AmongReaders.com Add a tiny library
📚 AmongReaders — track what you read, talk chapter by chapter without spoilers, and read with friends. Free.Join AmongReadersSign in

🧲 Books like this

Babyji

Abha Dawesar · back to the book

What’s in it

Tap a tag: ❤ = this matters to me · tap again ✕ = don’t care · again to reset. The list below updates each time.

24 books with the same feel

Include books by the same author
❤️

Tipping the Velvet

Sarah Waters · 480 pages

Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-h

BildungsromanSexual OrientationComing of AgeLGBTQ+ Protagonist
❤️

The Beautiful Room Is Empty

Edmund White · 199 pages

When the narrator of White's poised yet scalding autobiographical novel first embarks on his sexual odyssey, it is the 1950s, and America is "a big gray country of families on drowsy holiday." That country has no room for a scholarly teenager with guilty but insatiable stirrings toward other men. Moving from a Midwestern college to the Stonewall Tavern on the night of the first gay uprising--and p

BildungsromanSexual OrientationComing of AgeLGBTQ+ Protagonist
❤️

Tell the Wolves I'm Home

Carol Rifka Brunt · 384 pages

It is 1987, and only one person has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus -- her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn's company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June's world is turned upside d

BildungsromanComing of AgeSexual OrientationLGBTQ+ Protagonist
❤️

Rubyfruit Jungle

Rita Mae Brown · 246 pages

Born a bastard, Molly Bolt is adopted by a dirt-poor Southern couple who want something better for their daughter. Molly plays doctor with the boys, beats up Leroy the tub and loses her virginity to her girlfriend in sixth grade. As she grows to realize she's different, Molly decides not to apologize for that. In no time she mesmerizes the head cheerleader of Ft. Lauderdale High and captivates a g

Sexual OrientationComing of AgeLGBTQ+ ProtagonistTeen Protagonist
❤️

We the Animals

Justin Torres · 144 pages

"An exquisite, blistering debut novel. Three brothers tear their way through childhood-- smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn--he's Puerto Rican, she's white--and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmake

BildungsromanComing of AgeSexual OrientationLGBTQ+ Protagonist
❤️

In One Person

John Irving · 448 pages

A New York Times bestselling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love—tormented, funny, and affecting—and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a "sexual suspect," a phrase first used by John Ir

BildungsromanSexual OrientationComing of AgeLGBTQ+ Protagonist
❤️

Dryland

Sara Jaffe · 216 pages

"It's 1992, and the world is caught up in the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the Balkan Wars, but for fifteen-year-old Julie Winter, the news is noise. In Portland, Oregon, Julie moves through her days in a series of negatives: the skaters she doesn't think are cute, the trinkets she doesn't buy at the craft fair, the umbrella she refuses to carry despite the incessant rain. Her family life is routine and

Sexual OrientationComing of AgeLGBTQ+ ProtagonistTeen Protagonist
❤️

Funny Boy

Shyam Selvadurai · 315 pages

Der sensible Arjie spielt lieber als Braut verkleidet mit den Mädchen aus seiner tamilischen Großfamilie, als sich auf dem Kricketplatz auszutoben. Während die Unbeschwertheit der Kindertage weicht, beginnt er zunehmend die Widersprüche und Vorurteile der Erwachsenenwelt zu spüren.

BildungsromanSexual OrientationComing of AgeLGBTQ+ Protagonist
❤️

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

Michael Chabon · 297 pages

Im magischen Sommer nach dem Collegeabschluß will Art Bechstein Pittsburgh auf den Kopf stellen. Und wird selbst auf den Kopf gestellt. Er versinkt völlig in den glitzernd bunten Geheimnissen der grauen Industriestadt. Der erste Roman eines jungen amerikanischen Autors--witzig, spritzig, melancholisch, mitreißend. Die verführerische Geschichte des heißen Sommers, als Art Bechstein erwachsen wurde.

BildungsromanSexual OrientationComing of AgeLGBTQ+ Protagonist
🙂

Silhouette of a Sparrow

Molly Beth Griffin

During the summer of 1926 in the lake resort town of Excelsior, Minnesota, sixteen-year-old Garnet, who dreams of indulging her passion for ornithology, is resigned to marrying a nice boy and settling into middle-class homemaking until she takes a liberating job in a hat shop and begins an intense, secret relationship with a daring and beautiful flapper.

Sexual OrientationComing of AgeLGBTQ+ ProtagonistTeen Protagonist
🙂

Coffee Will Make You Black

April Sinclair · 239 pages

Stevie, a young Afro-American woman in the 60s, tries to deal with her sexuality, Black culture, and social identity.

BildungsromanComing of AgeSexual OrientationLiterary Fiction
🙂

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls

Anton DiSclafani · 420 pages

Exiled to an equestrian boarding school in the South at the height of the Great Depression for her role in a family tragedy, strong-willed teen Thea Atwell grapples with painful memories while acclimating to the school's strict environment.

BildungsromanComing of AgeTeen ProtagonistFirst Person Narrator
🙂

Read Me Like a Book

Liz Kessler · 304 pages

Ashleigh Walker is a mediocre student with an assortment of friends, a sort-of boyfriend, and no plans for the future. Then a straight-from-college English teacher, Miss Murray, takes over Ash s class and changes everything. Miss Murray smiles a lot. She shares poetry with curse words in it. She s, well, cool. And she seems to really care about her students. About Ashleigh. For the first time, Ash

Sexual OrientationComing of AgeLGBTQ+ ProtagonistTeen Protagonist
🙂

Dance on My Grave

Aidan Chambers · 251 pages

Hal's summer affair with Barry Goldman ends tragically when Hal discovers he is much more committed to the relationship than his friend.

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of AgeTeen Protagonist
🙂

Girl Walking Backwards

Bett Williams · 242 pages

In Girl Walking Backwards, Skye wants what all teenagers want--to survive high school. She lives in Southern California, though, which is making that difficult. Her mother has fallen victim to the pseudo-New Age culture and insists on dragging her to consciousness-raising workshops and hypnotists. As if this weren't difficult enough, Skye falls in love with Jessica, a troubled gothic punk girl who

Sexual OrientationComing of AgeLGBTQ+ ProtagonistTeen Protagonist
🙂

Kinflicks

Lisa Alther · 503 pages

In Kinflicks, Lisa Alther reels through the ups and downs of Ginny Babcock's coming of age in Hullsport, Tennessee, during the '50s and '60s. Ginny bounces from one identity to another, adopting the values, politics, lifestyle, even the sexual orientation of each new partner. In her wise, funny, and ultimately heartbreaking story, Alther explores the limited roles offered to women in the '60s - f

BildungsromanComing of AgeLiterary FictionLGBTQ+ Protagonist
🙂

Sag Harbor

Colson Whitehead · 288 pages

The warm, funny, and supremely original new novel from one of the most acclaimed writers in AmericaThe year is 1985. Benji Cooper is one of the only black students at an elite prep school in Manhattan. He spends his falls and winters going to roller-disco bar mitzvahs, playing too much Dungeons and Dragons, and trying to catch glimpses of nudity on late-night cable TV. After a tragic mishap on his

BildungsromanComing of AgeTeen ProtagonistLiterary Fiction
🙂

Shala

Milind Bokil · 383 pages

BildungsromanIndiaComing of AgeTeen Protagonist
🙂

The House on Mango Street

Sandra Cisneros · 110 pages

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A coming-of-age classic, acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world—from the winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for he

BildungsromanComing of AgeLiterary FictionTeen Protagonist
🙂

I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip.

John Donovan · 189 pages

Thirteen-year-old Davy has a difficult time adjusting to his grandmother's death and life in New York with his erratic mother. He becomes close friends with a male classmate at his new school. The friendship later turns sexual, eventually causing Davy to struggle with feelings of guilt. It was one of the first mainstream teen novels to deal with homosexuality.

Sexual OrientationComing of AgeLGBTQ+ ProtagonistTeen Protagonist
🙂

The Claudine Novels

Colette · 560 pages

BildungsromanComing of AgeLiterary FictionFirst Person Narrator
🙂

How to Build a Girl

Caitlin Moran · 341 pages

After she shames herself on local television, Johanna Morgan reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde--a fast-talking, hard-drinking Gothic hero--until two years later, while eviscerating bands as a music critic, she realizes she's built Dolly with a fatal flaw.

BildungsromanComing of AgeTeen ProtagonistFirst Person Narrator
🙂

Summer of '42

Herman Raucher · 251 pages

One summer in the life of a 15-year old boy.

BildungsromanComing of AgeTeen ProtagonistFirst Person Narrator
🙂

Middlesex

Jeffrey Eugenides · 544 pages

A unique coming of age story. While the main character in this novel is dealing with gender identity issues the main focus of this brilliantly written story is the confusion we all face as we grow into the person we were meant to be. The reader finds himself identifying with the main character's experiences. This is a brilliantly written story. The prose is honest in a way that few authors dare t

BildungsromanComing of AgeLGBTQ+ ProtagonistLiterary Fiction

In the works

To be read SpinnerCan’t pick your next book? Spin your Want to read.Blind date with a bookPick a mood, unwrap a surprise.Add a tiny librarySnap a little free library and its books.