Dark but Full of Diamonds is the only one of Katie Letcher Lyle's novels to be told from the perspective of a young man. In theme it is similar to several other novels by different authors. Katherine Paterson's The Great Gilly Hopkins (1978) is about a girl who fantasizes about her ideal parent, her mother, who gave her up for foster care long ago. Like Scott, Gilly is in for a tremendous disillusionment, though she seeks a somewhat different kind of love.

Even more than Scott, Gilly is tough and puts on a mean exterior. Like him, she is very witty and observant. She finds love in a place she never expected to find it, but she also experiences a shattering disappointment that resembles Scott's painful realization that Hilah does not love him as he wants to be loved.

Another novel with a similar theme is Queenie...