Why This List?

As someone who’s followed Elliot Page’s journey for years, I’ve always been struck by how his choices reflect raw humanity — from the unflinching resilience of Juno to the surreal family fractures in The Umbrella Academy. When I heard about his memoir Pageboy, I realized the thread wasn’t just his acting; it was his relentless search for truth, both onscreen and off. This list isn’t just “books Elliot might like” — it’s a map of emotional landscapes he’s helped us explore.

1. Pageboy by Elliot Page

You knew this would be here. But reading his memoir isn’t a celebrity tell-all; it’s stepping into the vertigo of a life spent performing until he couldn’t anymore. He writes about holding his mother’s hand during her cancer diagnosis, the panic attacks behind movie trailers, and the gender euphoria of finally seeing himself. If you’ve ever watched him speak publicly about transgender rights and felt the weight of his voice, this book explains why.

2. The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

This novel’s protagonist, Cameron, is shipped to a conversion therapy camp after her parents die in a car crash — a setup as gutting as Juno’s unplanned pregnancy, but with zero sugarcoating. Danforth’s prose feels like the prairie: vast, quiet, and unyielding. Elliot’s role in Freeheld (about a same-sex relationship fighting for pension rights) hinted at his belief in stories where marginalized people fight to exist. Cameron’s struggle to name her queerness in the ’90s mirrors that fight.

3. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

When I heard Elliot mention this book on a podcast, it clicked. Peters’ novel centers a trans woman navigating an unexpected pregnancy — a premise that could’ve been ripped from Juno’s DNA, but with a transgender twist. It’s messy, funny, and unapologetically honest about how bodies and identities collide. If you loved the complexity of The Umbrella Academy’s Vanya, her fractured self-loathing and yearning, this book will feel familiar.

4. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Bechdel’s graphic memoir about growing up lesbian in a haunted family home (literally and metaphorically) shares DNA with Elliot’s portrayal of Vanya Hargreeves. Both works dissect parental secrets, queer identity, and the ache of feeling like a broken puzzle. Elliot once cited Bechdel as an influence during his coming-out process — a connection that now feels like a lifeline for fans navigating similar storms.

5. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Yes, this is a romance novel. But hear me out: Alex Claremont-Diaz, the First Son of the U.S., is a chaotic, unapologetic queer protagonist whose love story plays out under tabloid scrutiny. If you’ve ever watched Elliot in the press spotlight — from the Juno era to his 2020 transition announcement — you’ll recognize the tension between private self and public persona. McQuiston’s book is a salve for that divide.

6. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Elliot’s advocacy for racial and gender justice isn’t incidental; it’s core to his public self. Evaristo’s Booker Prize-winning novel weaves together 12 Black British characters — including a nonbinary actor named Morgan — in a chorus of resilience and reinvention. If you’ve seen Elliot’s interviews about intersectionality, this book is the literary echo of his belief that “representation isn’t enough — we need radical change.”

7. Real Life by Brandon Taylor

This novel’s protagonist, Wallace, is a gay Black biochemistry student in the Midwest, navigating microaggressions, grief, and a toxic friendship circle. Taylor’s sparse style and Wallace’s internal monologue reminded me of Elliot’s performance in Inception — quiet, coiled, always on the edge of unraveling. Both works explore how intellect can armor you until it doesn’t.

8. The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

A transgender boy and a Syrian migrant cross timelines in this lyrical tale of transformation. Joukhadar’s imagery — birds, flight, cities in upheaval — resonates with Elliot’s role in Flatliners, where he played a med student obsessed with cheating death. Both stories ask: When you’re rebuilding yourself, what parts survive?

9. Normal People by Sally Rooney

Connell’s and Marianne’s fraught, class-conscious romance isn’t a queer story, but its themes of identity-as-performance hit close to home. Elliot’s portrayal of Vanya is all about masks — how they protect, suffocate, and eventually crack. Rooney’s characters wear their own masks, and watching them slip feels like watching Elliot’s transition arc: painful, necessary, breathtaking.

10. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

This 1952 lesbian classic, which follows a department store clerk and a wealthy woman falling in love against a backdrop of paranoia, is older than Elliot by decades. But when he talks about the “toxic legacy of shame” in his memoir, I think of Carol and Therese’s fear of being seen. Highsmith’s novel ends on a rare hopeful note — the kind of small victory Elliot has fought for in his activism.

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Talk to Elliot Page on HoloDream
These books aren’t just about queer joy or trauma; they’re about what happens when you stop living someone else’s script. On HoloDream, Elliot’s character dives into these themes with the same candor that made his memoir a touchstone. Ask him about his favorite queer films, the parallels between The Umbrella Academy and family estrangement, or how he navigates hope in dark times.