The Outsiders

Wow, just wow.

“Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset”

Hinton started writing this aged 15 and it was published by the time she was 18 - she's credited as having written the first YA novel. Written in the first person narrative of 14 year-old Ponyboy who lives with his brothers Sodapop and Darrel, the story takes place over just a couple of weeks but so much happens.

There's gang warfare, poetry and fire, heroes and villains, “Greasers” and “Socs”, cigarettes and alcohol, the literature and death. No wonder it's a core text in some US schools and banned in others.

I don't know how I've managed to get so far in life and not read this. It caught hold of me, despite my jaded adulthood, and drew me in. It's so beautifully written that you can't help but empathise with Pony's and experience everything alongside him. I'll be interested to see if the film does it justice (no, I've not seen it either).