Pop Five YA Novels

According to my handy-dandy book notebook, these are the five YA books I've read this year that I graded the highest:

1. Cracked Up to Be. Courtney Summers. The first three quarters of this book read like every other "I have a secret" YA novel, and then the ending whips off in another direction. I honestly did not see the climax coming, which is always a pleasant surprise.
2. The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins. Heartbreaking. Honestly. Amazing. And sure, Stephen King was right, there are tons and tons of plot contrivances that get solved by lucky coincidences, but this book has so much heart those tidbits are easy to overlook. I have September 1 marked in my calendar for the sequel.
   
3. The Truth About Forever. Sarah Dessen. This book is so nearly perfect that it made me read all of Dessen's backlist. This one still stands out as the true gem, though.
4. When it Happens. Susane Colasanti. There is a "do I really want to go to college" subplot that is so subtle you could blink and miss it, but it's realistic. This is one of those first-person narratives that took me a couple chapters to get into, but once I was there I fell for Colasanti's characters.
5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. J.K. Rowling. Haha. Snuck this one in. Technically I read it this year, so it counts. Or is this considered a children's book? I can never remember.