Imagine being trapped somewhere with little to no chance for escape.  Maybe you can’t get out of your school during an intense snowstorm.  Maybe you’re locked inside a windowless room.  Maybe you’re trapped in a coffin.  Maybe you’re stuck in what FEELS like a coffin, but you can’t tell because it’s so dark that you can’t see anything.  You can only hear the sound of someone walking back and forth somewhere above you… someone who’s been waiting for you to wake up.  

Recently, I read The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks, an incredibly suspenseful story about a group of people who are kidnapped and then held captive in a space they're forced to share.  I was thinking about why I enjoyed this book, and I realized that it reminded me of several books I’ve read since I became a young adult librarian as well as several books I enjoyed back when I was a teen.

When I was young, my mother guided my reading choices with books she checked out and bought from our local public library.  I’m not sure if it says more about the children’s and young adult literature of the time or more about my mom that many of those books contained life lessons in the form of warnings.  For example, I learned that I should always look out for my little brother (Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars), that I shouldn’t get pregnant (Phoebe by Patricia Dizenzo), that I shouldn’t take drugs (Go Ask Alice by “Anonymous”), and that I should try to stay safe but that I might be victimized anyway (Are you in the House Alone? by Richard Peck, After the First Death by Robert Cormier, and many more).

After reading The Bunker Diary I remembered that I’d also read several books as a kid about kids getting kidnapped, or kids getting trapped and trying to escape.  The valuable lessons in those books, I suppose, were that I should always try to defend myself and I should never wander off with strangers!  In The Solid Gold Kid by Norma Fox Mazer and Harry Mazer, several kids are standing at a bus stop when they accept a ride from someone driving a van.  One of the kids is rich (and thus worth a ransom), but the others are much more expendable.  In House of Stairs by William Sleator—which is still one of my favorite YA books of all time—a group of kids wakes up in a very strange place made entirely of stairs and landings.  As they start to explore their surroundings, they discover that they’re being watched.

Since I’ve become a librarian, I’ve read many more novels about kids and teens who were trapped in dangerous situations.  Sometimes they were trapped by fate and sometimes by other people.  Sometimes they were able to escape, and sometimes they weren’t.  

Okay, I know it sounds a little weird to say “here are some of my favorite books about trapped teenagers,” but that’s exactly what these books are.  Here are a dozen young adult novels containing a mix of happy endings, sad endings, cliffhanger endings, and PLENTY of suspense!

The Girl in the Box by Ouida Sebestyen
Jackie has been kidnapped, and she doesn’t know where she is.  She writes a series of notes and pushes them under the door, hoping that someone will be able to find and rescue her.

House of Stairs by William Sleator
Five 16-year-old orphans are brought to a strange place that has no floors, walls, or ceilings.  There are only stairs, landings, and a mysterious machine.

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
Alice has been living with Ray for the last five years.  When she was in the fifth grade, Ray kidnapped her while she was on a field trip to the aquarium.  Now Alice is fifteen, and she’s getting too old for him.

Wish You Were Dead by Todd Strasser
An unhappy girl writes in her blog about how she hates herself and other people.  And every time the girl writes about wishing someone dead in her blog, that person suddenly disappears in real life.

What Happened to Cass McBride? by Gail Giles
When Cass wakes up, she is groggy, confused, and afraid.  It takes her only a few minutes to discover that she’s been drugged, kidnapped, and buried alive.

Trapped by Michael Northrop
The snow started falling in the morning, and it fell harder and harder all day.  Scotty and his friends had no idea that it would keep snowing for almost a week, and that it would be impossible for them to leave their school.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Every thirty days, a new boy is delivered to the Glade.  Some of them have lived there for years, and they believe that the only way to escape is through the maze that surrounds them.  No one has succeeded yet, but many boys have died trying.

All the Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry
Judith was held captive for two years by a man who made sure she would never talk about what happened.  When she got back to her town, her silence turned her into an outcast.

Pointe by Brandy Colbert
Theo is planning to take her ballet plans to the next level and become a professional dancer.  But everything changes when her friend Donovan suddenly returns after he disappeared four years earlier.

The Fall by Bethany Griffin
Madeleine Usher is eighteen years old, and she’s just been been buried alive.  But that’s not where the story begins.  The story started generations ago, when the Usher family was cursed.

The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks
Linus was a runaway who was living on the streets until the day he woke up in an underground bunker.  Soon he is one of six captives living in this space, six people who are being watched by someone who is playing mind games with them.

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
Roza is a beautiful girl who was kidnapped by a mysterious man.  Finn was the only witness, but since he wasn’t able to identify the man he can’t forgive himself.  And many of the people in the town don’t forgive him, either.