Nicola Yoon
Nicola Yoon has published 10 books across 3 series. The recommended reading order starts with The Sun is Also a Star (2016).
Nicola Yoon is a Jamaican-American novelist who writes young adult romance, and she has also co-authored collaborative fiction. She grew up between Jamaica and Brooklyn before settling in Los Angeles with her husband, novelist David Yoon, and their daughter.
Her 2015 debut Everything, Everything arrived as a New York Times bestseller and reached the screen within two years. The Sun Is Also a Star followed in 2016, another bestseller that also became a film, and Instructions for Dancing continued her exploration of love against impossible odds. She co-authored Blackout, weaving her voice into a shared narrative.
The honors stack up: National Book Award finalist, Michael L. Printz Honor recipient, Coretta Scott King New Talent Award winner. Readers come to her work for stories that treat young love with gravity and wonder, never talking down, always believing in what it feels like to fall hard and hope against reason.
A self-described hopeless romantic who believes in true love, Yoon brings that conviction to every page. She loves singing Air Supply at karaoke, though she makes no claims about her skill.
Shelf & Shadows
Order of Anthologies
- Tagsyoung-adultnon-fictionDescriptionHope isn't passive. It doesn't arrive unbidden on a quiet afternoon, doesn't settle gently into the spaces where fear has taken root. Hope is a decision—one made in the face of oppression, belittlement, alienation, defeat. Nicola Yoon has assembled a powerhouse collection of voices that understand this truth intimately, each essay and personal story a testament to the active work of choosing hope when the world offers every reason not to. The atmosphere here is urgent but not despairing, raw but not without light. These are writers who know what it means to stand at the edge of something difficult and decide to speak anyway. The roster reads like a roll call of contemporary YA's most vital storytellers: Atia Abawi, Renée Ahdieh, Libba Bray, Howard Bryant, and more than a dozen others, each bringing their own lived experience to the page. They write directly to teens and young adult readers, but their words carry weight for anyone navigating a fractured world. This isn't a collection that offers easy comfort or platitudes. Instead, it emboldens—a word chosen carefully, because these pieces don't just inspire; they fortify. They remind readers that hope is not naïve optimism but a radical act of resistance, a choice made again and again. In a time when despair feels inevitable, *Hope Nation* insists otherwise.Publication dateFebruary 27, 2018Amazon rating4.7/5Print length288LanguageEnglishPublisherPhilomel Books
- Tagsyoung-adultshort-storiesromancesci-ficrimeDescriptionThis anthology rewrites the rules of the meet-cute, that lightning-strike moment when two people collide and everything changes. Editor Nicola Yoon has assembled a collection of stories that take the familiar trope and spin it sideways, offering fresh perspectives on first encounters that range from the sweetly traditional to the wonderfully strange. These aren't just boy-meets-girl moments recycled—they're inventive, diverse, and alive with possibility. Each story delivers its own flavor of connection, whether it's a chance meeting on a subway platform, a collision in a bookstore, or something far more unexpected. The authors here understand that meet-cutes aren't just about romance—they're about the electric potential of human connection, the way a single moment can crack open your world. Some stories lean into humor, others into heartache, but all of them capture that specific thrill of possibility. What makes this collection sing is its refusal to be predictable. Yoon has curated voices that challenge what a meet-cute can be and who gets to have one, expanding the boundaries of a beloved convention while honoring what makes it irresistible in the first place. If you've ever believed in the transformative power of a single encounter, this book will remind you why.Publication dateMay 21, 2019Amazon rating3.9/5Print length320LanguageEnglishPublisherClarion Books
- Tagsyoung-adultshort-storiesromancecrimeDescriptionWhat if the most important moment of your life happened in the blink of an eye—a glance across a crowded room, a collision on a busy street, a shared umbrella in the rain? This Valentine's Day anthology curated by Nicola Yoon explores the electric possibility of the meet-cute, that lightning-strike instant when two people's paths cross and everything changes. Yoon has assembled a collection of stories that capture romance in all its messy, thrilling, unexpected forms. Each tale counts down to Valentine's Day, building anticipation as characters navigate the exhilarating uncertainty of new connection. The anthology format allows for a kaleidoscope of voices and perspectives, each writer bringing their own sensibility to the age-old question of how love begins. These aren't saccharine fairy tales. They're stories about real people taking real risks, about vulnerability and courage and the terrifying hope that someone might see you and choose to stay. The meet-cute becomes a lens for examining not just romance, but identity, belonging, and the courage it takes to open yourself to another person. Perfect for readers who believe in the transformative power of a single moment, this collection reminds us that love stories don't always unfold according to plan—and that's precisely what makes them worth telling. Sometimes the best romances start with the most unexpected hellos.Publication dateDecember 16, 2025Amazon rating3.2/5Print length352LanguageEnglishPublisherClarion Books
- Tags---DescriptionNicola Yoon, the beloved author of Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star, brings her signature blend of heart and insight to this anthology contribution that explores the boundaries we break and the ones that confine us. In Breakout, Yoon crafts a story that examines what it means to escape—whether from expectations, from circumstances, or from the versions of ourselves we've outgrown. With her characteristic warmth and emotional precision, she creates characters who feel immediate and real, navigating the tension between staying safe and taking the leap into something unknown. The narrative pulses with the urgency of transformation, asking readers to consider what they're willing to risk for freedom, for connection, for the chance to become who they're meant to be. Yoon's prose moves with the rhythm of discovery, building toward moments that feel both inevitable and surprising, leaving you with that particular ache that comes from recognizing yourself in someone else's story.Publication dateJune 2, 2026Print length352LanguageEnglishPublisherQuill Tree Books
Order of Blackout Books
- Tagsyoung-adultromancefantasyDescriptionThis is a love letter to New York City on the hottest night of the summer, when the lights go out and everything changes. Six interconnected stories unfold across one sweltering evening as a massive blackout plunges the city into darkness. Strangers become allies. Crushes become confessions. The ordinary becomes extraordinary when you can't see what's coming next. Nicola Yoon teams up with fellow YA luminaries Dhonielle Clayton and Tiffany D. Jackson to craft a mosaic of Black teen love stories that pulse with possibility. Each narrative threads through the others—a chance encounter in one story becomes a background detail in another, building a rich tapestry of connection and coincidence. The blackout strips away the usual distractions and defenses, forcing characters to be present, to be brave, to take chances they might not take in the full light of day. It's romantic without being saccharine, diverse without being performative, and captures that electric feeling of a summer night when anything could happen. The city itself becomes a character, humid and alive, pushing these young people together in unexpected ways.Publication dateJune 22, 2021Amazon rating4.6/5Print length256LanguageEnglishPublisherQuill Tree Books
- Tagsyoung-adultromanceDescriptionWhat happens when a snowstorm shuts down the world and forces strangers together? The air is thick with possibility. Snow falls heavy over a small town, blanketing everything in white silence. Flights are grounded. Roads are impassable. And in this forced stillness, three love stories begin to unfold. The atmosphere crackles with that particular magic that only comes when the ordinary world stops spinning. Nicola Yoon brings her signature warmth to this wintery tale, weaving together narratives that feel both intimate and expansive. The storm isn't just weather—it's a catalyst. It strips away excuses and distances, leaving only what matters: connection, vulnerability, the courage to reach across the space between two people. Each story pulses with its own rhythm, its own stakes, but they're bound together by the snow and by something deeper. This is a book about being stranded and finding exactly what you didn't know you needed. It's about the unexpected detours that change everything. Yoon understands how a single night can crack you open, how isolation can paradoxically bring people closer. The prose moves with the quiet intensity of snowfall itself—gentle but relentless, accumulating into something transformative. Perfect for readers who believe in the magic of chance encounters and the hope that blooms in the coldest seasons.Publication dateNovember 8, 2022Amazon rating4.2/5Print length304LanguageEnglishPublisherQuill Tree Books
Order of Standalone Novels
- Tagsyoung-adultromancechildrenDescriptionTwelve hours. That's all the time Natasha has left in New York City before her family is deported to Jamaica, and she's spending it fighting the inevitable with science and facts as her only weapons. Then she meets Daniel on a crowded street, and the clock starts ticking in a different way. He's the good son, the dutiful student headed toward a future his parents have mapped out for him—medical school, success, stability. Not poetry. Not dreams. But something about this girl who doesn't believe in fate makes him want to rewrite everything. What unfolds is a single day stretched to its limits, a love story compressed into hours instead of months. Nicola Yoon weaves their alternating voices with entries from "The Universe" itself, creating a narrative that feels both intimate and cosmic. The mood is urgent and tender at once—every conversation weighted with the knowledge that time is running out, every moment shimmering with the question of whether love can be enough. This is a book about immigration and identity, about the dreams our parents have for us versus the ones we harbor for ourselves. But mostly it's about two people trying to carve out something real in a world that seems determined to pull them apart. Yoon makes you believe in the impossible, even when the facts say otherwise.Publication dateNovember 1, 2016Amazon rating4.5/5Print length384LanguageEnglishPublisherDelacorte Press
- Tagsyoung-adultromancechildrenDescriptionThis book will make you believe in the kind of love that rewrites the rules of your entire existence. Nicola Yoon's debut is a story about confinement and longing, about what happens when your whole world is a single house and suddenly, impossibly, someone makes you want to risk everything. Madeline has spent seventeen years inside her home, protected from a world that could literally kill her. She's allergic to everything—dust, pollen, life itself. Her days are carefully controlled, her mother vigilant, her future mapped out in the safe, sterile confines of filtered air and routine. Then a boy moves in next door. Olly is all dark eyes and quiet intensity, and he sees her in a way no one else ever has. What starts as glances through a window becomes something deeper, something that makes Madeline question whether a life without risk is really living at all. The stakes couldn't be higher: step outside, and she could die. Yoon tells this story through a collage of fragments—diary entries, illustrations, lists, texts—that mirror the way Madeline experiences her fragmented world. It's a book that feels both claustrophobic and expansive, tender and urgent. You'll ache for Madeline as she stands at the threshold between safety and freedom, between survival and truly being alive.Publication dateMarch 7, 2017Amazon rating4.6/5Print length352LanguageEnglishPublisherEmber
- Tagsyoung-adultromanceDescriptionInstructions for Dancing asks what happens when a cynic is forced to witness love's inevitable collapse, over and over, until she can no longer look away. Evie Thomas has sworn off romance after her parents' divorce shattered her faith in happily-ever-after, and she's methodically purging her life of anything that might remind her of what she's lost. Then she discovers a mysterious book that grants her an unsettling gift: whenever two people touch, she sees their entire relationship unfold before her eyes, from first kiss to final heartbreak. What begins as confirmation of everything she believes—that love is a beautiful lie destined to end in ruin—becomes something far more complicated when she meets X, a dancer who challenges her certainty with his quiet conviction that the journey matters more than the destination. As Evie watches countless love stories bloom and wither in fast-forward, she's caught between the safety of her cynicism and the terrifying possibility that choosing not to love might be the greater tragedy. The visions show her endings, but they can't tell her whether the moments in between are worth the inevitable pain. Nicola Yoon crafts a story that moves between the bittersweet and the hopeful, asking whether foreknowledge of heartbreak should stop us from reaching for connection at all. It's a meditation on risk, resilience, and the stubborn human impulse to love even when we know how fragile it all is.Publication dateJune 1, 2021Amazon rating4.4/5Print length304LanguageEnglishPublisherDelacorte Press
- TagsthrillerhorrormysterysuspenseDescriptionJasmyn Williams arrives at a utopian Black community with her family, seeking refuge from a world that has never felt safe. This enclave promises everything they've been denied: security, prosperity, belonging. But utopias always demand a price, and Jasmyn begins to sense the cracks beneath the gleaming surface—the too-perfect smiles, the unspoken rules, the way certain questions go unanswered. What starts as hope curdles into suspicion. The community's benefactor watches over them with unsettling attention, and Jasmyn realizes that paradise might be a cage dressed in beautiful lies. As she digs deeper, she uncovers truths about who built this place and why, truths that threaten not just her family but the very idea of freedom they came searching for. Nicola Yoon crafts a taut, unsettling exploration of what we're willing to sacrifice for safety, and who gets to define liberation. This is speculative fiction that cuts close to the bone, asking hard questions about community, autonomy, and the seductive danger of promised lands. Yoon's prose moves with quiet urgency, building dread in the spaces between comfort and control. A story about the American dream's dark underbelly, and what happens when survival requires surrendering the self.Publication dateJune 11, 2024Amazon rating4/5Print length272LanguageEnglishPublisherKnopf
Frequently Asked Questions about Nicola Yoon
Nicola Yoon's books can be read in any order, as her standalone novels and anthology contributions do not require a specific sequence. The Blackout series, however, is intended to be read in publication order. The anthologies, while featuring multiple authors, are also best approached chronologically to appreciate their thematic progression. Each book offers a distinct narrative experience, allowing readers to jump in at any point without missing crucial plot details from other works.
A good starting point for Nicola Yoon's books is The Sun Is Also a Star, published in 2016. This novel, her debut standalone, introduces her characteristic blend of romance, science, and emotional depth. Alternatively, Everything, Everything, published in 2017, offers a similar engaging narrative style and thematic exploration of connection and discovery, making it another excellent entry point into her work.
While Nicola Yoon's standalone novels and anthology contributions can be read independently, the Blackout series is designed to be read in order. The narrative and character arcs within the Blackout books build upon each other. For the anthologies, reading them chronologically may offer a richer appreciation of the curated themes and evolving literary landscape they represent, though each story within them stands alone.
Nicola Yoon writes both standalone novels and series. Her standalone novels include titles like The Sun Is Also a Star and Instructions for Dancing. She has also contributed to anthologies such as Hope Nation and Meet Cute. Additionally, she has written the Blackout series, which consists of interconnected books that explore shared themes and characters.
Nicola Yoon has written at least ten books, including her standalone novels, contributions to anthologies, and the Blackout series. Her published works include The Sun Is Also a Star, Everything, Everything, Instructions for Dancing, One of Our Kind, Blackout, Whiteout, Hope Nation, Meet Cute, Meet Cute: Count Down to Valentine's Day, and Breakout. This count does not include potential future works or other contributions.
The first book Nicola Yoon wrote and published is The Sun Is Also a Star, which was released in 2016. This novel marked her debut as a novelist and established her distinctive voice in contemporary young adult fiction. It explores themes of love, fate, and the complexities of human connection, setting a tone for her subsequent works.
Nicola Yoon's most recent book, as of early 2024, is One of Our Kind, published in 2024. This standalone novel continues her exploration of relationships and societal dynamics, offering readers a new narrative within her distinct literary style. It follows her previous works, including the Blackout series and other standalone titles.
Nicola Yoon primarily writes young adult contemporary fiction, often incorporating elements of romance and science. Her novels frequently explore themes of love, identity, destiny, and the challenges of human connection in diverse and thought-provoking ways. Some of her works also touch upon speculative or science-fiction elements, blending them seamlessly with realistic emotional narratives.
Tiffany D. Jackson
Coming soon
Katharine McGee
Coming soon
We verified the reading order for Nicola Yoon's books by cross-referencing official publication dates, ISBN databases, and publisher catalogs.
Last verified: April 2026
Shelf & Shadows. (…). “Nicola Yoon Books in Order.” Retrieved …, from https://www.shelfandshadows.com/authors/nicola-yoon