Sometimes, that teen section in Barnes and Noble can be a gold mine. Though young adult books often tend to share similar characteristics, such as certain dystopian or fantastical elements, with each book, there comes a new world. Next time you're in your local library or bookstore, check these out.

1.Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Through letters to an unknown friend, Chbosky creates a gripping tale of an adolescent boy, Charlie, struggling to adjust to high school and everyday life, coming to terms with his demons and how to deal with them. At first glance, the novel sounds like a cliche, but within this small paperback is a map to a boy's mind, a boy who has suffered far more than he had even known. Charlie is, unsurprisingly, a wallflower - he is acutely aware of everything going on around him, from his observations of love, abuse, and everything in between. There is a surprising amount of both pain and joy in these pages, two unending emotions that come with the bitterness of youth, and Charlie is a perfect lens, a refreshingly blunt perspective on adolescent life.

2. The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare

The prequel series to The Mortal Instruments, Clare weaves a story around Mortmain, a terrifying figure who threatens the London Shadowhunter Institute, an institute which houses warriors who fight against demons. The books mainly focus around Tessa Gray, a seemingly mundane girl, who slowly learns of a gift that is an inherent part of her skin. Set in the same world as The Mortal Instruments, Clare tells a story of love - perhaps the most beautiful kind of love. The first book, Clockwork Angel, starts off rather slow, but Clockwork Prince displays heart-wrenching secrets, leading to the epic conclusion of the trilogy: Clockwork Princess.There is the most idealistic love triangle, a tangled web of three characters who will unflinchingly put each other before themselves, no matter what the situation. What makes this story great are the characters - characters who live and breathe and make the words come to life. There is a tale here, one of such aching heartbreak and love that it is hard to stomach, maybe because there's a kind of beauty in their love that is hard to find anywhere else - in any book, movie, or world.

3. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Set in a fantasy world, Maas focuses Calaena Sardothien, a female assassin forced to compete in the prince's competition to become the royal assassin. Calaena is probably one of the most likable assassins you'll ever meet - despite having just escaped a form of slavery, she still retains her inherent sense of wit, swagger, vanity, and her love for killing - and she's good at it. The series is full of twists and turns: by the last book released, Queen of Shadows, it's hard to believe that these are the same characters in the same world. Each book ends in a twist, making a series with complex, dynamic, ever-changing characters in an ever-changing world, as pieces of their history come to light.

4. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Reminiscent of Throne of Glass, the story follows Mare Barrow, a girl whose blood runs Red in a world dominated by those with Silver blood. Soon, she is thrust into the Silver court, only to find that she has an impossible power, leading the king to force her to marry one of his sons. Mare must learn to navigate the politics of court, and quickly, to save her own life and those she loves. Aveyard writes an unapologetic female lead, as Mare has both the strength and power to unrelentingly shatter everyone in her wake. Around halfway through the book, a plot twist changes everything; betrayal after betrayal keeps both Mare and the reader on their toes. Glass Sword, the second in this trilogy, only heightens the tensions between everyone, as it seems probable that a turn of a page, half of the characters have the chance to be slaughtered.

5. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

A girl goes to a private island, one she used to visit each summer, catching up with her childhood friends. They all share a special bond, but an accident changed everything - she's watched closely, and now she must try and piece together her past. Lockhart expertly crafts a tale of suspense, with an ending so shocking and haunting that it makes you need to turn back to the first page, just to figure out what you missed.

6. The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

In New York, there are a group of Shadowhunters - humans who are gifted to fight demons, without the notice of mundanes, people who live day to day without any notion of the dangers around them. Originally meant to be a trilogy, each book delves deeper and deeper into the characters, as they grow and change their ways to defeat the villains around them, even if the very people trying to kill them are the ones that raised them. The first three books are plot driven, and the last three books have a slower plot, and focus more on the characters themselves. The books coincide with The Infernal Devices, as Clare writes a world so hauntingly flawed, with its issues of racism and hierarchy, and characters, much like us, who are so real and unrelenting in their quest to save the ones they love. (Disclaimer: the books are nothing like any of the adaptations.)

7. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Juliette is in pain - she's been imprisoned for nearly a year in solitary confinement. Her parents threw her out of the house, because she cannot touch anyone without killing them. This drives her nearly insane, as a gentle heart cannot exist with a violent body. Mafi's writing style is incredibly distinctive, much like a stream of consciousness novel. Juliette begins as broken as you would imagine someone who has gone through the horrors she has, but by the third installment of the trilogy, Ignite Me, her growth is evident even through Mafi's writing style. Juliette has never forgiven herself for her very existence, and through the books, she begins to come to terms with what it means to be truly alive, rather than to merely exist.

8. Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

Told through poems, three characters live in a psychiatric hospital after attempting suicide. Their stories interweave, as the characters find each other and try to shake off their vices. Despite the dark nature, there are moments of humor, even if dark and sarcastic, as Hopkins uses a different medium of writing to let the reader navigate the broken minds of the characters she created.

9. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Around the age of ten, children are sent to rehabilitation camps and divided into four groups: Orange, Green, Yellow and Blue. They are classified by their powers and by the level of danger they present - yet they are all forced into a type of slave labor, unknown to their parents or the rest of the country. Ruby is one of these children, pretending to be a different color than she is to avoid execution. Soon, she meets a group of three children on the run, and she must learn to live life as a runaway and see if she is capable of trust anymore. Bracken's trilogy tells a story of friendship and love, and a need to force a world to see children as humans once more.

10. The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Millay writes a novel rooted in subtlety - Nastya Kashnikov is an enigma, arriving at a new high school, refusing to speak, with only one goal: to exact revenge on the boy who took her life away from her. She is a medical miracle: was almost murdered, yet, she survived a seemingly random hate crime. Josh Bennett, a loner whose entire family has been long dead, soon tries to figure out the puzzle that is Nastya, despite the front she puts up for the rest of the world. Strikingly heartbreaking, Millay creates a story of two teenagers who have to find a way to deal with death, whether it is the death of themselves or their loved ones.

Happy reading!