Books like Dear Diary by Lesley Arfin

Raina Telgemeier’s graphic novel follows middle‑school theater enthusiast Callie as she designs a blue‑grass‑tired set for a school play, grappling with teamwork, budgets, and the drama of friendship and family.

Go Ask Alice presents the diary of a teenage girl who falls into drug addiction, tracing her descent from a suburban family life to the streets of a city as she battles heroin, LSD, and other substances.

Augusten Burroughs recounts his turbulent adolescence spent in a decaying Victorian home run by a psychiatrist, where ordinary rites of childhood give way to a surreal blend of family eccentricity, escape from school, and the early years of a future author.

Twelve-year‑old Nao in Tokyo wrestles with loneliness and bullying and, before she ends it all, writes a diary about her great‑grandmother, a Buddhist nun who has lived a century. Across the Pacific a novelist on a remote island discovers objects from Nao’s life and is drawn into her mystery.

In the Gulf‑swamp town of Leechfield, Texas, a group of oil workers called the Liars’ Club spin tall tales, while a young woman confronts her family’s hidden past, unmasking lies that threaten her sanity.

Haven Kimmel’s memoir, "A Girl Named Zippy," chronicles life in 1960s Mooreland, Indiana, blending humor and keen observation of small‑town customs as a spirited girl‑turned‑woman.

Four strangers in Paris—an artist, an aristocratic neighbor, a talented roommate, and a neglected grandmother—intertwine as their lives expose the uncertainties and connections of modern urban living.

Rory Camden’s diary chronicles a childhood friendship turned longing, a pledge that turns into a love‑warhed battle, conscience, secrets, and heartbreak.

A candid account of a young boy's life in 1950s America and his coming of age process in the face of adversity and growth through experiences like paper routes, whiskey, scouting, fistfights, and betrayal.

A collection of letters from an older brother to a young sister, offering wise advice and encouragement for young women everywhere.

A candid, confessional diary that chronicles the author’s emotional turbulence, sexual experiments, and relationship failures amid the gritty backdrop of New York City.

From the book:THE best preface to this journal written by a young girl belonging to the upper middle class is a letter by Sigmund Freud dated April 27, 1915, a letter wherein the distinguished Viennese psychologist testifies to the permanent value of the document: "This diary is a gem. Never before, I believe, has anything been written enabling us to see so clearly into the soul of a young girl, belonging to our social and cultural stratum, during the years of puberal develop-ment. We are shown how the sentiments pass from the simple egoism of childhood to attain maturity; how the relationships to parents and other members of the family first shape themselves, and how they gradually become more serious and more intimate; how friendships are formed and broken. We are shown the dawn of love, feeling out towards its first objects. Above all, we are shown how the mystery of the sexual life first presses itself vaguely on the attention, and then takes entire possession of the growing intelligence, so that the child suffers under the load of secret knowledge but gradually becomes enabled to shoulder the burden. Of all these things we have a description at once so charming, so serious, and so artless, that it cannot fail to be of supreme interest to educationists and psychologists.

The Dollanganger Family Series: A Thriller with Family Secrets and Unpredictable Villains