Books like 'Say Her Name'
Readers who enjoyed Say Her Name by Zetta Elliott also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary social-commentary poc-mc politics high-school lgbtq
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When Aidan Became A Brother by Kyle Lukoff
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsWhen Aidan was born, everyone thought he was a girl. His parents gave him a pretty name, his room looked like a girl's room, and he wore clothes that other girls liked wearing. After he realized he was a trans boy, Aidan and his parents fixed the parts of life that didn't fit anymore, and he settled happily into his new life... -
No Way Out by Peggy Kern
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBluford High freshman Harold Davis is trapped. Medical bills for his sick grandmother are piling up, and a social worker has threatened to put him in a foster home. Desperate for money, he reluctantly agrees to work for Londell James, a neighborhood drug dealer. The choice leads him into a world of dangerous streets where no one is safe... -
Libertad by Bessie Flores Zaldivar
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA queer YA coming-of-age set during the rigged Honduran presidential election, about a young poet discovering the courage it takes to speak her truth about the people and country she loves.As the contentious 2017 presidential election looms and protests rage across every corner of the city, life in Tegucigalpa, Honduras churns louder and faster...Categorized as:
lgbtq politics high-school social-commentary poc-mc young-adult contemporary fiction -
The Tradition by Jericho Brown
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsJericho Brown’s daring new book The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at the intersection of the past and the personal... -
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This Accident of Being Lost: Songs and Stories by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis Accident of Being Lost is the knife-sharp new collection of stories and songs from award-winning Nishnaabeg storyteller and writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. These visionary pieces build upon Simpson's powerful use of the fragment as a tool for intervention in her critically acclaimed collection Islands of Decolonial Love... -
Cenzontle by Marcelo Hernández Castillo
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn this lyrical, imagistic debut, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo creates a nuanced narrative of life before, during, and after crossing the US/Mexico border... -
This Thing of Ours by Frederick Joseph
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn instant New York Times bestseller!The powerful and timely YA novel debut from two-time New York Times best-selling author Frederick Joseph is a deeply heartfelt story—and a rallying cry against book banning.In an instant, Ossie Brown’s entire future is in jeopardy when a torn ACL ends his promising basketball career... -
Sixteen Kisses: A novella by Kelly Oram
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAll Cassie Caldwell wants for her sixteenth birthday is to finally be kissed. When Cassie’s older brother and his best friend—the lovable, sexy cowboy, Jared—discover her secret, Jared takes it upon himself to make sure her birthday wish comes true.**This is an 85 page novella. It's not a full-length novel. It is a complete stand alone story though, and lots of fun! Promise... -
Since I Laid My Burden Down by Brontez Purnell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhiting Award winner Brontez Purnell’s debut novel is an uninhibited portrait of growing up gay in 1980s exploring art and sex with “more layered insight than the page count should allow” (Hanif Abdurraqib, MTV News ). DeShawn lives a high, creative, and promiscuous life in San Francisco...Categorized as:
lgbtq poc-mc social-commentary fiction contemporary literary-fiction poc-author family -
Ironopolis by Glen James Brown
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsStranded on the outskirts of Ironopolis — nickname to a lost industrial Middlesbrough — the Burn Council Estate is about to be torn down to make way for regeneration. For the future .. -
Theoretically Perfect by Amy Bailey, Alexander C. Eberhart
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTheo Briggs just wants to be perfect. The perfect son. The perfect friend. The perfect boyfriend. But the harder he tries to keep up appearances, the more difficult juggling all of those expectations becomes. Where Theo usually turns to his faith for comfort, he now finds confusion and apathy.Caleb Raynard finally has the boyfriend of his dreams... -
Pursuit of Happiness by Carsen Taite
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSenator Meredith Mitchell has been groomed from young adulthood for a future run for president, and as scion of a political dynasty, every public and private move she makes is carefully calculated. But Meredith’s focus on the right causes, the right people, and the right timing evaporates when she meets Stevie Palmer, a dashing public defender with a hard knock past... -
Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers? by Junauda Petrus
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBased on the viral poem by Coretta Scott King honoree Junauda Petrus, this picture book debut imagines a radically positive future where police aren’t in charge of public safety and community well-being.Petrus first published and performed this poem after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014...Categorized as:
social-commentary poc-mc politics children-books mental-illness fiction law-enforcement children -
Wait Till I'm Dead: Uncollected Poems by Allen Ginsberg
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAllen Ginsberg’s poems, from “Howl” to “Kaddish” to “The Fall of America,” have influenced generations of writers and made him a defining figure of the twentieth century. Ginsberg’s Collected Poems, first published in 1984, and expanded in 1997, was originally thought to contain all of his poetic work... -
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Los sorrentinos by Virginia Higa
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHace poco más de un siglo, una familia partió de Sorrento y se instaló en Mar del Plata para abrir un hotel y luego una trattoria cerca de la playa. Podría tratarse de una familia cualquiera de las tantas que inmigraron por esos años, pero esta tuvo una participación especial en la cultura argentina: inventó los sorrentinos, una pasta que hoy se come en todo el país... -
Queerleaders by M.B. Guel
Rated: 3.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“Mack snuck a look at the cheerleaders just as Veronica took her place at the top of the pyramid. Time seemed to slow down as the cheerleader swung her long blond ponytail over her shoulder, pompoms high in the air…” Mackenzie is used to being different from other kids―and to being bullied for not fitting into the rigid social expectations of her Catholic High School...Categorized as:
lgbtq high-school social-commentary poc-mc contemporary young adult young-adult fiction -
The Doomsday Date by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Rated: 3.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn exclusive new World Book Day story from the bestselling author of ACE OF SPADES, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. The hilarious, heart-soaring story of one night, two friends and a list that will change everything, perfect for teen readers.On the day before the world is meant to end, Sanjeet dyes his hair pink.. -
Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha
Rated: 4.71 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWinner of the 2022 Palestine Book Awards Creative AwardFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in PoetryThese poems emerge directly from the experience of growing up and living one’s entire life in Gaza, making a life for one’s family and raising a family in constant lockdown, and often under direct attack...Categorized as:
politics social-commentary poc-mc non-fiction war contemporary poc-author colonization -
The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice by Shon Faye
Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsTrans people in Britain today have become a culture war 'issue'. Despite making up less than 1% of the country's population, they are the subjects of a toxic and increasingly polarised 'debate', which generates reliable controversy for newspapers and talk shows...Categorized as:
lgbtq politics social-commentary non-fiction feminism trans-mc audiobook contemporary -
Untenrum frei by Margarete Stokowski
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWar es das jetzt mit der sexuellen Revolution? Sind wir unendlich liberal, weil mit nackten Brüsten für Tierfutter und Baumärkte geworben wird? Mitnichten, sagt Margarete Stokowski. Es gilt auch noch im 21. Jahrhundert, Machtstrukturen aufzusprengen, über Sexualität zu sprechen und über Geschlechterrollen, die wir mit riesigem Aufwand spielen... -
What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsFrom the creator of Your Fat Friend, an explosive indictment of the systemic and cultural bias facing plus-size people that will move us toward creating an agenda for fat justice.Anti-fatness is everywhere...Categorized as:
social-commentary politics lgbtq non-fiction feminism audiobook mental-illness psychological -
Go Ahead In The Rain by Hanif Abdurraqib
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHow does one pay homage to A Tribe Called Quest? The seminal rap group brought jazz into the genre, resurrecting timeless rhythms to create masterpieces such as The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders. Seventeen years after their last album, they resurrected themselves with an intense, socially conscious record, We Got It from Here . .Categorized as:
poc-mc politics social-commentary 21st-century audiobook contemporary fiction non-fiction -
Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFINALIST FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDNamed a notable book of 2019 by the New York Times Book Review , Chicago Tribune , Time , and The GuardianAs featured by The Daily Show , NPR , PBS , CBC , Time , VIBE , Entertainment Weekly , Well-Read Black Girl , and Chris Hayes, "incisive, witty, and provocative essays" ( Publishers Weekly ) by one of the "most bracing thinkers on race, gender, and... -
The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power by Desmond Cole
Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA bracing, provocative, and perspective-shifting book from one of Canada's most celebrated and uncompromising writers, Desmond Cole. The Skin We're In will spark a national conversation, influence policy, and inspire activists...Categorized as:
politics social-commentary poc-mc non-fiction audiobook racism historical contemporary -
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Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 26 ratings“You cannot fix a problem you do not know you have.” So begins Emmanuel Acho in his essential guide to the truths Americans need to know to address the systemic racism that has recently electrified protests in all fifty states. “There is a fix,” Acho says. “But in order to access it, we’re going to have to have some uncomfortable conversations...Categorized as:
social-commentary politics poc-mc non-fiction audiobook racism personal-growth poc-author -
The Crown Ain't Worth Much by Hanif Abdurraqib
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Crown Ain't Worth Much, Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib's first full-length collection, is a sharp and vulnerable portrayal of city life in the United States. A regular columnist for MTV.com, Willis-Abdurraqib brings his interest in pop culture to these poems, analyzing race, gender, family, and the love that finally holds us together even as it threatens to break us...Categorized as:
social-commentary poc-mc politics non-fiction contemporary poc-author black-mc fiction -
Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salesses
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA groundbreaking resource for fiction writers, teachers, and students, this manifesto and practical guide challenges current models of craft and the writing workshop by showing how they fail marginalized writers, and how cultural expectations inform storytelling... -
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
Rated: 4.68 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsFrom award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in the heart of an Empire which doesn’t consider you fully human... -
Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal by Mohammed El-Kurd
Rated: 4.75 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPerfect Victims is an urgent affirmation of the Palestinian condition of resistance and refusal―an ode to the steadfastness of a nation.Palestine is a microcosm of the on fire, stubborn, fragmented, dignified...Categorized as:
politics social-commentary poc-mc non-fiction audiobook colonization philosophy indigenous-mc -
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratings“Engaging and highly accessible.” —Boston Globe“A vibrant, and essential history of America's unending, enraging and utterly compelling struggle since its founding to live up to its own best ideals… It's both a cause for hope, and a call to arms...Categorized as:
politics social-commentary non-fiction audiobook historical contemporary 21st-century
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