Adventure and Spy (YA)

If you like your books with lots of action then this is the list for you: this is a selection of spy, action, adventure and survival stories from our YA (young adult) collections.

Updated June 19, 2024
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The electric kingdom
Arnold, David
Paper Book
A genre-smashing story of survival, hope and love amid a ravaged earth. A deadly flu has swept the globe, leaving a shell of the world that once was. Among the survivors are eighteen-year-old Nico and her dog, who are on a journey devised by Nico's father to find a mythical portal; a...
The cruelty
Bergstrom, Scott
Paper Book
The Cruelty is an action-packed young adult thriller (optioned for film by Jerry Bruckheimer) about a girl who must train as an assassin to deal with the gangsters who have kidnapped her father. Gwendolyn's father kept his life a secret from her. When he goes missing,...
An assassin's guide to love & treason
Boecker, Virginia
Paper Book
Shakespeare in Love meets Mr. and Mrs. Smith in this witty and thrilling story of star-crossed assassins in Elizabeth England, perfect for fans of My Lady Jane and TheGentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue! When Lady Katherine's father is killed...
Etiquette & espionage
Carriger, Gail.
Paper Book
This steampunk series debut set in the same world as the New York Times bestselling Parasol Protectorate is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail Carriger's legions of fans have come to adore. Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great...
I'd tell you I love you, but then I'd have to kill you
Carter, Ally.
Paper Book
Step into Cammie Morgan's world of intrigue in the first book of the beloved New York Times bestselling Gallagher Girls series Cammie Morgan is a student at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, a fairly typical all-girls school -- that is, if every school...
The love interest
Dietrich, Cale
Paper Book
There is a secret organization that cultivates teenage spies. The agents are called Love Interests because getting close to people destined for great power means getting valuable secrets. Caden is a Nice: The boy next door, sculpted to physical perfection. Dylan is a Bad: The...
Blitzkrieg
Falkner, Brian
Paper Book
Young Joe is living in pre-WWII Berlin, with his British father and NZ mother, attending school and witnessing the excitement of his friends who are enthusiastically joining the Hitler Youth Movement. Joe feels uncomfortable with the growing mistreatment of local Jews, and after the arrest of his...

New Zealand author

Foul lady fortune
Gong, Chloe
Paper Book
Assassin. Immortal. Spy.From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights comes the first book in a captivating new duology following an ill-matched pair of spies posing as a married couple to investigate a series of brutal murders...

New Zealand author

The cut out
Heath, Jack
Paper Book
An ordinary teenager's world turns upside down when he's mistaken for a ruthless young spy. An action thriller suitable for readers of Cherub or The Last Thirteen.
Silverfin
Higson, Charles
Paper Book
The first explosive book in Charlie Higson's bestselling Young Bond series. Before the name became a legend. Before the boy became a man. Meet Bond. James Bond. There's something in the water at Loch Silverfin. Something deadly. Something that must be kept secret... ...
Stormbreaker
Horowitz, Anthony
Paper Book
The first book in the number one bestselling Alex Rider series. In the first book in the number one bestselling Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz, fourteen-year-old Alex is forcibly recruited into MI6. Armed with secret gadgets, he is sent to investigate Herod Sayle, a man...
Stars and smoke
Lu, Marie
Paper Book
The most famous person in the world is going undercover . . . Global phenomenon Winter Young is the pop star of a generation. With sell-out tours and smash-hit records, everyone wants him, or wants to be him. That's why a top-secret government organisation think he...
Flight of the fantail
Matuku, Steph
Paper Book
A busload of high school students crashes in the bush in a remote part of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Only a few of the teenagers survive; they find their phones don't work, there's no food, and they've only got their wits to keep them alive. There's also something strange happening here. Why are the...

New Zealand author

The recruit
Muchamore, Robert
Paper Book
The first title in the number one bestselling CHERUB series! James hits rock bottom before he's offered a new start in an intriguing organisation ... A terrorist doesn't let strangers in her flat because they might be undercover police or intelligence agents, but her children...
The call
Ó Guilin, Peadar
Paper Book
You have three minutes to save your life . . .THREE MINUTESYou wake up alone in a horrible land. A horn sounds. The Call has begun.TWO MINUTESThe Sidhe are close. They're the most beautiful and terrible people you've ever seen. And they've seen you.ONE MINUTENessa...
The loop
Oliver, Ben (Science fiction writer)
Paper Book
"A script-ready story with blockbuster potential." -- Kirkus (Starred Review)Life inside The Loop--the futuristic death row for teens under eighteen--is one long repetitive purgatory. But when news of the encroaching chaos in the outside world reaches the inmates and disorder begins to strike...
War girls
Onyebuchi, Tochi
Paper Book
Two sisters are torn apart by war and must fight their way back to each other in a futuristic, Black Panther-inspired Nigeria. The year is 2172. Climate change and nuclear disasters have rendered much of earth unlivable. Only the lucky ones have escaped to space colonies in the...
Hawk
Patterson, James
Paper Book
Maximum Ride lost her fight to save the world. But from the ashes of the old world, a phoenix has risen... she calls herself Hawk. Hawk doesn't know her real name. She doesn't know who her parents were, or where they went. The only thing she remembers is that they told to...
Hatchet
Paulsen, Gary
Paper Book
There was a wild crashing sound, a ripping of metal, and the plane blew through the trees, out over the water and down, down to slam into the lake . . . Brian is a city boy. Not used to living rough. Until his plane crash-lands in the Canadian wilderness. All he has is a...
Welcome to New York Alyssa
Powell, Sarah (New Zealand author)
Paper Book
16 year-old combat-trained Alyssa goes to New York on a mission to discover what is really going on in the city, that is isolated in a continuous anarchy.

New Zealand author

The rosewood hunt
Reed, Mackenzie
Paper Book
Irresistible intrigue, captivating suspense, a swoony friends-to-rivals-to-lovers romance, and heartbreaking betrayal drive this thrilling debut novel that is perfect for fans of The Inheritance Games and Knives Out. Lily Rosewood has lived with her grandmother since her dad's death a year...
Boy soldier
RIGBY, ANDY
Paper Book
Gripping, action-packed SAS thriller from the best-selling author of BRAVO TWO ZERO. Ideal for adventure-seeking readers. Danny Watts's grandfather, Fergus, was a traitor. One of the worst sort. An SAS explosives expert who betrayed his country and his Regiment for money. Drug...
Siege
Ryan, Chris
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of STRIKE BACK, Chris Ryan returns with a new action-packed series. Tough enough? Smart enough? Max will require all his skills just to stay alive as a Special Forces Cadet...
I must betray you
Sepetys, Ruta
Paper Book
Trapped by an evil dictatorship, will Cristian be forced to betray his family or will he risk everything he loves to resist? A powerful, heart-breaking thriller based on real events. *Winner of the Yoto Carnegie Shadowers' Choice Medal for Writing 2023*
Dry
Shusterman, Neal
Paper Book
When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, one teen is forced to make life and death decisions in this harrowing story of survival from New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman.The drought - or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it - has been going...
The outlaws Scarlett & Browne : being an account of their daring exploits and audacious crimes
Stroud, Jonathan
Paper Book
Cuz
Van der Laarse, Liz
Paper Book
River is offered the chance to crew on his uncle's trawler - a coastal trip to get a new engine. He finds his cousin Huia annoying - she's all about Maoritanga while he can't even speak the language. When an accident leaves the two cousins stranded on the coast of Fiordland they must work together...

New Zealand author

Clementine. Book one
Walden, Tillie
Paper Book
A 2022 Junior Library Guild Selection! Book Riot "12 Best Graphic Novels and Comics of 2022" List IGN "Best Comic Book Series or Graphic Novel of 2022" Nominee "Tillie Walden is the future. Her boldly authentic voice brings new heights to the world of The...
Code name Verity
Wein, Elizabeth
Paper Book
'I have two weeks. You'll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.' Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, Code Name Verity is a bestselling tale of friendship and courage set against the backdrop of World War Two. Only in wartime could a stalwart lass from...
Bite risk
Wills, S. J. (Children's author)
Paper Book
When everyone's a vicious beast, it's hard to spot the monsters . . .  Beware of the Turned in the first book in a blockbuster teen horror for fans of Skulduggery Pleasant and Stranger Things. 'A riotously absorbing horror...
Fable
Young, Adrienne
Paper Book
Age range 12+  Filled with all of the action, emotion, and lyrical writing that brought readers to Sky in the Deep, New York Times bestselling author Adrienne Young returns with a new captivating duology. Welcome to a world made dangerous by the sea...
Boy Nobody : a novel
Zadoff, Allen.
Paper Book
They needed the perfect assassin. Boy Nobody is the perennial new kid in school, the one few notice and nobody thinks much about. He shows up in a new high school in a new town under a new name, makes a few friends, and doesn't stay long. Just long enough for someone in his...
When we are invisible
Zorn, Claire
Paper Book
Instinct has kept us alive so far. It's like a compass and I tune in to the needle often- trust/don't trust, run/stay . . . I can't read the needle right now. The warmth of the room is clouding my judgment. In the midst of a nuclear winter, Lucy, Fin and Max flee the chaos of...

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