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Literary Inspirations: YA Characters Hooked on Inspiration

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Did you have a book or an author who inspired you significantly when you were a teenager? I suspect even as adults, there are those authors and books who hold a big place in your heart for what it is they’ve written that you’ve just connected with strongly. These are the words and stories we think about all of the time and that sometimes, we use to guide our own decisions and paths because we believe in them so much. 

I love seeing this homage trend play out in YA fiction. It’s something I’ve kept a small list on, and it’s something I’d love to explore more of. Note that these are not books where the story or characters are modeled after other works of literature (so books like April Lindner’s Catherine don’t fit); these are instead books where the character has had a strong connection to or bond with an author or book. These are stories where the character’s passion for a particular book or author is one of their defining characteristics. 

Below is my (somewhat short) list of books that do that, with descriptions from WorldCat. I welcome additions to this list in any genre — my knowledge tends to fall to contemporary/realistic, but I know there are plenty of books outside this arena that have characters deeply devoted to a specific book or author. 

And Then Things Fall Apart by Arlaina Tibensky — an obsession with Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. Reviewed here. 


Devastated by her parents’ decision to split up, pressured by her boyfriend to have sex, and saddled with a case of chicken pox, fifteen-year-old Keek finds consolation in her beloved, well-worn copy of Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar.”

Emily’s Dress and Other Missing Things by Kathryn Burak — an obsession with all things Emily Dickinson. Reviewed here. 

A new girl in Amherst, Massachusetts, comes to terms with her mother’s suicide and her best friend’s disappearance with the help of Emily Dickinson’s poetry–and her dress.

Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos — an obsession with all things Walt Whitman. Reviewed here.

A sixteen-year-old boy wrestling with depression and anxiety tries to cope by writing poems, reciting Walt Whitman, hugging trees, and figuring out why his sister has been kicked out of the house.

Kiss the Morning Star by Elissa Janine Hoole — a road trip spurred by Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums. Reviewed here.

The summer after high school graduation and one year after her mother’s tragic death, Anna and her long-time best friend Kat set out on a road trip across the country, armed with camping supplies and a copy of Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums, determined to be open to anything that comes their way. 

Being Henry David by Cal Armistead — an obsession with Henry David Thoreau and Walden Pond.

Seventeen-year-old ‘Hank,’ who can’t remember his identity, finds himself in Penn Station with a copy of Thoreau’s Walden as his only possession and must figure out where he’s from and why he ran away.

Can you think of other YA books that fall into this category? I’d love to know more.

Thin Space by Jody Casella

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I’m a little torn on putting up a spoiler alert for my review of Thin Space — yes, I plan on going into territory that could ruin major plot points in the book. That said, the jacket copy for the book completely ruins the twist right in it. I hadn’t read the jacket copy before I dove in, but about half way through reading, I flipped the book over and gave it a read.

The twist was ruined for me. And while it didn’t ruin my reading experience, it was incredibly disappointing to have it spelled out right there on cover copy for me. Perhaps it won’t spoil the story for all readers. The reason it did for me was that the title likened to Casella’s book is one I am familiar with, and therefore, I knew immediately what was going to happen. 

Which is to say, there are spoilers in this review, but you are going to be spoiled reading jacket copy, too. At least that was the case on the ARC — I hope that the finished copy doesn’t have that major spoiler on it. Proceed as you wish.

Marsh’s twin brother died in a car accident a few months ago; Marsh was the driver. It was only a couple months following that when Mrs. Hansel, Marsh’s neighbor, died. She was the older woman that Marsh and brother Austin used to do community service for, and she was the one who introduced the boys to the concept of the thin space — the portal where souls enter and leave the body, where it’s possible to traverse time and space and be reunited with those who’ve passed on. Now that both Austin and Mrs. Hansel are gone, Marsh has become the crazy kid, looking for this thin space.

He’s convinced there is a thin space in Mrs. Hansel’s old home, since she was born there and died there. 

The grief consumes Marsh, and he’s finding himself acting out of character. He’s being aggressive, getting involved in altercations, wandering around barefoot, careless. When Mrs. Hansel’s home is sold to a new family, he finds himself making quick friends with Maddie, one of the new kids who moved in. He’s not so much taken with her in a romantic sense; he knows that getting to know Maddie means he can get into the house and seek out this thin space. 

Of course, he begins to fall for her. It’s slow but earned. However, it’s not without complications — Logan, Marsh’s girlfriend, isn’t ready for them to break up. And it’s not entirely clear whether or not Marsh is ready for that relationship to end either. Because that relationship reminds him of Austin and Austin’s relationship with Katie. The four of them would double date.

The four of them had been on a double date the night Austin died.

Little by little, Marsh opens up to Maddie, though, and he learns that she, too, is dealing with loss in her life. That she, too, would love to find a thin space to reconnect with her departed father. And the night that Mrs. Golden, school counselor, wanders into Maddie’s house on the promise of delivering treats, Maddie discovers that the counselor is also looking for the thin space. And she has found it.

And then, the marvelous, smart, savvy twist occurs — skip down a paragraph if you don’t want it. See, Marsh isn’t Marsh. In fact, that’s the bigger point of the story: Marsh really hated being a twin. He despised the fact it was so easy for him and Austin to be confused with one another, for them to be seen as the same person, despite being so different from one another. It was easy to trick Logan and Katie into believing Marsh was Austin and vice versa. And the night of the double date at the movie theater — the night of the accident — the boys had gone all the way in their identity swapping. Austin assumed the role of Marsh and Marsh, the role of Austin. So when Marsh discovers the thin space with Maddie, what happens is the true unravels: Marsh is actually Austin, and the dead twin is actually Marsh. Everything that Marsh had lived and experienced post-Austin’s death had actually been Austin living as Marsh instead. Because even the boys couldn’t separate their own selves from one another, and the weight of grief — not just of the loss, but the grief in knowing that the truth would further harm relationships and the people who loved the boys — kept Austin from telling everyone about their own history of deception.

The writing here is good, and the pacing is spot-on. The story kept me hooked and eager to see how much Marsh would reveal and how much he’d hold back. I wanted to know what would happen, what could change, the moment he got to see Austin through the thin space. The story was wholly satisfying and solid, and it’ll appeal big time to readers who loved the parallel worlds of Emily Hainsworth’s Through to You, as well as those who love the whats-real-what’s-supernatural elements of Nova Ren Suma’s books. While it is not as lush in the writing aspect, it is similarly structured in plot. This is a book that tiptoes the line and begs the reader to wonder whether or not there is a thin space or whether or not that thin space is simply a matter of narrative choice of truth vs deception.

I see this being really popular with readers who love ghost stories, who love stories about grief and mourning, and who like there to be just a tiny touch of romance. This isn’t about finding and falling in love with someone else. It’s about finding and appreciating the love that’s already around you and coming to terms with what it is you have to do to maintain and sustain it. For Marsh, it meant games of truth and games of deceit. For Marsh, it’s about dealing with grief in its many ugly, confusing, frustrating forms. Jody Casella’s Thin Space is satisfying, well-written, and compelling, with loads of reader appeal. I really look forward to seeing what she writes next. 

Thin Space is available now. Review copy received from the publisher. 

All over the place at Book Riot

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It feels like cheating not to have actual content here at Stacked for a day, but it’s for good reason. I have two — yes, two — posts going up at Book Riot today. I’ll update this post as each goes up, but I promise they’re good. Maybe two of my favorite posts I’ve written in a while.

First up: some thoughts on gendering reading — in other words, calling things “books for boys” and “books for girls” and the problems of those designations.

Then, you can check out the awesome foreign covers for The Hunger Games, as tomorrow is the 5th anniversary of the book’s publication. Some of these special editions are spectacular.

Battling Boy by Paul Pope

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Paul Pope is quite the name in comics. As a relative newcomer myself, Battling Boy was the first I had heard of him, but I know his reputation for high-quality comic storytelling.

In this graphic novel for kids, the first in a projected series, Pope first introduces us to Haggard West, hero of the town of Arcopolis. He’s fighting one of the monsters that have been taking over the town, and he seems to be winning, as he always does…until he’s not. In fact, the monster kills him. Haggard West is dead.

The town is distraught. Who will hold back the tide of monstrous creatures? West’s daughter, still a child, thinks she’s the natural successor.

Meanwhile, the godlike Battling Boy is living in his home above the clouds, with his godlike father and his godlike friends. His father announces that it’s time for Battling Boy to go rambling, a rite of passage for their culture. This means Battling Boy is sent to a part of the mortal world where he will test himself against whatever plagues the people – and he’s sent to Arcopolis.

Things start out rough for Battling Boy, and they don’t get any better in his first battle. Except…a series of events fools the citizens into thinking he is a full-fledged hero with the power of gods, when really, he’s only a hero in training, and not a great one at that. He tries to keep up appearances with the help of a set of t-shirts with images of animals on them, which give him powers based on the animals’ strengths. Will Battling Boy be able to save the town, even though he’s basically an impostor hero? (Hint: you don’t actually find out in this volume.)

This title has been getting a huge marketing push from First Second, and it’s getting a lot of early critical acclaim as well. I felt pretty tepid toward it, though. Mostly, I was frustrated there was so much beginning here. It never seemed to advance beyond exposition, despite the frenetic action. There’s a certain plot point near the end that I felt could have happened much earlier and propelled the story further along in this first volume.

I thought the mythology was a bit muddled as well, but I’ve always been more interested than most in backstory. Without more details about Battling Boy and his cultural background, it seems quite generic, perhaps a bit too much like Asgard.

I would have liked to see more of Haggard West’s daughter. She seems interesting; I genuinely want to know more about what it was like to grow up with a superhero (without any supernatural powers) as a father. We get snippets of that upbringing, but she doesn’t get to do much except go to her classes, which include advanced science as well as fighting. Her story doesn’t meet up with Battling Boy’s (though I expect it will in future volumes).

But those are mostly personal complaints. Kids who like the serial nature of comics and are used to waiting several volumes to progress beyond chapter one probably won’t mind that nothing is resolved here. The t-shirt concept is very modern; I can picture kids throwing on their own graphic tees and imagining themselves with super powers based on the images. The art, also done by Pope, fits right in with the traditional comic book aesthetic. It’s actually a bit better than most, I think, with vivid colors and a vibrancy that complements all the action. Kids who love comics will be thrilled with this new superhero and Pope’s modern take on it.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Battling Boy will be available October 8.