Standalone Heartwrenchers
I will never forget the first time I cried reading a book; it was a Tears of a Tiger by Sharon M. Draper. Another time- Perfect by Natasha Friend. I always read in the morning, in homeroom, and I had to collect myself before first period. But I walked through the halls like a ghost for the rest of the day, floating through my classes, and all I could think about were these stories.
Heartwrenchers are a special kind of book. They make a lasting impression on you and remind us how powerful sharing stories can really be. As James Baldwin said: “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.”
So, enjoy this list, my beautiful NOVL-ers! (But maybe avoid reading these in public places- take it from someone who’s teachers soon became mildly concerned.)
I’ll Be Waiting For You
by Mariko Turk
I would say this book ticks all my boxes. It has supernatural elements, an unbreakable girlhood friendship (one of the most powerful forces in the world), and a romantic storyline as well. Oh, and the cover? Stunning.
Perfect for fans of the tearjerker You’ve Reached Sam, this emotional will-they-won’t-they romance follows Natalie and Leander, two teens who navigate love, loss, and everything in between during a fateful summer internship.
Natalie and Imogen are inseparable, and wildly different—Imogen is infuriatingly humble and incredibly intelligent, while Natalie is brave, jumping into danger and new adventures. Still, one thing ties them together: their love of the supernatural. Every summer, they vacation with their parents at the famously haunted Harlow Hotel. Imogen is a true believer, while Natalie sees ghost stories as nothing but pure fun.
Then, Imogen suddenly passes away from an undiagnosed heart condition that no one saw coming, and Natalie is left to take on the summer before senior year alone.
Without Imogen, Natalie throws herself into her senior project. Her passion is still horror, so she plans to spend her summer back at The Harlow Hotel recording fun fake footage that will get her on the teen ghost hunting show of her dreams. And her plans would be a lot less complicated if Leander, her irritatingly attractive arch rival from school, wasn’t working on his senior project at the very same hotel.
The longer Natalie stays at the Harlow Hotel, the more she realizes that Leander might be helpful for her project. After all, she could use an extra hand to help record her fake footage.
But, when strange things start happening at the Harlow, Natalie wonders, could there really be something to these ghosts after all?
An Appetite for Miracles
This novel, written in verse, is absolutely gorgeous. It’s a slow, beautiful love song that you will want to replay again and again in your head.
Award-winning author Laekan Zea Kemp’s heart-wrenching novel-in-verse follows two teens who must come together to heal the pain from their pasts, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Nicola Yoon.
Danna Mendoza Villarreal’s grandfather is slowly losing himself as his memories fade, and Danna’s not sure her plan to help him remember through the foods he once reviewed will be enough to bring him back. Especially when her own love of food makes her complicated relationship with her mother even more difficult.
Raúl Santos has been lost ever since his mother was wrongly incarcerated two years ago. Playing guitar for the elderly has been his only escape, to help them remember and him forget. But when his mom unexpectedly comes back into his life, what is he supposed to do when she isn’t the same person who left?
When Danna and Raúl meet, sparks fly immediately and they embark on a mission to heal her grandfather … and themselves. Because healing is something best done together—even if it doesn’t always look the way we want it to.
As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow
I’ve never read a book like this one- it’s 100% required reading for this list! Somehow this book manages to find beauty even in the darkest, most horrible moments. Yes, I cried on the subway.
A love letter to Syria and its people, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow is a speculative novel set amid the Syrian Revolution, burning with the fires of hope, love, and possibility. Perfect for fans of The Book Thief and Salt to the Sea.
Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her big brother; she still had her home. She had a normal teenager’s life.
Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion, Khawf, who haunts her every move in an effort to keep her safe.
But even with Khawf pressing her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive. Salama must contend with bullets and bombs, military assaults, and her shifting sense of morality before she might finally breathe free. And when she crosses paths with the boy she was supposed to meet one fateful day, she starts to doubt her resolve in leaving home at all.
Soon, Salama must learn to see the events around her for what they truly are—not a war, but a revolution—and decide how she, too, will cry for Syria’s freedom.
No Going Back
This book is fast-paced- not just heartwrenching, but heart pounding. You won’t be able to put it down, and the prose is so honest and poetic. Antonio’s story will leave you full of hope.
In this tour de force about one teen’s quest for redemption from the award-winning author of American Road Trip, Antonio is determined to make amends to the people he hurt most—even if it means breaking the terms of his early release from juvenile detention.
It’s Friday morning, and seventeen-year-old Antonio Sullivan is on the verge of earning his early release from Zephyr Woods Youth Detention Center. Having been incarcerated for the last year and a half for a crime he didn’t directly commit, he’s now dedicating himself to his education and his sobriety program. What’s more, Antonio is driven by a deep need to make amends to the two people he hurt the most: his mom and his lifelong best friend, Maya. The conditions of his early release are clear—Antonio can’t have any contact with his father or miss his first meeting with his parole officer Monday morning. But a lot can happen between Friday and Monday, especially when the odds are against you.
Told through time-stamped chapters that race at a fever pitch over the course of a weekend, this absorbing coming-of-age novel explores what it means to right past wrongs in the face of adversity.
Right Here, Right Now
This is a tearjerker romance, full of twists and turns. If you’ve made it this far down the list, I hope you’ve got another box of tissues ready!
Two teens process grief, loss, and life across multiple universes in this story of love, friendship, and possibility perfect for fans of You’ve Reached Sam.
Worlds turn. Particles spin. Love endures.
There are infinite universes in which Elise never dies. Her best friend, Anna, never has to mourn her or choose between the weight of her grief and the weight of her ambition. Her cousin, Liam, never has to lose another loved one or fight to find purpose in a life that already doesn’t feel like his own.
But Liam and Anna do not get to choose the universe in which they live. Across multiple worlds, their paths collide as they wrestle with what it takes to save someone else and how to face love and loss on a quantum scale.
This moving, lyrical novel introduces two teens on the cusp of finding out who they are while finding each other again and again.
Sway With Me
This is one of the first books I read when I started at LBYR, and I was floored. Sweet, sweet Arsalan will steal your heart. And it’s chock full of wisdom from Nana—I have so many passages underlined that my pen nearly ran out of ink.
She’s All That goes desi in this hilarious, affecting, and sweetly romantic comedy by the author of More Than Just a Pretty Face.
Arsalan has learned everything he knows from Nana, his 100-year-old great-grandfather. This includes the fact that when Nana dies, Arsalan will be completely alone in the world, except for his estranged and abusive father. So he turns to Beenish, the step-daughter of a prominent matchmaker, to find him a future life partner. Beenish’s request in return? That Arsalan help her ruin her older sister’s wedding with a spectacular dance she’s been forbidden to perform.
Despite knowing as little about dancing as he does about girls, Arsalan wades into Beenish’s chaotic world to discover friends and family he never expected. And though Arsalan’s old-school manners and Beenish’s take-no-prisoners attitude clash every minute, they find themselves getting closer and closer—literally. All that’s left to realize is that the thing they both really want is each other, if only they can get in step.
At turns laugh-out-loud funny, poignant, and sincerely heartfelt, Sway With Me is a coming-of-age story for anyone trying to find their place in the world.
Every Last Word
This list wouldn’t be complete without Every Last Word. This stunning and powerful book will stay with you; it illustrates perfectly how words can be so important on journeys of healing.
The New York Times bestselling, BookTok sensation, deeply moving novel of friendship, first love, mental health, and belonging, perfect for fans of Girl in Pieces and The Summer of Broken Rules
If you could read my mind, you wouldn’t be smiling.
Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can’t turn off.
Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn’t help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she’d be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam’s weekly visits to her psychiatrist.
Caroline introduces Sam to Poet’s Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more “normal” than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . . . until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.