Books like Twelve by Nick McDonell

The beloved classic of American literature, Little Women, narrates the adventures of four March sisters as they grow up during the Civil War era.

Candide: A Tale of Conviviality and Optimism in a Wretched World

In an elite New England college, a charismatic classics professor lures a group of eccentric students into obsessive study, leading them from intellectual curiosity to corruption, betrayal, and ultimately murder.

Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens’s 1837-39 social novel, follows an orphan raised in a workhouse who flees to London, joins a gang of pickpockets, and uncovers family secrets while exposing child labour and exploitation.

A Clockwork Orange is a 1962 dystopian satire by Anthony Burgess, following violent teenage Alex in a near‑future society, narrated in the invented slang Nadsat and exploring state attempts at rehabilitation.

The Bell Jar is the sole novel by Sylvia Plath, a psychologically intense and autobiographical look at a young woman’s decline into mental illness.

Nick Hornby's second bestselling novel about sex, manliness, and fatherhood, about Will, a 36-year-old man child-free, discovering a way to meet women through single-parent groups, and Marcus, a 12-year-old boy dealing with a mother who makes him listen to Joni Mitchell rather than Nirvana.

In early 1980s Los Angeles, a privileged youth returns home for Christmas, confronting a generation steeped in excess, drugs, and nihilism as he navigates love, friendship, and moral decay.

Tom Wolfe's seminal work on the counterculture, featuring the tale of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and the acid-fueled bus tour that shaped the '60s.

180 p. ; 21 cm.1010L Lexile

Midnight Cowboy is a powerful exploration of the journey of a naive Texan who seeks a glamorous life in New York, but finds himself and his dreams compromised.

Paul Auster’s 1999 novella Timbuktu follows the inner life of a dog named Mr. Bones as his homeless master nears death, revealing the quiet resilience of animals and the melancholy of late‑20th‑century New York.

A darkly humorous account of addiction and self-discovery.

When New York lawyer Joel Litvinoff dies suddenly, his wife Audrey discovers a hidden truth that forces the family to confront their long‑standing beliefs and personal demons, revealing what the Litvinoffs truly believe.

Een jonge vrouw die door het vergaan van de Titanic in 1912 ouders en verloofde verliest, neemt de zorg voor haar broertjes en zusjes op zich.

After Princeton, Casey Han finds herself caught between the expensive expectations of elite Manhattan and the modest, culturally grounded life of her Korean‑American parents in Queens, as she navigates identity, class gaps, and the realities of rapid social mobility.

Winnie chronicles her twelfth year, exploring how friendships, family life, and self‑perception shift as she navigates growing up.

Cassie Hobbes has been working with the FBI since she was a teenager. Now twenty-three years old, she and her fellow Naturals have taken over running the program that taught them everything they know. As a unit, they're responsible for identifying new Naturals--and solving particularly impossible cases. When their latest case brings back a ghost from their past, Cassie and the other Naturals find themselves racing against the clock--and reliving their own childhood traumas.In a small, coastal town in Maine, there has been a rash of teen suicides--or at least, that's what the police believe. Mackenzie McBride, age twelve, thinks differently. Desperate to make herself heard, she stands at the top of a lighthouse, threatening to jump... unless the FBI agents who rescued her from a kidnapper at age six come to hear her out.Enter the Naturals. It doesn't take Cassie long to realize that Mackenzie isn't bluffing: she truly is convinced that the suicides are murder, and she really will jump if she can't get the FBI to believe her. To the outside world, Mackenzie is nothing more than a traumatized child. But so was Cassie, once upon a time. So were Michael, Dean, Sloane, Lia, and Celine. With a storm rolling in off the ocean and Mackenzie's position becoming more precarious by the moment, the Naturals have very little time to get to the truth about the deaths--and about twelve-year-old Mackenzie McBride.

A Stone for Danny Fisher follows a Brooklyn teenager turned boxer as he battles poverty, anti‑Semitic prejudice, and the seedy underworld of Depression‑era Manhattan while seeking hope, redemption, and a place to belong.

A captivating tale of love and betrayal in the world of New York's elite banking industry, exploring themes of trust and dishonesty.