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Down to the Bone

Mayra Lazara Dole · 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
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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Benjamin Alire Saenz · 368 pages

Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before.

Sexual OrientationCultural IdentityLGBTQ+ ProtagonistSelf-Discovery
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Juliet Takes a Breath

Gabby Rivera · 320 pages

Juliet Milagros Palante is leaving the Bronx and headed to Portland, Oregon. She just came out to her family and isn't sure if her mom will ever speak to her again. But Juliet has a plan, sort of, one that's going to help her figure out this whole "Puerto Rican lesbian" thing.

Sexual OrientationCultural IdentitySelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ Protagonist
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Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Becky Albertalli · 336 pages

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the bo

Sexual OrientationSelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of Age
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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 OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of AgeSelf-Discovery
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Ain't Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice

April Sinclair · 324 pages

In her second novel, Ain't Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice, Stevie, an immensely appealing young African-American woman, is just graduating from college and is ready to expand her horizons. She goes to San Francisco with two friends as a post-graduation trip, and decides to stay when she realizes the city holds more promise for her than returning to her cramped room in her parents' house on Chicago's

Sexual OrientationSelf-DiscoveryComing of AgeCultural Identity
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Little & Lion

Brandy Colbert · 341 pages

When Suzette comes home to Los Angeles from her boarding school in New England, she isn't sure if she'll ever want to go back. LA is where her friends and family are (along with her crush, Emil). And her stepbrother, Lionel, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, needs her emotional support. But as she settles into her old life, Suzette finds herself falling for someone new; the same girl h

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of AgeCultural Identity
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Every Day

David Levithan · 330 pages

Every morning A wakes in a different person's body, in a different person's life, learning over the years to never get too attached, until he wakes up in the body of Justin and falls in love with Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon.

Sexual OrientationSelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of Age
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Will Grayson, Will Grayson

John Green, David Levithan · 331 pages

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and D

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistSelf-DiscoveryComing of Age
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Keeping You a Secret

Julie Anne Peters · 250 pages

A fantastically written book that follows the life of student Holland Jaegar in her last year of high school. Holland begins her last semester of school by meeting CeCe Goddard, a transfer student from Washington Central. As the days progress Holland learn about CeCe and the fact that she is a lesbian. Holland is drawn to the charisma and strength of Cece and a friendship forms. When Holland suspe

Sexual OrientationSelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of Age
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When Love Comes to Town

Tom Lennon

Neil Byrne, a teenager in Dublin, Ireland, in the 1990s, comes to terms with the fact that he is gay and seeks acceptance from his friends and family.

Sexual OrientationSelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of Age
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The IHOP Papers

Ali Liebegott · 250 pages

Liebegott's debut novel is a coming-of-age coming-out in the tradition of Rita Mae Brown's Rubyfruit Jungle, but here, the portrait of an artist as punk waitress is more a celebration of sexuality than humanity.

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of AgeSelf-Discovery
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Annie on My Mind

Nancy Garden · 233 pages

This groundbreaking book is the story of two teenage girls whose friendship blossoms into love and who, despite pressures from family and school that threaten their relationship, promise to be true to each other and their feelings. This book is so truthful and honest, it has been banned from many school libraries and even publicly burned in Kansas City.

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of AgeYoung Adult
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Cut Both Ways

Carrie Mesrobian · 356 pages

Senior Will Caynes must face unsettling feelings for his best friend Angus after they share a drunken kiss, while also embarking on his first real relationship with sophomore Brandy--all as the burden of home-life troubles weigh heavily.

Sexual OrientationSelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of Age
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The Sky Always Hears Me: And the Hills Don't Mind

Kirstin Cronn-Mills · 281 pages

Sixteen-year-old Morgan struggles with her growing attraction to a co-worker, her unsatisfactory relationship with her boyfriend, and with her own sexual orientation after a girlfriend is rumored to be gay.

Sexual OrientationSelf-DiscoveryComing of AgeLGBTQ+ Protagonist
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The Flywheel

Erin Gough · 309 pages

Seventeen-year-old Delilah's crazy life is about to get crazier. Ever since her father took off overseas she's been struggling to run the family's cafe without him. But after a misjudged crush of one of the cool girls, Del has become the school punchline. With all that's on her plate she barely has time for her favourite distraction - spying on the beautiful Rosa, who dances flamenco at the tapas

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of AgeYoung Adult
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Pink

Lili Wilkinson · 310 pages

Ava is tired of her ultracool attitude, ultraradical politics, and ultrablack clothing. She's ready to try something new—she's even ready to be someone new. Someone who fits in, someone with a gorgeous boyfriend, someone who wears pink. But Ava soon finds that changing herself is more complicated than changing her wardrobe. Even getting involved in the school musical raises issues she never ima

Sexual OrientationSelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ ProtagonistYoung Adult
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Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Jeanette Winterson · 176 pages

This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God's elect. Zealous and passionate, she seems destined for life as a missionary, but then she falls for one of her converts. At sixteen, Jeanette decides to leave the church, her home and her family, for the young woman she loves.

Sexual OrientationSelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of Age
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Babyji

Abha Dawesar · 356 pages

Sexy, surprising, and subversively wise, Babyji is the story of Anamika Sharma, a spirited student growing up in Delhi. At school she is an ace at quantum physics. At home she sneaks off to her parents’ scooter garage to read the Kamasutra. Before long she has seduced an elegant older divorcée and the family servant, and has caught the eye of a classmate coveted by all the boys. With the world

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of AgeCultural Identity
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North of Beautiful

Justina Chen

As he continued to stare, I wanted to point to my cheek and remind him, But you were the one who wanted this, remember? You're the one who asked-and I repeat-Why not fix your face? It's hard not to notice Terra Cooper. She's tall, blond, and has an enviable body. But with one turn of her cheek, all people notice is her unmistakably "flawed" face. Terra secretly plans to leave her stifling small

Self-DiscoveryCultural IdentityComing of AgeYoung Adult
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Love Letters to the Dead

Ava Dellaira · 327 pages

When Laurel starts writing letters to dead people for a school assignment, she begins to spill about her sister's mysterious death, her mother's departure from the family, her new friends, and her first love.

Self-DiscoveryComing of AgeSexual OrientationYoung Adult
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Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel

Sara Farizan · 304 pages

When Leila develops a crush on a new female student she has to decide if her sexuality is something she wants to share with everyone else.

Sexual OrientationCultural IdentityLGBTQ+ ProtagonistYoung Adult
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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 OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of AgeYoung Adult
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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 OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of AgeSelf-Discovery
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On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Ocean Vuong · 256 pages

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once

Sexual OrientationCultural IdentityLGBTQ+ ProtagonistComing of Age
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