10 best books like ‘Heartstopper,’ ranked
Ever since Heartstopper hit the scene, people’s tickers have been in overdrive. If you want my “medical” advice, DO NOT read the following books. They are to be AVOIDED if you don’t want your heart to give out immediately. 10 best books like Heartstopper? They should prescribe these instead of adenosine.
10. The Heartbreak Bakery
Have you ever had a confectionary so delicious, it makes you question literally everything? Why do I work this job? Why do I live in this city? Why do I have this partner? That’s exactly the kind of magical baked good that genderqueer teen Syd is capable of creating. After serving a batch of magic brownies to the queer community in Austin, Texas, everyone dumps their partner. Now Syd has to play love doctor and get everyone back together. It’s just as hard as being a real doctor, probably. A.R. Capetta’s The Heartbreak Bakery sure makes it seem that way.
9. The Summer of Everything
Love is everything, after all. At least it feels that way. The coronary emotion responsible for cardiac arrest rages in Julian Winters’ The Summer of Everything. High schooler Wesley Hudson’s heart is like a glass vase about to be introduced to a hardwood floor. He’s just discovered that his favorite bookstore is closing AND he’s developing feelings for his best friend Nico. Can he keep his heart together and keep the bookstore in business? Fingers crossed.
8. Bloom
Kevin Panetta’s Bloom is another story about love and baked goods. I’m sensing a theme here. Unlike The Heartbreak Bakery‘s Syd, teenager Ari dreams of ditching his family’s bakery to play in a band. To prepare to leave the nest, Ari hires Hector to take over the job in his stead. The only problem is that Ari thinks Hector is as hot as the buns they’re pulling from the ovens. Will Ari stick to his guns and dip? Or has Hector shot him through the heart with a bullet called LOVE?
7. Coffee Boy
Bakeries, coffee shops, what is it about queer love and breakfast treats that go hand in hand? That’s the romance I want to read about. Alas, I’ll just have to make do with Austin Chant’s Coffee Boy, the story of a trans boy named Keiran who discovers that he has the hots for his grumpy supervisor Seth while interning for a political campaign. Does this love mean a political scandal is brewing? Thank God Republicans are nowhere to be found. It’s all love here, baby.
6. Red, White & Royal Blue
Eat your heart out Harry and Meghan! A new royal couple is crossing the pond. Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue revolves around the son of the first female President of the United States, Alex Claremont-Diaz, and Britain’s Prince Henry. The pair are unceremoniously mashed together like Barbie dolls in a child’s hand, forced to fake a friendship to prevent a diplomatic scandal. The tricky thing is, what happens when their for-the-cameras friendship turns into real love behind closed doors?
5. Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is to Scott Pilgrim vs the World as toothpaste is to tonsillitis. Which is to say, unrelated. Rather than the story of an indie-rocking burnout dating a high schooler, Simon vs. Homo Sapiens Agenda tells the tale of Simon Spier, a closeted teen in an online relationship with another student known only as “Blue.” Speaking of blue, this book will get you feeling it. It doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities that queer teenagers face in a world that would rather hold queerness at knifepoint than in a loving embrace.
4. They Both Die at the End
They Both Die at the End is a real heartstopper. Like, the fatal kind. Adam Silvera’s novel takes place in the near future where people are politely informed of their eminent demise by a day-before text. When the grim reaper slides in the DM’s of teenagers Mateo and Rufus, the pair decide to raise a middle finger to fate and live their last 24 hours to the fullest. They’re going to kiss, cry, laugh, and die. That’s the human condition in a nutshell, I guess?
3. The House in the Cerulean Sea
The House in the Cerulean Sea is the story of Linus Baker, the most uninteresting man in the world, who just so happens to have a rather interesting job. He’s a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth; a social worker for baby demons, adolescent blob monsters, and the like. One day, he’s called out to the titular house in the sea to check in on some snot-nosed magical beings and their adult guardian. As it turns out, their guardian is really hot. Like, physically and temperature-wise. It’s part of the plot. Things are getting interesting after all.
2. Call Me By Your Name
Before Timothy Chalamet f*cked a peach in a theatre near you, Call Me By Your Name was an equally horny novel penned by André Aciman. Set in the Italian Riviera in the 1980’s (what more could you want?) the novel centers around young Elio and his relationship with a visiting grad student named Oliver. The pair embark on a passionate summer romance that may or may not make you feel like you’ve never truly loved anyone as powerfully as this. Get out there, champ. You’ll find it. Just finish this book first.
1. The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles will make you ugly cry. You will ugly cry so hard that you’ll WISH your heart will stop, but it will traitorously continue to beat until you’re banging your fist to your chest like a Greek tragic hero who just found out he got busy with his mom (as the prophecy foretold). This novel is the story of young prince Patroclus, exiled from his homeland and fostered with the adolescent Achilles. Yeah, the literal demigod. The pair grow up together, kiss in a cave behind the hairy back of a centaur, and then go off to the Trojan War to die together. Yes, it does have a happy-ish ending, you’ll just have to sob through the last fifty pages to get there.
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