Books like “The Fault in Our Stars”

What to read after “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
They Both Die at the End
Adam Silvera · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
On the day they both receive a call saying they will die within twenty-four hours, Mateo and Rufus meet through an app for people facing their last day. The two teenagers spend it together, trying to live a lifetime in the time they have left.
2
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Benjamin Alire Sáenz · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
In 1987 El Paso, two Mexican American boys meet at a swimming pool and slowly become friends. Over long summers they share books, secrets and fears, and each begins to understand the love and longing he has been afraid to name.
3
Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson · 1999
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
Melinda begins high school as an outcast after calling the police at a summer party, and barely speaks. Through art class and small moments she slowly confronts what happened to her that night and finds the words to name it.
4
Thirteen Reasons Why
Jay Asher · 2007
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
Clay Jensen receives a box of tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, a classmate who has taken her own life. As he follows her voice around town, she explains the thirteen reasons behind her decision, and Clay learns his own place in her story.
5
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky · 1999
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
Through letters to a stranger, shy teenager Charlie describes his first year of high school. He is taken in by a group of older friends who introduce him to music, love and heartbreak, even as he struggles with grief and memories he cannot fully face.
6
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston · 1937
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
Janie Crawford tells her friend the story of her life: three marriages, a long search for love and independence, and the storm that changes everything. Set in the Black towns and farms of Florida, the novel follows her from a silent girl to a woman who speaks for herself.
7
Eleanor & Park
Rainbow Rowell · 2012
Same genre: “Young adult fiction” and “Romance novel”
- Coming of Age
Eleanor is the new girl on the bus, with mismatched clothes and a chaotic home life; Park is the quiet boy who lets her sit beside him. Their friendship grows through shared comics and mix tapes into a cautious first love, threatened by her abusive stepfather.
8
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak · 2005
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
Narrated by Death, the story follows Liesel Meminger, a girl sent to live with a foster family in Nazi Germany. She steals books, shares them with a Jewish man hiding in the basement, and grows up amid bombs, loss and small acts of kindness.
9
Me Before You
Jojo Moyes · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Star-Crossed Lovers
Bubbly Lou takes a job caring for Will, a wealthy young man left paralysed after an accident and bitter about the life he has lost. As she tries to show him there is still joy worth living for, the two of them change each other in ways neither expected.
10
To All the Boys I've Loved Before
Jenny Han · 2014
Same genre: “Young adult fiction” and “Romance novel”
- Coming of Age
Lara Jean keeps private love letters to the boys she has liked, never meaning to send them. When the letters are mailed, she pretends to date one of the recipients to save face, and the game begins to feel real.
11
Dark Matter
Blake Crouch · 2016
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
- Star-Crossed Lovers
A physicist is knocked out and wakes in a version of Chicago where he never married and never had a son. To get home, he must cross a multiverse of his own choices while another version of himself hunts him.
12
Replay
Ken Grimwood · 1986
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical” and “Melancholic”
Jeff Winston dies in 1988 and wakes in 1963 in his eighteen-year-old body, with every memory of the years ahead intact. He lives that span over and over, each replay starting later, and slowly realises he is not the only one caught in the loop.