8 Indian young adult books you should checkout

Blurb:

Aftab, a young Kashmiri boy, leads a double life. By day, he is a normal, bubbly teenager whose prime concerns are cricket, family and friends. The night holds the secrets of the life of a child, one who sneaks away to confabulate with Akram and his fledgling group of tearaway terrorists. Akram, so handsome, so exciting. But what Aftab doesn’t realize, so dangerous. Aftab is in compleete awe of Akram and is willing to follow him to the ends of the earth. And Akram is more than willing to send him there. Though set against the militancy in Kashmir, this novel could belong anywhere in today’s world where violence is just a breath away.

A brave story, never told in so raw a form, this is ‘reality fiction’ at its most real.

A book for young adults – and for adults of all ages – who live in a world where ‘cops and robbers’ is not fun any more, but a deadly game.

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Blurb:

These are beautiful, subtle poems-sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always thought-provoking. They talk about the things that young people struggle with: rejection, learning to find their feet, trying to fit in and being forced to conform.

Written in Adil Jussawalla‘s terse and sharp style, with stunning and suggestive illustrations by Gunjan Ahlawat, this is a book for those who value beauty in words and visuals.

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Blurb:

Nothing can come between Oli and Champas friendship. Not even the fact that the latter is the daughter of Olis domestic help. Confidants, study mates and most importantly, star footballers on a mixed football team the girls are inseparable. Until now.

On the threshold of adolescence, the boys decide the girls can’t play on the team any more. The girls, however, are feisty and passionate about the game and are determined to play. Oli finds a coach. And Champa? For the first time, Champa has a secret that she doesn’t share with her bestie. A secret that will lead her on a journey fraught with dangers and no certainty of success. A secret that has Oli wondering: Where is Champa? Who was the sinister man following her? Has she been killed or kidnapped?

A beautiful story of friendship that will shake notions of what’s suitable for girls and what’s appropriate for boys; what’s beautiful and what’s ugly; and why differences in class cannot come between soul-mates.

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Blurb:

One night is all it takes.

A party turns into a nightmare for four teenagers.

Alisha guards a secret that will shatter those who know her.

Sharad is crushed under his family’s expectations.

Good little Ruhi makes a single mistake that will come back to haunt her.

And AK is let down disastrously by those he trusts the most.

As they struggle through this pitch-black time in their lives, they must make life-changing choices that could hurl them backwards, or help them claw towards the light.

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Blurb:

‘I was adopted, just as I had suspected for years.’

Anu’s life sucks. Her curly, unruly hair reminds everyone of a famous godman, Parvati Didi’s agarbattis make her gag, she has to dissect cockroaches in school, none of her crushes reciprocate her feelings and she’s always, always in detention. But through all these, her lovely, funny family has always been there for her.

So when a secret tumbles out of the closet and tears her family apart, Anu is shattered. Now along with boys, teachers and boring history classes, she also has to deal with a sister who is no longer a sister, and parents who are bewildered and hurt. Will things ever go back to normal again?

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Blurb:

Didda, princess of Lohara, is beautiful, intelligent—and lame.

Despised by her father and bullied by his heir, Didda’s childhood is miserable and her future, bleak.

When she is married off to the dissolute ruler of Kashmira, she must learn to hold her own in a court ridden with factions and conspiracies. But Didda is no ordinary queen. Ruthless and ambitious, she wants to rewrite history. Will she succeed?

Queen of Ice is a compulsive read that brings alive the turbulent history of tenth-century Kashmir with an exquisite balance of fact and fiction. This is award-winning author Devika Rangachari’s finest novel yet.

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Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Asmara is popular, funny and pretty, but has a secret that could destroy her street cred in college: her grandparents live on Tannery Road, an area known for its lower-middle-class Muslim population-an area she’s always ensured she’s avoided. And now, to her horror, she discovers that she must spend her entire summer vacation there. Will it be a nightmare, or a lesson in self-discovery? Or both? Will Asmara find herself in the bylanes of Tannery Road?

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Blurb:

What do you do when you discover an unspeakable truth about your parents? The Diwanchand family boasted of having only sons, no daughters. The water from a magical well in their farmhouse was the reason behind this ‘good fortune’, they said.

One day, fifteen-year-old Gurmi sets out to look for the well and what he sees changes everyone’s world forever. The faces of three girls look up at him from the water, and draw him into a world of fun, games and cyber magic—and Gurmi has to face up to an unnerving truth as murky as the surreal well.

What terrible crimes have been committed behind the walls of the rambling Diwanchand family home? Will Gurmi and the ghost-girls be able to avenge the evil that has taken place and prevent yet another unspeakable atrocity from occurring?

Funny, yet sensitive and immensely powerful, Faces in the Water is the story of lives lost to appease our society’s insatiable hunger for male children, and the price families pay for its sake.

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