Similar novels include The Catcher in the Rye (mentioned earlier), S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders (1967), John Irving's The Cider House Rules (1985), Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn (1884), Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage (1895), Henry James's What Maisie Knew (1897), and other such novels that present impressionable young characters facing adult situations and often being horrified and deeply changed by what they see. Especially relevant comparisons can be made between Back Roads and The Catcher in the Rye because both protagonists are presented very effectively via the first-person point of view and tell their stories in extended flashbacks, both are often sarcastic regarding adults, both have a strong emotional bond with a younger sister, both are in psychiatric care at novel's end, and both go through a process of maturation.

However, there are important differences: Harley is lower middle class at best, Hoiden is upper middle class; Harley has...