Following the enormous success of Suzanne Collins’s "Hunger Games" trilogy (Scholastic), action-packed novels with powerful female protagonists have become a mainstay of young adult literature. Often featuring heroines torn between two worlds or motivated by protection of a younger sibling, these fast-paced reads infused with danger and treachery will hook teens looking for narratives that roll along at a breakneck speed. Marie Lu, author of the hugely popular “Legends” series crafts a rich, multilayered setting and a dynamic female lead in The Young Elites (Putnam, 2014; Gr 8 Up). Adelina Amouteru is a malfetto, a girl who was left with unique physical imperfections after surviving a blood fever in her childhood. The illness swept through cities, killing adults and leaving the young scarred. Malfettos exist in the margins of society, hidden away by shamed families and provoking reactions of fascination or revulsion in polite society. Adelina escapes a monstrous father, an appointment at a fiery stake, and a variety of other threats in this mesmerizing novel. She realizes that she is one of the malfettos who was left with a physical mark but also a supernatural power. Connected with others like herself but set apart by her love and dedication to her imperiled sister, Adelina must navigate a world where danger and treachery lurk behind masks, in elegant courts, and in catacombs. While the main character in Lu’s book shows courage and loyalty, she is a flawed individual who is not in control of powers that can harm, and even kill, those she is closest to. The secret society Adelina is accepted into—the Young Elites—is by no means a safe haven for her; she is expected to hone her powers as well as blindly accept the violent tactics the guerilla group employs. The teen faces both physical and psychological challenges in the alternately glittering and gritty setting of Kenettra. The choices she makes are never simple, but the constant danger makes her journey a completely immersive experience. In The Glass Arrow (Tor Teen, 2015; Gr 9 Up), Kristen Simmons imagines a future world where females are commodities to be auctioned. Sixteen-year-old Aya is kidnapped from the forest where she and a few other women live separate from society to protect themselves from the predatory nature of these transactions. Renamed Clover and assigned to a stable of auctionable young women, she spends her days plotting her escape and her nights interacting with a mute boy belonging to a lower caste dedicated to tending horses. Though detained, the teen possesses an indomitable spirit and never stops fighting her captors or the rules of the society at large. Facing certain death at several points in the novel, she maintains her pluck and persistence. Aya’s knowledge of the world around her changes through the course of the novel. Additionally, her empathy with other young women and the choices they make increases as her experience in the mercenary, exploitative world she finds herself in does. Young adult readers will identify with Aya's confusion and her attempts to balance personal safety and happiness with familial and societal duty. Despite its quick pace and some swashbuckling episodes, The Glass Arrow functions as social commentary as well. Aya is headstrong, confident in her skills in the forest, but thrust into a situation beyond her control where her value is measured solely by her appearance and her fertility. Students familiar with Margaret Atwood’s adult novel The Handmaid’s Tale will undoubtedly draw connections between that version of the United States (where women are also treated as commodities) and the world that Simmons’s Aya inhabits. Born the heir to the throne of Aecor, Wilhelmina was lost her parents and her throne in the conflict known as the One Night’s War in Jodi Meadow’s The Orphan Queen (Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins, 2015; Gr 7 Up). After escaping captivity with a number of other high-born children, she becomes an Osprey, part of a guerilla unit of Aecor natives who are determined to reclaim their land from the Skyvale conquerors who seized it years before. Complicating matters is the presence of the Wraith, a sinister fog that is supposed to have emerged from the abuse of magic. Magic has since been outlawed and its practitioners punished—one motivating factor in the initial overthrow of Aecor. In order to gather intelligence and stage a coup, Wilhelmina goes undercover as Lady Julianna and infiltrates the Skyvale Court. What she learns leads her to face her fears of the Wraithland and come to terms with her status as a flasher—a person who still uses magic. Bold, gifted, and above all empathetic, Wilhelmina is always aware of her role as a future queen. As she navigates the complicated politics of the royal courts, she switches identities between lady by day and rogue spy by night. The information she gathers is never accidental—she is constantly thinking of new ways to unearth the intelligence she needs. While Wilhelmina’s sympathies are stirred by the very people she seeks to overthrow, the most interesting relationship she has is with another outsider like herself. Not only is The Orphan Queen's protagonist strong, fierce, and loyal, but her love interest (whose status as that is not immediately apparent in the fabric of the story) is not portrayed as primary to her development. Wilhelmina’s character undergoes many changes in the novel; she transitions from a teenager who has sworn allegiance to her lost kingdom to a young woman whose worldview has expanded. These young adult novels will draw readers in with the promise of exciting, grand adventures—yet the most compelling passages that occur are the changes the protagonists undergo on their inner journeys. Erinn Black Salge  is the librarian at Saint Peter’s Prep, an all boys Jesuit high school. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and their boxer named Cooper. Her last article for Curriculum Connections,  "Riffs on Classic Tales," was published in our December 2014 issue.