What Are You Looking For?

A fantasy caper built around a criminal boy’s plan to ransom a fairy, with high-tech opponents and a possible clash between species.

A fast-moving historical crime novel with alternating viewpoints, moral uncertainty and romantic tension. Caitlin’s determination drives a search through sharply unequal New York, while William’s divided loyalties complicate ideas of justice and personal change.

A lively fantasy about an ordinary child entering an extraordinary school, balancing comic invention with peril, uncertainty and the discovery of friendship. Its invented gods and visual humour are central attractions.

A varied story collection offering Indian folklore, mythology and fables, with recurring interest in cleverness, justice, kindness and survival. The tales can apparently be read separately, while also forming a loose journey.

Expect an energetic rescue adventure moving between a rural industrial town and an imaginative jinn world. Nura’s loyalty, resourcefulness and courage drive the story, while friendship, family responsibility and resistance to exploitation shape its emotional centre.

This is a myth-influenced fantasy adventure about friends mounting a rescue, confronting an ancient foe and relying on one another. Its emotional centre appears to be loyalty, belonging and the pressure of trying to save someone.

A fast-moving supernatural mystery about a teenager searching for her missing mother, then uncovering concealed family history and a strange inheritance. It offers suspense, folklore, friendship and a seaside setting, with the pace reportedly slowing after the opening.

Choose this for a reader who enjoys high-seas adventure, mermaids, treasure hunts, riddles and brisk action. The story also offers a character-led exploration of identity, friendship, prejudice and belonging.

A determined young protagonist moves from harsh workhouse conditions into a competitive school, where inventive technology, friendships and hidden political danger drive a fast-moving dystopian adventure.

A richly imagined mystery combines Ghanaian mythology with advanced technology and a Black diaspora community in future San Francisco. Akoma’s investigation centres on family loyalty, ancestral power and trust, while the story also includes tense magical danger and morally difficult decisions.

A suspenseful children’s adventure about siblings investigating unsettling circumstances in a guarded Cornish house. Expect secrets, danger, teamwork and a wartime political backdrop, alongside melodrama and an intentionally improbable child-led challenge to adults.

A dark, fast-moving revenge thriller that reworks Macbeth through a teen girl’s response to sexual violence. Its central appeal is suspense and moral provocation; its intensity comes from trauma, murder and a sustained focus on retaliation.

This is a brisk, storybook-style fantasy that combines a magical quest with a developing romance. Its main interest lies less in elaborate world-building than in Tristran’s changing understanding of desire, devotion and adulthood.

A high-stakes entertainment story follows Candace as stardom, school, relationships and public activism collide. It offers glamour alongside questions about industry reform, self-expression, cultural identity and the cost of standing by one’s beliefs.

This is a tension-led fantasy romance about a hidden witch and the witch hunter pursuing her. It combines alternating viewpoints, political intrigue, blood-based magic, secret identities, deception and a slow-building relationship between enemies.

This is a feminist-leaning myth retelling about a woman resisting purposes and judgements imposed by gods and other people. Its central relationship, identity questions and inclusive characterisation may invite both emotional investment and debate.

A dark, atmospheric thriller combining a competitive K-pop setting with unresolved friendship, grief and supernatural dread. Its strongest appeal is likely the gradual shift from celebrity drama into psychological and body horror.

A tense, emotionally charged survival story for readers drawn to alien threats, shifting loyalties and determined characters. Its strongest human focus is on protecting others and holding on to trust when fear encourages isolation.

This is a bleak, emotionally charged dystopian novel: survival, loyalty and resistance unfold amid child combatants, grief and tightly controlled public narratives. Its literary symbolism and political ideas sit alongside substantial graphic violence.

This offers imaginative fantasy alongside sustained questions about Black identity, friendship, prejudice and self-determination. Its dual perspective gives Tavia and Effie distinct forms of identity exploration, though the opening may feel slow before the action intensifies.

Expect fast-moving fantasy adventure: Emily and her friends train, discover powers and attempt a dangerous rescue while war approaches. Family tensions and questions of trust sit alongside battles and emotional uncertainty.

This is an adventurous, emotionally charged fantasy combining dragons with Cold War intrigue. It follows danger, friendship, romance and hope while confronting racism, bereavement, political violence and the destructive consequences of power.

An imaginative dream-world adventure about twins whose difficult relationship changes as they confront danger together. It combines mystery, magic and family revelations with a darker strand involving nightmares, bodily peril and control of thoughts.

A tense historical survival story centred on two sisters, with vivid attention to language, place and the aftermath of political collapse. It combines danger and emotional uncertainty with questions about belonging and self-determination.

A feminist and LGBTQ retelling in which Sophia challenges a kingdom built around compulsory marriage and rigid social control. It offers a brisk adventure, romance and resistance, while drawing on real-world patterns of misogyny, homophobia and authoritarian rule.

This is an imaginative, issue-led adventure about environmental collapse, inequality and resistance, balanced by family loyalty and hope. Its vivid language may invite close discussion as much as straightforward plot-following.

This is a high-stakes historical pirate adventure centred on Kemosha’s determination to regain freedom and help people she loves. It offers action, survival, romance and a Black heroine confronting slavery and racial cruelty.

Choose this for a fast-moving dystopian horror story built around survival, undead threats, a televised contest and a relationship under pressure. Its central hook is spectacle made from danger.

Expect an imaginative fantasy built around a dangerous darkness, paired roles and a developing relationship. Its strongest focus appears to be how people resist restrictive expectations while learning to trust someone very different from themselves.

A sweeping fantasy sequel about friends divided by danger and prejudice, with witches, magic, political responsibility and a developing romance. It offers an immersive world, tense escapes and battles, while leaving parts of the journey open for a later book.

Expect a gradual plot, military conflict, monsters, magic and questions about whether unity can challenge oppression.

A lively, idea-rich fantasy adventure about a girl searching for her sister inside a wish-granting game controlled by powerful corporations. Expect rapid world-building, friendship, mystery and a playful surface alongside serious social questions.

Expect an atmospheric, psychologically tense story about wanting another family’s life and discovering that appearances can mislead. The coastal setting is prominent, while friendship, grief and obsession gradually become more troubling.

A gripping island survival thriller combines puzzles, geocaching and competition with escalating horror. It offers capable friends, shifting loyalties and personal revelations, but includes graphic and disturbing material.

This is a fast-moving historical heist about a teenager challenging wealthy and powerful rulers. Its appeal lies in the team’s contrasting abilities, disguises and audacious objective, but the story also contains substantial violence and references to sexual violence.

A football mystery with international stakes, Off Side combines investigation and danger with questions about who controls clubs, opportunities and young players’ futures. Its strongest appeal is likely the meeting of sporting excitement and real-world fairness concerns.

This is an atmospheric, dark fantasy centred on a distinctive card-based magic system and Elspeth’s uneasy relationship with the Nightmare. Romance develops alongside political conflict rather than replacing the fantasy plot.

A dark, twist-led fantasy about revenge, power and mistrust, with romance threaded through peril. Its strongest appeal is likely the combination of imaginative worldbuilding, charged character dynamics and relentless danger.

A richly imagined fantasy combines Arthurian legend, secret societies and demons with Bree’s investigation into her mother’s death. Its strongest offering is a Black protagonist navigating grief, power and contested history alongside diverse allies and difficult questions about inherited authority.

This is an identity-and-belonging fantasy in which girls marked as impure are drawn into military training and conflict. It combines a supportive friendship group with questions about power, gender and social judgement.

This is an action-led fantasy about a trans teen navigating a dangerous divine competition, with friendship and social inequality at its centre. Its imaginative mythology and representation may appeal, while the sacrifice premise and sustained peril make the emotional stakes substantial.

A high-stakes fantasy about two sisters whose loyalty is tested by liberation, empire, dragons and divine power. Expect complex political and family tensions alongside action, sacrifice and questions about who deserves protection.

This is an imaginative, politically charged fantasy for readers interested in languages, dragons and morally complicated loyalties. Vivien’s translation work opens onto family upheaval, rebellion, class divisions and a war whose human and dragon costs are visible.

A magical historical-fantasy adventure about identity, family and friendship, with mysteries uncovered through flashbacks. Expect spells, Fairyland, talking animals, shapeshifting and a curse rather than a realistic everyday setting.

This is an imaginative adventure combining friendship, mystery and a robot with a society changed by water scarcity. It also gives sustained attention to Auden’s experience of achromatopsia and his changing relationship with that difference.