Cary Library's Best Books of 2023 - For Teens

"Imogen Scott may be hopelessly heterosexual, but shes got the Worlds Greatest Ally title locked down. She's never missed a Pride Alliance meeting. She knows more about queer media discourse than her very queer little sister. She even has two queer best friends. There's Gretchen, a fellow high school senior, who helps keep Imogen's biases in check. And then there's Lili--newly out and newly thriving with a cool new squad of queer college friends....

In an alternate Tang Dynasty China, aspiring royal alchemist Zilan, who has the ability to resurrect the dead, arrives in the capital to compete against the best alchemists in the country and becomes drawn into the dangerous political games of the royal family.

Sixteen-year-old Ivy's road trip across the country to get an abortion becomes a transformative journey of vulnerability, strength, and above all, choice. Ivy can't entirely believe it when the plus sign appears on the test. Now, instead of spending the summer in her small Texas town working at the local drugstore and swooning over her boyfriend, Lorenzo, she's planning a cross-country road trip to her grandmother's house on the West Coast, where...

"A romance about teens who devote themselves to granting other people's wishes, but are too afraid to let them selves have their own hearts' desires -- each other"--

As the newly crowned first Black king of England, seventeen-year-old James faces intense media scrutiny and a blackmailer intent on disclosing his deepest secrets, including his sexuality and hidden relationship. Heavy is the crown James has been born to wear, especially as the first Black heir to the British throne. But with his father's recent passing, and with a new boyfriend to hide, James is woefully unprepared for the sudden shine of public...

"16-year-old Raquel lives in a small town in Portugal, the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else's business. Her parents are divorced and she's just been suspended for cursing out a school aide asking about her father's new marriage. She has two best friends, Luísa and Fred, but wants something more. Then, from afar, she sees Pardalita, a senior and a gifted artist who's moving to Lisbon to study in the fall. The two girls get to know...

After the death of his best friend and the only other trans boy at school, Noah starts writing letters expressing his feelings to the humanoid creature Mothman and risks everything when he treks into the woods to prove Mothman's existence.

"From the New York Times bestselling author of the Brown Sisters trilogy, comes a laugh-out-loud story about a quirky content creator and a clean-cut athlete testing their abilities to survive the great outdoors--and each other. Bradley Graeme is pretty much perfect. He's a star football player, manages his OCD well (enough), and comes out on top in all his classes . . . except the ones he shares with his ex-best friend, Celine. Celine Bangura is...

When she learns that her brother is spreading the nation's secret spice magic to outsiders, sixteen-year-old Shield warrior Imani sets out on a dangerous mission to find him, discovering secrets that lie beyond the Forbidden Wastes--and in her own heart.

When Gil, a Black teen from Brooklyn, struggles to fit in at his primarily white Manhattan prep school, he wages a clandestine war against the racist administration, parents, and students, while working with other Black students to ensure their voices are finally heard. This is not how seventeen-year-old Gil imagined beginning his senior year--on the subway dressed in a tie and khakis headed towards Manhattan instead of his old public school in Brooklyn....