2019 Oregon Book Award Nominees

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw Three sisters, drowned as witches in Sparrow, Oregon, in the 1800s, return each summer for revenge but Penny, seventeen, is determined to stop them to save the boy she loves. Two centuries ago, in the town of Sparrow, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town. For a brief time each summer the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under. Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But on the eve of the sisters' return a boy named Bo Carter arrives, unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into. Now Penny will be forced to choose: save Bo, or save herself.

Cross Fire by Fonda Lee  When the peaceful alien-run government decides to simply withdraw from Earth, it seems that the terrorist group Sapience is going to get the "free" Earth it wanted; but Donovan Reyes, member of the security forces, and once a prisoner of Sapience, realizes that freedom comes with a price--other alien races want to strip the planet of its resources, and if anyone is going to survive, what is left of the security forces and Sapience have to work together.

Book Smarts and Tender Hearts by Shelley Pearson  Hannah is sixteen and doesn't feel like she fits in anywhere. Brainy, fat, and secretly in love with her best friend Liz, she's always found solace in her sweet and loving grandma. In the spring of 1996, as Gran moves into an Alzheimer's care center and Liz falls for yet another boy, Hannah branches out to find community on her own. She discovers zines, works up the confidence to attend a local GLBT youth group, and makes some new friends who help her begin to figure out how to balance her book smarts with her tender heart.

This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada In a world where people are implanted with technology to recode their DNA, gene-hacking genius Cat must decrypt her late father's message concealing a vaccine to a horrifying plague.