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List: 2025 Teen Book Bingo: One Word Title
Alondra
Seventeen-year-old Alonda loves professional wrestling. So when she meets a group of teens with aspirations of wrestling fame in her Coney Island neighborhood, she couldn't be happier. As the ragtag team works to put on a show to remember, Alonda sheds her old self and becomes Alondra--the Fearless One. But with her conflicting feelings for King, the handsome leader of their group, and Lexi, the girl with the beautiful smile, Alonda has to ask herself: Can she be as fearless outside the ring as she is inside it?
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Fledgling
Raisa of Upper Earth has only lived a life of privilege and acquiescence. Ever dutiful, she accepts her father's arrangement of her marriage to Lein, Crown Prince of the corrupt, volatile lands of Lower Earth. Though Lein is a stranger, Raisa knows the wedding will unite their vastly different worlds in a pact of peace: an infusion of Upper Earth technology will usher in the final age of enlightenment, ending war between humans forever. Or is justice more urgent?
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Junkwraith
What happens when our most precious belongings... no longer belong? When something we loved suddenly becomes junk, a powerful energy is unleashed. One night, ice-skating prodigy Florence Sato is overwhelmed by pressure and throws away her skates. This fateful moment accidentally summons a "junkwraith," a terrifying ghost which seeks revenge for its abandonment by attacking the memories of its former owner. Before she forgets who she is, and to find out who she really wants to be, Florence must set off (with her trusty digital assistant Frank) on a long journey into the Wastelands to put to rest the monster she created.
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Seasick
While on a celebratory yacht trip to Bermuda, ex-best friends Naya and Yana, newly inducted into an exclusive society of top recent graduates, are plunged into a nightmare when a classmate is brutally murdered, and as the body count rises, they must team up to survive.
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Caste
This young adult adaptation of the New York Times bestselling book masterfully illuminates an insidious phenomenon in the United States: a hidden caste system. Caste is not only about race or class; it is about power—which groups have it and which do not. Isabel Wilkerson explores historical social hierarchies, including those in India and Nazi Germany, and explains how perpetuating these rankings dehumanizes vast sections of society. Once we learn the reasons behind caste and see the often heartbreaking effects, Wilkerson says, we can bridge the divides and make way for an inclusive future where we are all equal.
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Riven
Long ago, on the island of Riven , natural-born magicians, or “adepts,” conducted a ritual intending to strengthen their power source, the Rift. Instead, though, they inadvertently created Ice, a magical but toxic substance that anyone—not just adepts—can wield, and which requires constant harvesting. Now the rich and powerful rule Riven , with the underprivileged mining Ice, and adepts’ powers being strictly regulated, ostensibly to protect the public from their magic. Teen mercenary and secret adept Mars Darksvane fears someone will discover his abilities but lacks the resources to leave Riven . When crime boss Una Almadòttra offers him a lucrative job protecting teen heiress Fura Thorvald, he accepts, but the gig is a cover: Mars must try to persuade Fura to divulge the formula for something Una calls the Primer. Initially, payment and self-preservation are his primary concerns, but the more Mars learns about Fura and the Primer, the more conflicted he becomes.
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Bonesmith
In the Dominions, the dead linger, violent and unpredictable, unless a bonesmith severs the ghost from its earthly remains. For bonesmith Wren, becoming a valkyr--a ghost-fighting warrior--is a chance to solidify her place in the noble House of Bone and impress her frequently absent father. But when sabotage causes Wren to fail her qualifying trial, she is banished to the Border Wall, the last line of defense against a wasteland called the Breach where the vicious dead roam unchecked. Determined to reclaim her family's respect, Wren gets her chance when a House of Gold prince is kidnapped and taken beyond the Wall. To prove she has what it takes to be a valkyr, Wren vows to cross the Breach and rescue the prince. But to do so, she's forced into an uneasy alliance with one of the kidnappers--a fierce ironsmith called Julian from the exiled House of Iron, the very people who caused the Breach in the first place...and the House of Bone's sworn enemy. As they travel, Wren and Julian spend as much time fighting each other as they do the undead, but when they discover there's more behind the kidnapping than either of them knew, they'll need to work together to combat the real a dark alliance that is brewing between the living and the undead.
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Gather
Ian isn't supposed to have a dog, but a lot of things that shouldn't happen end up happening anyway. And Gather, Ian's adopted pup, is good company now that Ian has to quit the basketball team, find a job, and keep an eye on his mom as she recovers from the back injury she got at work. Ian is great at a bunch of things that aren't graded in school--he can track a deer, fix a small engine, and rewire a vacuum cleaner in no time flat. He will do all that and more to keep his family afloat and to hold on to their land. When a shocking turn of events sends Ian and Gather on the run, Ian's got to put all his practical skills to use. The stakes are high and the path forward looks tough, but if there is one thing Ian knows how to do, it's survive.
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Beholder
No one survived the party at the penthouse. Except Athan. Athanasios 'Athan' Bakirtzis has made it far in life relying on his charm and good looks, even securing an invitation to a mysterious penthouse soiree for New York City's artsy elite. But when he sneaks off to the bathroom, he hears a slam, followed by a scream. Athan peers outside, only to be pushed back in by a boy his age. The boy gravely tells him not to open the door, then closes Athan in. Outside the door, the party descends into chaos. Through hours of howls, laughter, and sobs, Athan stays hidden. When he finally emerges, he discovers a massacre where the corpses appear to have arranged themselves into a disturbingly elegant sculpture. Athan's mysterious savior is nowhere to be found. Athan - the only known survivor - is now the primary suspect. Something evil is waking up in the walls of New York City, and it's compelling victims towards violence and self-destruction. Athan has felt this evil hiding behind his reflection his entire life. Once upon a time it only watched him, waiting. It's not waiting anymore. Now it's taking over.
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Wildblood
Eighteen-year-old Victoria is a Wildblood. Since she was kidnapped at the age of six and manipulated by the Exotic Lands Touring Company, she’s worked as a tour guide ever since with a team of fellow Wildbloods who take turns using their magic to protect travelers in a Jamaican jungle teeming with ghostly monsters. When the boss denies Victoria an earned promotion to team leader in favor of Dean, her backstabbing ex, she’s determined to prove herself. Her magic may be the most powerful on the team, but she’s not the image the boss wants to send their new client, Thorn, a renowned goldminer determined to reach an untouched gold supply deep in the jungle. Thorn is everything Victoria isn't -- confident, impossibly kind, and so handsome he leaves her speechless. And when he entrusts the mission to her, kindness turns to mutual respect, turns to affection, turns to love. But the jungle is treacherous, and between hypnotic river spirits, soul-devouring women that shed their skin like snakes, and her ex out for revenge, Victoria has to decide - is promotion at a corrupt company really what she wants?
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Nightbreaker
Fifteen years after the Vanishing thrust Manhattan into darkness, resilient New Yorkers have adapted, but at night Rei Renolds secretly hunts Deathlings--the deadly creatures that slaughtered her parents--but she soon learns of the elite who want to keep the city's ruling class in power.
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Upstaged
Ever since sixth grade, Ashton Price and their best friend and enduring crush, Ivy Santos, have spent their summers together at theater camp. Now it's their last year before they part ways for high school, and Ash is determined to end it on a high note! With Ash as stage manager and Ivy the lead in this year's musical, this summer's shaping up to be everything the two could have hoped for. Maybe Ash will even work up the courage to ask Ivy out! But between Ivy rehearsing long hours with her colead and Ash throwing themself into an ambitious stage production, will they end up drifting apart instead? As summer wanes and September looms, Ash and Ivy's friendship will change forever, one way or another.
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Artifice
Isa de Smit was raised in the vibrant, glittering world of her parents' small art gallery in Amsterdam, a hub of beauty, creativity, and expression, until the Nazi occupation wiped the color from her city's palette. The "degenerate" art of the Gallery de Smit is confiscated, the artists in hiding or deported, her best friend, Truus, fled to join the shadowy Dutch resistance. And masterpiece by masterpiece, the Nazis are buying and stealing her country's heritage, feeding the Third Reich's ravenous appetite for culture and art. So when the unpaid taxes threaten her beloved but empty gallery, Isa decides to make the Nazis pay. She sells them a fake - a Rembrandt copy drawn by her talented father - a sale that sets Isa perilously close to the second most hated class of people in Amsterdam: the collaborators. Isa sells her beautiful forgery to none other than Hitler himself, and on the way to the auction, discovers that Truus is part of a resistance ring to smuggle Jewish babies out of Amsterdam. But Truus cannot save more children without money. A lot of money. And Isa thinks she knows how to get it. One more forgery, a copy of an exquisite Vermeer, and the Nazis will pay for the rescue of the very children they are trying annihilate. To make the sale, though, Isa will need to learn the art of a master forger, before the children can be deported, and before she can be outed as a collaborator. And she finds an unlikely source to help her do it: the young Nazi soldier, a blackmailer and thief of Dutch art, who now says he wants to desert the German army. Yet, worth is not always seen from the surface, and a fake can be difficult to spot. Both in art, and in people.
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Topside
Sixteen-year-old Jo, a maintenance technician in an underground society, makes a massive error during a routine repair and to set things right, must journey above ground, to a dangerous area swarming with alien life.
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Monstrous
When seventeen-year-old Latavia is presented as a human sacrifice to an ancient beast, she is determined to do whatever it takes to survive--even if that includes making a deal with the monster and endangering her crush and family.
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Solitaire
Tori Spring feels completely disconnected from her life--until she meets the relentlessly cheerful Michael Holden, and a series of schoolwide pranks starts to draw her out of her shell.
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Wolfpack
A novel in verse for fans of mystery and suspense. A group of nine girls are living in Havenwood, a religious cult that feels similar to a summer camp, except no one is allowed to leave or communicate with the outside world. The group goes to breakfast one morning to find that one of them, Rose, is missing. As time goes on, it is clear Rose isn't coming back. The girls wonder if she left Havenwood or if something bad happened to her—especially because the elders don't comment on Rose's absence. Four days after the disappearance, the girls begin to find clues that lead them to believe Rose did not leave them of her own accord. But in a place as perfect as Havenwood, who would make someone disappear? And why? This novel, told in mostly alternating perspectives, starts off slowly but has an air of mystery about it that will keep readers turning the pages. Once the clues to Rose's whereabouts start to appear, the story is so captivating that it is difficult to put down.
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Zhara
Magic is forbidden throughout the Morning Realms. Magicians are called abomination, and blamed for the plague of monsters that razed the land twenty years before. Jin Zhara already had enough to worry about--appease her stepmother's cruel whims, looking after her blind younger sister, and keeping her own magical gifts under control-without having to deal with rumors of monsters re-emerging in the marsh. But when a chance encounter with an easily flustered young man named Han brings her into contact with a secret magical liberation organization called the Guardians of Dawn, Zhara realizes there may be more to these rumors than she thought. A mysterious plague is corrupting the magicians of Zanhei and transforming them into monsters, and the Guardians of Dawn believe a demon is responsible. In order to restore harmony and bring peace to the world, Zhara must discover the elemental warrior within, lest the balance between order and chaos is lost forever.
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Songlight
Elsa is used to hiding the most important parts of herself--her feelings for Rye, her distaste for the dictatorship she lives in, and most crucially, her gift of songlight, a kind of telepathy. She buries that secret deep inside, because In Brightland, those with songlight are called Unhumans and are abhorred. Rye is the only other person Elsa has known with songlight, and their shared bond has brought them together. Elsa's world, along with her secrets, begins to fall apart one desperate, heart-wrenching day. She doesn't know where to turn, until a girl appears before her--in songlight. Nightingale, Elsa's new friend, lives in a city hundreds of miles away. While they cannot meet in person, when they share their songlight, they begin to realize that they have power--a power that may be able to change the way they live. And together, Elsa and Nightingale will be thrust into the middle of a war that threatens their very existence.
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Throwback
Priscilla is first-generation Korean American, a former high school cheerleader who expects Sam to want the same all-American nightmare. Meanwhile, Sam is a girl of the times who has no energy for cliched high school aspirations. After a huge blowup, Sam is desperate to get away from Priscilla, but instead, finds herself thrown back. Way back. To her shock, Sam lands in the '90s... alongside a 17-year-old Priscilla. Now, Sam has to deal with outdated tech, regressive '90s attitudes, and her growing feelings for sweet, mysterious football player Jamie, who just might be the right guy in the wrong era. With the clock ticking, Sam must figure out how to fix things with Priscilla or risk being trapped in an analog world forever. Sam's blast to the past has her questioning everything she thought she knew about her mom... and herself. One thing's for sure: Time is a mother.
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Spin
Sixteen-year-old Arachne turns to weaving for solace, but when word spreads of her skill she is confronted by the goddess Athena and the two enter a weaving contest that results in transformation and redemption.
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Sync
Told in dual perspectives through unsent letters, this heartbreaking novel follows 17-year-old twins Storm and Lake, separated in the foster care system, as they each take different paths--one incarcerated and one living on the streets--and fight to find their way back to each other.
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Warhead
A memoir about Jeff Henigson's teen Starlight Children's Foundation wish after being diagnosed with brain cancer: to meet Mikhail Gorbachev and plea for nuclear disarmament and world peace.
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Take
Cara is stoked. She's finally ready to start the gap year she's been planning for ages: climbing in Patagonia. Her friends are off to college soon, her mom is mostly on board with her plans, and she's got nothing holding her back. Not even the reappearance of her ex, Nat, can break her focus. Then her dad drops off the grid. Again. Cara figures he's fixated on his newest obsession and simply not answering the phone. But when she checks out his place, she finds molding food, untouched bottles of his prescriptions, a wall full of maps and notes...and his climbing gear is gone. Now she needs Nat's help to unravel the clues her dad left behind, which somehow link together a Japanese incarceration center, a Depression-era jobs program, the North Cascades' most famous climber, and a forgotten peak. But time is short, the mountain is unforgiving, and her dad hasn't climbed in years...
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Thirsty
It's the summer before college and eighteen-year-old Blake Brenner and her girlfriend, Ella, have one goal: join the mysterious and exclusive Serena Society. The sorority promises status and lifelong connections to a network of powerful, trailblazing women of color. Ella's acceptance is a sure thing--she's the daughter of a Serena alum. Blake, however, has a lot more to prove. As a former loner from a working-class background, Blake lacks Ella's pedigree and confidence. Luckily, she finds courage at the bottom of a liquor bottle. When she drinks, she's bold, funny, and unstoppable--and the Serenas love it. But as pledging intensifies, so does Blake's drinking, until it's seeping into every corner of her life. Ella assures Blake that she's fine; partying hard is what it takes to make the cut... But success has never felt so much like drowning. With her future hanging in the balance and her past dragging her down, Blake must decide how far she's willing to go to achieve her glittering dreams of success--and how much of herself she's willing to lose in the process.
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Caraval
Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their ruthless father. Now Scarlett's father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the legendary, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over. But this year, Scarlett's long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor who she has just met, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval's mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season's Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner. Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But she nevertheless becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic with the other players in the game. And whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, a dangerous domino effect of consequences is set off, and her sister disappears forever.
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Scythe
In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed ('gleaned') by professional reapers ('scythes'). Two teens must compete with each other to become a scythe--a position neither of them wants. The one who becomes a scythe must kill the one who doesn't.
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Uglies
Just before their sixteenth birthdays, when they will be transformed into beauties whose only job is to have a great time, Tally's best friend runs away and Tally must find her and turn her in, or never become pretty at all.
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Kindling
Once, the war was fought with kindlings - elite, magic-wielding warriors whose devastating power comes at the cost of their own young lives. Now the war is over, and kindlings have been cast adrift - their magic outlawed, their skills outdated, their formidable balar weapons prized only as relics and souvenirs. Violence still plagues the countryside, and memories haunt those who remain. When a village comes under threat of siege, it offers an opportunity for seven kindlings to fight one last time. But war changed these warriors. And to reclaim who they once were, they will have to battle their pasts, their trauma, and their grim fates to come together again - or none of them will make it out alive.
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Heartless
In this prequel to Alice in Wonderland, Cath would rather open a bakery and marry for love than accept a proposal from the King of Hearts, especially after meeting the handsome and mysterious court jester.
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Lightlark
Every 100 years, the island of Lightlark appears to host the Centennial, a deadly game that only the rulers of six realms are invited to play. The invitation is a summons-a call to embrace victory and ruin, baubles and blood. The Centennial offers the six rulers one final chance to break the curses that have plagued their realms for centuries. Each ruler has something to hide. Each realm's curse is uniquely wicked. To destroy the curses, one ruler must die. Isla Crown is the young ruler of Wildling-a realm of temptresses cursed to kill anyone they fall in love with. They are feared and despised, and are counting on Isla to end their suffering by succeeding at the Centennial. To survive, Isla must lie, cheat, and betray... even as love complicates everything.
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Legendborn
After her mother dies in an accident, Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC-Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape--until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus. A young mage who calls himself a 'Merlin' attempts--and fails--to wipe Bree's memory of everything she saw. His failure unlocks Bree's own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now she'll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.
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