I'm so excited to be posting after so long. I'd forgotten how tiring actually going to school could be. But it's still so amazing to be back!
Anyway, I've had an idea to do a Read-Alikes post for a while and after procrastinating for almost a month, I finally completed it.
I know for myself as a read that sometimes when you love reading a book so much, you're always looking for something similar to scratch that itch again.
If you love YA contemporary stories, then here you'll find some fantastic picks and their read alikes!
1) The Astonishing Color of After by Emily XR Pan + You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao- The Astonishing Color of After is an intensely beautiful story about a young girl's grief and the trauma over her mother's suicide. It has a sort of magical realism feel to it but not exactly magic is the story of how that young girl start seeing this bird that she believes is her mother, and to get closure over her mother's death, she travels to Taiwan to see her grandparents from her mother's side. The story of You've Reached Sam is similar in the way that it also deals with the themes of grief and loss. In this story, a gurls has to to deal with the sudden death of her boyfriend and is really struggling with moving on. A few days later after the death, by some miracle she happens to call his phone and he picks up on the other end. From there on starts a journey of growth and love. The writing is a lot more lyrical and beautiful in The Astonishing Color of After, but if the other elements of the story seem like your thing, I highly recommend picking up You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao.
2) Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds and Again and Again by E. Lockhart- Yet again, these two stories are really similar in the kind of themes they explore. The tone of writing is slightly different. Opposite of Always has a pretty straightforward writing style, albeit equally impactful. On the other hand, Again and Again reads more like beautiful, broken verses of poetry. It's not too flowery or confusing, but just the right amount of snippets. Both of these books follow the story of two people and the different versions of lives they could have had, had they made or not made certain decisions.
In Opposite of Always, the protagonist gets a chance to stops a devastating loss from happening when he keeps waking back up again and again in the same moment.
Again and Again follows a similar fractures timeline where we follow around a girl and all the possibilities of her life, the different variations and ways her life could go. It almost seems like following the same character in alternate realities.
Both of these books are very heart-breaking and heavy reads, and one of the few that made me cry.
3) Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales + Out of Character by Annabeth Albert- Other than the fact that these stories have the cutest couple as the protagonists, they also share a lot of similar themes of bullying, homophobia, and the many micro aggressions that people have to face daily and how deeply it can affect them. Both of the books take a close on characters that are forced to stay in the closet because of the fear and pressure to be a certain way, and sometimes intentionally and sometimes un-intentionally propagate those exact stereotypes that they are against.
Only Mostly Devastated is in first person from a single POV, while Out of Character is dual POV, with an additional plotline of a card game tournament propelling the story forward.
Finally, there's the obvious soft and angsty feelings that I love so much in YA stories. I adored both of these books and I need more stories like these.
4) Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas and Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune-
(Check out my full review and Instagram post for UTWD here)
Cemetery Boys was a pretty recent read for me, and I loved it so much I had to mention it in this post. Even though on surface level they don't seen too similar because Cemetery Boys is YA, and UTWD is adult, I think both of them are absolutely beautiful in their own way and can appeal to a lot of the same audiences.
Cemetery Boys follows the story of a young Latinx trans boy whose family is known to have the magic that helps them with dead souls, and he really wants to become a brujo. But in his hurry to prove himself to his family, he summons the ghost of Julian, the very recently-dead bad boy of his school, and has to send the unwilling ghost back. But he falls for him instead.
Under The Whispering Door is a lot slower and softer in its writing and pacing, but if the idea of a person falling in love with a ghost, or themes of accepting death, grief, afterlife and magic appeals to you- or if you loved Cemetery Boys and the love story aspect of it, there's a good chance you'll also like Under The Whispering Door.
5) Tweet Cute and Made in Korea by Sarah Soulk-
If you love a good enemies-to-lovers romance, where the couple doesn't lose their signature banter and wit even after they fall for each other, these two books are here for it.
Tweet Cute has the additional kick of a social media war with quips and banter, but Made in Korea has its own kind of fun with a high school setting and drama.
Tweet Cute follows the kids of two competing restaurant businesses, one of them a huge chain and the other a family business, on a Twitter battle with each other, creating a buzz online, but they find the closest sort of support on each other.
Other than the romance, it definitely gets into the mess of it and talks about parental expectations and pressure and mental health.
Made in Korea is also about two rivaling businesses, buth this time with the backdrop of a high school, and this sort of small home skin care business set up just in school. The two rivals are the only Korean kids in their school, and the themes of race, immigration, and discrimination that come up give it more substance.
The couples in both the stories are adorable and have fantastic character development. It's amazing how the authors balance the fun sith the emotional parts. Highly recommend.
Let's Chat!
Thank you so much for reading till here. I hope you enjoyed this post. Let know about some of your YA Contemporary favourites in the comments down below. I'd love to know your thoughts!
Until then,
Bye!