Six books featuring characters growing up against the wall

Amelia Kahaney is the author of All the Best Liars and The Brokenhearted series. Her short fiction has appeared in Best American Nonrequired Reading, One Story, and Crazyhorse, among other publications. She teaches writing in New York City, where she lives with her husband and son.

At CrimeReads Kahaney tagged "six books that have inspired and thrilled me, all of them featuring characters in the process of growing into their truest selves despite—or because of—dark forces urging them onward, whether to unravel a mystery, stash a body, avenge a wrong, or try to stop time before things move from bad to unthinkable." One title on the list:

Dare Me by Megan Abbott

Dare Me is set in the world of high school cheerleading, but there’s nothing bouncy or frivolous about the power dynamics between Beth, head cheerleader and queen bee, and Addy, her loyal minion. When a young and beautiful new cheer coach shows up and upends the girls’ established order, Beth is dethroned from her eternal position at the top of the pyramid and Addy finds herself in thrall to Coach’s risky personal life. Stack up the team’s dangerous acrobatics and ruthless competition with the mid-point murder of Coach’s lover, and this taut powder keg of a story becomes explosive. I love all of Abbott’s books, but Dare Me remains an all-time favorite.

Read about the other entries at CrimeReads.

Dare Me is among Frederick Weisel's six crime novels set in public school classrooms, Rachel Kapelke-Dale's eleven unexpected thrillers about female rage, Debbie Babitt's eight top coming-of-age thrillers, Avery Bishop's top five novels that explore "mean girl" culture, Kelly Simmons's six books to buddy-read with your teen or twentyish daughter, Katie Lowe's top eight crime novels for angry women in an angry world, Kate Hamer's top ten teenage friendships in fiction, S.R. Masters's seven thrillers that capture some of the darker aspects of tight-knit friendship groups, Jessica Knoll's top ten thrillers, Brian Boone's fifty most essential high school stories, Julie Buntin's twelve books that totally get female friendship, L.S. Hilton's top ten female-fronted thrillers, Megan Reynolds's top ten books you must read if you loved Gone Girl, Anna Fitzpatrick's four top horror stories set in the real universe of girlhood and Adam Sternbergh's six notable crime novels that double as great literature.

--Marshal Zeringue