Rachel Estep

In YA thrillers, I’m drawn to tight-knit circles where something has gone wrong — games that curdle, friendships built on lies, families or communities that close ranks when the truth threatens to surface. I love glossy settings with a dark undercurrent, pressure-cooker plots, and that creeping realization that everyone knows more than they’re saying. Bonus points for high-stakes drama and a whisper of romance that complicates everything. In YA fantasy, I want to be swept away. I’m hungry for immersive worlds with a pulse. Hunter and hunted dynamics, dangerous game systems, rebellions that feel earned, and I particularly love settings that are sentient or evolving in a way where they seem to come alive. I gravitate toward morally gray choices, slow-burn tension, and stories where survival has a cost. And in YA romance I really really want to see broad ranges of diversity. I’m excited by queer love stories, non-Christian religions, global settings, and perspectives that feel lived-in and specific. If a story centers straight, white American teens, I’m looking for something boldly quirky or structurally inventive to make it stand out. I love warmth, humor, big feelings, and romances that understand joy can be just as powerful as angst. Across everything I’m seeking, I’m most interested in books that are character-driven, and impossible to put down. I want to read 50 pages and feel like I’ve only read 10.

Panic! written by Lauren Asher and adapted by Netflix, followed a group of students embarking on a set of dangerous tasks in the name of game called “Panic.” Panic is a tradition in their high school, played by the seniors, and the tasks get riskier and more dangerous as they go. I would love to see this kind of high stakes competition where they are not trying to kill each other, but the stakes remain life or death.