You've probably been hearing a lot about the #MeToo movement lately, and for good reason. YA authors are no strangers to sexual assault and they refuse to be silent. All of the following books feature sexual abuse or assault in some way, shape or form. These authors wrote these stories because they want their readers to understand, recognize, and empathize.
TRIGGER WARNING: In addition to sexual assault, many of these titles also deal with suicide and self-harm. The most important thing is that you take care of YOU. So if you think these titles will be triggering or will upset you in anyway, we advise you skip past this book list.
Fifteen-year-old Janna Yusuf, a Flannery O'Connor-obsessed book nerd and the daughter of the only divorced mother at their mosque, tries to make sense of the events that follow when her best friend's cousin--a holy star in the Muslim community--attempts to assault her at the end of sophomore year.
A traumatic event near the end of the summers has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.
Also available as a graphic novel.
In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, sixteen-year-old half-Hindu/half-Parsi Zarin Wadia is the class troublemaker and top subject for the school rumor blogs, regularly leaving class to smoke cigarettes in cars with boys, but she also desperately wants to grow up and move out of her aunt and uncle's house, perhaps realizing too late that Porus, another non-Muslim Indian who risks deportation but remains devoted to Zarin, could help her escape. When the two end up dead in a car on a highway in Jeddah, it becomes clear she was far more than a "girl like that."
When Mara's twin brother Owen is accused of rape by her friend Hannah, Mara is forced to confront her feelings about her family, her sense of right and wrong, a trauma from her past, and the future with her girlfriend, Charlie.
Enraged by the boys who raped her best friend and drove her to suicide, senior Hadley targets each of the perpetrators to strip them of their dignity and status before her increasingly dangerous choices make her question her motives.
When Grace and Gavin fall in love, Grace is sure it's too good to be true. She has no idea their relationship will become a prison she's unable to escape.
A gender-fluid teenager who struggles with identity creates a blog on the topic that goes viral, and faces ridicule at the hands of fellow students.
As she struggles to recover and survive, seventeen-year-old homeless Charlotte "Charlie" Davis cuts herself to dull the pain of abandonment and abuse.
Told from two viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Raychel relies on the support of her overachieving best friend Matt while secretly sleeping with his brother Andrew, and Matt tries to play hero and hide how much he loves her.
The story of a town torn apart by the events surrounding the rape of drunk girl at a house party, from the perspective of the partygoers who witnessed it.
At cheerleading camp, Hermione is drugged and raped, but she is not sure whether it was one of her teammates or a boy on another team. In the aftermath she has to deal with the rumors in her small Ontario town, the often awkward reaction of her classmates, the rejection of her boyfriend, the discovery that her best friend, Polly, is gay, and above all the need to remember what happened so that the guilty boy can be brought to justice.
After five years of fighting his way past flickers of memory about the teacher who molested him and the incident that brought the crime to light, eighteen-year-old Josh gets help in coping with his molestor's release from prison when he finally tells his best friends the whole truth.
High school senior Rosie Fuller struggles to cope with a sexual assault, a new romance, problems with her best friend, and feeling distant from her mother.
In a small Texas town where high school football reigns supreme, Viv, sixteen, starts a feminist revolution using anonymously-written zines.
Bethan, apprentice to a Welsh Roma witch, is harassed by the son of
the clan's chieftan and then, after a brutal assault against her and a
friend, must collect grisly objects to save her friend's life.
In a small town where everyone knows everyone, Emma O'Donovan is
different. She is the special one - beautiful, popular, powerful. And
she works hard to keep it that way. Until that night ... Now, she's an
embarrassment. Now, she's just a slut. Now, she is nothing. And those
pictures - those pictures that everyone has seen - mean she can never
forget.
Angie's quest for the truth behind her best friend's suicide drives her deeper into the dark, twisted side of Verity High.
A day in the life of a suicidal teen boy saying good-bye to the four people who matter most to him.
Fifteen-year-old Kendra, a budding artist, has not felt safe since she began to recall devastating memories of childhood sexual abuse, especially since she cannot remember her abuser's identity, and she copes with the pressure by cutting herself.
After Grace learns of a girl who was run out of town for accusing the popular guys at school of gang rape, she convinces her friends Rosina and Erin to help her form an anonymous group of girls, called The Nowhere Girls, to resist the sexist culture at Prescott High. As their group grows in number their movement becomes about more than sex, and transforms the lives of its members, their school, and the entire community.
After fourteen-year-old Eden is raped by her brother's best friend, she knows she'll never be the way she used to be.
After being assaulted by the sheriff's son, Kellan Turner, Romy Grey
was branded a liar and bullied by former friends, finding refuge only in
the diner where she works outside of town, but when a girl with ties to
both Romy and Kellan goes missing and news of him assaulting another
girl gets out, Romy must decide whether to speak out again or risk
having more girls hurt.
Sadie's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated Colorado town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water. When Mattie is found dead, and the police investigation is botched, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice. She hits the road following a few meager clues. When a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America hears Sadie's story, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.
Identical twins Joy and Grace could not be more different. Joy is the wild child who revels in angering her parents while Grace strives to be the daughter with stellar grades. Their world is torn asunder with the death of a popular musician at their high school because Joy believes she caused his death, while drunk, as revenge for his sexual assault of Grace. Joy's fears are confirmed when she receives mysterious notes from a blackmailer, and as the sisters try to learn the truth, they discover grimy secrets just beneath the facade of their seemingly idyllic town.
When Alex, a junior at an elite preparatory school, realizes that she may have been the victim of date rape, she confides in her roommates and sister who convince her to seek help from a secret society, the Mockingbirds.
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