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Books like Shuggie Bain
A devastatingly tender portrait of a boy's fierce, unrequited love for his deeply flawed mother amidst a grim, unforgiving world. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Shuggie Bain.
- gritty
- claustrophobic
- melancholic
- fiercely loving
- 01
Young Mungo
Douglas Stuart
A devastatingly tender exploration of queer first love blooming in the cracks of a brutal, hyper-masculine world.
- 02
Hamnet
Maggie O'Farrell
A lush, devastating portrait of a marriage and the unimaginable grief that birthed a masterpiece.
- 03
Milkman
Anna Burns
A fiercely energetic and darkly funny exploration of what happens when simply trying to remain invisible makes you a target.
- 04
Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver
A fiercely voiced, heart-wrenching epic of survival that immerses you in the beauty and devastation of modern Appalachia.
- 05
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Gail Honeyman
A prickly, deadpan exploration of profound loneliness that slowly thaws into a deeply moving story of unexpected friendship.
- 06
The Dutch House
Ann Patchett
A sweeping, melancholic meditation on the places we can never return to and the siblings who anchor us when we are cast out.
- 07
The Death of Vivek Oji
Akwaeke Emezi
A tender, devastating portrait of a fiercely beautiful spirit blooming in secret, framed by the profound grief of those left behind.
- 08
All adults here
Emma Straub
A warm, wry exploration of the messy reality that no one ever really figures out how to be a grown-up.
- 09
Burnt Sugar
Avni Doshi
A tense, literary exploration of the fraught and shifting boundaries between mothers, daughters, and the burdens of care.
- 10
Commonwealth
Ann Patchett
A sprawling, bittersweet portrait of two families forever tangled by a single stolen kiss.
- 11
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Ocean Vuong
A devastatingly beautiful, poetic excavation of the tender and violent intersections of love, trauma, and queer identity.
- 12
A Little Life
Hanya Yanagihara
An emotionally annihilating, deeply intimate epic about the enduring scars of trauma and the fierce, sometimes helpless, power of found family.
