My Dark Vanessa
Vanessa recalls teacher Strane abuse as adult reckoning looms.
2,600-word summary · 12 min read
coming of age + literary fiction
20 books tagged both “coming of age” and “literary fiction”.
Page 1 of 2
She's Come Undone
Abused as a girl, divorced and struggling with weight, Dolores Price slowly finds healing after years of trauma.
2,550-word summary · 11 min read
The Virgin Suicides
Five Lisbon sisters die in 1970s Grosse Pointe as boys watch.
2,559-word summary · 11 min read
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Janie Crawford tells Pheoby about Eatonville life with Logan Killicks, Joe Starks called Jody, and Tea Cake.
2,230-word summary · 10 min read
White Oleander
Astrid cycles foster homes after mother Ingrid murders boyfriend.
2,569-word summary · 11 min read
All Quiet on the Western Front
Paul Bäumer enlists at nineteen and faces the trenches of World War I in Remarque's 1929 classic, told from the German side of the wire.
2,543-word summary · 11 min read
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Nine year old Oskar searches New York for a lock matching his father's key after 9/11.
2,999-word summary · 13 min read
Kafka on the Shore
Fifteen year old Kafka Tamura flees Tokyo while old Nakata, who talks to cats, drifts toward the same library town in Shikoku in parallel.
2,496-word summary · 11 min read
Call Me by Your Name
One summer on the Italian Riviera: seventeen-year-old Elio and grad student Oliver circle each other through swims, talks, and missed chances.
2,627-word summary · 12 min read
Demon Copperhead
Born in a Lee County trailer, Damon Fields survives foster care, football fame, and opioid addiction in Appalachia.
2,447-word summary · 11 min read
Girl with a Pearl Earring
A maid in Vermeer's Delft household is drawn into the painter's world and into his most famous canvas.
1,973-word summary · 9 min read
Never Let Me Go
Kathy looks back on Hailsham, the English school where she and her friends were raised for an unspoken purpose.
2,102-word summary · 9 min read