The five best young adult books by black authors 📚🖤

Gemma

Here are The Mix's top picks for some of the best young adult books by black authors:

Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann
Emotional & hilarious romance novel; black & queer identity; asexuality; break-ups & relationships
Rating 4.5 stars

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta
Inspirational, passionate & celebratory novel; mixed race identity; coming out journey; drag society
Rating 4.5 stars

How to Live Without You by Sarah Everett
Heart-wrenching coming-of-age story; sisterhood; family, grief & mental illness; lies & secrets
Rating 4 stars

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
A story of identical twins, separated by lies & distance; race & identity; historical fiction sect in 1950s America; loss, memory & inheritance
Rating 4.5 stars

Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman
Two young people forced to make a stand against racism & prejudice; friendship & romance; justice & oppression; social class & identity
Rating 4.5 stars

Have you read any of these? Share your thoughts below!📚🖤

lunarcat522

First one is on my tbr, heard of the last one. I'll have to look into the others as they sound great too.

@Amy22 Feel like you'd appreciate this post

sinead276

I've not read any of these but I'll be sure to check some of them out

Amy22

I havent heard of these books before but I will check them out definitely as I am open to reading various stories and by diverse authors from ethnic backgrounds. I will reccomend a book which should be on here too. It's called Children of Blood and Bone (I can't remember the name of the author). But it's YA fantasy and all of the characters are poc and it's about female empowerment and magic.

lunarcat522

@Amy22 I'm not super into fantasy but I've heard of this - is it good?

Amy22

@lunarcat522 It's quite a good book actually, I haven't managed to properly finish reading it because I am near the end and I read that book I think during 2019 and its 2024 now this is what I mean by when I say I dont always finish reading books . There is a sequel book as well to it.

IsThisJustFantasy

I came across Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman in my school library when I was in secondary school. I read Double Cross by the same author back in 2019 and was addicted. It’s the only book I’ve read in the Noughts and Crosses novel series, and it would be nice to begin reading again as I stopped when Covid came in 2020.

At that time, I got a new novel from my school library which I couldn’t finish, as I had to return the book after the lockdown was announced. Malorie Blackman’s Double Cross was a good read.

ebyrne556

Ohhh i really enjoyed black flamingo i did struggle to get into naughts and crosses but ive heard tht the srs gets even better as it goes on