This novel dissects the delicate social ecosystem of high school through the introspective letters of Charlie, a freshman grappling with past trauma and social anxiety.
When he is welcomed into a circle of senior friends, including the magnetic Sam and Patrick, Charlie navigates a series of formative high school milestones—first dates, school dances, and late-night drives.
The story is a raw and poignant look at how the intense friendships forged in the halls of high school can become a lifeline, offering the courage to participate in one's own life.
Miles Halter leaves his mundane life behind to attend Culver Creek boarding school, seeking what the poet François Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” The boarding school setting acts as a crucible for intense friendships, intellectual awakening, and teenage rebellion.
Miles is drawn to the brilliant, self-destructive, and mysterious Alaska Young, but when an unexpected tragedy occurs, he and his friends must confront the vast difference between the people they imagine and the complex realities they truly are.
A cornerstone of modern young adult literature, this novel centers on Starr Carter, who code-switches daily between her poor, predominantly Black neighborhood and the wealthy, mostly white private high school she attends. This fragile balance is destroyed when she becomes the sole witness to the fatal police shooting of her childhood friend.
Starr’s journey to find her voice is set against the backdrop of high school hallways where her activism is met with ignorance and fear, forcing her to confront social justice on a deeply personal level.
For Melinda Sordino, high school is not just a setting; it’s a social prison that amplifies her trauma. After being ostracized for calling the police at a summer party, she begins her freshman year as a complete outcast, rendered silent by the secret of what happened to her.
The novel powerfully uses the cliques, classrooms, and deafening silence of the hallways to explore the struggle of a survivor finding the strength to speak her truth and reclaim her identity.
This heartwarming novel captures the universal high school fear of being exposed. Sixteen-year-old Simon Spier is navigating the typical pressures of school while carrying a huge secret: he’s gay. When an email falls into the wrong hands, he is blackmailed by a classmate who threatens to out him to the entire school.
The story expertly portrays the high school gossip mill, the terror of losing control of your own narrative, and the exhilarating, terrifying prospect of first love.
Set in 1986, this novel uses the school bus as a microcosm of high school social hierarchy. Eleanor, the new girl with a chaotic family life, and Park, a quiet boy immersed in comics and music, are two outsiders who find a refuge in each other.
Their connection, built over shared mixtapes and whispered conversations, becomes a tender first love that stands in stark contrast to the bullying they face at school and the hardships Eleanor endures at home, making their bond both precious and fragile.
This haunting novel examines the ripple effect of cruelty and indifference within a high school ecosystem. Clay Jensen comes home from school to find a box of cassette tapes recorded by his classmate, Hannah Baker, who recently died by suicide. On the tapes, Hannah details the thirteen reasons—and people—that led to her decision.
The story serves as a dark cautionary tale about the weight of our actions and the way seemingly small moments of betrayal, rumor, and ostracization can collectively create a culture of despair.
Junior, a budding cartoonist, makes the monumental decision to leave his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school in a neighboring farm town.
The novel, illustrated with Junior’s own drawings, chronicles his experience as a “part-time Indian,” navigating the prejudice, poverty, and culture shock of being an outsider in two different worlds. It’s a hilarious and heartbreaking look at identity, friendship, and the courage it takes to defy expectations in pursuit of a better future.
Lara Jean Covey’s romantic life goes from imaginary to chaotically real when the secret love letters she wrote to her crushes are mailed out without her knowledge. To manage the fallout, particularly with her older sister’s ex-boyfriend, she enters into a fake relationship with popular jock Peter Kavinsky.
This charming novel perfectly captures the high school experience of navigating the difference between private fantasy and public reality, exploring the messy, wonderful complexities of family, friendship, and first love.
A foundational text in young adult fiction, The Outsiders explores the brutal social divisions of high school through the rivalry between the working-class “Greasers” and the wealthy “Socs.” Narrated by Ponyboy Curtis, the novel delves into themes of classism, chosen family, and the tragedy of judging others by their labels.
While the conflict often spills out of the schoolyard, its roots are firmly planted in the social hierarchies that define the teenage experience, making its lessons on empathy and shared humanity timeless.
This classic novel is fundamentally about high school by being about the desperate flight from it. After being expelled from his prep school, Holden Caulfield embarks on a journey through New York City, launching a cynical critique against the adult world and the “phoniness” he perceives everywhere.
His alienation and search for authenticity are born directly from the stifling environment of academia and teenage social expectations, making his rebellion a quintessential, if extreme, portrait of adolescent angst.
Quentin Jacobsen has spent his life admiring his neighbor, the enigmatic Margo Roth Spiegelman, from afar. When she enlists him for a night of revenge and then vanishes, Quentin and his friends ditch their senior year traditions to follow a trail of clues she left behind.
The journey becomes a thoughtful deconstruction of the high school myth of the “cool girl,” exploring how we idealize and misunderstand the people around us, ultimately learning more about ourselves in the process.
This novel confronts the crushing weight of academic and social expectations at an elite high school. Overwhelmed by the pressure to succeed, Craig Gilner checks himself into a psychiatric hospital.
There, he finds an unlikely community of adults and fellow teens who help him see beyond the narrow definition of success that drove him to his breaking point. It’s a compassionate and darkly humorous exploration of mental health that reflects the very real anxieties faced by many high-achieving students.
High school angst goes international when Anna Oliphant is shipped off to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year. Though initially resentful, she is quickly swept up in a new circle of friends and the city’s charm. The only problem is Étienne St. Clair—the smart, handsome, and unfortunately taken boy she’s falling for.
The novel captures the giddy highs and heart-wrenching lows of first love, complicated by the unique pressures of navigating friendship dynamics and romance in a completely new environment.
Inspired by her mother’s punk-rock Riot Grrrl past, Vivian Carter decides she’s fed up with the sexist dress codes, hallway harassment, and biased attitudes of the football team at her Texas high school. Anonymously, she creates a feminist zine called Moxie and distributes it in the girls’ bathrooms, accidentally sparking a school-wide revolution.
This novel is a powerful and timely story about finding your voice and organizing for change from within the very institution that seeks to silence you.