Summer isn’t over yet and AudioFile Magazine is here to share some must-listen unique young adult audiobooks for those last days of summer.
What is it about individuals and society?
They’re not always coming from the same place, that’s for sure. Here are our
picks of five great new audiobooks about living on your own terms. Some edgy,
some sweet, some joyful, some weepers. All awesome. Here’s to having an
audiobook in your ear.– Aurelia C. Scott, AudioFile Magazine blogger
CROWN OF FEATHERS by Nicki
Pau Preto
Read by Samantha Desz, Jacques Roy, Joy Osmanski, Gibson
Frazier, Cassandra Campbell
Simon & Schuster Audio | Unabridged | Earphones Award Winner
This flawless full cast carries the listener away to the fantasy world in Niki Pau Preto’s first novel. Guided by Veronyka, a war orphan who disguises herself as a boy in order to join a group of rebels who ride phoenixes into battle, you’ll immerse yourself in this tale about relationships, loyalty, and finding something you care about.
PAN’S LABYRINTH: THE LABYRINTH OF THE FAUN by Guillermo
del Toro, Cornelia Funke |
Read by Thom Rivera
Harper Audio | Unabridged
There’s nothing like fairytales for chills and thrills. In Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke’s atmospheric version of del Toro’s twisty film about a girl who undergoes a series of tests to attain immortality, chills and thrills are abundant. Beautifully voiced by Thom Rivera, who gives realistic characterizations to everyone from the girl to cruel Captain Vidal.
LOVE FROM A TO Z by S.K.
Ali |
Read by Priya Ayyar, Tim Chiou, S.K. Ali
Simon & Schuster Audio | Unabridged | Earphones Award Winner
Love between two very different Muslim teens who meet on spring break is movingly voiced by Priya Ayyar and Tim Chiou, with the author entering as referee when the teens’ (fictional) diaries conflict. No one said love is easy. But it’s always worth the effort.
FIVE MIDNIGHTS by Ann Dávila
Cardinal
Read by Almarie Guerra
MacMillan Audio | Unabridged | Earphones Award Winner
This deliciously scary murder-mystery based on Puerto Rico’s mythic boogeyman-monster is fully inhabited by Almarie Guerra’s narration. A 16-year-old “GringaRican” living with her uncle for the summer and a 17-year-old recovering addict try to figure out why his childhood friends are dying on the eve of their 18th birthdays. Just don’t listen late at night.
SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS by Jessie Ann Foley | Read by Ron
Butler
Harper Audio | Unabridged | Earphones Award Winner
We’ve all said it, knowing that the phrase can’t begin to comfort someone’s pain. Well this is what it’s like to be on the receiving end – inside the pain of losing an older brother and finding a way through to the other side. Terrifically performed by Ron Butler, who sensitively portrays 16-year-old Pup Flanagan and everyone else in his large and varied family.
For more audiobook reviews, features and extras check out Audiofilemagazine.com!

1/2 of the blogging duo at Books and Sensibility, I have been blogging about and reviewing books since 2011. I read any and every genre, here on the blog I mostly review Fantasy, Adult Fiction, and Young Adult with a focus on audiobooks.