YA Books That Will Make You Cry

Secrets are revealed as OCD-afflicted Griffin grieves for his first love, Theo, who died in a drowning accident.

There are two things that Corinne Parker knows to be true: that she is in love with Maggie Bailey, the captain of the rival high school's cross-country team and her secret girlfriend of a year, and that she isn't ready for anyone to know she's bisexual. But then Maggie dies, and Corinne quickly learns that the only thing worse than losing Maggie is being left heartbroken over a relationship no one knows existed. And to make things even more complicated,...

While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weighs whether to live with her grief or join her family in death.

Theodore Finch, a boy who thinks too much about death, and Violet Markey, a girl whose only thoughts are escaping high school and the painful memory of her sister's death, meet six stories above the ground on the ledge of the school bell tower. Who saves who from jumping is a mystery, but the boy and girl become unlikely friends and more-than-friends, even as their worlds grow further apart.

When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death.

Marin has not spoken to anyone from her old California home and life since the day she left it all behind to go to college in New York. Now it is winter break, and she is spending it in her empty dorm. When her old best friend Mabel finds out, she decides to pay Marin a visit, forcing them both to face everything that has been left unsaid about their relationships and to confront their loneliness.

As World War II draws to a close, four teens meet aboard the "Wilhelm Gustloff" a cruise ship that will give them passage out of Prussia before the Russians overtake the retreating German troops. The cruise ship, built to hold 1,500 passengers, is laden with over 10,000 desperate people. The four band together and try to survive when a Russian torpedo slams into the ship.