Lucas Stoffel

The Impossible Fortress is set in 1987, and it absolutely nails it. Jason Rekulak wrote a coming-of-age novel about a fourteen-year-old boy named Billy Marvin whose initial goal — stealing a copy of Playboy from the local convenience store — accidentally leads him into a friendship with the store owner's daughter, Mary, who is the best computer programmer he's ever met. What follows is a novel about first love, betrayal, and the Commodore 64 that is far better than it has any

Fans of the Impossible Life is the quietest book on my shelf that hit the hardest. Kate Scelsa wrote a YA novel about three teenagers — Mira, Jeremy, and Sebby — whose friendship becomes the only safe place any of them have, and she did it without a single moment of false comfort.