What to Read Next Based on Your Favorite David Bowie Persona

Davy Jones
Bowie was born Davy Jones, and performed under the name in a number of groups that bordered on being boy bands, like the King Bees. Of course he went on to change his name to Bowie (as in the knife) and to pursue a massively successful solo career.
Looking to pair YA with this early era of Bowie? You’ll want to pick up Amy Spalding’s The New Guy (And Other Senior Year Distractions), Charlotte Huang’s For the Record, and Ashley Poston’s The Sound of Us.
The New Guy and The Sound of Us feature two musicians who are tired of the way they’re being portrayed. Both sing in boy-band-esque pop groups (though don’t tell Poston’s character that, he’d be very upset) and want something more. And in Huang’s debut, a singer discovers that the success she has been striving for isn’t necessarily the kind she wants.

Ziggy Stardust and The Man Who Fell to Earth
This personsa and Bowie’s first film role share some similarities, so I’m pairing them up here.
In Bowie’s first film, we meet an alien who has come to Earth to take our water. His planet is dying, his family is dying, and he’s got to figure out a way to transport the water back home. In the film, he’s a man out of place. There are things on Earth he isn’t used to having back home, like alcohol and television, which soon send him spiraling out of control.
And of course, since he is an alien, people are out to get him. His secret doesn’t stay safe.
As for Ziggy Stardust, he’s Bowie’s signature sci-fi persona, and perhaps his best known, a musician who speaks for aliens sending messages to humanity. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars tells that character’s story.
To pair with your thousandth listen of that indelible album, reach for other stories about extraterrestrials who are out of place, despite largely good intentions. There’s I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore, Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave (hey, one of those aliens isn’t a total monster, you guys), and Alienated, by Melissa Landers.

The Thin White Duke
Incredibly well dressed and fantastically stylish, the Duke sang songs of love and heartache, but in reality, felt nothing. I took to Twitter for this one, asking YA readers about their favorite well-dressed characters. They don’t necessarily feel nothing, but are impeccably put together.
If you’re looking for well-groomed YA characters, look no further than Shatter Me, by Tahereh Mafi (Warner!), Will Grayson Will Grayson, by John Green and David Levithan (Tiny Cooper!), Six of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo (Kaz Brekker!), Lola & the Boy Next Door, by Stephanie Perkins (Lola!), and The Serpent King, by Jeff Zentner (Lydia!).
Though if we want to find someone that’s more on the well-dressed but unfeeling side, there is one perfect pairing: Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games might be the perfect mashup of well-dressed and callous. She certainly grows through the series, as she becomes closer to Katniss and more disillusioned with what’s going on around her, but initially, she’s all style, all flair, all Capitol.

Aladdin Sane
Easily Bowie’s most recognizable persona, he’s the one with the bright orange and blue lightning bolt across his face. Bowie has talked about what that bolt represents in interviews: for one thing, something new and electric. Also it speaks to schizophrenia, which Bowie’s older half-brother wrestled with.
We’re pairing Aladdin Sane with Francesca Zappia’s beautiful Made You Up, Neal Shusterman’s award-winning Challenger Deep, Nova Ren Suma’s 17 and Gone, and Leah Scheier’s Your Voice is All I Hear, four YA novels that dig into mental health and schizophrenia.
And it’s kind of impossible to talk about an iconic persona featuring a lightning bolt without mentioning Struck, by Jennifer Bosworth, a novel about a girl who’s addicted to lightning. I’d also include Ryan Dalton’s The Year of Lightning in the mix. Because lightning.

Major Tom
An astronaut who appears in the songs Space Oddity, Ashes to Ashes, and Hallo Spaceboy, this galaxy-traveling human has plenty of kindred spirits in YA.
When it comes to humans traveling to new worlds for a better shot at life (and to save their species), I’d point Major Tom fans toward Beth Revis’s Across the Universe, Marie Langager’s Beyond Our Stars, and Cecil Castellucci’s Tin Star.
I’d probably also pair Major Tom up with YA involving characters who are a bit lost up there, as he is. The perfect pairing: These Broken Stars, by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner.

Jareth the Goblin King
Last, but certainly not least, there’s Bowie’s iconic Goblin King, from Jim Henson’s Labyrinth.
You can certainly pair this character with the array of fantastic YA graphic novels that center around creator Jim Henson. Definitely check out Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand, Jim Henson’s Storyteller: Witches, Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal, and the redone novelization of Labyrinth, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: The Novelization, all of them gorgeous titles from Archaia.
What better way to celebrate one of Bowie’s most imaginative characters than to spend more time with him? Dive in, perhaps while listening to “The Magic Dance”