Showing titles in Coming of Age

**Named One of Book Riot’s BEST QUEER BOOKS OF 2017** “Packed with story and drama … If Tennessee Williams’s ‘Suddenly Last Summer’ could be transposed to the 21st-century South, where queer liberation co-exists alongside the stubborn remains of fire and brimstone, it might read...

After four years of living with relatives in Switzerland, 17-year-old Joel Scherzenlieb finds himself in the United States for the summer, working at a Boy Scout camp. There, he meets 19-year-old Corey Cobbett, a fellow counselor and the only person Joel wants to be friends with. Soon, Joel's sarcastic, distant CIA father shows up and whisks him away to live with his mother, grandmother, and older sister on a farm in Virginia - he's not going back to Switzerland after all.

In 1945, when Billy May was 14 years old and alone, three local boys witnessed an incident in which Billy May's sexuality was called into question. Determined to teach her a lesson she would never forget, they orchestrated a brutal attack that changed the dynamics of the tiny coal mining village of Cedar Hollow, West Virginia forever. Thirty years after the brutal attack, living in solitude on top of Crutcher Mountain, Billy May discovers the hideout of a young girl - a girl who just happens to be the daughter of one of the boys who attacked Billy May so long ago.

Devon is determined to create a new life for himself as a freshman at Indiana University. He struggles to put his troubled past behind him and keep it from poisoning his new relationships. After a promising start Devon's resolve weakens, but he refuses give up his dream. The moment Devon meets Dorian Gray he knows his life will change forever. Dorian Gray is rich, charming, and the most beautiful young man Devon has ever beheld.

After a tragic accident devastates his family, 16-year-old Rick St. James starts his junior year of high school without any friends in a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah. When he meets Kevin Vincent, he's too distracted by the promise of new friends to see that Kevin has secrets of his own.

The heat is oppressive and storms are brewing in Brighton in the summer of 1982. Little Gold, a boyish girl on the brink of adolescence, is struggling with the reality of her broken family and a home descending into chaos. Her only refuge is the tree at the end of her garden. Into her fractured life steps elderly neighbour, Peggy Baxter. The connection between the two is instant, but just when it seems that Little Gold has found solace, outsiders appear who seek to take advantage of her frail family in the worst way possible.

The elder gods demand an end to the 500-year reign of the God of Chaos. To counter their plans, the champion of Chaos calls for the Cleansing—the sacrifice of all children under two. Ellis escapes the Cleansing with the help of Dirge, a swordsman who thinks Ellis was born to end the reign of Chaos, and Daylin, a young woman who talks with wolves. Visions drag Ellis north toward an ethereal tower, deep in The Lands of the Dead, staying steps ahead of the fire-wielding priest who killed Ellis’ parents.

Lei Ling Wen is lonely. Bored of her demanding after-school schedule of tuition, study and violin lessons, she struggles to see eye to eye with her strict Chinese-Malaysian mother. When Lei Ling is befriended by elegant, worldly socialite Gigi Nu, she is enchanted by the realm of luxury and freedom that suddenly opens up to her. Gigi encourages Lei Ling to flout her routines and treats her to designer products and expensive meals, and soon Lei Ling finds herself caught between two lives, and increasingly at odds with her exasperated mother.

Life is a dream, or is it? Zac can remember every detail of his dreams. He’s profoundly disturbed because he dreams about Isaac, a gay boy, and Zac is absolutely, 100 percent straight, or is he? Isaac is troubled by his newly vivid dreams too because he’s dreaming about Zac. Yuck! How could a boy want to do that with girls? Zac lives in 1983 and Isaac in 2018 so how can they possibly dream about each other? As both boys begin to doubt their sanity and wonder if they are real, their dreams begin to bring them closer together across time.

Madison Archer was a perfect daughter, with perfectly dark secrets. She did not mind that her father used her as a pawn in a business deal. She knew this role well, but meeting Jackie Westin sent her perfect world into a tailspin. Jackie introduced Madison to a different kind of love in a different kind of world, a world that would bend everything Madison believed about life. This is a tale of forbidden love, in a world of dark secrets, betrayals, and intrigue.

For 26-year-old Dylan Hopkins, the answer is easy. He's become no one. Memories of the happier times are all he has left, as he finds himself meandering numbly through his now dull life. Though he cares about his work and family dearly, he has yet to let himself find love again. Afraid of letting go of what he once had, Dylan chooses to keep his heart buried, where it belongs, having died a long time ago.

Inspired by Kailee Pedersen's own journey being adopted from Nanning, China in 1996 and growing up on a farm in Nebraska, this rich and atmospheric supernatural horror debut explores an ancient Chinese mythology. The last thing Nick Morrow expected to receive was an invitation from his father to...

"Achingly and beautifully etched. . . Washington is a generous and gentle writer, with a profound capacity to face the cruelty and pain of contemporary American life while simultaneously offering his characters—and readers—an expansive space for self-forgiveness, hope, and nourishment...

This program is read by the author. "Nevada is a book that changed my life: it shaped both my worldview and personhood, making me the writer I am. And it did so by the oldest of methods, by telling a wise, hilarious, and gripping story." —Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby A beloved...

Chase never had many friends, but at college, he meets and forms close ties with straight jock Tyler Davidson—a connection he fears he’ll lose if he tells Tyler he’s gay. Keeping his sexuality secret becomes harder for Chase as he joins Tyler and his family at their idyllic lake house for the summer. It grows more and more difficult for Chase to avoid Tyler’s attempts to set him up with girls, and he’s tired of making excuses. Chase is ready to embrace the man he is, but he’s afraid of what it will cost him.

It’s Junior year, and things are not as simple as Jade would like them to be. And the bodies piling up on campus from a rogue wolf aren’t helping. The new alpha pair decide to establish their pack outside of the beatific college in California Jade and Bevin attend. Though they want to expand their pack, new pack members won’t join them until the wolf den is ready. Jade and the alphas should be studying and establishing a place for people to live and feel safe … but can anyone feel safe when people are dying?

The arrival of Julian Mack, an openly gay new student quickly gaining the attention of bullies, draws Nate into a friendship that tests the limits of what he can endure. Absorbed by the need to please Julian, Nate is quickly at odds with his best friend Michelle and her efforts to protect him. As Nate struggles to find what meaning music has in his life, rumors about him swirl around school, leaving him to decide between defending Julian and his reputation or the safety and comfort of his haven of music and color.

Fueled by tomato sandwiches and green milkshakes, and obsessed with cars, Philbet struggles with life and love as a gay boy in rural Georgia. He’s happiest when helping Grandaddy dig potatoes from the vegetable garden that connects their houses. But Philbet’s world is shattered and his resilience shaken by events that crush his innocence and sense of security; expose his misshapen chest skillfully hidden behind shirts Mama makes at home; and convince him that he’s not fit to be loved by Knox, the older boy he idolizes to distraction.

Twelve-year-old Hari tries to make sense of his tumultous and complex world in 1980s India. His experiment at eating fish leads to the death of his grandmother; his preference for Hindi leads to slandeours graffiti agsinst his family in Madras; and his friendship with the family maid lands hin trouble with a militant Tamil film fan and political operative named Vishu.

Best mates Karl and Abu are both 17 and live near King's Cross. It's 2011 and racial tensions are set to explode across London. Abu is infatuated with gorgeous classmate Nalini but dares not speak to her. Meanwhile, Karl is the target of the local "wannabe" thugs just for being different. When Karl finds out his father lives in Nigeria, he decides that Port Harcourt is the best place to escape the sound and fury of London, and connect with a Dad he's never known. Rejected on arrival, Karl befriends Nakale, an activist who wants to expose ecocide....