Where to Start with S.E. Hinton: A Reading Guide
Where to start with S.E. Hinton — whether to begin with The Outsiders, That Was Then This Is Now, or Rumble Fish. A complete reading guide to the YA pioneer.
S.E. Hinton (born 1948) is the American young adult novelist who wrote The Outsiders at sixteen and published it at seventeen, creating what is widely considered the first modern young adult novel — a book that took seriously the inner lives of working-class teenage boys, wrote about gang violence and class division without condescension, and pioneered the conventions of YA realistic fiction that now define the genre. Susan Eloise Hinton published under her initials to avoid the assumption that a girl could not authentically write about boys; the strategy worked, and the book became one of the best-selling YA novels ever published. She followed it with That Was Then, This Is Now (1971), Rumble Fish (1975), and Tex (1979), all set in the same fictional Tulsa and all exploring the specific experience of adolescent boys in a world that offers them limited options.
Where to Start: The Outsiders (1967)
The essential Hinton — and the novel that invented modern young adult realistic fiction. Ponyboy Curtis is fourteen years old, a Greaser (the wrong side of the tracks in 1960s Tulsa), and the narrator of the most important YA debut of the twentieth century.
The Greasers and the Socs (Socials) fight for territory and pride. Ponyboy knows his friends are capable of violence; he also knows they read poetry and watch sunsets and feel things with extraordinary intensity. When a late-night fight ends in a killing, Ponyboy and his best friend Johnny go on the run, and the novel traces what happens to them and to everyone they leave behind.
Hinton’s central achievement is the specificity of her characterisation: Johnny, the quietest and most vulnerable of the Greasers; Dally, the hardest and most self-destructive; Two-Bit, Cherry Valance, the Soc who is more complex than her classification. Each of them is fully imagined; each of them illustrates the novel’s argument that class determines what you’re allowed to be, and that everyone on both sides of the divide pays a price for the division.
Written by a sixteen-year-old and published in 1967, the novel was considered controversial for its frank depiction of gang life, drug use, and violence. It became one of the most widely taught books in American middle schools, and its influence on every subsequent wave of YA realistic fiction cannot be overstated.
That Was Then, This Is Now (2012 reissue)
Hinton’s most mature novel — Bryon and Mark’s friendship unravelling under the pressure of drugs and diverging choices. Darker and more morally complex than The Outsiders; her finest character study.
Rumble Fish (1975)
Short, atmospheric, and literary — Rusty-James in the shadow of the Motorcycle Boy. Hinton’s most experimental novel and the most cinematic (Francis Ford Coppola adapted it in black and white).
Tex (1979)
Hinton’s warmest novel — Tex and Mason navigating their father’s extended absence with different temperaments and different outcomes. Her most optimistic work.
Why The Outsiders Is the Ideal First Book
For a reader new to S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders is the ideal first book because it is her most famous and influential novel, a landmark that helped define young-adult fiction, and the fullest expression of her distinctive gifts, the authentic voice, the emotional power, and the unsentimental portrayal of teenage life. The Outsiders follows a group of working-class teenagers, the greasers, and their conflict with the wealthier socs, in a story of class, loyalty, violence, and belonging, written by Hinton when she was herself a teenager. As an entry point it is ideal, for it is her best-known work and a perfect example of her honest, emotionally resonant fiction. It welcomes the newcomer with its compelling characters, its authentic voice, and its emotional force, drawing the reader into a novel that has spoken to generations of young readers. It is her defining work and the one that best represents her gifts, so the new reader encounters Hinton at her most characteristic. For the newcomer, then, The Outsiders is the natural and ideal starting point.
What to Expect as a New Reader
As a new reader, you can expect The Outsiders to be an authentic, emotionally powerful, and unsentimental novel of teenage life. You can expect an authentic voice, for Hinton, who wrote the novel as a teenager, captures the speech, feelings, and world of young people with striking honesty. You can expect emotional power, for the story of friendship, loyalty, loss, and belonging is genuinely moving. You can expect themes of class and conflict, for the novel centers on the divide between the working-class greasers and the wealthier socs. You can expect an unsentimental portrayal of violence, hardship, and the realities of its characters’ lives. You can expect a focus on belonging, identity, and the bonds between its young characters. You can expect a short, accessible, and resonant novel that helped define young-adult fiction. Expect, in short, an authentic, emotionally powerful, and unsentimental novel of teenage life, a defining introduction to Hinton’s gifts.
Going Deeper After Your First Book
Once The Outsiders has introduced you to Hinton’s gifts, the reader who wishes to go deeper can explore her other novels, which continue her authentic voice, her emotional power, and her honest portrayal of teenage life, often set in the same kind of working-class world. Her other young-adult novels follow troubled, vivid young characters through stories of friendship, family, growing up, and hard choices, marked by the same unsentimental honesty that distinguishes her most famous book. Reading these after The Outsiders deepens your appreciation of Hinton’s distinctive gifts, the authentic voice, the emotional power, and the unsentimental portrayal of teenage life. Her characteristic strengths run through her work, and the reader moved by The Outsiders will find them across her novels. Building your reading journey through Hinton is a matter of following her honest fiction from The Outsiders into her other young-adult novels. The reader who begins here and continues will find one of the founding and most influential voices in young-adult literature.
Reading S.E. Hinton
Begin with The Outsiders — it is her essential novel and the most historically significant. Read That Was Then, This Is Now for her most mature character study; Rumble Fish for her most atmospheric work. All her novels can be read in any order.
For the full S.E. Hinton bibliography, reviews, and biography, visit the S.E. Hinton author page on Editors Reads.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where should I start with S.E. Hinton?
The Outsiders (1967) is the essential starting point — Hinton's debut novel written when she was sixteen years old, narrated by Ponyboy Curtis, a Greaser on the wrong side of the class divide in 1960s Tulsa. The novel was the first major young adult novel to take seriously the inner lives of working-class teenage boys, and it invented many of the conventions of modern YA fiction. It is also simply a very good novel about loyalty, class, and what it costs to remain human under violence.
What is The Outsiders about?
The Outsiders is narrated by Ponyboy Curtis, a sensitive, literary Greaser — a member of the working-class gang that fights for territory and pride against the Socs (short for Socials), the wealthy kids from the other side of town. When a confrontation ends in violence, Ponyboy and his friend Johnny must flee, and the novel traces what happens to them and to everyone connected to them. The central argument — that the divisions between the haves and the have-nots cost everyone something essential — is made through specific, vivid characters rather than polemic.
What is That Was Then, This Is Now about?
That Was Then, This Is Now (1971) is Hinton's second novel — following Bryon and Mark, best friends since childhood who gradually find themselves on diverging paths as drugs enter their world. Darker in tone than The Outsiders, more focused on the specific destruction that addiction brings to a community, and with a more morally ambiguous ending. Often considered Hinton's most mature novel.
What is Rumble Fish about?
Rumble Fish (1975) is Hinton's shortest and most atmospheric novel — narrated by Rusty-James, a teenager living in the shadow of his charismatic, disturbed older brother the Motorcycle Boy. More literary and more experimental in structure than her other novels; the Motorcycle Boy is one of the most compelling characters in YA fiction.
