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

By the River

Steven Herrick · 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
❤️

The Crossover

Kwame Alexander · 240 pages

"A bolt of lightning on my kicks, the court is sizzling, my sweat is drizzling. Stop all that quivering, cuz tonight I'm delivering," raps basketball phenom Josh Bell. Thanks to his dad, he and his twin brother, Jordan, are kings on the court, with crossovers that make even the toughest ballers cry. But Josh has more than hoops in his blood. He's got a river of rhymes flowing through him -- a sick

Verse NovelBrothersComing of AgeDeath of a Parent
❤️

Out of the Dust

Karen Hesse · 235 pages

"Dust piles up like snow across the prairie. . . ." A terrible accident has transformed Billie Jo's life, scarring her inside and out. Her mother is gone. Her father can't talk about it. And the one thing that might make her feel better -- playing the piano -- is impossible with her wounded hands. To make matters worse, dust storms are devastating the family farm and all the farms nearby. Wh

Verse NovelDeath of a ParentComing of AgeGrief and Mourning
❤️

The Outsiders

S.E. Hinton · 192 pages

According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social") has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs f

BildungsromanDeath of a ParentBrothersComing of Age
❤️

Girl in Pieces

Kathleen Glasgow · 416 pages

Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At 17 she's already lost more than most people do in a lifetime. But she's learned how to forget. The broken glass washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don't have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you. Every new scar hardens Charlie's heart just a lit

BildungsromanDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningComing of Age
❤️

Ghost Medicine

Andrew Smith

Still mourning the recent death of his mother, seventeen-year-old Troy Stotts relates the events of the previous year when he and his two closest friends try to retaliate against the sheriff's son, who has been bullying them for years.

Death of a ParentComing of AgeGrief and MourningTeen Protagonist
❤️

Under the Mesquite

Guadalupe Garcia McCall · 224 pages

Throughout her high school years, as her mother battles cancer, Lupita takes on more responsibility for her house and seven younger siblings, while finding refuge in acting and writing poetry. Includes glossary of Spanish terms.

Verse NovelDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningComing of Age
🙂

The Scorpio Races

Maggie Stiefvater · 435 pages

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die. At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them. Puck Connolly is different. She

Death of a ParentComing of AgeBrothersBittersweet
🙂

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Carrie Ryan · 310 pages

Death of a ParentBrothersComing of AgeGrief and Mourning
🙂

The Catcher in the Rye

Jerome David Salinger · 277 pages

With the author's recent passing, the classic novel about young Holden Caulfield's disillusionment with the adult world and its phoniness will only rise in popularity--and controversy, since it is a favorite target of censors, who often cite profan

BildungsromanGrief and MourningComing of AgeBittersweet
🙂

Jasper Jones

Craig Silvey · 304 pages

BildungsromanComing of AgeTeen ProtagonistBittersweet
🙂

Setting Free the Kites

Alex George · 326 pages

"From the author of the "lyrical and compelling" (USA Today) novel A Good American comes a powerful story of two friends and the unintended consequences of friendship, loss, and hope. For Robert Carter, life in his coastal Maine hometown is comfortably predictable. But in 1976, on his first day of eighth grade, he meets Nathan Tilly, who changes everything. Nathan is confident, fearless, impetuous

BildungsromanComing of AgeBrothersBittersweet
🙂

The Name of the Wind

Patrick Rothfuss · 667 pages

My name is Kvothe, pronounced nearly the same as "quothe." Names are important as they tell you a great deal about a person. I've had more names than anyone has a right to. The Adem call me Maedre. Which, depending on how it's spoken, can mean The Flame, The Thunder, or The Broken Tree. "The Flame" is obvious if you've ever seen me. I have red hair, bright. If I had been born a couple of hundr

BildungsromanDeath of a ParentComing of AgeGrief and Mourning
🙂

The Sky Is Everywhere

Jandy Nelson · 275 pages

In the months after her sister dies, seventeen-year-old Lennie falls into a love triangle and discovers the strength to follow her dream of becoming a musician.

Verse NovelComing of AgeTeen ProtagonistGrief and Mourning
🙂

Looking for Alaska

John Green · 262 pages

Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Ala

BildungsromanComing of AgeGrief and MourningBittersweet
🙂

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Stephen Chbosky · 216 pages

Charlie writes letters to an unknown mail recipient, detailing his struggles with high school, family, and finding his place in the world. Full of beautiful quotes and written with such sincerity, this is a book that makes the reader reflect on their purpose in life, while simultaneously reminding us about the power music, friendships, and "feeling infinite" can have on our life. Read this book.

BildungsromanGrief and MourningComing of AgeBittersweet
🙂

Putting Makeup on Dead People

Jen Violi · 326 pages

Donna's discovery, that she wants to be a mortician, helps her come into her own and finally understand that moving forward doesn't mean forgetting someone you love. Donna Parisi, still grieving over her father's death, comes to the realization while standing in front of the dead body of a classmate at a funeral home that she could find purpose in a career in the funeral industry. The plot contai

Death of a ParentComing of AgeGrief and MourningTeen Protagonist
🙂

The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger · 218 pages

Story of Holden Caufield with his idiosyncrasies, penetrating insight, confusion, sensitivity and negativism. Holden, knowing he is to be expelled from school, decides to leave early. He spends three days in New York City and tells the story of what he did and suffered there.

BildungsromanComing of AgeGrief and MourningTeen Protagonist
🙂

We'll Always Have Summer

Jenny Han · 337 pages

It's been two years since Conrad told Belly to go with Jeremiah. She and Jeremiah have been inseparable ever since, even attending the same college-- only, their relationship hasn't exactly been the happily ever after Belly had hoped it would be. And when Jeremiah makes the worst mistake a boy can make, Belly is forced to question what she thought was true love. Does she really have a future with

Coming of AgeBrothersDeath of a ParentBittersweet
🙂
Coming of AgeGrief and MourningTeen ProtagonistBittersweet
🙂

Moonrise

Sarah Crossan · 400 pages

Verse NovelBrothersBittersweetTeen Protagonist
🙂

Rumble Fish

Marcus Romer, S.E. Hinton · 123 pages

A junior high school boy idolizes his older brother, the coolest, toughest guy in the neighborhood, and wants to be just like him.

BildungsromanBrothersTeen ProtagonistBittersweet
🙂

The Last Song

Nicholas Sparks · 390 pages

#1 bestselling author Nicholas Sparks's new novel is at once a compelling family drama and a heartrending tale of young love.Seventeen year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alientated from her parents, especially her father...until her

Death of a ParentComing of AgeTeen ProtagonistSmall Town
🙂

The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt · 817 pages

"The Goldfinch is a rarity that comes along perhaps half a dozen times per decade, a smartly written literary novel that connects with the heart as well as the mind....Donna Tartt has delivered an extraordinary work of fiction."--Stephen King, The New York Times Book Review Composed with the skills of a master, The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present day America and a drama of enthra

BildungsromanDeath of a ParentComing of AgeBittersweet
🙂

Demon Copperhead

Barbara Kingsolver · 560 pages

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose." Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in hi

BildungsromanDeath of a ParentComing of AgeTeen Protagonist

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.