvia Plath by R. L. Toalson

Inspired by the real diaries and letters from acclaimed and renowned poet Sylvia Plath, this novel explores the highs, lows, and challenges of her high school and college years. More specifically, it tackles the tension between what the expectations for women of her era were–marrying, children, homemaking–and Plath’s own ambitions for a literary career.

Postscript by Cory McCarthy

Few humans have survived a fast-moving apocalypse. But when West shows up to the place which was once Cape Cod, he changes the lives of the few survivors in unimaginable ways. He’s an amateur anthropologist, and he’s challenging the survivors to push back against succumbing to extinction. Building family may be the most important tool and strategy they could imagine.

They Call Her Regret by Channelle Desamours

Simone Washington loves Halloween and this year, her annual epic Halloween party is going to be kicked up a notch in honor of her 18th birthday. She and the party will be the talk of the school. It’ll involve an overnight stay at Doll’s Head Lake and plenty of campfire tales. One of the attendees? A witch who goes by the name Regret.

At the party, Simone’s best friend dies under mysterious circumstances and some of Simone’s secrets begin to bubble up. Enter our witch Regret, who makes Simone a pretty big offer: if Simone can break the curse which ties Regret to Doll’s Head Lake within two weeks, then Kira will be brought back to life. If Simone fails, Kira will be killed again and no one will mistake the killer as anyone other than Simone.

Ungodly Chaos by Selma Soren

If mythological gods crossing into the human world is your cup of tea, add this one to your TBR. It’s steeped in Egyptian mythos, too.

On her 17th birthday, Amira Shah is broken up with by her boyfriend Kaidan Jaziri. It was unexpected, and it’s something that Amira won’t be letting go easily, especially because she’s just heard Kaidan fighting with someone else in town. She decides to follow him after that fight and enters a portal that takes her to the underworld.

It’s here she discovers that Kaidan is a descendant of Apep, the god of chaos. Suddenly, all of those trouble-making situations Kaidan dragged Amira into make sense.

What’s happening is much bigger than Amira ever expected. Kaidan wants to figure out what’s behind a series of murders in the human realm because the victims are other descendants. He’s worried he might be next on their list.

Amira, feeling an unexpected connection to this world, offers to help Kaidan on his quest. It turns out that her unexpected connection may not be so unexpected after all–Amira may be part of this pantheon, too.

More New Hardcover Releases:

The Sun and the Star Maker by Rachel Griffin
This Wretched Beauty by Elle Grenier

New Paperback YA Releases This Week

Four Eids and a Funeral by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and Adiba Jaigirdar

Said is away at boarding school, but he’s coming back to New Crosshaven following the death of a favorite librarian. He’s there for the funeral and throughout the summer. His goal is to avoid running into his ex-best friend Tiwa and to put off telling his Bangladeshi parents that he wants to become an artist.

Tiwa doesn’t want to see Said all summer, in part because she thinks he’s gotten a little snobby from boarding school and because, well, she doesn’t understand why he began to ignore her at all. She’s got a lot to keep her occupied, fortunately, including helping her mom with the Eid celebration at her beloved Islamic Center.

When a fire breaks out at the Islamic Center and unravels the mayor’s plans to get rid of the Center altogether, Said and Tiwa have to talk. They have to work together to save their beloved Islamic Center and ensure a successful Eid, and…well, you know sparks might just be flying.

Love on Ice by Sara Ney

Harper has had a crush on her school’s hockey team star for a long time, so when he crash lands in her backyard after stealing their rival school’s mascot, she sees her opportunity. Harper will keep silent about it in exchange for Easton agreeing to be her prom date.

It won’t be long, though, before things get more complicated because there are now real feelings growing between the two of them.