Here are our favorite survival stories for high schoolers. These titles are classified as Teen High School (TH) and can be found in the Teen section of the library, unless otherwise noted. |
|
|
|
Under the Surface
by Diana Urban
Ruby and her friends are on their way to an exclusive party in the Paris catacombs when they become lost in the maze of bones beneath the city. As they struggle to find their way out, they uncover dark secrets about the catacombs and each other as something sinister stalks them, determined to make sure they don’t survive the night.
|
|
|
|
The Kill Factor
by Ben Oliver
When a new game show offers young criminals a shot at freedom and a cash prize, Emerson enters as a contestant, hoping to save her family from poverty. But what she doesn’t know is that losing means death—and winning might be her only way out.
|
|
|
|
What the Woods Took
by Courtney Gould
When a group of troubled teens in a wilderness therapy program become stranded in a forest infested by monsters, they quickly realize they’ll have to trust each other if they want to survive. But what lies in the woods may not be as dangerous as what the campers are hiding from each other—and if the monsters have their way, no one will leave the woods alive.
|
|
|
|
Star Splitter
by Matthew J. Kirby
In 2199, 17-year-old Jessica Mathers wakes up on a desolate, post-extinction planet 14 light years from Earth when her transport mission goes horribly awry. As she attempts to piece together the bloody destruction around her, she must fight to survive long enough to uncover the truth.
|
|
|
|
Jumper
by Melanie Crowder
Accepted into the Forest Services class of smokejumpers, 19-year-old wildland firefighter Blair Scott takes unnecessary risks to prove herself and struggles to cope when everything rages wildly out of control.
|
|
|
|
They're Watching You
by Chelsea Ichaso
When her best friend Polly goes missing, Maren Montgomery enters into a high-stakes world she never knew existed within her boarding academy where she is forced to play increasingly dangerous games to win Polly's survival.
|
|
|
|
I Am Still Alive
by Kate Alice Marshall
Stranded in the woods after her cabin burns down and her father is killed, a disabled girl and her dog fervently prepare for the coming winter while plotting revenge on the person who murdered her father.
|
|
|
|
The Woods Are Always Watching
by Stephanie Perkins
When two girls go backpacking deep in the woods of the Pisgah National Forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains, things go very wrong when they cross paths with a serial killer.
|
|
|
|
The Sunbearer Trials
by Aiden Thomas
Chosen to participate in The Sunbearer Trials, where the loser is sacrificed to refuel the Sun Stones, Teo, the 17-year-old trans son of the goddess of birds, must compete against more powerful and better trained opponents for fame, glory and his own survival.
|
|
|
|
Starry Eyes
by Jenn Bennett
When teens Zorie and Lennon, a former couple, are stranded in the California wilderness together, they must put aside their differences, and come to terms with lingering romantic feelings, in order to survive.
|
|
|
|
Monsters Born and Made
by Tanvi Berwah
To save her chronically ill little sister, 16-year-old Koral cheats her way into the Glory Race, a deadly chariot tournament reserved for the elite, where she must choose between her life or her sister's when rogues try to force her to drop out.
|
|
|
|
The Q
by Amy Tintera
A trusted lieutenant for one of the post-pandemic quarantine zone's controlling families, 17-year-old Maisie Rojas has 48 hours to get the infected son of a U.S. presidential candidate out of the Q zone, where he was dropped, before disaster strikes.
|
|
|
|
All That's Left in the World
by Erik J. Brown
Putting their trust in one another, two boys, Andrew and Jamie, search for civilization in a world ravaged by a deadly pathogen, but their secrets could cost them everything as they try to find the courage to fight for the future.
|
|
|
|
Nowhere on Earth
by Nick Lake
Discovering a lost child wandering in the woods, a 16-year-old runaway learns that the boy is not from Earth and that he is being pursued by zealous government forces, a situation that is complicated by a dangerous accident. By the award-winning author of Satellite.
|
|
|
|
The Speed of Falling Objects
by Nancy Richardson Fischer
Losing one of her eyes in an accident at the same time her father’s television survival show takes him away from home, Danny becomes stranded in the Amazon rainforest while participating in the TV show at her father’s invitation and must follow his example to survive before uncovering a devastating secret.
|
|
|
|
Where the World Ends
by Geraldine McCaughrean
An award-winning young adult novel by the best-selling author of Peter Pan in Scarlet traces the story of eight boys who participate in an annual bird-hunting expedition on a remote island only to become stranded when nobody arrives to take them home.
|
|
|
|
The Last 8
by Laura Pohl
Clover Martinez, a young survivor of an alien invasion that has killed everyone she knows, learns that other teen survivors are hiding at the former Area 51, where the discovery of a hidden spaceship makes her question who she can trust.
|
|
|
|
Be Not Far From Me
by Mindy McGinnis
Feeling more at home in the woods than under a roof, Ashley finds the limits of her survival abilities tested when a betrayal and an accident strand her in untracked territory.
|
|
|
|
Code Name Verity
by Elizabeth Wein
In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must do to survive while keeping secret all that she can.
|
|
|
|
Girls Save the World in This One
by Ash Parsons
Looking forward to the panels, photo ops, and celebrity appearances at the ZombieCon fan convention, June and her girl-power friends discover that real zombies have taken over the event, prompting a daring plan to save the world.
|
|
|