Wake the Wild Creatures

Written by: Nova Ren Suma

First line: At first it was beautiful.

Why you should read this book: As long as she can remember, Thalia has lived at Neves, the crumbling, derelict remains of an old Catskills hotel, which shelters a motley assortment of vulnerable and abused women and children within a shroud of magical mist. On the first full moon after her thirteenth birthday, when she is prepared to become a full member of the community, tragedy strikes, her mother is arrested, and Thalia is sent to live with an aunt she's never known, in a stifling and unnatural suburban environment, in a room with a cousin who seems to despise her. But Thalia is convinced that her mother and her community will call her home, and she's been waiting patiently in her new, alien environment, for the day when the mist will open up and welcome her home again. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: One of the author's hallmark stylistic devices is to never explain any supernatural occurrence in any way whatsoever.

October, October

Written by: Katya Balen

First line: We find the owl at the very edge of our woods, the morning after the storm. 

Why you should read this book: October has always lived in the woods with her father, searching for treasure (and finding it!), climbing trees, howling at the sky, and living her intentional, wild, off-the-grid existence (now with a baby owl whose life she's saved), until the day the woman who is her mother turns up to wish her a happy birthday. Now her entire life has been turned upside down, and October is forced to confront her own prejudices while simultaneously adapting to the strange new world that is modern London and the parent whose love she has chosen to reject for so long. This is a lovely, compelling story about that magical moment in our lives where we must take accounting of the inventory of our own childhoods, and determine what should be kept for the rest of our lives and what needs to be left behind in the dustbin of history.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You think children should just do what they're told the first time you ask. 

Nana & Karou Volume 4

Written by: Ryuta Amazume

First line: What am I doing?

Why you should read this book: As graduation approaches, Nana and Kaoru continue having increasingly intense BDSM sessions while revealing to themselves the depths of their feelings for one another. Kaoru tries to improve his grades so Nana won't leave him behind at college, while giving her everything she needs to finish out her high school career strong, weathering her own tribulations and never letting anyone down. For her part, Nana begins to worry about a life without Kaoru, and begins to think more carefully about his needs and happiness.

Why you shouldn't read this book: This is a softcore BDSM manga that contains, among other things, three entire chapters of teenage perverts scouring the internet to find an obscure pegging video from the '90s for a dude they don't even like as a person, in the name of helping him regain his pride. If this is distasteful or nonsensical to you, likely you should not get anywhere near this book. 

Crevice: A Life Between Worlds

Written by: Anna Redsand

First line: We drove across endless white alkaline flats into the Navajo Nation.

Why you should read this book: These thirteen thoughtful, provocative essays detail the relationship between the author, a white woman; and the land and people of Dinetah, the Navajo Reservation where she grew up, which will always remain her "home-not-home." Although this is the land of her childhood and her memories, Redsand's life and experience have always showed her the divide between the rich cultural traditions of her friends and neighbors and the paternalist, colonialist intentions of her missionary parents. Like all "Third Culture Kids," she struggles to locate her own identity, feeling acutely that she does not belong in either world, and it takes the space of thirteen essays to unpack all the knowledge and emotion she has accumulated around the in-between spaces in which she has always existed.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You are a proponent of assimilation. 

Hatchet

Written by: Gary Paulsen

First line: Brian Robeson stared out the window of the small plane at the endless green northern wilderness below.

Why you should read this book: Thirteen-year-old Brian is consumed with the secret knowledge that his mother cheated on his father, which is why they are divorced, and the reason Brian is a passenger in a Cessna flying across Canada to spend the summer with his father in the oil fields, all of which becomes suddenly much less important when the pilot has a heart attack and dies mid-flight. Armed with only the little hatchet his mother gave him before his trip, Brian manages to survive the crash and use every ounce of strength in his body and lick of intelligence in his brain to continue surviving alone in the wilderness. A modern-class boy-versus-nature story highlighting the resilience of the human spirit and the boundless nature of human ingenuity in the face of uncertainty.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You would never give a teenager an edged blade. 

The Sociopath Next Door

Written by: Martha Stout, PhD

First line: Imagine--if you can--not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members.

Why you should read this book: In accessible language written for a lay audience, the author demystifies the concept known to many as sociopathy, a popular term for the constellation of mental disorders that spring up around the roughly four percent of the population who, for whatever reason, lack a conscience. She demonstrates that such individuals, while often sensationalized in the media as bloodthirsty killers, are typically small, mundane people living small, mundane lives, and also making everyone around them miserable for their own satisfaction. This book endeavors to explain the internal processes of the sociopath, and help other recognize these tendencies in those around them. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It was published twenty years ago, but you will almost certainly recognize some terrifying aspects of modern America in its pages.