Riot Headline Book Riot’s 2025 Read Harder Challenge
Young Adult Literature

50 YA Books from #NastyWomenRead

Twitter, in its infinite wisdom, recommends YA novels for nasty women.

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Katie McLain Horner

Contributing Editor

Katie's parents never told her "no" when she asked for a book, which was the start of most of her problems. She has an MLIS from the University of Illinois and works full time as a Circulation & Reference Manager in Illinois. She has a deep-rooted love of all things disturbing, twisted, and terrifying and takes enormous pleasure in creeping out her coworkers. When she's not at work, she's at home watching the Cubs with her cats and her cardigan collection. Other hobbies include scrapbooking, introducing more readers to the Church of Tana French, and convincing her husband that she can, in fact, fit more books onto her shelves. Twitter: @kt_librarylady

View All posts by Katie McLain Horner

For those of you who have been taking shelter under a rock for the last few weeks, Donald Trump made a disparaging comment about Hillary Clinton and called her “a nasty woman.” Not surprisingly, this little comment backfired on the Donald and feminists everywhere started referring to themselves as “nasty women” with great pride and enthusiasm.

Over in the Twitter sphere, Karen Jensen of the Teen Librarian Toolbox took the nasty women comment an awesome step further and created the hashtag #NastyWomenRead, which asked followers for YA book recs that they’d give to their favorite nasty women. The response has been overwhelming and seriously awesome. Karen has collated many of these retweets in a comprehensive PDF for easy reference, but the suggestions keep pouring in from all directions. I pulled 50 of the most popular titles from Karen’s list, but it’s not even close to covering the scope of everyone’s suggestions. So start here, check out the full list, and start sharing these books with the nasty women in your life.  Feel leave your own suggestions in the comments!

six of crows

1. Speak – Laurie Halse Anderson

2. Six of Crows – Leigh Bardugo

3. Three Dark Crowns – Kendare Blake

4. Weetzie Bat – Francesca Lia Block

5. Beauty Queens – Libba Bray

6. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

7. Soulless – Gail Carriger

8. Graceling – Kristin Cashore

9. Tiny Pretty Things – Sonja Charaipotra & Dhonielle Clayton

10. Pointe – Brandy Colbert

labyrinth-lost-cover-cordova11. Labyrinth Lost – Zoraida Cordova

12. Audacity – Melanie Crowder

13. Other Broken Things – Christa Desir

14. These Shallow Graves – Jennifer Donnelly

15. The Skin I’m In – Sharon G. Flake

16. The Lie Tree – Frances Hardinge

17. Poisoned Apples: Poems For You, My Pretty by Christine Heppermann

18. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns – Mindy Kaling

19. Why Not Me? – Mindy Kaling

20. Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future – A.S. King

21. Delicate Monsters – Stephanie Kuehn

22. Under a Painted Sky – Stacey Lee

23. We Were Liars – e. Lockhart

24. The Young Elites – Marie Lu

25. Stalking Jack the Ripper – Kerri Maniscalco

26. On the Jellicoe Road – Melina Marchetta

27. Female of the Species – Mindy McGinnis

burn baby burn28. Burn Baby Burn – Meg Medina

29. Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass – Meg Medina

30. Dumplin’ – Julie Murphy

31. Shadowshaper – Daniel Jose Older

32. Out of Darkness – Ashley Hope Perez

33. Gabi, A Girl in Pieces – Isabel Quintero

34. Kissing in America – Margo Rabb

35. Juliet Takes a Breath – Gabby Rivera

36. Out of the Easy – Ruta Sepetys

37. Born Wicked – Jessica Spotswood

Lumberjanes Vol. 1 by Noelle Stevenson38. Lumberjanes – Noelle Stevenson

39. Nimona – Noelle Stevenson

40. The Raven Boys – Maggie Stiefvater

41. The Walls Around Us – Nova Ren Suma

42. All the Rage – Courtney Summers

43. Lies We Tell Ourselves – Robin Talley

44. Skim – Mariko Tamaki

45. Daughter of Smoke and Bone – Laini Taylor

46. A Mad Wicked Folly – Sharon Biggs Waller

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein47. Code Name Verity – Elizabeth Wein

48. Ms. Marvel – G. Willow Wilson

49. I Am Malala – Malala Yousafzai

50. All These Things I’ve Done – Gabrielle Zevin