Looking for an eclectic collection of books likeThe Fault in Our Stars by John Green? As an award-winning author and longtime blogger, I’ve spent over a decade reading, analyzing, and recommending the best novels that answer this question.
You’ll find detailed reviews of more than fifteen of my favorites in the roundup below. I’ve personally curated this collection from my own bookshelves. Be sure to bring tissues when reading these.
The Delinquent Hero by Khristina Chess
“I stare at my sister in this bed. She is mine. She is here, and I cannot imagine that she is not. That she will never be here again. How can it be true? I see her before me. Her chest is rising, falling, rising, falling. Her hand is warm in mine.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from The Delinquent Hero
I loved the complex and tragic sister relationship portrayed in this YA novel about grief and loss following a sibling’s brain death. If you’re like me and enjoy great “tear jerkers,” The Delinquent Hero offers a raw and emotional exploration of devastating heartbreak in a hospital setting.
At its core is Molly, desperate for answers after her older sister, Kat, lands in the ICU. Something is suspicious. The investigation unfolds in real time, peeling back layers of secrets, regrets, and the painful bond they’ve always shared. For Molly, reconnecting with Kat means slipping into their old patterns of relating to one another.
What made The Delinquent Hero truly unforgettable for me was the heart-wrenching puzzle—not just unraveling what happened that night, but understanding Kat herself in the final months of her life. The novel didn’t just tell a story; it forced me to feel every ache, every unanswered question, every regret, every desperate search for why.
The Delinquent Hero is a perfect match for readers looking for quiet, emotionally resonant stories about death and dying like John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. Don’t miss this hidden gem!
The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
“What kind of girl wants to kiss every boy at a funeral, wants to maul a guy in a tree after making out with her sister’s boyfriend the previous night? Speaking of which, what kind of girl makes out with her sister’s boyfriend, period?” ― Jandy Nelson, quote from The Sky Is Everywhere
I love, love, loved this book! The writing is so lyrical, and the story is incredibly sad. It begins with protagonist Lennie, who is grieving the sudden death of her sister. Although Bailey is dead, the relationship between these siblings is very much alive on the pages of this novel. Lennie writes beautiful poems, and she spends time in their room and shares so many memories that I feel I know Bailey.
A charismatic new boy shows up at school, and Lennie ends up entering into 2 romances at the same time. This is the yummy love triangle. One romance is with the new boy at school, and the other is with her dead sister’s grieving boyfriend. Sooner or later, she has to decide which one of these guys is the one she’s going to stick with. Oh, boy.
In my view, all of the characters are vivid, and the story is captivating. The creative visual aspect of the novel is also a nice touch; Lennie writes her poems on scraps and scatters them everywhere, and these appear at the beginning of chapters.
If you’re looking for your next read about love and loss like The Fault in Our Stars, Jandy Nelson writes it like nobody else.
Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
“We used to be pretty good friends, but fourteen-year-old girls are psychotic.” ― Jesse Andrews, quote from Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
How can a book about a teenage girl dying from leukemia be so funny?
Greg and Earl are weird, unlikely friends and amateur filmmakers who manage to fly below the radar at school and enjoy their private world. Then Greg’s mom makes him reach out to Rachel, a childhood friend who has been diagnosed with leukemia and needs a friend.
Earl turns out to be the more compassionate of the pair, and the two of them set out to make a movie about Rachel. Their brilliant idea fails in execution and is the Worst Film Ever Made.
This fun, funny, and all-around wonderful YA book about disease, grief, loss, and friendship is full of crude humor, heart, honesty, and surprises as Greg learns things about his long-time friend Earl, as well as himself, through this journey with the dying girl, Rachel. I can’t say enough good about it. Buy it. Read it. Laugh.
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
“Maybe growing up means disappointing the people we love.” ― Nicola Yoon, quote from Everything, Everything
This lovely YA book is an all-the-feels love story about a girl who is locked in a tower and the prince who cannot reach her.
Actually, they are two ordinary teenagers. Well, Maddie is not ordinary. She has a rare immunodeficiency disease that makes her allergic to the whole world, so she lives inside a bubble. It’s not a literal plastic bubble, but she can’t go outside. She has an airtight, clean, totally isolated life in an allergen-free environment.
Until a boy moves in next door.
They meet electronically, and their relationship develops with all that emotional falling-in-love-for-the-first-time wonderfulness. Nicola Yoon writes it beautifully. The story is unique, and the sweet love story gives all the feels.
But, there’s more. Much more. Because teenagers press boundaries. They must kiss, even if a kiss could be deadly.
Fans of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars will love this one. I highly recommend it.
Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippencort
“If I’m going to die, I’d like to actually live first.” ― Rachael Lippincott, quote from Five Feet Apart
Stella and Will are two kids with cystic fibrosis who literally have to stay away from one another to survive. Infections are bad, possibly deadly, and Will is like kryptonite to Stella, who doesn’t want to lose her place on the transplant list.
But the heart wants what the heart wants—even when the lungs are failing.
Stella and Will disobey all kinds of orders in their love pursuits and put their lives at risk. They have so much positive energy that you want them to beat the odds. Tragedy won’t touch them.
If you enjoyed the “star-crossed lovers” aspect of The Fault in Our Stars, I know you will love Five Feet Apart too. The movie is great too!
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
“You are all the colors in one, at full brightness.” ― Jennifer Niven, quote from All the Bright Places
After re-reading All the Bright Places a second time this year, I enjoyed this profoundly sad story every bit as much as the first time. I loved the writing, the dual character viewpoints, the plot, the language, and the symbolism. I loved everything.
The story is straightforward. Violet Markey wants to escape the grief that lives in her hometown where her sister recently died.
Her friend Theodore Finch has more than a touch of the blues.
Violet and Theodore are an unlikely couple, paired together on a school project to explore the natural wonders of their state. At first, Theodore seems to be the one helping Violet with her sadness, but Violet doesn’t have any understanding about the depth of Theodore’s despair. Along their journey, they make several unexpected discoveries about one another.
Blue is a primary color.
All the Bright Places is one of my favorite picks for YA books about doomed love like The Fault in Our Stars.
How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow
“It's very hard to think of your parents as people. Full of bad checks and bad decisions, fistfights and broken hearts, all of it. Because if they can't goddamn take care of themselves, how will they take care of you?“ ― Kathleen Glasgow, quote from How to Make Friends with the Dark
After Tiger Tolliver's mom dies of a brain aneurysm, she becomes a ward of the state, an orphan, suddenly faced with an uncertain future. She doesn't have any living relatives. She doesn't know anything about her father. It's just her and her mom--and now just her. A minor.
What Tiger begins to learn is that her mom kept some important secrets from her. For example, she has a living dad. And a sister.
This book is a real tear jerker! Tiger strikes me a sheltered girl with little real life experience; on the day her mom died, she was kissing a boy for the first time. She wasn't prepared for the events that followed as she entered the foster care system. Yet, despite her tragic circumstances, she makes a path for herself. She makes mistakes but doesn't fall off a cliff. She keeps people at a cautious distance, but she does make friends and finds a way to build a new family for herself.
How to Make Friends with the Dark will tug at your heartstrings. Bring extra tissues for this one! If you want to read more stories about grief and resilience like The Fault in Our Stars, this one is a winner for John Green fans.
Looking for Alaska by John Green
“There comes a time when we realize that our parents cannot save themselves or save us, that everyone who wades through time eventually gets dragged out to sea by the undertow-that, in short, we are all going.” ― John Green, quote from Looking for Alaska
Some books stick with you. Looking for Alaska is one of them. The story seems simple: Miles Halter goes away to boarding school, where he makes new friends, takes up drinking and smoking, breaks some rules, and meets a hot girl named Alaska Young. She’s the ringleader of the merry group’s adventures. She’s the one who can get alcohol and cigarettes.
She’s a bit wild.
Then one night while they’re all partying, she receives a phone call and takes off in her car. She never returns.
If you love John Green’s work, this is one of my favorites. In fact, it’s hard to tell which is better: Looking for Alaska or The Fault in Our Stars.
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
“Whose fault was it? That’s the question on everyone’s mind, isn’t it? Nobody will ever say it out loud. It’s a question people would call inappropriate. The kind of thing where everyone tells you, “It’s nobody’s fault.” But is that even true? It’s only human nature to look for a place to lay the blame. Our fingers are more than ready to do the pointing, but it’s like we’re all blindfolded and spinning. What makes a person want to die?” ― Emily X.R. Pan, quote from The Astonishing Color of After
I discovered The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan after reading an intriguing Goodreads review. The book was shelved under Teen Fantasy, a category where I never shop, so without seeing the reviewer comments I might never have discovered this touching YA magical realism novel about grief, culture, and family secrets.
The premise is that a young girl, Leigh Chen Sanders, is grieving the death of her mother, who committed suicide. Leigh believes that she turned into a bird, and she goes on a journey to visit her grandparents in Taiwan in search of her mother, the bird, and other family secrets.
This book wrecked me in the best possible way. The writing is so beautiful. Whether it’s the love story, the voice, the mystery, or the family culture aspect, there’s plenty of reasons why fans connect with this book. I truly can’t say enough wonderful things about it. If you’re looking for a great sad story like The Fault in Our Stars, be sure to read this one.
Willow by Julia Hoban
“It's hard to keep a secret when it's written all over your body.” ― Julia Hoban, quote from Willow
In this complex novel about coping with grief and guilt through self-harming, I met the wonderful character of Willow. She is an orphan with terrible secrets. Guilt. Pain. Numbness. And love.
I can’t speak about whether or not Willow suffers from a mental illness, or if she’s simply a teenager who doesn’t know how to deal with the terrible things that happened in her life. Cutting seems like an answer. She feels alone and sad. At any rate, the book felt emotional and honest to me. I loved reading her story and connecting with her pain as she journeyed to wholeness.
If you enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars and are looking for more YA books about grief and loss—in this case, the loss of parents—be sure to give Willow a try.
Drive to June by Khristina Chess
“You do realize that a car is a mobile make-out location, right?” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Drive to June.
What kind of girl drinks after a drunk driver kills her mom?
Sixteen months ago, Adrianna lost her mother. Since then, she’s been drowning her grief—one bottle at a time. With her father always away and her sister off at college, no one notices she’s slowly draining the wine collection and numbing herself to avoid an awful secret.
Now, she can’t quit.
Then one evening, a pizza delivery boy finds her crying on the roof of her house and offers to teach her how to drive—and somehow, that changes everything.
What a ride! Drive to June grabbed me from the start and never let go. It’s more than a story about alcohol abuse—it’s funny, romantic, and deeply emotional. I loved the undeniable chemistry between Adrianna and Ian.
What stood out for me is the beautiful way Khristina Chess portrays Adrianna’s sorrow, bereavement, loneliness, and guilt about the accident that changed everyone’s lives. For fans of The Fault in Our Stars who are looking for a great YA book about grief and loss in teens, I highly recommend Drive to June.
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
“Life feels beautiful that day. The four of us Liars, we have always been. We always will be. No matter what happens as we go to college, grow old, build lives for ourselves; no matter if Gat and I are together or not. No matter where we go, we will always be able to line up on the roof of Cuddledown and gaze at the sea. This island is ours. Here, in some way, we are young forever.” ― E. Lockhart, quote from We Were Liars
What an unexpected and beautiful story about friendship, coming of age, and sorrow!
I wasn’t sure I’d like this book, but I fell in love with it. By the end it made me cry. This YA book about friendship is about a group of privileged young friends and their lies, family secrets, grief, and love. It’s a mystery. Its private island setting evokes all kinds of summer images: the beach, the heat, the sun. The beautiful and disorienting plot will leave you reader breathless until the very end.
If you’re looking for books like The Fault in Our Stars, do yourself a favor and add it to your summer reading list. It’s a whirlwind and makes a great beach read.
Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined by Danielle Young-Ullman
In this absorbing novel, the mother-daughter relationship drives everything that’s happening, both in the present and in the past. The present is awful. Ingrid has been sent away to a 3-week wilderness program for at-risk teens, although she didn’t realize what she was signing up for at the time, and now she’s wet, miserable, mosquito-bitten, and trapped with a misfit group in the middle of nowhere. But she’s determined to see things through to prove something to her mother and earn the carrot, which is permission to attend a music school abroad.
The past is a complicated story about her mother’s beautiful opera voice and depression. There is a strong codependency relationship between the mother and daughter, since the mother is a depressed diva. From an early age, Ingrid took care of her mother since no father was in the picture.
I loved the mystery about how Ingrid ended up in the wilderness, and I was rooting for her to make it out.
Truly. I don’t want to give too much away. Just read it.
You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao
“Letting go isn’t about forgetting. It’s balancing moving forward with life, and looking back from time to time, remembering the people in it.” ― Dustin Thao, quote from You’ve Reached Sam
This book has a great premise: what if you had a second chance at saying goodbye?
However for a lot of reasons, the main character didn't seem all that likeable to me, so I wasn't able to connect with her grief at a gut level. The flashbacks to the romance between Julie and Sam didn't help me to fall in love with this couple and their relationship, and instead, I found myself skimming over passages to finish. There were some engaging plot points to drive the narrative forward, but they often lost momentum. I'm glad I pushed to the ending because it was a good resolution.
The cover on this novel is fabulous, though, isn't it? It's the reason I picked up the book.
If you liked the star-crossed lovers aspect of The Fault in Our Stars, I think you might enjoy You’ve Reached Sam.
Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between by Jennifer E. Smith
"We keep thinking there are only these two choices: We either grow apart or grow together. But maybe we can just kind of each grow on our own, and see how it goes. And then later, if it's right, we'll come back to each other and start again." ― Jennifer E. Smith, quote from Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between
Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between explores the relationship of Clare and Aiden as they prepare to separate before heading off to college. Along the way, they spend time with a cast of friends and visit places where they enjoyed some of their most memorable moments. I didn’t love-love the story and characters the same way that I did some of the other novels here, but there were sweet and romantic moments that kept me invested.
If you loved the “star-crossed love” aspect of The Fault in Our Stars, I recommend this one.
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
“I just can’t believe that life would give us to each other,” he said, “and then take it back.”
“I can,” she said. “Life’s a bastard.” ― Rainbow Rowell, quote from Eleanor and Park
It's been a long time since I've encountered a novel that I literally couldn't put down. Eleanor & Park was one of those books. I loved every minute. I sat on the porch, on the couch, on the floor by the window... and devoured this book. It was a wonderful reading experience about first love. Sweet and heartbreaking and everything I wanted. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good, romantic young love story.
The story unfolds from alternating points of view, both Eleanor and Park, as they fall in love over the course of one year. The dialog is witty, snappy, and fun.
As a super-dreamy YA book about star-crossed lovers, it will give you all the feels about falling in love—perfect for John Green fans.
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
“She peels an orange, separates it in perfect halves, and gives one of them to me. If I could wear it like a friendship bracelet, I would. Instead I swallow it section by section and tell myself it means even more this way. To chew and to swallow in silence here with her.” ― Nina LaCour, quote from We Are Okay
I wanted to read this book for many years on the basis of its cover alone. Look at it! I didn’t even know what the story was about, but it must be beautiful with artwork like that, right?
The book blurb doesn’t prepare you for what this story is about. The plot meanders between present and past. In the present, Marin is staying in her freshman dorm room alone over Christmas break because tragedy has occurred. What tragedy? Well, that’s the big mystery. Her best friend Mabel from California shows up to try to talk her into coming home, and oh by the way, the two of them were romantically involved in the past.
But not anymore.
Mabel doesn’t understand why Marin left without speaking, what happened in the interim, and why she is refusing to come home. Finding out these answers is the main story, but what this book is really about is grief, loneliness, betrayal, longing, being orphaned, and growing up.
I liked We Are Okay. It’s quiet. It’s understated and lovely. I really felt Marin’s sorrow.
If you are looking for an evocative YA books about grief and loss, you definitely want to add this one to your TBR pile!
Other YA Books Similar to The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
If you are looking other books similar to The Fault in Our Stars, check out the Readers who enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars and Books Like The Fault in Our Stars lists on Goodreads.
You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of reviews of YA books by type of tough topic.
About the Author: Khristina Chess
Khristina Chess is an award-winning author of more than a dozen young adult novels, including The Cutting Edge of Friendship, The Delinquent Hero, and Junior Missing. Her novel about eating disorders, Hollow Beauty, was named a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She tackles tough teen topics and writes binge-worthy books across multiple genres, including contemporary, thriller, mystery, dystopian, and adventure.
