The best YA books with imperfect protagonists

The book follows the story of Astrid, a closeted lesbian living in a small town.

Originally from New York City, she feels a disconnect between herself and the people around her, even her best friends. The only people she can be open with are the passengers of the planes that fly above her house. She imagines their lives and sends out her deepest thoughts to them.

The whimsical premise is what originally drew me to the story, but what I ended up loving about it was the complexities of Astrid’s relationships with her friends and family. Her parents, being active in New York in the arts scene, would likely be supportive of her identity, but she feels so disconnected from them that she doesn’t want to open up.

Both of Astrid’s friends are queer; despite this, Astrid feels incapable of telling them her deepest secret. Astrid also has a girlfriend whom she loves, but her girlfriend doesn’t always respect her boundaries. Nobody is perfect, including Astrid herself.

There are times when Astrid places blame entirely on other people instead of acknowledging her own faults. But it all felt so true to life and left me with lots of think about.

This book is written in verse, so the whole thing is like one long poem. The audiobook is read by the author, which I think captures the intent of the book beautifully.

Xiomara, or X, is a young girl living in Harlem who feels suffocated by her overbearing religious mother and her brilliant twin brother’s academic accomplishments. X writes poetry for her school assignments, but she also uses it as a form of diary to express the feelings she can’t otherwise. She challenges religion, her mother’s opinions, and the friends she makes at school.

One thing I really liked was how she’d write one poem for her assignment, and then the following poem would be titled “what I actually turned in.” The book uses different styles of poetry to convey different feelings and to set different scenes, and it explores a wide range of topics—from religion to dating and sex to friendships to the complicated feelings between siblings.

A really engaging read overall.

This tells the story of Sana, a closeted lesbian who’s considering coming out.

Her family moves states, she meets a cute girl named Jamie, and all the signs seem to be pointing to finally giving the people in her life a little honesty. But nothing’s as simple as that. Sana’s friends don’t really like Jamie, and Jamie’s friends don’t seem to care for Sana. Her home life is strained; her dad is a cheater. And then, there’s her friend Caleb, who clearly has a crush on her. Turns out honesty is hard, no matter where you go.

I initially picked up the book because of the cute cover, thinking it would be a fun and lighthearted read. What I discovered was a much more complicated story about identity, family, friendships, and love. What really struck me about this book was how it showed the lengths a person may go to keep their identity hidden, even if it means hurting the person you like the most along the way.

I didn’t always agree with Sana’s decisions, but I understood where she was coming from and why she did the things she did. I also appreciated that the novel didn’t shy away from Sana's wrongs, but still gave her a happy ending in spite of it all. It’s important to show that someone can still be worthy of love, even when they make mistakes.

This book tells the story of Nandan, a high school junior just looking to have a perfect year.

His plans get thrown out the window when he and his friend Dave hook up at a party. Nandan has never been interested in guys before, but he’s willing to give this a try. The only problem is that’s easier said than done. Nandan has a lot to work through and process, and there are some parts of himself he’s not willing to acknowledge yet.

Unfortunately, Dave often gets caught in the crosshairs, and it can be uncomfortable to watch Nandan take it out on him. But there’s also something reassuring about a love interest/friend who’s patient and willing to wait for you to figure yourself out. Sometimes, we’re not the best version of ourselves, and we need people to stick by us.

While the romance is part of the story, it’s ultimately a character study focused on a complicated, messy, coming-of-age arc. Though it was a challenging read, that’s what made it truly refreshing. 

This book tells the story of Noah, a trans teenager with a big secret—he’s the author of a popular Tumblr blog, the Meet Cute Diary. The only problem is the stories are all fake.

Noah reimagines random interactions he has with strangers into relationship meet-cutes to keep the blog alive. But when online haters begin to poke holes in his stories, Noah does whatever it takes to keep his blog safe—including inventing a fake relationship with a new friend. Over the course of the story, Noah makes many mistakes, confronts his own flaws, and discovers what it really means to fall in love.

I was initially drawn to this book because of the fake-dating premise and the Tumblr online setting. As someone who grew up on the Tumblr platform, this aspect was really fun to read about, and maybe a bit too relatable. But what really stuck with me was just how messy Noah was as a protagonist.

As a writer, I often feel tempted to soften my characters to avoid anyone possibly disliking them. The boldness of Noah’s voice, even when he was totally in the wrong, was really compelling.