The most recommended books about best friends

Any Peter Heller novel will work here—The Dog Stars, The Painter, etc.—but The River is really interesting for a few reasons: Heller pushes his characters into the unknown on a river that serves both as a literal symbol and a propulsive, metaphorical symbol. There’s no way to backtrack on a river, so his two friends can’t go backwards. Then we add in the imminent danger of a forest fire and the creepy people also on the river with them, and the whole entire mix is scary!

I wanted to put a graphic novel on this list because gosh do I love 'em! In fact, it was tough to narrow it down to just one. And in the interest of full disclosure, I should probably say that Stephanie Hans also did an incredible cover for one of my GI Joe novels. I hasten to add, however, that this happened after I had already fallen head over heels for this series.

Gillen described this series as "Goth Jumanji," and I get why he chose such a pithy, clever pitch. It gives you a really hooky snapshot of the vibe. But it really doesn't do justice to the sublime, brutal sadness of this work. It is stunningly ambitious yet deeply human. The art is utterly gorgeous, even when it is also distressingly grotesque.

On a more personal note, I found the depiction of Ash, the primary protagonist who is… show more.

A young high school girl, Morgan, struggling with her parent’s recent divorce, falls into the ocean while walking along the sea cliffs. What she thought was certain death turned out to be the start of a new relationship and the discovery of a whole new world. Rescued by a selkie, a shapeshifting creature from the sea, her life is forever changed. 

The art is spectacular in this epic graphic novel, and the environmental message of protecting the seal's habitat makes it an emotional and memorable read.

As a lifelong fan of youthful hijinks, this book filled me with mischievous glee.

Not only do Mike and I share a love of ukulele riffs to defuse awkward situations (or make them more awkward, in some cases) we also seem to share a specific brand of irreverent humor common in most queer and queer-inclusive friend groups.

These characters are the kind of friends you wish you could get into trouble with IRL. More crew than team in this case, but it counts! 10/10 shenanigans. 

This book features a girl named Suzi, who is convinced her friend drowned because of a jellyfish sting. She’s so affected by her friend’s death that she stops talking. I loved seeing Suzi research jellyfish through this book.

I love learning and studying and how she went about it was cool. She was determined and strong. I also appreciated how the plot moves from the present to the past and showed the truth about Suzi’s friendship in the end.

In this purr-fectly irresistible graphic novel, twelve-year-old Katie wants to earn money so she can go to summer camp with her best friend and starts a catsitting business for her mysterious upstairs neighbor. The problem? The woman has 217 cats! And that’s not all...the cats have superpowers! And the neighbor may be a notorious supervillian! Talk about a tough job! I laughed, cheered, and crossed my fingers for Katie!

As we learn from the ice cream recipes scattered throughout this book, complex flavours require balance. Jen Ferguson knows how to find that balance.

Reading The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, I felt like I was taking a master course in writing about difficult subjects without giving into the darkness. Lou is spending the summer working in her family's ice cream shack with her newly ex-boyfriend and her former best friend. That’s enough to have to deal with, but then her biological father sends her a letter pushing her to meet with him.

My heart ached for Lou as she tried to protect her family, rebuild her trust in others, and better understand herself. I put this on my school’s suggested list of summer reading because I loved it so much and thought students could relate to Lou.

I love Dough Boys because it’s an engrossing, authentic story about basketball, music, friendship, and the hard decisions thirteen-year-old kids sometimes have to make. It follows Rollie and Simp, best friends who play on an elite basketball team in their low-income neighborhood...but playing on the team means getting involved as lookouts for a local drug ring, and the boys have very different feelings about the pressures and responsibilities they face. Basketball scenes provide an entryway into important topics, and through the two well-developed protagonists, Chase explores what happens when a sport feels like your only chance at the future you want, and what happens when you’re no longer sure you love a game that used to be part of your identity.

Growing up, I was so close to my great-grandmother that I chose a college near her. Shortly after I graduated, she died. I wish I'd had this book then.

Cash's grandparents and best friend, Delaney, are his life. When Delaney earns an elite scholarship, will Cash follow her or stay with his dying Papaw? I am a sucker for friends-to-lovers stories, and I loved the simmer between Cash and Delaney.

What got me right in the gut, though, was the relationship between Cash and Papaw. The best scene is a memory of when Papaw took Cash hunting—and Cash hated it. Papaw's response fractured my heart with its beauty.

This is a book to help you mourn, showing how to live on without letting go of any of the love.

This book was recommended to me by my mentor, so it was one of the first queer graphic novels I ever got to experience. I love this book because it goes through so many of the hardships of being openly yourself. It’s nostalgic, it’s relatable, and it’s incredibly heartfelt.

While the main focus of Kiss Number 8 is exploring queer identity in young adulthood, my favorite part of this book is the relationship the main character has with her father and how that relationship struggles, changes, and grows over the course of the book.