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I love boarding school books and if you do too, I’m sure you have checked out my master list of the best YA Books Set in Boarding School. This is my list of some brand new YA Boarding School titles released from 2019-2022!
I hesitated to make this list, but recently I’ve found it interesting to read about historical pandemics, plagues, and mysterious viruses. Whether you’re looking for historical fiction, sci-fi or dystopian, here’s my list of YA Books About Pandemics, Plagues and Viruses .
This post contains affiliate links.
Over the last few days I’ve seen people on Twitter asking for recommendations for teen and middle grade pandemic books.
As someone who struggles with OCD, I generally skip books about illness in ANY form, but I’ve been reading newspaper articles about past pandemics and historical plagues and quarantines and finding them interesting and sometimes even inspiring. If the idea of reading books like this is NOT appealing, maybe you’d rather read a Rom Com. (I’m doing that too.)
I’m going to split the list into two: historical fiction about pandemics (or books inspired by historical events) and sci-fi/fantasy pandemic and virus books
Death Struck Year by Makiia Lucier – This multi-award winning book about the Spanish Flu pandemic follows a girl in boarding school in the Pacific Northwest who volunteers for the Red Cross.
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson – In this middle grade book, a girl in 1793 Philadelphia watches her city gripped by a plague.
In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters – this is a great book with both historical and paranormal elements. During the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, Mary’s love returns to her in spirit form.
A Cloud of Outrageous Blue by Vesper Stamper – historical fiction about the Plague of 1348
One for Sorrow by Mary Downing Hahn – like the Cat Winters book above, this one is a little bit historical and a little bit paranormal. Annie is haunted by the ghost of a classmate who died in the 1918 influenza epidemic.
Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin. Edgar Allan Poe inspired, this is about a young woman who parties in the face of a plague… until she falls in love. I have read this one, and this is the book I keep thinking about! It has masks 🙁
Electric Kingdom by David Arnold. As swarms of infected Flies roam the earth spreading a deadly flu, survivors navigate the woods of post-apocalyptic New England. New for February 2021!
No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz. A biological weapon is set off in a suburban mall, trapping a group of kids
This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada. A girl’s father is the last hope for saving the world from a plague — until he’s kidnapped.
Virals by Kathy Reichs and Brendan Reichs – a group of kids contracts a canine parvovirus and becomes a pack.
The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe – a virus sweeps through a small island community.
Wither by Lauren DeStefano – after a botched genetic experiment leaves all young adults with a shortened life span, women are forced into polygamous marriages.
How do you feel about this kind of book? Do you have any to add to my list?
2010s YA was known for books about twins and their hijinks. Here’s my list of YA Books About Twins, Clones and Doppelgängers. This list includes YA Mysteries, YA Sci Fi and Dystopian Books, and YA Fantasy and Paranormal Fiction about Twins from the 2010s to the present. Let’s celebrate Gemini season!
Have you ever thought how much you could accomplish if you could clone yourself? That’s what happens in this book. Check out my review of Half Life!
Half Life by Lillian Clark. To be published on June 9 2019 by Knopf. Thanks to the publisher for the review copy. This post contains affiliate links.
Synopsis: There aren’t enough hours in the day for Lucille–perfectionist, overachiever–to do everything she has to do, and there certainly aren’t enough hours to hang out with friends, fall in love, get in trouble–all the teenage things she knows she should want to be doing instead of preparing for a flawless future. So when she sees an ad for Life2, she’s intrigued. The company is looking for beta testers to enroll in an experimental clone program, and in the aftermath of a series of disappointments, Lucille is feeling reckless enough to jump in. At first, it’s perfect: her clone, Lucy, is exactly what she needed to make her life manageable and have time for a social life. But it doesn’t take long for Lucy to become more Lucy and less Lucille, and Lucille is forced to stop looking at Lucy as a reflection and start seeing her as a window–a glimpse at someone else living her own life, but better. Lucy does what she really wants to, not what she thinks she should want to, and Lucille is left wondering how much she was even a part of the perfect life she’d constructed for herself. Lucille wanted Lucy to help her relationships with everyone else, but how can she do that without first rectifying her relationship with herself?
Half Life was … a journey. Contemporary YA meets Black Mirror meets The Parent Trap with a hint of thriller.
For the first third, Half Life reads like a contemporary YA. Lucille is an model student who is suddenly thrown by her parents’ divorce, a friend break-up, and the fact that the guy she likes never notices her at all. So behind everyone’s back she decides to clone herself. That way, she figures, her clone can do all her work while she finally has some fun.
Things got a bit more confusing (and quite a bit more sci-fi) as Lucille starts attending her cloning appointments. When the clone is finished, she adds her POV. The clone’s parts are marked as “Lucy” (clone) and “Lucille.” Lucille decides to go off with a new guy she met at an internship and let Lucy the clone take over her old life. And of course things don’t go as planned at all – think some Parent Trap style hijinks.
Then the book turns into a bit of a thriller as Lucy finds out some alarming information about the cloning program and the two girls need to join forces.
All in all, I did enjoy Half Life. The tone and feel of the book was a little inconsistent and I found that jarring at times, but by the end it had a lot of heart and I was glad I read it.
Do you love stories about characters moving between different worlds or time periods? Books like this were super-popular around 2012 but it seems like this trend might be coming back! Check out my list of YA Books About Time Travel and the Multiverse, including new titles for 2019 and 2020!
The Between by David Hofmeyr – (2020) a girl’s friend disappears and she has to search for her through multiple worlds.
Stolen Time by Danielle Rollins (2019) – features Dorothy in 1013 and Ash in 2077.
Twisted Fates by Danielle Rollins (2020) – the sequel to Stolen Time.
Malice by Pintip Dunn – a voice from the future tells a girl that the boy she loves will soon wipe out two-thirds of the population with a virus. (Wow, that’s kind of topical…)
Invictus by Ryan Graudin – (2017) a time-traveling space gladiator.
Jane Unlimited by Kristen Cashore (2017) a Gothic mystery with a multiverse twist.
Passenger by Alexandra Bracken (2016)
A Darker Shade of Magic by Victoria Schwab (2015) – a magician can travel between parallel versions of London.
Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini (2014) – a teen discovers she is a witch in a parallel universe
A Thousand Pieces of You (2014) by Claudia Grey
Dissonance by Erica O’Rourke – (2014) a romantic thriller about a girl who can travel between worlds.
Tandem by Anna Jarzab (2013)
Parallel by Lauren Miller – (2013) high school senior Abby gets to see two versions of her future.
All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill (2013)
Pivot Point by Kasie West – (2013) when Addison’s parents tell her they’re splitting, she’s able to see her life living with each of them.
Just Like Fate by Cat Patrick (2013)
Through to You by Emily Hainsworth – (2012) after Cam’s girlfriend dies, he enters a parallel world in which she’s still alive.
Tempest by Julie Cross (2012)
Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone (2012) Bennett in 2012 falls for Anna in 1995.
The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski (2012)
Do you have any books to add? Please tell me in comments and I will add your recommendations (with credit!)
The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer is getting new covers and new stepback art (the stepback page is the first page after the cover and will feature an additional image). Check out Cinder’s new art here (plus all the new covers!) then read my throwback review of Cinder from 2012!
