Books › A boy's own story › Books like it
If you loved
Books like A boy's own story
A lush, deeply introspective journey through the lonely, sensual labyrinth of a queer adolescence. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with A boy's own story.
- hazy
- nostalgic
- lonely
- sensual
- 01
Giovanni's Room
James Baldwin · 1993
A devastating, beautifully written confession of doomed love and the tragic cost of denying one's own heart.
- 02
Faggots
Larry Kramer · 1978
A frantic, sweat-soaked descent into 1970s gay hedonism that masks a desperate, aching plea for true love.
- 03
The boys on the rock
Fox, John
An exuberant and tender exploration of a Bronx teenager's transformative summer of first queer love.
- 04
Call Me by Your Name
André Aciman
A sun-drenched, intoxicating plunge into the agonizing beauty of first love and the haunting power of memory.
- 05
City of Night
John Rechy
An unflinching, neon-lit journey through the gritty margins of mid-century America, pulsing with restless energy and the search for self.
- 06
Young Mungo
Douglas Stuart
A devastatingly tender exploration of queer first love blooming in the cracks of a brutal, hyper-masculine world.
- 07
Rainbow boys
Alex Sanchez
A candid, big-hearted exploration of the terrifying and exhilarating threshold between hiding who you are and stepping into the light.
- 08
Dream Boy
Jim Grimsley · 1995
A devastating and tender Southern Gothic exploration of first love blooming in the shadow of unspeakable trauma.
- 09
Closer
Dennis Cooper
A dark, unflinching exploration of obsessive desire and the destructive search for meaning in the hollows of middle America.
- 10
B-boy blues
James Earl Hardy · 1994
A vibrant, unapologetic collision of hip-hop culture and queer romance set against the electric backdrop of 1990s New York City.
- 11
At swim, two boys
Jamie O'Neill
A sweeping, sea-swept tragedy of first love colliding with the brutal tide of history.
- 12
Black Boy
Richard Wright · 2005
A searing, visceral memoir of survival and intellectual awakening in the suffocating grip of the Jim Crow South.
