Neal Shusterman

Gunnar Umlaut says he only has six months to live. So eighth-grader Anthony “Antsy” Bonano does the only thing he can think of to help-he gives Gunnar a month of his own life. This symbolic gesture is soon copied by everyone at school, but will it make a difference, especially if Gunnar isn’t telling the truth?

Challenger Deep is a stand-alone novel by Neal Shusterman, author of The Unwind Dystology. It deals frankly with issues surrounding teenage mental illness. Caden, the narrator, experiences paranoid and delusional thinking and is hospitalized. A character attempts suicide. Violence in the book is mostly imaginary and centered on a fantastical ship on which the captain and his parrot want to kill each other. Language is mild, with an instance or two each of “hell,” “damn,” “bastard,” and “ass.” Sexual content is limited to hand-holding and one night of cuddling in bed. Caden’s parents are mildly intoxicated in one scene. Caden takes a “cocktail” of prescribed medications, and the regimen helps him heal.

Nick and Allie head toward the light after a head-on car accident, but the teens — strangers to each other — collide again and don’t quite make it. They end up in Everlost, and learn from other inhabitants about their ghostly new existence as Afterlights and the dangers of this alternative hereafter.

Blake is a cautious young man who finds himself in the middle of a nightmare when he is forced to survive seven harrowing amusement park rides in an effort to save his brother. The surreal scenes and characters, as well as psychological drama, will leave readers spellbound by Blake’s battle for his soul.

In a world where everyone is immortal, Scythes keep the population in check by gleaning individuals. Feared, and alternately courted by sycophants or resented by the grieving, their power is almost absolute. Citra and Rowan have been chosen, but a bloodthirsty faction is determined to insure that only one of them will survive their apprenticeship.

After their home burns down, fourteen-year-old Nick, his younger brother, and their father move into a ramshackle Victorian house they’ve inherited. When Nick opens the door to his attic room, he’s hit in the head by a toaster. That’s just the beginning of his weird experiences with the old junk stored up there. After getting rid of the odd antiques in a garage sale, Nick befriends some local kids-Mitch, Caitlin, and Vincent-and they discover that all of the objects have extraordinary properties. What’s more, Nick figures out that the attic is a strange magnetic vortex, which attracts all sorts of trouble. It’s as if the attic itself has an intelligence… and a purpose.

In a one-of-a-kind collaboration, seventeen of the most recognizable YA writers—including Shaun David Hutchinson, Neal and Brendan Shusterman, and Beth Revis—come together to share the viewpoints of a group of students affected by a school shooting.

It took only twenty-two minutes for Kirby Matheson to exit his car, march onto the school grounds, enter the gymnasium, and open fire, killing six and injuring five others.

But this isn’t a story about the shooting itself. This isn’t about recounting that one unforgettable day.

This is about one boy—who had friends, enjoyed reading, playing saxophone in the band, and had never been in trouble before—became a monster capable of entering his school with a loaded gun and firing bullets at his classmates.

Each chapter is told from a different victim’s viewpoint, giving insight into who Kirby was and who he’d become. Some are sweet, some are dark; some are seemingly unrelated, about fights or first kisses or late-night parties. This is a book told from multiple perspectives—with one character and one event drawing them all together—by some of YA’s most recognizable names.