9 Books About Coming of Age in the ’90s

This is a coming-of-age story that spans decades, but it all starts in December, 1992. Three different groups of teenagers are going to see the movie version of the Eons & Empires comic books at the theater. Each of the teens has a different background and is going to the movie for different reasons. Over the next few decades, these characters’ lives continue to interconnect in different and unexpected ways. In Some Other World, Maybe is an exploration of what it’s like growing up in contemporary America.

Girls on Fire starts with a shocking incident. On Halloween in 1991, a popular high school basketball star walks into the woods and disappears. Three days later, he’s found dead, presumably by suicide. His death serves to further fuel rumors about Satanic worship in the small conservative town. Meanwhile, Hannah Dexter befriends one of the “bad influences” at her high school: Lacey Champlain, a girl who loves Nirvana and rocks Doc Martens. But friendship soon turns into obsession, and the girls’ rebellious behavior starts to get out of hand.

It’s the end of senior year in L.A. in 1992, and Ashley Bennett’s life at her private high school has been sheltered and privileged. All she’s worried about is hanging out with her friends and tanning at the beach. But all of that changes when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King nearly to death. Suddenly, Ashley is very aware of the color of her skin, and so is everyone else. As much as Ashley would love to keep living her life as she had before, the world around her won’t let that happen. Protests are taking over the city, and a girl who she thought was her friend threatens to ruin her future with a heartless rumor.

Apparently 1992 is a big year for ’90s coming-of-age stories, because Dryland is also set in that year. Fifteen-year-old Julie Winter live in Portland, Oregon and is generally dissatisfied with her life. Her life is boring and she’s afraid to take risks. And no one in her family will talk about her brother, a swimmer who once dreamed of competing in the Olympics and now lives in Berlin. Swimming was always something her brother did and not something Julie thought of for herself, but then Alexis, the girl’s swim team captain, tries to recruit her. Could this be Julie’s chance to reconnect with her brother?

Triinu Hoffman is a teen growing up in a small town in Oregon in the 1990s. And with her dyed hair and dark clothing? Well, she doesn’t quite fit in. As Triinu begins exploring her sexuality, her feelings of alienation at her tight-laced school only worsen. And then Oregon’s Ballot Measure 9 goes into effect, and everything gets much, much more difficult for Triinu. But Forgive Me If I’ve Told You This Before is about more than coming to terms with one’s sexuality. It’s about coming to term’s with one’s self and what truly matters.

We’ve talked about a bunch of books that take place in the early ’90s, but Let Me Hear A Rhyme is set in Brooklyn in 1998. A teen named named Steph has been killed, and no knows why it happened or who did it. But Steph’s two best friends — Quadir and Jarrell — refuse to let Steph’s dreams of having a music career die with him. With the help of Steph’s sister Jasmine, they hatch a plan to promote his music under a new rap name: The Architect. When his mixtape gains popularity and catches the attention of a big time music rep, the trio will be forced to face the truth of what happened to their friend.

Let’s face it. People come of age in their own time. For some, maturity comes when they’re younger. For others, it comes well into adulthood. And in Nick Hornby’s About A Boy — set in London in 1993 — we see a man and a young boy coming of age and learning about life together, at the same time. Will is 36 years old, but still acts like a teenager, partying and living his life as if no one else matters. And then he meets Marcus, a 12-year-old boy who loves Joni Mitchell and whose best friend is his mum. Basically, he’s the oldest 12-year-old you’ve ever met. Together, the two form an unlikely friendship. Will teaches Marcus how to relax and have fun, and Marcus helps Will grow up.

Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere is set in 1998 and follows the lives of adults and teens living in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland where everything is perfect. Seemingly, anyway. Enter Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl. Mia is an artist and a single mother, and she and her daughter rent a house from the Richardsons. Right away the four Richardson children feel drawn to Mia and Pearl — their unconventional way of life, the air of mystery, the way their lives don’t seem perfectly planned like every other person living in Shaker Heights. But when Mia Warren and mom Elena Richardson find themselves on opposite sides of a family’s custody battle, Elena becomes determined to discover the secrets of Mia’s past.

Here’s another coming-of-age story set in 1998 — or is it? Jess Flynn is just your typical junior in high school, just trying to deal with her crush on her childhood best friend and her overbearing parents. But the older she gets, the more she begins to question her seemingly idyllic ’90s life in the town of Swickley. People keep getting sick with a mysterious flu. When Jess tries to ask questions about anything, people avoid answering or just end the conversation abruptly. And then one day, she sees a strange electronic device with an Apple logo fall out of her best friend’s backpack.