Please Ignore Vera Dietz, by A. S. King.

This book evoked mixed feelings in several friends, but overall, I liked it.  Vera seemed pretty realistic in terms of not wanting to/not being able to talk about her feelings about her mom leaving, her dad withdrawing and especially her best friend's abandonment and then death.  She also seemed realistic in her self-destructive behavior, needing an outlet for the things she couldn't figure out how to express otherwise.  My main quibble is that Vera seemed to get over her dabbling with alcohol pretty easily - maybe she wasn't a full-fledged alcoholic, but she was definitely using it as a crutch, and that need seemed to evaporate after getting blotto and beaten up at the work Christmas party.  That struck me as a pat way of dealing with her developing problem.

Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher

Finn is a "cell-born" member of a Scum gang in Incarceron, the living prison with millions of electronic eyes and torture chambers, designed to recycled and re-use everything, even the people who are imprisoned there.  Finn remembers nothing before waking up in a cell, apparently remade from DNA of others who died, but his flashes of memory of the outside world convince him that he belongs outside.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Told from alternating POV's, this story focuses on a few months in the lives of two teens with the same name who meet through change and whose lives intersect at the large point of Tiny Cooper, the best friend of one Will and the new boyfriend of the other Will. Themes include looking at what makes people friends, dealing with romantic interest, how people can be very different but still love each other, a bit about telling friends and family that you are gay and a bit about depression and mental illness in teens. Funny, witty, relationships told from a guy's point of view, matter of fact about homosexuality. Lots of IM and texts quoted.

SLJ grades 9 and up