100 books like Super Fake Love Song

This book is fire. For character arcs to work, the main character has to start with a flaw and then fix it by the end, but Kiera, a gaming programmer, is confident about her skills from the beginning.

I love that she knows exactly what her game is about, and she’s not about to let the outside world redefine it incorrectly. The flaw, in this case, is the world’s perception of her game. Today, the gaming world is still heavily male-dominated, so this book about a girl loving her craft, which, in turn, reinforces her confidence, is always high on my list of recommendations.

All of Johnson’s books are swoony and awesome, but I love that Jill works in the family business—just like Dakota and Leo do—fixing cars in her family’s auto shop. It’s not something you see a lot of girls doing in YA books, but it makes so much sense in her bigger struggle of being a “fixer” in her everyday life. I have no mechanical skills, but boy, do I relate to trying to fix things that were never really my problem to solve in the first place. Teens with complicated family dynamics will appreciate seeing themselves portrayed in an authentic, nuanced way. Johnson leaves the reader with a powerful but gentle message that when faced with impossible situations, sometimes you need to fix yourself first.      

This book is about the crushing disappointment that can derail overachievers when they don't reach their goals. What made this book unique, though, was the shenanigans Mischa and the “Ophelia Syndicate”—a group of tech-savvy girls flying under the school’s radar—get into as they solve a cyber-mystery at their elite prep school. I love watching girls own their “weirdness” and wielding it as their superpower. If you liked Never Have I Ever (Netflix), then you will enjoy this tale of an overachiever who learns some life-changing lessons and makes some new ride-or-die friends along the way.  

I wasn’t sure how Cornwell could possibly make a Cinderella retelling fresh and unique, but she did. She roots Nicolette—who her evil stepsisters call Mechanica—deep enough in the classic fairytale that we get all the satisfying beats, but then Cornwell turns them on their head. I love steampunk stories, and Cornwell replaces the Disney-fied animal helpers with mechanical insects and a metal horse fueled by coal and outlawed faery magic. She also addresses some outdated ideas in earlier renditions for a modern twist set in a Victorian-ish time period. Though Nicolette is not the first mechanical Cinderella on the YA bookshelf, Mechanica is not a rip-off of Marissa Meyer’s Cinder. I enjoyed both of them. 

Perhaps our greatest writer for children and young adult fiction, two-time Carnegie Medal winner Margaret Mahy, this book won the 2005 Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association. Essentially it’s a love story, but not as you’ve ever experienced it before. It’s brainy, surprising, endearing, and really, really worth a read!  

What kept me glued to this story was the touching portrayal of David. He’s on the autism spectrum. How people view him versus how he views the world captured my heart.

What To Say Next is told from dual perspectives. The other main character Kit is just as interesting even though, stereotypically, she’d be considered your average, popular, high school student. Buxbaum removes this stereotypical surface and reveals a strong, engaging character with a goal.

The characters pulled me into this story. Their genuineness is written with such honesty that you root for them in every good and bad moment, adoring even their less desirable personality traits because that’s what makes them relatable. 

Full disclosure: Mariko’s cousin, Gillian, attended my old high school, and part of the appeal of this book for me initially was the fact that I recognised so many details from that world. Kimberley “Skim” Cameron is a would-be Wiccan goth attending an all-girls private school that’s gone into high-gear mourning over the death of the boyfriend of one of its students. It’s poignant and perceptive and darkly funny, if somewhat angst-heavy. This was one of my earliest introductions to graphic novels and what the form can uniquely offer.

If I leave a graphic novel around the house, it will certainly be read.

This one, a memoir about the author’s student trip to Europe in the summer of 7th grade, hits just the right tone for middle schoolers making that break from childhood to teenager. The story takes place in the eighties (and Europe!), and the author has experiences that involve a level of freedom that’s rare for kids these days.

There are also the highs and lows of the first crush, and I love to know that my son has read this, even if he didn’t discuss it with me.

In the young adult novel, Exactly Where You Need to Be, best friends Florie and Kacey sneak off on a road trip in order to indulge their shared obsession with a true crime podcast.

Because of her O.C.D., Florie has often restricted her activities—she’s been homeschooled, doesn’t plan to go to college upon high school graduation, and has most of her life tightly controlled by her mother—and this road trip is an opportunity for her to challenge herself, as well as to test her strength and capabilities. 

I personally love this book because it is doing things I’d like to see more of in fiction: depicting a condition like O.C.D. as an important aspect of a person’s life, without either romanticizing it or making the character some sort of victim. And what’s more: Coombs’s novel showcases what supportive, accepting friendships and relationships can look like.

Let me start by saying…this book is gorgeous. Each page is so beautifully illustrated—I would genuinely recommend this book for the art alone.

The story, however, is just as much of a treat. I love this book because it features a wide variety of lesbian characters and tackles an important topic: representation of toxic relationships and the struggle to break out of them! I’ve certainly been there myself, and it made this story very relatable and meaningful for me.