Hello! So, my English semester is based off of the adolescent experience and I need to do a personal reading assessment over the break. I’ve been searching for a book, yet everthing I find is rather boring or my teacher doesn’t allow it. So far, we have read A Long Way Down, The Lord of the Flies, and Romeo and Juliet. So, anyone has any book suggestions that are really interesting? I like things like Harry Potter, LQBTQIA+ based books, adventure, fantasy, mental health, sci-fi, phycological, poetry, topics like that. I’m a big nerd, and all the other books I’ve read have been comics or graphic novels, bit for this assignment I need a chapter book. (Sadly) I quite dislike reading, so anything that will keep me on the edge of my seat while I turn pages would be great!
Again, needs to be about the Adolescent Experience, Teenage life, and basically growing up!
by YOUR_MOMZ_BEANZ
15 Comments
Maybe It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini?
h{{How Do You Live?}} might be a good one.
h{{Cemetery Boys}} would be a good one
Edit: I went back thought of more books lol, I had to reply to get the bot to work lol
Here are some you might like. I don’t know what the criteria for things being allowed or not is, so there’s some variety here. Mostly sci fi:
* Looking for Alaska by John Green. It would read more like a period piece nowadays, but it is very much about being a teenager at the time it was written.
* Singularity by William Sleator. Lower reading level (it’s definitely for the younger young adults) sci fi coming of age
* Have Space Suit, Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein
* Glory Season by David Brin. Very long, but it’s a book I enjoyed a lot. This may just be too long for you but I figured I’d recommend it in case it sounded interesting
* All City by Alex DiFrancesco. Follows 3 characters at different ages, a nonbinary teen, a miserable early 20-something, and a third character who’s a bit older.
* Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White. About teenagers trying to survive the apocalypse with no adult supervision. Very queer.
* Slow River by Nicola Griffith. I believe the main character is in her 20s as of when the book takes place, but there’s a lot of flashbacks to her earlier life. Very queer.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian – not fantasy or scifi though
I wonder why the teacher isn’t allowing Romeo and Juliet? Crazy teens!!
Edit : never mind misread.
Also an easy way to find good books would be to search for “coming of age stories”, probably almost all of those would qualify.
h{Winger by Andrew Smith} is a chaptered novel that also has graphic novel elements and was a really good coming of age story.
I also loved h{In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard} as a coming of age story, but this may not be as enthralling as you’re looking for.
I read h{Monster by Walter Dean Myers} and h{The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini} for school one year and loved them both! Not necessarily about the adolescent experience but certainly each about an adolescent experience.
Agree with other commenters re: John Green and Ned Vizzini books!
Man’s Search for Meaning (non fiction)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Remains of the Day
A Thousand Splendid Suns
The Guncle
The House in the Cerulean Sea and sequel
Project Hail Mary and The Martian (Andy Weir)
Hunger Games series
Dark Matter
Divergent
The Housemaid trilogy (first book coming out as movie this Friday Dec 19th)
We Were Here by Matt de la Peña
>We Were Here is a young adult novel by Matt de la Peña about a teenage boy named Miguel who is sent to a group home after a crime, where he is required to keep a journal, leading to a journey of self-discovery as he and two other boys escape and head for the Mexican border. The book, praised for its fast pace and authentic voice, follows Miguel’s quest for forgiveness and a new start, exploring themes of friendship, family, and the search for self in an unforgiving world.
Man o’War by Cory McCarthy
>Man o’ War by Cory McCarthy is a coming-of-age YA novel about River McIntyre, an Arab American trans teen in a landlocked Midwestern town who struggles with their identity, gender dysphoria, and being a competitive swimmer, finding self-discovery and love after a literal dive into a shark tank at a marine park. The book, a Stonewall Honor Book, is praised for its honest and humorous exploration of queer identity, transition, and the challenges of self-acceptance, using marine life as a central metaphor.
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Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford.
My vote is for *The Perks of Being a Wallflower* by Stephen Chbosky. It is adolescent coming of age, navigating the experience, mental health, LGBT+. The list goes on – it should be a must read for anyone that has survived those tumultuous years and are looking for an insight into the experience of others.
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
This Boys Life by Tobias Wolff
The Outsiders by SE Hinton
really interesting things like Harry Potter.
Not my bag. I’m 46. I find those books dull and stupid, and I think the author intends it.
The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire is about the adolescent experience and has a lot of great ideas to explore. Many of the books can be read as a standalone. I’d recommend the second book, *Down Among the Sticks and Bones* – I think there is a lot to work with there from an academic standpoint, though it is a fairly short book.
Catcher in the Rye. I read it when I was 15 and hated it, but I think I would’ve liked it a lot more if my teacher had explained that it’s an exploration of the effects of grief and trauma on an adolescent.
Also “Ordinary People” for mental health and teenagers.
If you want a pretty challenging coming-of-age book about the partition of India and India’s transition from British Rule, “Midnight’s Children”