Top 5 Coming of Age Stories I Want to Read

This Top 5 series started back in October 2018 and I kind of lost motivation for making it every week. But it’s back! This is a series of books that I want to read that all have a common theme. Previously on the blog I have focused on witches, werewolves, thrillers, faeries, fairy tale re-tellings, high fantasy and many more. I am going to try and bring this series back for every Saturday.

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The Upcoming Top 5 Saturday Schedule Is:

6/27/20 —  Books with Morally Grey Characters

7/4/20 — Coming of Age

7/11/20 — Hyped Books

7/18/20 — Books you Own

7/25/20 — #OwnVoices Books

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Rules!

• Share your top 5 books of the current topic– these can be books that you want to read, have read and loved, have read and hated, you can do it any way you want.
• Tag the original post (This one!)
• Tag 5 people

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AH! I totally thought yesterday was Friday! For some reason in my brain July 4th was on a Friday, so my post is late! Oops! I really need to go back to work already, because being home all the time is totally messing with my internal clock! Hopefully I get to go back soon!

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Coming of Age Stories

This is such a common theme in books and I absolutely love this theme! There is so much I love about coming of age tales. This is the period where teenagers start to become adults, they start developing their identity, figuring out what their morals are. This is a key moment in life that makes for a great story and character arc. This time period is when the character finds out who they really are and it’s such a powerful time period that it makes for a great topic in books. A few stories that always comes to mind when I think of coming of age stories are Strange the Dreamer, Mistborn and Name of the Wind. There are so many fantastic coming of age stories in so many different genres, but personally I love fantasy coming of age stories.

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The Vinyl Underground by Rob Rufus

Dig it.

During the tumultuous year of 1968, four teens are drawn together: Ronnie Bingham, who is grieving his brother’s death in Vietnam; Milo, Ronnie’s bookish best friend; “Ramrod,” a star athlete who is secretly avoiding the draft; and Hana, the new girl, a half-Japanese badass rock-n-roller whose presence doesn’t sit well with their segregated high school.

The four outcasts find sanctuary in “The Vinyl Underground,” a record club where they spin music, joke, debate, and escape the stifling norms of their small southern town. But Ronnie’s eighteenth birthday is looming. Together, they hatch a plan to keep Ronnie from being drafted. But when a horrific act of racial-charged violence rocks the gang to their core, they decide it’s time for an epic act of rebellion.

I picked up a copy of this book because I knew it was a coming of age story! It’s about a group of outcasts in the late sixties that bond over music. A lot of this story is about the Vietnam war and the draft and while I know about that time period I’ve never actually read a story about it all! I think this book should be pretty entertaining and I’m pretty hopeful that I will really like it.

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Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma.

Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals – the old art known as the Wit – gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.

So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.

This classic fantasy is one that I am dying to be in the mood to read. This is coming of age fantasy for sure and I have super high hopes for it. A lot of my friends are die hard Robin Hobb fans and she has tons of books that are out, so if I enjoy her writing there is plenty for me to pick up!

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The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.

This book is one that so many people rave about! It’s a found family story, but also a coming of age tale AND it’s set at a boarding school. It’s got so many of my favorite things wrapped up into one story. I don’t know much about the plot or the fantasy aspects at all, but so many people have recommended this book that I have no issue going into this semi blind.

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The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

This lush Russian fairy tale re-telling is one that I’ve heard nothing but great things about. It’s supposed to be super magical and an emotional read. So many of my friends have given this book 5 stars, and supposedly it’s also a coming of age story. I picked up a copy of this book at a book exchange that a hotel I stayed at had. I really am psyched to have a physical copy and think that I will really enjoy this book!

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The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington

It has been twenty years since the end of the war. The dictatorial Augurs—once thought of almost as gods—were overthrown and wiped out during the conflict, their much-feared powers mysteriously failing them. Those who had ruled under them, men and women with a lesser ability known as the Gift, avoided the Augurs’ fate only by submitting themselves to the rebellion’s Four Tenets. A representation of these laws is now written into the flesh of any who use the Gift, forcing those so marked into absolute obedience.

As a student of the Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war fought—and lost—before he was born. Despised by most beyond the school walls, he and those around him are all but prisoners as they attempt to learn control of the Gift. Worse, as Davian struggles with his lessons, he knows that there is further to fall if he cannot pass his final tests.

But when Davian discovers he has the ability to wield the forbidden power of the Augurs, he sets into motion a chain of events that will change everything. To the north, an ancient enemy long thought defeated begins to stir. And to the west, a young man whose fate is intertwined with Davian’s wakes up in the forest, covered in blood and with no memory of who he is…

This fantasy has been called a coming of age tale several times in reviews I’ve read. It’s also recommended for fans of Brandon Sanderson, so obviously that is a huge draw for me. It is a chosen one story with an intricate world. The reviews make me think I would really love this book. It’s a trilogy and all 3 books are already published, so I could tear through the series if I wind up loving it.

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Check out Other Book Blogger’s Top 5!

Louise @ Life in the Book Lane —Top 5 Saturday

Jill @ Jill’s Book Blog — Top 5 Saturday – Coming of Age

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Tagged! Join us this week or any upcoming week! (Check the schedule above for topics!)

Leah @ Leah’s Books & Cooks

Kay @ Hammock of Books

Emma @ damppebbles

Abby @ Anne Bonny Book Reviews

Cielo @Bellerose Reads

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Let’s Chat!

What do you think about coming of age stories? Have you read any of these books? If so what did you think? Are there any coming of age stories you would highly recommend? Make sure to comment below so we can talk about coming of age stories!