At first glance, Victor Vollmer the Third—the main dude in Vince Vawter's 2013 novel, Paperboy—has it all. He has two loving parents, a best friend with the excellent nickname of Rat, a killer throwing arm in baseball, and school's out for summer. Ah… bliss.

But not so fast. See, Victor has a problem. Specifically, he has a serious stutter. It makes him super self-conscious (we're talking puke-at-the-table-in-a-restaurant levels of self-consciousness), but since he's taking over Rat's paper route for a month, it's officially time to stare his stutter down and see what he's truly made of.

It's a classic coming of age tale in this respect—but Vawter doesn't stop there. He also provides readers with a slice of life from Memphis in the late 1950s. The world Paperboy is set in is quiet and suburban on the surface, but rife with segregation and racial tensions when you dig a little deeper. The book shows how Victor deals with these hard changing times as he grows up, as well as how he develops a clear voice and strong opinions for himself.

In other words, Paperboy offers up double slices of life: We both get to know Victor and his journey toward self-acceptance, as well as hang out in the South in a tumultuous time.

We all have the little quirks and issues that make us feel self-conscious and different from our peers, so it's always relevant to read about a character—like Victor in Paperboy—who is trying to be comfortable in his own skin while overcoming something that draws a lot of attention to him, in this case, his stuttering.

Victor thinks he'll never be known for anything but his stuttering when the story opens; he even throws up at a restaurant because it makes him so nervous and ashamed to mess up the words in his order. But over the course of the summer, he learns that stuttering doesn't define him. He's a lot of other things, too—a great baseball player, a good son, a hardworking paperboy, and a seeker of knowledge.

He also finds that other people are dealing with their own issues that set them apart, and sometimes they're more serious than his problem. Mam has to deal with mistreatment because of the color of her skin, TV Boy is deaf and cannot communicate with the people around him, and Mrs. Worthington is stuck in a loveless marriage and has a drinking problem. Seeing all of these complicated lives makes Victor realize that stuttering isn't that bad after all.

So for those of you who are feeling self-conscious and alone, know that what sets you apart doesn't have to define you. As Victor figures out in Paperboy, we are all different and dealing with our own demons—and that's okay. So long as we focus on growing and learning about the world around us, nothing will keep us down for too long.