Kirkus Best Books of the Year - YA Mystery and Thriller (Awarded by Kirkus)

Awards List

2023

My Flawless Life
(*)
Yvonne Woon

A Long Stretch of Bad Days
(*)
Mindy McGinnis

Into the Light
(*)
Mark Oshiro

Warrior Girl Unearthed
(*)
Angeline Boulley

Good as Gold
(*)
Candace Buford

Some Shall Break
(*)
Ellie Marney

And Don't Look Back
(*)
Rebecca Barrow

Bittersweet in the Hollow
(*)
Kate Pearsall

The Voice Upstairs
(*)
Laura E. Weymouth

2022

Queen of the Tiles
(*)
Hanna Alkaf

Very Bad People
(*)
Kit Frick

Family of Liars
(*)
E. Lockhart

Hollow Fires
(*)
Samira Ahmed

The Arc
(*)
Ben Oliver

I'm the Girl
(*)
Courtney Summers

Nothing More to Tell
(*)
Karen M. McManus

The Lies We Tell
(*)
Katie Zhao

2021

The Girls I've Been
(*)
Tess Sharpe

The Project
(*)
Courtney Summers

She's Too Pretty to Burn
(*)
Wendy Heard

The Block
(*)
Ben Oliver

All Our Hidden Gifts
(*)
Caroline O'Donoghue

The Box in the Woods
(*)
Maureen Johnson

The Dead and the Dark
(*)
Courtney Gould

The River Has Teeth
(*)
Erica Waters

White Smoke
(*)
Tiffany D. Jackson

2020

The Hand on the Wall
(*)
Maureen Johnson

The Loop
(*)
Ben Oliver

Agnes at the End of the World
(*)
Kelly McWilliams

Girl, Unframed
(*)
Deb Caletti

Elatsoe
(*)
Darcie Little Badger

The Inheritance Games
(*)
Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Surrender Your Sons
(*)
Adam Sass

Throwaway Girls
(*)
Andrea Contos

Me & Mr. Cigar
(*)
Gibby Haynes

Award Categories

Affirming Picture Books

Bedtime Books

Beginning Readers

Board Books

Book Club Fiction

Books for Beginning Readers

Debut Fiction

Empowering Picture Books

Environmental Fiction

Fiction

Fiction in Translation

Fictional Families

Fictional Voices

Funniest Picture Books

Historical Fiction

Informational Picture Books

Joyous Picture Books

Middle-Grade About Speaking Up

Middle-Grade Activist

Middle-Grade Adventures

Middle-Grade Family Stories

Middle-Grade Fantasy and SF

Middle-Grade Fiction

Middle-Grade Friendship Stories

Middle-Grade Graphic Fiction

Award Years

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019