Jess Rothenberg Books in Order

If you want heartfelt YA romance with a supernatural twist: The Catastrophic History of You and Me
If you want dark sci-fi, mystery, and questions about AI: The Kingdom
If you want to see her range: The Catastrophic History of You and Me → The Kingdom

Jess Rothenberg grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, and took an early interest in stories before she ever started publishing them. After college at Vassar, she moved into New York publishing, which gave her a close-up view of how books for young readers are made and why some voices stay with readers.

She began her career at Penguin soon after graduation, working on both fiction and nonfiction, and later moved to Razorbill, where she edited teen and middle grade books. That work put her in the middle of a busy stretch for young adult publishing, and it also meant spending her days thinking hard about voice, pacing, and the emotional logic of a story.

She was learning the trade from the inside.

Rothenberg's background as an editor still shows in her fiction. Her novels tend to open with a big, instantly clear premise, then dig deeper into feeling, consequence, and character. After years of helping shape other writers' books, she stepped away from full-time in-house publishing, continued freelance editing, and started putting more of her energy into her own work.

Her debut, The Catastrophic History of You and Me, announced that approach right away. The hook is wonderfully blunt: sixteen-year-old Brie dies of a broken heart, literally, after her boyfriend tells her he doesn't love her anymore. From there the novel becomes an afterlife story, a grief story, and a romance all at once. Readers often come to it for the high concept, then stay for the mix of humor, ache, family fallout, and hard-earned forgiveness. It has also been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Then she turned to something colder and stranger.

In The Kingdom, Rothenberg moves into science fiction and mystery without losing her interest in young people under pressure. Ana is one of seven engineered Fantasists in a futuristic theme park built around happily-ever-after fantasy, and the book begins with her accused of murder. Told through memories, interviews, and trial material, it asks big questions about artificial intelligence, freedom, desire, and what counts as a real self, but it still reads fast.

That shift from heartbreak comedy to dark tech fairy tale says a lot about what connects her books. Rothenberg likes bold setups, but she uses them to get at intimate problems. Her characters are often girls or young women dealing with loss, first love, control, secrecy, and the shock of discovering that the world around them is not as safe or honest as it seemed. Even when the setting is heightened, an afterlife pizza place or a near-future theme park, the emotions underneath are familiar.

She also writes with a clear affection for teen readers. Not the kind that talks down to them, but the kind that assumes their feelings are real, their intelligence matters, and their contradictions are worth exploring. That helps explain why her books can juggle romance, humor, dread, and bigger ethical questions without losing the human center.

These days Rothenberg lives in New York City with her family and continues to work as a writer and freelance editor. That combination feels fitting. She knows how books are built, but she also writes like someone who still enjoys the leap of a premise that sounds a little impossible and turns out to be emotionally true.