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Juliet Takes a Breath

Gabby Rivera · back to the book

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24 books with the same feel

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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

Leaving HomeIdentity FormationSexual OrientationSelf-Discovery
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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.

Identity FormationSexual OrientationCultural IdentitySelf-Discovery
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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 OrientationIdentity FormationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistCultural Identity
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The Color Purple

Alice Walker · 274 pages

The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000–2009 at number seventeenth because of the sometimes explicit content, particula

Sexual OrientationFeminismSelf-DiscoveryCultural Identity
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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

Identity FormationSexual OrientationSelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ Protagonist
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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.

Identity FormationSexual OrientationSelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ Protagonist
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Down to the Bone

Mayra Lazara Dole · 384 pages

Here's what it means to be a tortillera. It means you're a girl who loves girls. Which means you get kicked out of Catholic school faster than Mother Superior Sicko can say "immoral." Which means your wacko Mami finds out. Which means you're kicked to the curb with nowhere to go, and the love of your life is shipped off to Puerto Rico to marry a guy.But this is Miami, and if you have a bighearted

Sexual OrientationCultural IdentitySelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ Protagonist
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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 OrientationIdentity FormationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistSelf-Discovery
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Ask the Passengers

A.S. King · 314 pages

"Astrid Jones copes with her small town's gossip and narrow-mindedness by staring at the sky and imagining that she's sending love to the passengers in the airplanes flying high over her backyard. Maybe they'll know what to do with it. Maybe it'll make them happy. Maybe they'll need it. Her mother doesn't want it, her father's always stoned, her perfect sister's too busy trying to fit in, and the

Sexual OrientationIdentity FormationSelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ 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 OrientationIdentity FormationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistSelf-Discovery
❤️

Openly Straight

Bill Konigsberg · 328 pages

Rafe has been out since eighth grade, and he's fine with it, and so is everyone else. But sometimes he just wants to be a regular guy, not the gay guy. So when he transfers to an all-boys' boarding school in New England, he decides to become "openly straight" instead. The transformation works: Rafe revels in a new group of straight guy friends and the freedom of living without a label. But then he

Identity FormationSexual OrientationSelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ Protagonist
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The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Emily M. Danforth · 480 pages

In the early 1990s, when gay teenager Cameron Post rebels against her conservative Montana ranch town and her family decides she needs to change her ways, she is sent to a gay conversion therapy center.

Identity FormationSexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistCharacter-Driven
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Luna

Julie Anne Peters · 248 pages

Regan's brother Liam can't stand the person he is during the day. Like the moon from whom Liam has chosen his female namesake, his true self, Luna, only reveals herself at night. In the secrecy of his basement bedroom Liam transforms himself into the beautiful girl he longs to be, with help from his sister's clothes and makeup. Now, everything is about to change-Luna is preparing to emerge from he

Identity FormationSelf-DiscoverySexual OrientationLGBTQ+ Protagonist
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Geography Club

Brent Hartinger · 226 pages

Russel Middlebrook is convinced he's the only gay kid at Goodkind High School.Then his online gay chat buddy turns out to be none other than Kevin, the popular but closeted star of the school's baseball team. Soon Russel meets other gay students, too. There's his best friend Min, who reveals that she is bisexual, and her soccer-playing girlfriend Terese. Then there's Terese's politically active fr

Identity FormationSexual OrientationSelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ Protagonist
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Becoming

Michelle Obama · 432 pages

In this adaptation of her autobiography for younger readers, Michelle Obama presents an account of her life, and, in telling of her own personal evolution, stresses the need for people to realize that no one is perfect, that the process of "becoming" is what really matters.

Identity FormationSelf-DiscoveryUpliftingFeminism
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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

Identity FormationSelf-DiscoveryCultural IdentityLGBTQ+ Protagonist
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The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

Ann Brashares · 373 pages

Can't wait for the next installment of the Pants? Check out the SPECIAL EDITION of The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, in stores now!Inside you'll find an exclusive "Who's Your Soul Mate Quiz" and a sneak peak at the third book, Girls in Pants.With a bit of last summer's sand in the pockets, the Traveling Pants and the Sisterhood that wears them embark on their 16th summer.Bridget: Impulsively s

Identity FormationLeaving HomeSelf-DiscoveryUplifting
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From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun

Jacqueline Woodson · 141 pages

Melanin Sun has a lot to say. But sometimes it's hard to speak his mind, so he fills up notebooks with his thoughts instead. He writes about his mom a lotu they're about as close as they can be, because they have no other family. So when she suddenly tells him she's gay, his world is turned upside down. And if that weren't hard enough for him to accept, her girlfriend is white. Melanin Sun is angr

Identity FormationSexual OrientationSelf-DiscoveryCharacter-Driven
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Identity FormationLeaving HomeSelf-DiscoveryYoung Adult
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The Hours

Michael Cunningham

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFeminismSelf-Discovery
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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 OrientationIdentity FormationSelf-DiscoveryLGBTQ+ Protagonist
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The Summer I Wasn't Me

Jessica Verdi · 342 pages

"Ever since her mom found out she was in love with a girl, seventeen-year-old Lexi's afraid that what's left of her family is going to fall apart for good. New Horizons summer camp promises a new life for Lexi--she swears she can change. She can learn to like boys. But denying her feelings is harder than she thinks"--

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistSelf-DiscoveryYoung 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+ ProtagonistSelf-DiscoveryFeminism
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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

Identity FormationSexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistYoung Adult
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