New Release Tuesday: YA New Releases April 22nd 2025

Young Adult New Releases April 22nd 2025

Happy Earth Day and New Release Tuesday! See below for most of the YA books hitting the shelves today! If you want to see what released in the past weeks, or months, go to our Bookshop page!

Under the Fading Sky

by Cynthia Kadohata
Published by: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
on April 22, 2025
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
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A teen boy thinks his vaping habit is harmless until it becomes a crippling addiction of nightmarish dimensions in this searing young adult novel from Newbery and National Book Award winner Cynthia Kadohata.

So, stuff has, like, a beginning and an end.

And you don’t really realize that until the end, or right before.

Before that, you’re just thinking that you and your homies are chillin’ and getting high, and it’s all gonna work out. You know?

Truth is, the way life works is that you were born in the eye of a hurricane, and you think that’s just the way life is, calm-like.

Until…it isn’t.

So, yeah, Elijah is only sixteen, and already he would change a lot of stuff if he could go back in time.

But you can’t ever do that.

And when you can’t, that’s when you find out who you really are.

Toxic Summer

by Derek Charm
Published by: Oni Press
on April 22, 2025
Genres: Contemporary, Graphic Novel, LGBTQIA+, Young Adult
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Perfect summer plans become a nightmare beach party in this slimy, spooky, madcap summer mystery from Eisner Award winner Derek Charm (Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Jughead)!

Best friends Ben and Leo are ready to celebrate the summer after graduation by patrolling the beaches of idyllic seaside town Port Dorian as lifeguards—allowing them to also check out the hottest hunks and snag invites to the best parties, of course. But they arrive to find that a mysterious toxic spill has turned the water unswimmable and littered the shore with rotting fish carcasses. Their jobs become beach cleanup and the hunks are nowhere to be seen—like hermit crabs.

When they save a local historian with suspiciously glowing eyes from the water, and tentacled monsters begin snatching people in the night, Ben and Leo have to team up with the only other teens in town to uncover the cause of the spill, save their new friends and family, and try to get this sexy summer back on track before it’s too late.

Collecting Toxic Summer #1–3.

The Flip Side: A Graphic Novel

by Jason Walz
Published by: Rocky Pond Books
on April 22, 2025
Genres: Graphic Novel, Paranormal, Young Adult
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This breathtaking, page-turning graphic novel is a supernatural survival story in which a grieving teen finds himself in a haunting alternate reality—the frightening embodiment of his depression. For fans of Stranger Things and Nimona.

Theo’s best friend has died, and he can’t pull himself out of his sadness—a sadness that those around him don’t seem to respect or even notice. And then something even more disconcerting happens: His town literally flips upside down and everyone disappears, except for a threatening, shape-shifting monster and a snarky teenage girl who knows her way around this flipped world. Is Theo doomed to spend the rest of his life in this scary state?

Tremendously unique and suspenseful, The Flip Side tackles grief and depression in a fascinating and affecting way.

Brielle and Bear: Volume 1: (A Graphic Novel) (Once Upon a Time University)

by Salomey Doku
Published by: Random House Graphic
on April 22, 2025
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Retellings, Young Adult
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A tale as old as time refreshed for modern readers. This Beauty and the Beast retelling captures the magic and romance of first-year university students Brielle and Bear and the fairytale they are destined to live.

Once upon a time, Brielle met Bear. And then they fell in love.

But that's just the beginning. Fairytales have a way of twisting and swirling before you get to "happily ever after." And though modern-day Once Upon a Time University first-year, Brielle, is a dreamer, always with her nose in a book, her imagination can't help but run wild with potential romance.

To her, Bear is perfect. . . until Brielle discovers a secret he's been hiding for a long time that just might shatter their fairytale love. . . .

Murder Between Friends

by Liz Lawson
Published by: Delacorte Press
on April 22, 2025
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery, Thriller, Young Adult
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Two years ago, the murder of a neighbor tore three best friends apart--now the killer is going to walk free and the ex-friends are going to have to face the past--and each other--in another twisty thriller from the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Agathas.

Grace, Henry, and Ally grew up together on the same block. They used to be best friends--until Grace's testimony put Henry's brother, Jake, away for killing their English teacher. Now, two years later, Ally and Henry hate Grace, and Grace is doubting what she thinks she saw that night.

It feels like everyone's getting a second chance, then, when due to a mistrial, Jake is suddenly released. And Henry knows his brother is innocent, but when Grace reaches out to say she’s rethinking what she saw the night of the murder, Jake’s reaction is confusing. He doesn’t want Henry—or Grace--getting involved.

For Ally not getting involved isn’t an option, and there’s nothing Grace can say to convince Ally she’s not the enemy. But can Ally afford to push Grace out when she’s one of the only other people willing to believe in Jake’s innocence?

The clock is ticking. Jake’s new trial date is about to be set, and he's sure to be found guilty again unless there's new evidence to prove he's innocent. Grace, Henry, and Ally are going to have to decide whether you can trust an old friend now that they’re your enemy.

The Corruption of Hollis Brown

by K. Ancrum
Published by: HarperCollins
on April 22, 2025
Genres: Mystery, Paranormal, Thriller, Young Adult
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From acclaimed author K. Ancrum comes a queer romantic thriller in which the lives of Hollis, a boy in search of meaning, and Walt, a spirit with unfinished business, collide when Walt takes possession of Hollis's body...and maybe his heart. For fans of Adam Silvera and Aiden Thomas!

Hollis Brown is stuck. Born to a blue-collar American Dream, Hollis lives in a rotting small town where no one can afford to leave. Hollis's only bright spots are his two best friends, cool girls Annie and Yulia, and the thrill of fighting his classmates.

As if his circumstances couldn’t get worse, a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger named Walt results in a frightening trap. After unknowingly making a deal at the crossroads, Hollis finds himself losing control of his body and mind, falling victim to possession. Walt, the ghost making a home inside him, has a deep and violent history rooted in the town Hollis grew up in and he has unfinished business to take care of.

As Walt and Hollis begin working together to put Walt’s spirit to rest, an unspeakable bond forms between them, and the boys begin falling for one another in unexpected ways. But it’s only a matter of time before Hollis’s best friends begin to notice that something about Hollis isn’t quite…right.

With the threat of a long-overdue exorcism looming before them, will Walt and Hollis be able to protect their love and undo the curse that turned their town from a garden of possibility into a place where dreams go to die?

If We Were a Movie

by Zakiya N. Jamal
Published by: HarperCollins
on April 22, 2025
Genres: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA+, Young Adult
Bookshop
Goodreads

Lights. Camera. Love?

Rochelle “The Shell” Coleman is laser focused on only three things: becoming valedictorian, getting into Wharton, and, of course, taking down her annoyingly charismatic nemesis and only academic competition, Amira Rodriguez. However, despite her stellar grades, Rochelle’s college application is missing that extra special something: a job.

When Rochelle gets an opportunity to work at Horizon Cinemas, the beloved Black-owned movie theater, she begrudgingly jumps at the chance to boost her chances of getting into her dream school. There’s only one problem: Amira works there . . . and is also her boss.

Rochelle feels that being around Amira is its own kind of horror movie, but as the two begin working closely together, Rochelle starts to see Amira in a new light, one that may have her beginning to actually . . . like her?

But Horizon’s in trouble, and when mysterious things begin happening that make Horizon’s chances of staying open slim, it’s up to the employees to solve the mystery before it’s too late. But will love also find its way into the spotlight?