The Cellar
by Natasha Preston  

I recommend this spellbinding YA thriller to senior high students age 15 or older due to violent and graphic content. Summer is abducted by a psychotic man, Clover, and she is renamed Lily. Clover takes Summer to his home and locks her in his cellar with three other “flowers”—other girls who have been kidnapped and renamed. In addition to this atrocity, Clover has a personal vendetta against sex workers with an agenda to rid the world of them. The entire story revolves around what has triggered this murderer’s insanity and how Summer/Lily deals with this captivity. The book is written from the perspective of 3 people—Summer/Lily, Clover, and Summer’s boyfriend, Lewis.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story
by Ned Vizzini

Craig, a teenager living in New York, studies incessantly so that he can pass the entrance exam for the prestigious Manhattan’s Executive Pre-Professional High School. He aces the exam but soon realizes he isn’t as smart as the rest of his classmates. He earns “mediocre” grades (93%) and the new stress of this high-power high school sends him into a depression, which eventually leads him to nearly committing suicide. Craig checks himself into a hospital and is committed to the mental ward. This institutionalization is very beneficial for him because he makes numerous friends and discovers his true career destiny.