2025 Latine YA Titles to Preorder ASAP, plus YA Book News, October 10, 2024

Dan Stewart-Álvarez has always lived on the road with his mother, who is a free spirit. As much as he has craved a more stable home life, being dropped off to live with his grandparents, who he has never met, was not what he meant. Now he’s in rural, conservative Tennessee trying to make a life with strangers while being queer in a community that wouldn’t tolerate that.

But as he grows into himself and his new life, Dan might come to understand what family looks like–and it might not look like what he imagined.

This is a spin on Anne of Green Gables, featuring a queer Latino main character.

Gabriel Piña is a college freshman and he’s got his eyes set on continuing his stardom on the football (the soccer variety) field. He’s definitely straight–at least, he is until he begins to develop feelings for Vale, who is tutoring Gabi in philosophy. Gabi kissed Vale once at a party and now it seems the “not having feelings” beliefs are anything but true.

The trouble is that being bisexual will be damning for Gabi on the football field. Queerness isn’t welcomed in the sport, especially professionally.

This is a romance, so you know how it’s going to end. The story is set over the course of Gabi’s freshman year, so readers who love college-set stories will dig this one. Sounds a bit like one that would do well with fans of Check Please.

Flora Braddock Paz has always considered herself weak. She’s not the proud survivor or leader she’s seen in movies or in her real life. But six months into a pandemic that is turning people into zombie-like creatures, Flora knows she and her little brother need to leave their desolate Los Angeles suburb. Their mother has died and their father went missing. Flora believes that if she and Cain can get to their family’s cabin in northern California, not only can they find some safety, they might eventually be able to reunite with their father.

The trip is dangerous. It is long. It is also painful, as it unlocks Flora’s memories of the last time her family made it together just one year earlier. Will she be able to survive and keep her little brother safe on the journey?

This survival horror thriller is being called The Walking Dead meets Yellowjackets.

Estrella (Noche) Villanueva is grieving the loss of her girlfriend Dante, who accidentally drowned. During the day, Noche is that girl, plus the nerdiest science kid ever. But at night, Noche is a Lechuza, an owl who guides the dead into the afterlife. Noche can’t do that, though, with Dante. Instead, she visits Dante every night to spend just a little more time together with her spirit. That puts both of them in danger.

When Jax moves to town, Noche is almost immediately smitten. He loves science, too, and now she’s beginning to wonder if she can move on from the tragic end of her relationship with Dante.

But there might be other things in the cards for Noche, as well as both Jax and Dante. Noche may have gone too far off the course of being a Lechuza in her pain.

Want some more? Then look no further. Here are several other Latine YA titles hitting shelves in 2025 for your TBR/To-Be-Preordered: