8 Life-Affirming YA Books Guaranteed to Fill You With Joy

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, by Becky Albertalli
A book that starts with a closeted high-school kid being blackmailed by the classmate who just found out he’s gay doesn’t seem like it’ll end up being an emotional joyride, but oh, how wrong you can be. Albertalli suffuses the story of Simon, a boy whose online romance with an anonymous fellow student inspires him to come out, with so much joy you’ll find yourself gripping the book with both hands, your nose pressed to the page, like you’re a five-year-old and the book’s a TV playing Spongebob. Simon’s romance with email confidante “Blue” builds in intensity and intimacy in real time, as he tries to guess Blue’s IRL identity and juggles shifting friendships and decides when and how to declare his sexuality to his family—while struggling with why he needs to keep declaring himself at all. As Albertalli reminds us, coming out stories will always matter, and this one is the sweetest and most life-affirming I’ve read.

I’ll Give You the Sun, by Jandy Nelson
Though this book is filled with heartbreak, estrangement, and loss, it all leads to a catharsis that feels so earned and heady and soaringly effervescent, the book earned Nelson both a Printz Award and a Permanent Spot on My Tiny Bookshelf Award, given out only to books I know I’ll need to reread on an emergency basis. Twins Jude and Noah were once as close as could be, she a fearless surfer girl, he a passionate artist who sees in technicolor. But their mother’s sudden death rips them apart, leaving Jude a shell and Noah in denial of both his sexuality and his art. Three years later, a new mentor and a damaged boy enter Jude’s life, blowing open her creativity and easing her self-hatred. You’ll hold your breath at the beauty of her journey back to Noah and herself, and Noah’s chance at reclaiming the love he thought he’d lost.

Hold Me Closer, by David Levithan
It was only a matter of time before Tiny Cooper, the very definition of a main-character-in-waiting, got his own book. He stole the show in Levithan and John Green’s co-penned Will Grayson, Will Grayson, a book that served as a preface to Tiny’s performance of his autobiographical musical—which you can now read in the form of Hold Me Closer. Complete with saucy lyrics, costume changes, and hilarious stage directions, Tiny’s Broadway-ready journey is one big book-length YES: yes to life and to embracing your self-identity and to loving who you are. It’ll make you cry-laugh with joy.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Somehow Chbosky captured the feeling of driving around in the middle of the night—windows rolled down, favorite song on the radio, and your best friend beside you—and put it into ink-and-paper form. Earnest, un-self-conscious narration draws you into super-sensitive protag Charlie’s world, in a narrative styled as a letter to an unnamed classmate. Though Charlie’s wrestling with demons even he isn’t fully aware of, his story of self-discovery, finding your tribe, and the way great books and music can change your life will make you feel infinite. If you’ve ever felt (or feel) out of step with the world, this book will remind you the outside is sometimes the best place to be.

Under a Painted Sky, by Stacey Lee
This is a misfit love story, an epic romance of the romantic and platonic variety, and an impeccable work of historical fiction you’ll white-knuckle your way through, so badly will you want its characters to get their happy ending. After her father dies in a shop fire and she accidentally kills her would-be rapist, Chinese American Samantha goes on the run with escaped slave Annamae, a girl she’s just met. The two disguise themselves as boys to survive life on the Oregon Trail during the Gold Rush days. Soon they fall in with a trio of handsome cowboys, who offer protection but are constantly on the verge of discovering the girls’ secrets. As they fight to stay one step ahead of the law, Samantha and Annamae discover the beauty of life on the road and forge an iron-hearted friendship.

I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
This midcentury classic was published before YA was a thing, but every YA fan needs to give it a try. Cassandra lives in not-so-genteel poverty in a falling-down castle with her eccentric family, including a dreamy older sister, Rose, who longs for escape via marriage, a novelist father who published one cult classic then descended into impenetrable writer’s block, and an artist’s model stepmother who likes to cavort nude among the elements. When two brothers show up at the castle one night—one the heir to a nearby estate, the other his very American younger brother—they look like the answer to the family’s prayers, so long as Rose can snag the heir. Over the course of an eventful year, aspiring author Cassandra turns her gimlet eye on marriages of convenience, social customs, and her ridiculous relatives, capturing the bittersweet end of her pagan childhood.

Everything Leads to You, by Nina LaCour
Emi is a Los Angeles girl and budding set designer whose chance find at a dead actor’s estate sale leads her to the girl she believes was his unacknowledged granddaughter. The girl, Ava, is a beautiful redhead with a difficult past, who’s trying to build a better life for herself from scratch. Emi and Ava fall in love over their investigation into Ava’s past and their shared work on an indie film with a shoestring budget, in a gilded LA of long drives and Hollywood dreams and tacos on the beach. The book manages to be both grounded and dreamy, and will fill your heart with helium (in a completely metaphorical, non-fatal way).

How to Build a Girl, by Caitlin Moran
Moran’s hilarious YA debut stars a British heroine living in a council flat outside London with her impoverished family in the 1970s, who reinvents herself as hard-partying rock journalist Dolly Wilde through sheer force of will and her hilarious poison pen. For Dolly, music is second only to her sexual education, which she approaches with the same game willingness to improvise that she does everything else. This is a heroine who’s so sex-positive she gives a jaunty thumbs-up to gawking children while making out with a boyfriend, so they get that lust is good, and so unabashedly lacking in body shame she turns a horrific UTI requiring hours spent soaking in a one night stand’s tub into a happy hangout with the dude and his bandmates. Dolly Wilde imagines a world without restrictions, embarrassment, or regrets. You’ll want to imagine it with her.