28 Gay male teen fiction

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is a coming-of-age young adult novel by American author Benjamin Alire Sáenz which was first published February 21, 2012. Set in El Paso, Texas in 1987, the novel follows two Mexican-American teenagers, Aristotle "Ari" Mendoza and Dante Quintana, their friendship, and their struggles with racial and ethnic identity, sexuality, and family relationships. Since its publication, the novel has received near-universal critical acclaim and numerous accolades.

The Arizona Kid is a 1988 novel by Ron Koertge about a summer 16-year-old Billy spends living with his gay uncle and working with race horses.

Boy Meets Boy is a young adult novel by David Levithan, published in 2003. Set in a gay-friendly small town in America, it describes a few weeks in the lives of a group of high school students. The story follows the standard romantic trope usually known as "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl" except that the main characters are both boys, the narrator Paul and newcomer Noah. The novel won a Lambda Literary Award in 2003.

Boyfriends with Girlfriends is a 2011 young adult novel by Alex Sánchez. The book was published by Simon & Schuster and deals with the pressures of teens coming to terms with their sexuality and of coming of age. Sanchez began working on the novel after receiving e-mails from teens that were being criticized by both their straight and homosexual peers for being bisexual. Boyfriends with Girlfriends has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and was a 2012 ALA Rainbow Bridge List novel.

The Boys on the Rock is a short debut novel by John Fox which details the coming out and falling in love of a gay sixteen-year-old swimmer, nomine Billy Connors, who narrates the story in the first person. It is notable as perhaps the first novel ever to blend politics with the travails of a gay adolescent.

Dance on My Grave: a life and a death in four parts, one hundred and seventeen bits, six running reports and two press clippings, with a few jokes, a puzzle or three, some footnotes and a fiasco now and then to help the story along is a 1982 young adult novel by British author Aidan Chambers. It is the second book in the Dance Sequence series.

Geography Club is a 2003 young adult novel by American author Brent Hartinger. It is the first book in The Russel Middlebrook Series. The novel follows a group of high school students who feel like outsiders, some because of their sexual orientations. The narrator, Russel Middlebrook, then finds himself helping his friend Min to form an after school club for the students, so that they can hang out together for support.

The God Box (2007), a novel by Alex Sánchez, focuses on the conflict and friendship between two Christian teenage boys, one openly gay and the other struggling to accept his sexuality. It was adapted into a play in 2009 which had its world premiere performance at Sacred Heart Preparatory in Atherton, CA.

Half-Life is a debut novel by Aaron Krach. Published in 2004 by Alyson Books, the novel was nominated for a Violet Quill Award and was among the 2004 Lambda Literary Award finalists. It discusses young love, coping with death and the issues facing gay youth.

I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip is a young adult novel by John Donovan, first published in 1969. It was one of the first mainstream teen novels to deal with homosexuality. It was reissued in September 2010 by Flux, an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide. The novel tells the story of Davy Ross, a lonely boy who becomes close friends with a male classmate at his new school. The friendship later turns sexual, eventually causing Davy to struggle with feelings of guilt.

I'll Give You the Sun is a young adult novel by author Jandy Nelson. Published in September 2014, it is Nelson's second novel. Nelson won several awards for this novel, including the 2015 Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. In June 2015, Warner Bros. optioned the movie rights and Natalie Krinsky signed on to write the script. Denise Di Novi and Alison Greenspan were said to be producing the movie.

In Mike We Trust is a young adult gay novel by P. E. Ryan first published in 2009. It depicts a teenage gay boy who falls under the sway of his con artist uncle. The boy struggles with his sexual orientation as well as the need for honesty when his beloved role model asks him to lie.

Kiss is a book for teenage readers, written by Jacqueline Wilson and illustrated by Nick Sharratt. It was published 2007 by Doubleday. The book revolves around a girl called Sylvie whose childhood friend Carl is struggling to come to terms with his sexuality.

Love, Creekwood is a young adult novella by American author Becky Albertalli, released on June 30, 2020. The book follows Leah on the Offbeat (2018), and serves as an epilogue to it and Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (2015).

My Heartbeat is a 2002 novel by Garret Freymann-Weyr, about a fourteen-year-old girl who discovers that her brother and his best friend, James, who she has been in love with for years, could be a couple. It was named a Printz Honor book in 2003.

Rainbow Boys is the first novel in a trilogy by Alex Sánchez, focusing on the issues gay and questioning youth face as they come of age. This book is followed by Rainbow High and Rainbow Road.

Rainbow High is the second novel in a trilogy by Alex Sánchez, focusing on the issues gay and questioning youth face as they come of age. This book is the sequel to Rainbow Boys and followed by Rainbow Road.

Shine is a 2011 young adult mystery novel by Lauren Myracle. The book was published on May 1, 2011, and follows a teenage girl investigating a hate crime involving the beating and near-death of her best friend in a small, North Carolina town. Shine won the 2012 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award and is on the ALA's "YALSA Reader’s Choice" and "Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults" lists for 2012.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is a 2015 young adult novel and the debut book by American author Becky Albertalli. The coming-of-age story focuses on its titular protagonist Simon Spier, a closeted gay high-school aged boy who is forced to come out after a blackmailer discovers Simon's e-mails written to another closeted classmate with whom he has fallen in love.

Something Like Summer is a 2011 novel by Jay Bell, and the first installment in the Something Like... series. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 2017. The novel centers around the life of Benjamin Bentley, a 17 year-old from Houston, Texas, and his tumultuous relationship with two love interests over the span of several years.

Sprout is a young adult gay novel by American author Dale Peck first published in May 2009. The novel depicts an openly gay teenage boy who moves to Kansas after his mother dies from cancer. While he struggles with harassment at school and two potential boyfriends, he has to decide if he will hide his sexual orientation in order to win a statewide essay-writing contest. An act of betrayal leads to the book's climax.

They Both Die at the End is a young adult novel written by American author Adam Silvera and published on September 5, 2017 by HarperTeen. It is Silvera's third novel and focuses on two teenage boys, Mateo and Rufus, who discover that they only have one day left to live.

The Vast Fields of Ordinary is a young adult gay novel by American author Nick Burd first published in 2009. The novel depicts the summer after high school graduation for a closeted suburban teenage boy, his openly lesbian new best friend, and the two boys he is interested in dating. The Vast Fields of Ordinary is Burd's debut novel.

A Vigil for Joe Rose is a collection of short stories by Michael Whatling about the experience of being out in high school. It is based on Whatling's doctoral research in education at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Joe Rose was a Montreal gay activist who was attacked and murdered in 1989 by assailants who jeered at him and shouted, "Faggot," for having pink hair.

Welsh Boys Too is a 2000 short story collection by British author John Sam Jones, published by Parthian Books. In 2002, it was named as a 'Stonewall Honor Book' by the Stonewall Book Awards.

When Everything Feels Like the Movies is the debut young adult novel by Raziel Reid. The novel is narrated by the protagonist, Jude Rothesay, from a first-person perspective, and details his experiences and difficulties over a few days as a gay teenager in school. Reid was inspired by the events leading up to the 2008 murder of Larry King in Oxnard, California, as he perceived parallels between his life and King's life.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a novel by John Green and David Levithan, published in April 2010 by Dutton Juvenile. The book's narrative is divided evenly between two boys named Will Grayson, with Green having written all of the chapters for one and Levithan having written the chapters for the other, presented in an alternating chapter fashion. One boy is referred to with a capitalized letter at the start of his name, while the other is referred to in all lower case letters. The novel debuted on The New York Times children's best-seller list after its release and remained there for three weeks. It was the first LGBT-themed young adult novel to make it to that list.

The World of Normal Boys, published in 2001, is the debut novel of K.M. Soehnlein. The coming-of-age story centers on 13-year-old Robin MacKenzie, who discovers that he is unlike most other adolescent males. The book became a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and won the Lambda Literary Award.