Reddit mentions of Incarceron

I think voice and tone are the main markers of YA, and those are incredibly hard to nail down.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, The Ranger's Apprentice, My Sister's Keeper, Miserere, The Midwife's Apprentice, The Catcher in the Rye, the His Dark Materials trilogy, Ella Enchanted, Catherine, Called Birdy, Fangirl, the Mistborn trilogy, Girls Like Us, various Tamora Pierce books, and Incarceron are all books that could be considered YA in some markets, but not in others (some are marketed up as adult literature, others down as children's books).

If you went solely by "characters being teenagers for most of the book" to define YA, (and even threw in caveats like "coming of age" and "no explicit sex") you'd get titles like Wild Ginger, The Poisonwood Bible, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Into the Forest, or The Year of the Flood on the YA shelves, possibly disappointing a lot of people who aren't interested in such a dreary world view and often a pervading sense of melancholy (which is perhaps coming from the slower pace, even if things are happening all the time?).

Endings seem to play a role too: those adult examples were all unhappy ends that could make the characters' entire journey seem pointless. YA doesn't necessarily shy away from the unhappy ending (The Fault in Our Stars, The Girl of Fire and Thorns, and Feed come to mind), but there's always a spark of hope and the books were more upbeat up until that point.

YA doesn't necessarily shy away from cynicism or ennui and/or despair either: there was plenty of that to go around in The Hunger Games, Looking for Alaska, Graceling, Delirium, and The Archived, but those tended to be character traits coming from character voice rather than the tone of the narration itself.

Bonus MG vs YA distinction: Does he liiiiike her and maybe kiss her or marry her or are they dating or secretly lusting?

tl,dr: Gut feeling. I know it when I read it, and I don't always agree with the official designation on the spine.

I have not, but I definitely added it to my wishlist so that I can get it when I get paid!

I'm currently devouring my way through the Incarceron books. My husband thinks I'm crazy, but I have 300+ books on kindle that I've already read, as well as 3 book cases full. I might have a ^tiny addiction xD

11-14

• Hatchet, about a boy stranded in the Canadian wilderness.
  
• Holes, about a boy cursed with bad luck who ends up in a prison camp
  
• Leviathan trilogy, a retelling of WWI where the Austro-Hungarians have mechas and the British have genetically-engineered whale blimps. This is evenly split between a male and female perspective (and a huge hit in a relative's special ed class for the same age group).
  
• The Ranger's Apprentice, introductory medieval fantasy about a boy training to be a ranger.
  
• Incarceron, about a steampunk labyrinth prison and the fake medieval world outside.
  
• The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, about mutant detectives in future Zimbabwe.
  
  15-18
  
  
• World War Z, about a zombie apocalypse and how different countries and people deal with it. Has a lot to say about geopolitics. (Not necessarily YA, but popular in that age group)
  
• Feed, where everyone has the internet in their heads from birth. While partying on the moon, boy meets girl who didn't get the feed until age 6.
  
• John Green's other books, like Looking for Alaska, etc all have male protagonists.
  
• Little Brother, about a teenage hacker swept up by the Department of Homeland Security after a terrorist attack on California.
  
• Legend trilogy, about a dystopian United States and a police prodigy trying to track down another 15-year old rebel. This is another one split between a male and female perspective.
  
• Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O'Brien are technically adult authors, but very accessible and popular in that age group.
  
  Would also second Artemis Fowl, Percy Jackson, Ender's Game, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that other commentators mentioned.
  
  Also, you may be interested in /r/YAlit and /r/YAwriters.