A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly (2003)

Based around a real life murder case that happened in the US in 1906, A Gathering Light (UK title) tells the story of 16 year old Mattie whose life, education and ambitions are destined to be curtailed by the fact that she is a girl. Mattie is surrounded by poverty and prejudice but there are two lights which inspire her, one is her teacher who writes feminist poetry and argues for women's rights though it makes her very unpopular; the second is her friend, Weaver who is committed to educating himself despite the obstacles and prejudice that he encounters as an African American.

Style/structure: non-linear narrative, bildungsroman.

Themes: gender, poverty, education, ambition, equal rights, prejudice

Spies

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (1993)

During the 1970s five sisters, known in their neighbourhood simply as the Lisbon girls, kill themselves. Years later the boys who knew them reminisce about their interactions with the girls and try to piece together clues and memories in order to ascertain what led to the girls' suicides.

Style: first person plural narrator, retrospective narrative

Themes: growing up, the male gaze, death, war, surburban morality, decline.

Catcher in the Rye

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Once in a House on Fire

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

The Perks of Being a Wallflower