Today I learnt that there’s this term called Bildungsroman . I tripped upon it while I was pondering the commonalities between Harry Potter and Naruto , about how both of them were underdogs, cursed at birth – one with a horcrux, and the other with a curse-mark, grew up effectively with no one to love them till they were of a certain age but are both intended for great things and grow into their respective savior roles. The genre itself doesn’t require the main character to be a “hero”, but the stories do intend to show the psychological and moral growth of said character.

Now that I know a whole bunch of books fall in this category, and because I know I like this genre, I have a lot of potential reads to pick from this year.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3248.Best_Bildungsroman_book

I’m sure there would have been some unintentional overlap in this year’s picks anyway. But now I know.