Weird Bildungsroman

Bildungsroman: A class of novel that depicts and explores the manner in which the protagonist develops morally and psychologically. These are examples which maybe a little different than your average coming of age novel.

Updated February 6, 2023
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Ender's game
Card, Orson Scott.
From New York Times bestselling author Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game--adapted to film in 2013 starring Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford--is the classic Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction novel of a young boy's recruitment into the midst of an...
It
King, Stephen 1947-
"A great book...a landmark in American literature."--Chicago Sun-Times Welcome to Derry, Maine... It's a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real.... They were seven teenagers when...
The lightning thief
Riordan, Rick
The classic first book about Percy Jackson, the troubled boy who discovers he is the son of Poseidon, and his adventures with demigods, monsters, and Greek gods. This classic by #1 New York Times best selling author Rick Riordan has sold millions of copies...
We have always lived in the castle
Jackson, Shirley 1916-1965
Shirley Jackson's beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family's dark secret, with an afterword by Jonathan Lethem. A Penguin Vitae Edition Merricat Blackwood lives on the family estate with her sister Constance and her uncle Julian....
A wizard of Earthsea
Le Guin, Ursula K. 1929-2018
The first novel of Ursula K. Le Guin's must-read Earthsea Cycle. "The magic of Earthsea is primal; the lessons of Earthsea remain as potent, as wise, and as necessary as anyone could dream." (Neil Gaiman) Ged was the greatest sorcerer in Earthsea, but in his youth he was the reckless...
Swamplandia!
Russell, Karen 1981-
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * The bravely imagined, wildly acclaimed debut novel from the author of Vampires in the Lemon Grove--about a thirteen year old girl who sets out on a mission through magical swamps to save her family. "Ms....
A prayer for Owen Meany : a novel
Irving, John 1942-
In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys--best friends--are playing in a Little League baseball game in New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills his best friend's mother. Owen Meany believes he didn't hit the ball by accident. He believes he is God's instrument. What happens to...
Inkheart
Funke, Cornelia 1958-
From internationally acclaimed storyteller Cornelia Funke, this bestselling, magical epic is now being reissued with a brand new cover in anticipation of the long-awaited fourth book in the series. One cruel night, Meggie's father reads aloud from a book called INKHEART-- and an evil ruler escapes...
Boy's life
McCammon, Robert R.
Robert McCammon delivers "a tour de force of storytelling" (BookPage) in this award-winning masterpiece, a novel of Southern boyhood, growing up in the 1960s, that reaches far beyond that evocative landscape to touch readers universally. Boy's Life is a richly...
Something wicked this way comes
Bradbury, Ray 1920-2012
The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. The shrill siren song of a calliope beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to...

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