TEENAGE NOVELS often reflect a sense of isolation, stemming from being in limbo between adulthood and childhood. Although Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (Faber) deals with mental problems, it is also a beautiful account of a young girl trying to decode and find her place in the world. The Bell Jar is often cited as a female version of J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye (Penguin) which all self-respecting teenagers ought to read to see a more exaggerated version of their own cynicism, detachment and teenage angst. Both Esther and Holden are preoccupied with other people’s expectations and the pressure to live up to these expectations, especially with regards to sexuality and social protocol.

If you want a book about teenage sexual development, The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis (Vintage), is a hormone-driven account of a young man’s obsession with it. The disgusting details might put girls off teenage boys for a while, but it is worth reading. Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (Penguin), is also about developing sexual desire and rule-breaking. It is narrated with a tone of cynical disillusionment by Cecile who tries to meddle in her father’s love life — with disastrous consequences. It is one of the best accounts of a young girl’s desire to control the world around her.

The staccato, casual language used by Holden in Catcher in the Rye draws the reader straight into his mind. Holden’s language asserts his independence from the adult world and gives it the freshness of poetry. Both A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (Penguin) and Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (Minerva) use language in an original way, creating an immediate rhythm. Teenagers have an immediacy about them because they don’t have a lot of past experience. Poetry, such as The Blue Book by Owen Sheers (Seren), captures a sense of living in the present. Teenagers often identify with first novels because of their freshness. Other Voices, Other Rooms, (Random House), Truman Capote’s first novel, is a vision of the distorted adult world, where Joel grows up with his friend against the gothic backdrop of New Orleans.

Similarly, Frankenstein (Penguin Classics), written by Mary Shelley when she was just 19, is pure gothic and should appeal to teenagers willing to read it instead of watching the movie. Why do teenagers like gothic? We haven’t yet been refined down to dull good taste. For self-obsessed teenagers on the cusp between childhood and adulthood, some books are useful for understanding the bigger picture. Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (Penguin Classics) is almost a user’s guide in learning how to get what you want, when you want it. Something slightly illicit such as The Diary of Anaïs Nin (Harcourt) will also give an insight into the things your mother won’t tell you.

ANNA STOTHARD