What Are the Most Popular TikTok YA Mystery Books Right Now?

Beautifully and uniquely written, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a book you won’t stop reading. Nowadays, Holly Jackson is another author whose name comes up whenever YA mystery novels are talked about. Her newest release, Five Survive, is also making its rounds on TikTok, so you’re going to see it everywhere very, very soon!

I say it’s uniquely written because it features not only prose, but also logs, transcripts of interviews, and different formats to showcase the story being told. The book itself follows a murder case that poisons the town slowly day by day. Pippa Fitz-Amobi decides to choose the case for her final school project and, because of that, she uncovers secrets long forgotten.

If you’re a fan of The Inheritance Games, you’ll love the Truly Devious series. It features similar aspects of Barnes’s series, like riddles, puzzles, and intrigue. But Truly Devious‘s main focus is a cold murder case that was left unsolved years before the novel starts. When true crime lover Stevie Bell starts her first year at Ellingham Academy — one of the most elite academies for the brightest, thinkers, and inventors — she is committed to solving the case. But maybe the murderer is still out there, and now, they’re after her.

Solving a murder at a private academy will always draw our attention. And Maureen Johnson completely stole our hearts with this popular TikTok YA mystery book.

Get Out meets Gossip Girl in this impressive YA mystery which has been present in so many TikTok videos. Ace of Spades follows two teens who become the main focus of an anonymous texter who wants to reveal all of their dark secrets.

Being the only two Black students in a prominently white academy, Chiamaka and Devon’s lives suddenly get entangled in a game of cat-and-mouse with someone who wants to take them down. With a hashtag with over 676,000 views on TikTok, readers can’t get enough of Ace of Spades.

Another novel I noticed that came up almost every single time readers talked about YA mystery books was Five Total Strangers. The synopsis sounds incredible, and I get why people can’t stop talking about this book.

The story is about five strangers whose layover is canceled because of a snowstorm and who later decide to share a ride in order to get to each of their destinations. But they don’t know that someone in that car already knows all of them and has plans that end in disaster.

One of the most popular TikTok YA mystery books out now is How We Fall Apart, a novel about students at a prestigious prep school who suddenly have to confront their secrets when their ex–best friend turns up dead. Crazy Rich Asians meets Pretty Little Liars in this thrilling story that will have you on the edge of your seat.

If you look for the book tag #HowWeFallApart on its own, you’ll find it has over 439,000 views! Personally, I always find stories that feature an anonymous texter targeting a group of rich people entertaining, so I feel like a lot of readers gravitate toward these stories.

We cannot talk about YA mystery novels without mentioning Karen M. McManus’s One Of Us is Lying. It has stayed on the Young Adult Hardcover New York Times Best Seller list for 257 weeks and counting (as of the time of writing). In 2021, a TV adaptation premiered on Peacock with positive reviews, eventually leading to a second season. So, as you can see, this book series is huge.

The first book follows a group of teenagers who are prime suspects in a murder case. On Monday afternoon, five students walk into detention. But only four walk out. Are you ready to solve this mystery? This book has been pitched as The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars!

And last, but definitely not least, with a hashtag with more than one million views, the award-winning Monday’s Not Coming is a favorite for many readers around the world. It tells the story of the disappearance of Monday Charles and the search for her by her friend Claudia. When no one seems to recall the last time they saw Monday, Claudia starts to dig a little deeper.