How thrilling to discover one had depths, how consoling to find them less polluted than the shallows, how encouraging to identify the enemy not as a fissure in the will but as a dead fetus in the specimen jar of the unconscious.

Aloof family members, sexual repression, and homophobia define this unnamed narrator’s childhood, but everything changes when he turns 15. No book will make you gladder—and then sadder—that you aren’t still in high school.

Thanks to our friends at Flat Vernacular for the excellent backdrops behind these titles.

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