Books Like Saints and Misfits

There is a specific feeling that comes from finishing Saints and Misfits: the feeling of having watched someone find their voice. S. K. Ali’s novel - Janna, a Muslim teen in a close-knit community, navigating faith, friendship and a trauma she has told no one about - has been loved by young adult readers because it is honest about the hardest things and tender about the healing. The problem after finishing it is the one every great book creates: you want more of the feeling - the honesty, the warmth, the finding of a voice. This guide collects the books that genuinely belong on that shelf.

What Made Saints and Misfits Special#

Before the recommendations, it is worth naming what you are actually looking for, because the right next book depends on which part of the book stayed with you.

If the healing stayed with you - Janna’s recovery, the community that carries her - then the healing novels will fit. If the faith stayed with you - the identity, the community, the honesty - then the faith-and-identity novels will be your natural next step. And if the finding-your-voice stayed with you - Janna’s growing courage - then the self-discovery novels will carry it forward. Most readers are looking for all three, and the books below cover the range.

The Healing Novels#

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson#

If there is one book that the Saints and Misfits reader should pick up next, it is Speak. Melinda, a high school freshman, stops speaking after a trauma she cannot name - and the novel is the story of her slow, powerful recovery of her voice.

The two books are siblings: the trauma, the silence, the healing, the voice finally found. Where Janna’s healing is carried by faith and community, Melinda’s is carried by art and her own stubborn will - and both are essential reading for the theme.

Content notes: Deals with sexual assault; for readers from the mid-teens up.

Love from A to Z by S. K. Ali#

For readers who want more of S. K. Ali’s particular voice, Love from A to Z is the book. Zayneb and Adam, two Muslim teens carrying their own burdens, meet and fall in love - and the novel is a warm, honest story of love, faith and the courage to be yourself.

The book shares Saints and Misfits’ honesty about the burdens young people carry and its warmth toward its characters. For readers who loved Janna, Zayneb and Adam are the natural next characters to root for.

Content notes: A clean young adult novel, suitable for readers from the early teens up.

The Faith-and-Identity Novels#

The Faith and the Community#

One of the quiet achievements of Saints and Misfits is its community: the mosque, the aunties, the friends, the faith that is both comfort and complication. The faith-and-identity novels on this shelf share that achievement - the faith taken seriously, the community rendered with affection, the reader welcomed inside. For readers who loved the community of Saints and Misfits, these are the books that carry the warmth forward.

The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar#

For readers who want the identity-and-courage theme with the most color, The Henna Wars is the book. Nishat, a Bangladeshi Irish teen, is determined to win her school’s business competition with her henna art - and the novel is a warm, funny story of identity, culture and first love.

The book shares Saints and Misfits’ honesty about identity and its warmth toward young characters. For readers who loved Janna’s courage, Nishat is the natural next heroine.

Content notes: A clean young adult novel, suitable for readers from the early teens up.

The Finding-Your-Voice Novels#

The Voice Found#

There is one more thing worth naming about Saints and Misfits: the voice. Janna’s recovery is the recovery of her voice - the courage to say what happened, to name what she needs, to refuse the silence. The finding-your-voice novels on this shelf share that structure: the silenced character, the slow recovery, the voice finally spoken. For readers who loved the voice of Saints and Misfits, these are the books that carry the theme forward.

Speak and the Aftermath#

For readers who want the finding-your-voice theme in its fullest form, Speak is the essential companion - and it is worth reading the two together, because they show the same journey in different keys: one carried by community and faith, one carried by a girl’s own fierce will. Together they prove that the voice is always recoverable, and that the recovery is one of the bravest stories a novel can tell.

How to Choose Your Next Read#

The right next book depends on what you are ready for. If you want the healing theme: Speak. If you want more S. K. Ali: Love from A to Z. If you want the identity and courage: The Henna Wars.

There is no wrong order, but there is a sensible one: start with Love from A to Z for the same author’s warmth, then Speak for the deeper healing theme, then The Henna Wars for the courage, and let the others fill in as you go.

Reading the Shelf for the Courage#

It is worth saying plainly what the Saints and Misfits shelf is really for, because the courage is the thing readers carry away: these are books about the hardest act - telling the truth about what happened. Janna’s recovery is the recovery of her voice, the courage to say what was done to her, and the books on this list are about the same courage in their own registers. They are books that honor the telling.

The honoring matters because the telling is so hard. The books do not pretend the telling is easy, or that it fixes everything; they show it as what it is - the hardest step, the one that must come first. For the reader who loved the courage of Saints and Misfits, the shelf is a collection of tellings - each one a reminder that the voice is recoverable, that the truth can be spoken, and that the speaking is the beginning of the healing. Read them when you need the courage, and let them show you that you are not alone in the telling. It is also worth saying that the shelf is not only for the reader who has survived something; it is for every reader who wants to understand what survival costs and what it requires. The books teach the rest of us how to be the community that carries: how to listen without flinching, how to believe without doubting, how to be the friend who makes the telling safe. That is the other half of the courage the shelf honors - the courage of the listener - and it is the half that turns a book about one girl’s healing into a book about how we all heal together.

The Values the Shelf Carries#

Saints and Misfits is, at its core, a book about values in action - the loyalty of the friends and family who carry Janna, the respect that her community must learn, the healthy relationships that grow from honesty and healing. It belongs on the relationships shelf alongside the guides that explore those values directly. Our guide to respect and manners walks through the value of the respect that Janna’s story demands - the seeing of people fully, the refusal of the easy label - and it pairs naturally with this reading, because the novel is a demonstration of exactly what the guide describes.

The shelf also connects to the deeper respect themes, in a specific way: the book’s deepest subject is the recovery of dignity - Janna’s dignity, her voice, her place in her community. Our respect and manners themes and reading notes explore the values that the novel shows being reclaimed across its pages, and they belong with this reading because Janna’s story is a study in the respect that must be given and claimed. Together these guides frame the fiction, and the fiction makes the guides feelable.

Conclusion#

Saints and Misfits has been loved by young adult readers because it is honest about the hardest things and tender about the healing - Janna, her faith, her community, her trauma, her voice finally found. The books on this list are the honest responses to the question it leaves behind: what next?

The healing of Speak, the warmth of Love from A to Z, and the courage of The Henna Wars - together they carry the same truth in different voices: the voice is always recoverable, and the recovery is the point. Read the notes, choose where you are, and let the books take their time.