Coming-of-Age, War Drama (sort of)
Generally, any book dealing with a bunch of teenagers is going to be a coming-of-age story. More directly, A Separate Peace deals with much of the angst that goes with, well, being sixteen. All those identity crises, all that jealousy and hero-worship – it's classic young people stuff. As far as War Drama goes, this isn't exactly a classic war drama; there are no actual war scenes in this novel. But A Separate Peace does depend on the conflicts and emotions of war, and this drama carries the story to its conclusion.