Last week, a comment on a post mentioned that we haven’t talked about many YA books this year featuring male narrators. Part of that is simply because we’re reading less and what we’re reading and reviewing tends to be along the lines of what we really want to talk about — most of those books have had female protagonists, but not all of them. In other words, we don’t review everything we read. Another part of this is because some genres in YA just have more female protagonists than others. Kimberly’s mythology genre post, for example, did feature primarily female narrators because that’s what’s out there; it’s not an oversight, and I suspect in the adult and middle grade worlds, you’ll find heaps of novels exploring mythology featuring male protagonists (Rick Riordan is the go-to for this in middle grade). And yet another part of this is because we’ve simply been pitched fewer books with male protagonists this year. I suspect after putting together this book list, much of that is because these books are realistic fiction not in the vein of the popular, New York Times Best Sellers style realistic fiction. 

That said, I thought for those looking for more male narrated books, it would be worthwhile to do a big round-up of books out this year or coming out in the next couple of months that do feature them. This won’t be an exhaustive list, but it’s pretty thorough and features titles from a wide range of genres. Some of these books we’ve talked about, some we will talk about, and some we haven’t and likely won’t talk about. There’s no shortage of male-narrated books; in fact, many of this year’s “biggest” books are male-POV books (both of the Andrew Smith titles, John Corey Whaley’s title, and Jandy Nelson’s dual-voiced book). 

As always, there’s no comment here about these books being “for boys” or “for girls.” Rather, it’s my hope all readers will find something to appreciate; sometimes you just want a story with a male narrator. 

All descriptions are from WorldCat unless otherwise noted, and I’d love any additional suggestions of books from 2014 that feature male main characters. I’m including titles where the male main character is part of a dual or cast of voices as well, and I’m sticking to books that are first in a series — so series books that had volume 3 or 4 out this year, I’m not including. I’ve also limited to traditionally-published titles. 

When I Was The Greatest by Jason Reynolds: Ali lives in Bed-Stuy, a Brooklyn neighborhood known for guns and drugs, but he and his sister, Jazz, and their neighbors, Needles and Noodles, stay out of trouble until they go to the wrong party, where one gets badly hurt and another leaves with a target on his back. 

100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith: Finn Easton, sixteen and epileptic, struggles to feel like more than just a character in his father’s cult-classic novels with the help of his best friend, Cade Hernandez, and first love, Julia, until Julia moves away.

Why We Took The Car by Wolfgang Herrndorf: Mike Klingenberg is a troubled fourteen-year-old from a disfunctional family in Berlin who thinks of himself as boring, so when a Russian juvenile delinquent called Tschick begins to pay attention to him and include Mike in his criminal activities, he is excited–until those activities lead to disaster on the autobahn.

V is for Villain by Peter Moore: Brad Baron and his friends discover dangerous secrets about the superheroes running their society.

The Story of Owen by E. K. Johnston: In an alternate world where industrialization has caused many species of carbon-eating dragons to thrive, Owen, a slayer being trained by his famous father and aunt, and Siobahn, his bard, face a dragon infestation near their small town in Canada. (Edited to add: this is narrated by Siobhan, a female narrator, but Owen is a main character — so not a male voice, but a male main character along with the female main character/narrator).

The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy by Kate Hattemer: When a sleazy reality television show takes over Ethan’s arts academy, he and his friends concoct an artsy plan to take it down.

This Side of Salvation by Jeri Smith-Ready: After his older brother is killed, David turns to anger and his parents to religion, but just as David’s life is beginning to make sense again his parents press him and his sister to join them in cutting worldly ties to prepare for the Rush, when the faithful will be whisked off to heaven.

There Will Come A Time by Carrie Arcos: Overwhelmed by grief and guilt after his twin sister Grace’s accidental death, seventeen-year-old Mark Santos is persuaded by his best friend to complete the “bucket list” from Grace’s journal.

The Other Way Around by Sashi Kaufman: To escape his offbeat family at Thanksgiving, Andrew West accepts a ride from a band of street performers who get their food and clothing from dumpsters, but as he learns more about these “Freegans” he sees that one cannot outrun the past.

The Prince of Venice Beach by Blake Nelson: Robert “Cali” Callahan, seventeen, gets swept up into the private-investigator business and must deal with the ramifications of looking for fellow runaways who may not want to be found–and with falling in love with one of them.

The Scar Boys by Len Vlahos: Written as a college admission essay, eighteen-year-old Harry Jones recounts a childhood defined by the hideous scars he hid behind, and how forming a band brought self-confidence, friendship, and his first kiss.

The True Adventures of Nicolo Zen by Nicholas Christopher: Orphan Nicolo Zen is all alone in 1700s Venice, save for his clarinet, enchanted by a mysterious magician to allow its first player to perform expertly. Soon Nicolo is a famous virtuoso, wealthy beyond his dreams, but he can’t stop wondering if he earned the success — or the girl he met in Venice is safe from the harm. 

The Walled City by Ryan Graudin: As Jin Ling tries to save her sister, Mei Yee, from the Brotherhood of the Red Dragon in Hak Nam Walled City, one boy, Dai, can reunite them and save their lives–but only if he’s willing to risk his own.

The Young World by Chris Weitz: Jefferson, with his childhood friend Donna, leads a tribe of teenagers in New York City on a dangerous quest to find an antidote for a mysterious illness that wiped out all adults and children.

The Gospel of Winter by Brendan Kiely: Managing the challenges of his fractured family by taking Adderall, sneaking drinks, and confiding in an abusive priest, Aidan finds support from new friends including a crush, a wild girl, and a swim-team captain with his own secrets.

The Accidental Highwayman by Ben Tripp: In eighteenth-century England, young Christopher Kit Bristol is the unwitting servant of notorious highwayman Whistling Jack. One dark night, Kit finds his master bleeding from a mortal wound, dons the mans riding cloak to seek help, and changes the course of his life forever. Mistaken for Whistling Jack and on the run from redcoats, Kit is catapulted into a world of magic and wonders he thought the stuff of fairy tales. Bound by magical law, Kit takes up his masters quest to rescue a rebellious fairy princess from an arranged marriage to King George III of England. But his task is not an easy one, for Kit must contend with the feisty Princess Morgana, goblin attacks, and a magical map that portends his destiny: as a hanged man upon the gallows

Sway by Kat Spears: High school senior Sway could sell hell to a bishop. When Ken, captain of the football team, hires Jesse to help him win the heart of Bridget, Jesse agrees. While learning about Bridget, he falls helplessly in love. A Cyrano De Bergerac story with a modern twist, it’s Jesse’s point of view, his observations about the world around him unimpeded by empathy or compassion; until Bridget forces him to confront his devastation over a crushing event a year ago and just maybe feel something again. 

Survival Colony 9 by Joshua David Bellin: Querry Gen, a member of one of the last human survivor groups following global war, is targeted by the monstrous Skaldi, although Querry has no memory of why.

Surrounded by Sharks by Michael Northrop: On the first day of vacation thirteen-year-old Davey Tsering wakes up early, slips out of his family’s hotel room without telling anyone, and heads for the beach and a swim in the warm Floridian waters–and a fateful meeting with a shark.

Schizo by Nic Sheff: A teenager recovering from a schizophrenic breakdown is driven to the point of obsession to find his missing younger brother and becomes wrapped up in a romance that may or may not be the real thing.

Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern: Born with cerebral palsy, Amy can’t walk without a walker, talk without a voice box, or even fully control her facial expressions. Plagued by obsessive-compulsive disorder, Matthew is consumed with repeated thoughts, neurotic rituals, and crippling fear. Both in desperate need of someone to help them reach out to the world, Amy and Matthew are more alike than either ever realized. When Amy decides to hire student aides to help her in her senior year at Coral Hills High School, these two teens are thrust into each other’s lives. As they begin to spend time with each other, what started as a blossoming friendship eventually grows into something neither expected.

Rumble by Ellen Hopkins: Eighteen-year-old Matt’s atheism is tested when, after a horrific accident of his own making that plunges him into a dark, quiet place, he hears a voice that calls everything he has ever disbelieved into question.

In Real Life by Lawrence Tabak: Fifteen-year-old math prodigy Seth Gordon hopes to compete professionally playing Starfare, the world’s most popular computer game, but when he gets the chance to move to Korea and train full-time, he may not be ready for the culture shock and leaving his possible girlfriend, Hannah.

I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson: A story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal told from different points in time, and in separate voices, by artists Jude and her twin brother Noah. 

How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon: When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson is shot to death, his community is thrown into an uproar because Tariq was black and the shooter, Jack Franklin, is white, and in the aftermath everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events agree.

Road Rash by Mark Huntley Parsons: When teen drummer, Zach, signed up to spend the summer on tour with a rock band, he didn’t realize the stairway to heaven was such a bumpy ride.

Press Play by Eric Devine: Greg Dunsmore, a.k.a. Dun the Ton, is focused on one thing: making a documentary that will guarantee his admission into the film school of his choice. Every day, Greg films his intense weight-loss focused workouts as well as the nonstop bullying that comes from his classmates. But when he captures footage of violent, extreme hazing by his high school’s championship-winning lacrosse team in the presence of his principal, Greg’s field of view is in for a readjustment. Greg knows there is a story to be told, but it is not clear exactly what. And his attempts to find out the truth only create more obstacles, not to mention physical harm upon himself. Yet if Greg wants to make his exposé his ticket out of town rather than a veritable death sentence, he will have to learn to play the game and find a team to help him. (Description via Goodreads). 

Perfectly Good White Boy by Carrie Mesrobian: After losing his virginity to an older girl who dumps him at the end of summer, Sean decides to join the Marines, but first he must get through his senior year of high school.

Guy In Real Life by Steve Brezenoff: The lives of two Minnesota teenagers are intertwined through the world of role-playing games. 

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith: Austin Szerba narrates the end of humanity as he and his best friend Robby accidentally unleash an army of giant, unstoppable bugs and uncover the secrets of a decades-old experiment gone terribly wrong.

One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva: When Alek’s high-achieving, Armenian-American parents send him to summer school, he thinks his summer is ruined. But then he meets Ethan, who opens his world in a series of truly unexpected ways.

Noggin by John Corey Whaley: After dying at age sixteen, Travis Coates’ head was removed and frozen for five years before being attached to another body, and now the old Travis and the new must find a way to coexist while figuring out changes in his relationships.

Grandmaster by David Klass: A father-son chess tournament reveals the dark side of the game.

Going Over by Beth Kephart: In the early 1980s Ada and Stefan are young, would-be lovers living on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall–Ada lives with her mother and grandmother and paints graffiti on the Wall, and Stefan lives with his grandmother in the East and dreams of escaping to the West.

More Than Good Enough by Crissa-Jean Chappell: When seventeen-year-old Trent Osceola moves to the Rez to live with his father, a member of Florida’s Miccosukee Tribe, he faces new questions about his identity and reconnects with his childhood friend Pippa.

Dirt Bikes, Drones, And Other Ways to Fly by Conrad Wesselhoeft: Seventeen year-old dirt-bike-riding daredevil Arlo Santiago catches the eye of the U.S. military with his first-place ranking on a video game featuring drone warfare, and must reconcile the work they want him to do with the emotional scars he has suffered following a violent death in his family.

Drift by MK Hutchins: To raise his family out of poverty, seventeen-year-old Tenjat joins a dangerous defense against the naga monsters that gnaw at his drifting island’s foundation.

Fake ID by Lamar Giles: An African-American teen in the Witness Protection Program moves to a new town and finds himself trying to solve a murder mystery when his first friend is found dead.

Fat Boy vs. The Cheerleaders by Geoff Herbach: When the high school cheerleading team takes over a soda vending machine’s funds, which were previously collected by the pep band, Gabe Johnson, an overweight “band geek” tired of being called names and looked down on, declares war.

Game Slaves by Gard Skinner: A highly intelligent group of video game enemy non-player characters (NPC) begins to doubt they are merely codes in a machine. Their search for answers leads them to a gruesome discovery.

Diamond Boy by Michael Williams: When Patson’s family moves to Marange region of Zimbabwe, he begins working in the mines, searching for blood diamonds, until government soldiers arrive and Patson is forced to journey to South Africa in search of his missing sister and a better life.

Blur by Steven James: The isolated town of Beldon, Wisconsin, is shocked when a high school freshman’s body is found in Lake Algonquin. Just like everyone in the community, sixteen-year-old Daniel Byers believes that Emily Jackson’s death was accidental. But at her funeral, when he has a terrifying vision of her, his world begins to rip apart at the seams. Convinced that Emily’s appearance was more than just a mere hallucination, Daniel begins to look carefully into her death, even as he increasingly loses the ability to distinguish fantasy from reality. What’s real? What’s not? Where does reality end and madness begin? As Daniel struggles to find the truth, his world begins to crumble around him as he slips further and further into his own private blurred reality.

Before My Eyes by Caroline Bock: Told in three separate voices, dreamy Claire, seventeen, with her complicated home and love life, shy Max, also seventeen, a state senator’s son whose parents are too focused on the next election to see his pain, and twenty-one-year-old paranoid schizophrenic Barkley teeter on the brink of destruction.

Complicit by Stephanie Kuehn: Jamie’s mother was murdered when he was six, about seven years later his sister Cate was incarcerated for burning down a neighbor’s barn, and now Jamie, fifteen, learns that Cate has been released and is coming back for him, blaming him for all the bad things that led to her arrest.

Call Me By My Name by John Ed Bradley: Growing up in Louisiana in the late 1960s, where segregation and prejudice still thrive, two high school football players, one white, one black, become friends, but some changes are too difficult to accept.

Amity by Micol Ostow: Two teens narrate the terrifying days and nights they spend living in a house of horrors.

Althea & Oliver by Cristina Moracho: Althea and Oliver, who have been friends since age six and are now high school juniors, find their friendship changing because he has contracted Kleine-Levin Syndrome.

Caged Warrior by Alan Lawrence Sitomer: From age three, McCutcheon Daniels, now sixteen, has been trained in Mixed Martial Arts and must keep winning to feed his five-year-old sister and father, but chance presents an opportunity to get out of the Detroit slums using his brain instead of his fighting skills.

Bright Before Sunrise by Tiffany Schmidt: Jonah and Brighton are about to have the most awkwardly awful night of their lives. For Jonah, every aspect of his new life reminds him of what he has had to give up. All he wants is to be left alone. Brighton is popular, pretty, and always there to help anyone, but has no idea of what she wants for herself.

Allies & Assassins by Justin Somper: Sixteen-year-old Jared inherits the throne of Archenfield after his older brother, Prince Anders, is murdered. He relies on the twelve officers of the court to advise him but soon suspects one of them could be responsible for his brother’s death and vows to hunt down the killer, who may be after Jared as well.

All Those Broken Angels by Peter Adam Salomon: Both haunted and inspired by the shadow of his best friend, Melanie, since her disappearance and presumed death when they were six, Richard, now sixteen, is completely unprepared when a new classmate, Melanie, arrives at Savannah Arts Academy High School claiming to be that same friend.

The Bridge from Me to You by Lisa Schroeder: Lauren is the new girl in town with a dark secret. Colby is the football hero with a dream of something more. In alternating chapters they come together, fall apart, and build something stronger than either of them thought possible–something to truly believe in.

Boy on the Edge by Fridrik Erlings: Henry has a clubfoot and he is the target of relentless bullying. One day, in a violent fit of anger, Henry lashes out at the only family he has– his mother. Sent to live with other troubled boys at the Home of Lesser Brethren, an isolated farm perched in the craggy lava fields along the unforgiving Icelandic coast, Henry finds a precarious contentment among the cows. But it is the people, including the manic preacher who runs the home, who fuel Henry’s frustration and sometimes rage as he yearns for a life and a home. Author Fridrik Erlings offers a young adult novel that explores cruelty and desperation, tenderness and remorse, but most importantly, kindness and friendship.

Divided We Fall by Trent Reedy: Danny Wright, seventeen, joined the Idaho Army National Guard to serve the country as his father had, but when the Guard is sent to an anti-government protest in Boise and Danny’s gun accidently fires, he finds himself at the center of a conflict that results in the federal government declaring war on Idaho.