New Year, New Me: 5 YA Books with Main Characters That Reinvent Themselves

Happy (belated) New Year, everyone! Sha and I have been on hiatus, so it’s the first time that we can properly wish everyone that. Much like the characters we are discussing in this post, every year, many people sit down and decide to create new goals and resolutions for the new year. With a new year, it’s time to possibly refresh, revamp, and reinvent ourselves. If you’re feeling the need to change, you might want to take a peek at some of these books to learn some pointers or get some inspiration…or change your mind because change mostly in YA leads to chaos, catastrophe, and other crazy stuff.

Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen

Our main character, Ever, goes to spend the summer in Taipei under the premise of studying in a cultural program – instead, it’s a “summer-long free-for-all where hookups abound, adults turn a blind eye, snake-blood sake flows abundantly, and the nightlife runs nonstop.” Ever decides this summer that she’s going to make up rules for herself not that she’s away from her strict parents – including kissing a boy, getting bad grades, and more. However, some of her decisions and the new her might lead to some horrible consequences…but might help her figure out who she truly is.

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The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston

When Jess and Imogen meet at a comic con and realize that they look identical, they decide to trade lives for the rest of the convention. Jess wants to take a break from the oppression of celebrity life and Imogen wants to do her best to do what’s right for her favorite character. When they swap lives, they realize that maybe they don’t need to fully become other people to change the things they want in life.

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The Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan

Due to mysterious circumstances, Apollo is cast down to live life as a human, stripped of all his godly powers by his father, Zeus. Apollo isn’t quite sure what he did wrong – but he knows that surely it’s nothing he did for this horrendous change from god to human. As he lives his life as human, he not only becomes, well, human, he certainly realizes that besides reinventing his handsome looks, he really needs reinventing who he is a being and all the things that having a human perspective pretty great sometimes.

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The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller

Maddie is a popular cheerleader by day, secret comic nerd by night. When her boyfriend and friends are away for the summer, she decides that she can embrace her inner geekiness with Logan, the adorable boy from the comic book store, in secret. However, living double lives is harder than saying LARPing five times fast – and she has to decide whether the change in her life that she made in the summer is a permanent change she wants to keep.

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If I’m Being Honest by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka 

When Cameron puts her foot in her mouth in front of her crush, she decides that she’s done being a bitch and is going to “tame” herself. She needs to win him back, so what’s better than making amends to everyone that she’s done wrong to. When she starts getting close to a person that she gave an unfortunate nickname years ago and realizes that he likes her for her…she must decide if it’s worth changing everything about herself for someone to like the girl she isn’t.

What do you think? Do you love stories about characters reinventing themselves? Do you have any recommendations? Let’s discuss in the comments below!