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YA Dude Books

YA books for guys

(and anyone who loves a great read)

Ready for your next YA obsession?

We’re digging into the books that grab guys and keep everyone turning pages.

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Diverse YA – your next great read, whether you’re a dude or not

YA Dude Books for guys (and anyone who loves a great read): From epic fantasy to gripping thrillers to inspiring non-fiction and everything in between, we’re reviewing the diverse landscape of young adult fiction with a focus on what resonates with guys – but great reads know no gender!

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Recommendations

Check out our latest review

Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He also likes avoiding people his own age. Jake has read about kids like himself in books—the weird one, the outsider—and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake punish himself before he truly disappears?

A fictionalized account of the author’s experiences and emotions living in residential treatment facilities as a young teen with an eating disorder, Louder Than Hunger is a triumph of raw honesty. With a deeply personal afterword for context, this much-anticipated verse novel is a powerful model for muffling the destructive voices inside, managing and articulating pain and embracing self-acceptance, support and love.

Author Interview

Check out our interview with Alan Orloff

Alan Orloff is an award-winning mystery, horror and thriller author whose 13 novels include two for young adults, his latest being Driving the Bugmobile (2025, Level Best Books). His awards include an Anthony, an Agatha, a Derringer and two Thriller Awards. He has also been a finalist for the detective-fiction Shamus Award.

Born in Washington D.C. and raised in Maryland, he graduated from the University of Maryland with a mechanical engineering degree, later earning his Master of Business Administration degree at MIT/Sloan. He has worked many different jobs and careers, from supervising nuclear-submarine assembly workers to doing market research and producing newsletters on waste reduction and recycling.