Books like The Forbidden Book

If you liked The Forbidden Book, read Sky's End, Everything We Never Had, or Never Thought I'd End Up Here — the closest matches in our database, matched on shared themes, shared award lists, and reading level.

Closest match: Sky's End by Marc J. Gregson — shares survival

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Looking for books like The Forbidden Book by Sacha Lamb (Young Adult Fiction · grades 7–12)? It’s most often read for its themes of identity, survival, and religion. The 10 titles below are the closest matches in the ReadingList database — each scored on shared themes, shared award lists, genre, and reading level, and each linked to the curricula, states, and grades where it’s assigned, with primary sources.

These are reading-level matches, not just topical ones — so the picks stay grade-appropriate for a grades 7–12 reader. See how we judge text difficulty on our methodology page.

10 books similar to The Forbidden Book

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Why each is a match

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Sky's Endgrades 7–12
Shares themes of survival, both on the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award list, and same genre (Young Adult Fiction). Amazon → books like this →
Everything We Never Hadgrades 7–12
Shares themes of identity, both on the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award list, and same genre (Young Adult Fiction). Amazon → books like this →
Never Thought I'd End Up Heregrades 7–12
Shares themes of identity, both on the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award list, and same genre (Young Adult Fiction). Amazon → books like this →
Life of Pi830L
Shares themes of identity, survival, and religion and overlapping grades (9–12). Amazon → books like this →
Sunrise on the Reapinggrades 7–12
Shares themes of survival, both on the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award list, and overlapping grades (7–12). Amazon → books like this →
Under the Surfacegrades 7–12
Shares themes of survival, both on the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award list, and overlapping grades (7–12). Amazon → books like this →
Shut Up, This Is Seriousgrades 9–12
Shares themes of identity, same genre (Young Adult Fiction), and overlapping grades (9–12). Amazon → books like this →
The Silence That Binds Usgrades 9–12
Shares themes of identity, same genre (Young Adult Fiction), and overlapping grades (9–12). Amazon → books like this →
That's Not My Namegrades 9–12
Shares themes of identity and survival and overlapping grades (9–12). Amazon → books like this →
American Born Chinese530L
Shares themes of identity, same genre (Young Adult Fiction), and overlapping grades (7–12). Amazon → books like this →

Books like The Forbidden Book for middle school (grades 6–8)

Closest matches whose grade range overlaps 6–8— same scoring, different audience.

  • Louder Than Hunger by John Schu · grades 7–12 — Shares themes of identity, both on the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award list, and overlapping grades (7–12).
  • Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson · 690L — Shares themes of identity, same genre (Young Adult Fiction), and overlapping grades (8–10).
  • The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo · 800L — Shares themes of identity, same genre (Young Adult Fiction), and overlapping grades (8–12).
  • The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson · grades 7–12 — Shares themes of identity, both on the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award list, and overlapping grades (7–12).
  • Unwind by Neal Shusterman · grades 8–12 — Shares themes of identity and survival and overlapping grades (8–12).

Books like The Forbidden Book for high school & teens (grades 9–12)

Closest matches whose grade range overlaps 9–12— same scoring, different audience.

  • Louder Than Hunger by John Schu · grades 7–12 — Shares themes of identity, both on the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award list, and overlapping grades (7–12).
  • Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi · grades 9–12 — Shares themes of identity and religion and overlapping grades (9–12).
  • Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson · 690L — Shares themes of identity, same genre (Young Adult Fiction), and overlapping grades (8–10).
  • The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo · 800L — Shares themes of identity, same genre (Young Adult Fiction), and overlapping grades (8–12).
  • The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson · grades 7–12 — Shares themes of identity, both on the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award list, and overlapping grades (7–12).

Common questions

What books are similar to The Forbidden Book?
The 10 closest matches to The Forbidden Book by Sacha Lamb on ReadingList include Sky's End, Everything We Never Had, Never Thought I'd End Up Here, Life of Pi, and Sunrise on the Reaping. Each is scored on shared themes (identity, survival, and religion), shared award lists, genre, and reading level (grades 7–12), and links to the curricula, states, and grades where it is assigned in US schools, with primary sources.
Are books like The Forbidden Book reading-level appropriate?
Yes — every match is a reading-level match, not just a topical one, scored on Lexile and grade band (grades 7–12), so the picks stay grade-appropriate. See how ReadingList judges text difficulty on the /standard methodology page.
How does ReadingList choose similar books?
Matches are ranked by shared themes, shared award and reading-program lists (two books picked for the same state award were chosen by the same committees for the same readers), same genre, comparable Lexile and grade band, and publication decade — computed from cited public curriculum data, not editorial opinion or AI-generated summaries.

Book data last updated 2026-09-05. Matches are computed from each book’s cited attributes — see the methodology.

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