Growing up I wasn’t always the most popular kid. I really wish I had discovered some of these books when I was younger and really needed them. Although they are all great books in their own right I know that they would have helped me feel a bit less lonely during my adolescence. So, without further or do, I present to you four outstanding books for the teenage outcast.
The Realm of Possibilities
The word I think of is precarious. I am struck by how precarious it all is. How the things that hold us are only as strong as the faith we have in them.
‘There’s the girl who is in love with Holden Caulfield. The boy who wants to be strong who falls for the girl who’s convinced she needs to be weak. The girl who writes love songs for a girl she can’t have. The two boys teetering on the brink of their first anniversary. And everyone in between.’
This is a really incredible book. It is told through twenty narrative perspectives, and each character is recognisable because they possess a different narrative style: ranging from poetry to prose to lyric to verse. Not only is it beautifully written (I’m a bit bias because I love David Levithan) but also it is impossible not to relate to one or more characters. I did a full book review about a year ago here.
Perks of Being a Wallflower
I think that if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won’t tell them that people are starving in China or anything like that because it wouldn’t change the fact that they were upset. And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn’t really change the fact that you have what you have.
‘Charlie is a freshman. And while he’s not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it. Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But he can’t stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.’
I feel like everybody has read this book but sometimes there is a reason for that, this is definitely one of those times.
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
I mean, Jesus, who even gives a fuck about sex?! People act like it’s the most important thing humans do, but come on. How can our sentient fucking lives revolve around something slugs can do. I mean, who you want to screw and whether you screw them? Those are important questions, I guess. But they’re not that important. You know what’s important? Who would you die for?
‘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.’
Firstly this is written by my wto favourite YA authors. Secondly it is beautiful and honest and poignant. I did a full book review about a year ago here.
The Moth Diaries
How do we know that our life really happened and that we are not simply accumulating details, making it all up as we go along?
‘At an exclusive girls’ boarding school, a sixteen-year-old girl records her most intimate thoughts in a diary. The object of her obsession is her room-mate, Lucy Blake, and Lucy’s friendship with their new and disturbing classmate. Ernessa is a mysterious presence with pale skin and hypnotic eyes. Around her swirl dark secrets and a series of ominous disasters. As fear spreads through the school, fantasy and reality mingle into a waking nightmare of gothic menace, fueled by the lusts and fears of adolescence.
And at the center of the diary is the question that haunts all who read it: Is Ernessa really a vampire? Or is the narrator trapped in her own fevered imagination?’
I haven’t actually finished this book, but I have really enjoyed what I have read of it. I feel as if this is the perfect novel for someone feeling a bit out of sorts, it helps you gain perspective.
and then there was Wednesday 