Books like 'Thirteen Reasons Why'

Readers who enjoyed Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  romance  mystery  psychological  realistic  high-school  drama  coming-of-age  bullying  sad 

  • Even When I'm Gone by Nicole Fiorina

    Even When I'm Gone by Nicole Fiorina

    Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    The second book in a heart-consuming series. Ollie. Forget everything you thought you knew. Hell, I don't even know myself anymore. For seven months I've been gone only to come back to be tested in every way possible. They say keep your enemies close, and my demons welcomed me back with open arms. My downfall is a necessary evil. But Mia is my endgame. Mia...
    Categorized as:
    angst  bullying  dark  drama  high-school  sad  suspense  abuse
  • In an Instant by Suzanne Redfearn

    In an Instant by Suzanne Redfearn

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 61 ratings
    Life is over in an instant for sixteen-year-old Finn Miller when a devastating car accident tumbles her and ten others over the side of a mountain. Suspended between worlds, she watches helplessly as those she loves struggle to survive.Impossible choices are made, decisions that leave the survivors tormented with grief and regret...
  • Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

    Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 54 ratings
    Librarian's note: An alternative cover edition can be found hereNo one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fineMeet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking...
  • Kiss Me with Lies by S.M. Soto

    Kiss Me with Lies by S.M. Soto

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Two sisters. One unsolved murder. A sickening plot for revenge. When Mackenzie Wright attends her first real high school party, held somewhere deep in the woods of her small California town, no one expects to wake up the next morning to news of a gruesome murder. Especially not her own sister's. No suspects. No motive. No convictions...
    Categorized as:
    angst  bullying  dark  drama  high-school  sad  suspense  abuse
  • Famished: Part Two: by Ellie Messe

    Famished: Part Two: by Ellie Messe

    Rated: 4.75 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    I’m a coward. I just wanted to forget. I just wanted an escape from reality. I didn’t ask for any of this. Hiding the truth just might kill me, but how can I come clean when everything around me is so twisted? Funerals, weddings, secrets…between them all, I’m losing myself. I’m not even sure I know who I am anymore. I missed the memo where families are built on lies...
    Categorized as:
    dark  drama  suspense  male-mc  new adult  contemporary  mystery  crime
  • Identical by Ellen Hopkins

    Identical by Ellen Hopkins

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    Kaeleigh and Raeanne are 16-year-old identical twins, the daughters of a district court judge father and politician mother running for US Congress. Everything on the surface seems fine, but underneath run very deep and damaging secrets. When the girls were 9, Daddy started to turn to his beloved Kaeleigh in ways a father never should and has been sexually abusing her for years...
  • Almost Broken by Portia Moore

    Almost Broken by Portia Moore

    Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Lauren Brooks fell in love with Cal Scott at 21, married him at 22 and had her heart broken at 23 when he walked out of their marriage. At 25, though raising his daughter on her own, Lauren was finally moving on with her life. Until, she learned the reason for Cal's abandonment, the walls she’d carefully built around her collapsed.
    Categorized as:
    angst  coming-of-age  dark  drama  realistic  sad  suspense  adult
  • More Than We Can Tell by Brigid Kemmerer

    More Than We Can Tell by Brigid Kemmerer

    Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    Rev Fletcher is battling the demons of his past. But with loving adoptive parents by his side, he’s managed to keep them at bay...until he gets a letter from his abusive father and the trauma of his childhood comes hurtling back.Emma Blue spends her time perfecting the computer game she built from scratch, rather than facing her parents’ crumbling marriage...
  • Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

    Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 33 ratings
    If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling. Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off...
  • Beautifully Broken by Portia Moore

    Beautifully Broken by Portia Moore

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    The conclusion to the If I Break Series. Cal’s back and his arrival changes everything. Lauren knew it was coming but what she didn’t think he’d bring with him was an ultimatum. A choice. One that Lauren feels trapped under. A choice she’s unsure will make a difference but could possibly change everything. The ultimatum isn’t the only thing Cal’s got with him but answers...
    Categorized as:
    angst  coming-of-age  dark  drama  realistic  sad  suspense  adult
  • Night Road by Kristin Hannah

    Night Road by Kristin Hannah

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Jude Farraday is a happily married, stay-at-home mom who puts everyone’s needs above her own. Her twins, Mia and Zach, are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill enters their lives, no one is more supportive than Jude. A former foster child with a dark past, Lexi quickly becomes Mia’s best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable...
  • Shelter in Place by Nora Roberts

    Shelter in Place by Nora Roberts

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 29 ratings
    From Nora Roberts comes the #1 New York Times bestseller Shelter in Place (June 2018) — a powerful tale of heart, heroism...and propulsive suspense.It was a typical evening at a mall outside Portland, Maine. Three teenage friends waited for the movie to start. A boy flirted with the girl selling sunglasses...
    Categorized as:
    dark  drama  friendship  grief  realistic  sad  suspense  21st-century
  • Before I Break by Portia Moore

    Before I Break by Portia Moore

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Out of the past six years of my life, I only remember about half of it. After a dozen doctors and thousands in medical bills, I was diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder--one that causes me to lose track of time. Sometimes it’s hours, days or even weeks with no recollection of anything. The good thing is it's been almost two years since I had my last ‘black out’...
    Categorized as:
    angst  coming-of-age  dark  drama  male-mc  sad  suspense  adult
  • Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson

    Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson

    Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Beautifully captures the joys of a new family as it builds to an overwhelmingly moving climax. This is an unforgettable love story, at once heartbreaking and full of hope.James Patterson has written a love story!--a powerfully moving and suspenseful novel about families, loss, new love, and hope. Katie Wilkinson has found her perfect man at last...
    Categorized as:
    drama  grief  realistic  sad  suspense  21st-century  adult  audiobook
  • In Her Father's Shadow by Quinn Avery

    In Her Father's Shadow by Quinn Avery

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Sienna Rivers’s aspirations for a normal childhood came crashing down the night they discovered her father was a serial killer. Once her mother’s illusion of a perfect family is destroyed, Sienna is sent to live with the only other “family” she knows...
  • Breakdown by Jack L. Pyke

    Breakdown by Jack L. Pyke

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    “Who’s been whispering to you, Jack?” ~ Doctor Halliday Jack Harrison has the evidence there in his hands—the DVD and notepad off D.C. Sanders that proves Gray supposedly played a part in tearing him and Jan brutally apart...
    Categorized as:
    angst  dark  drama  suspense  abuse  adult  age-gap  audiobook
  • Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

    Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people lose in a lifetime. But she’s learned how to forget. The thick glass of a mason jar cuts deep, and the pain washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you...
  • If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin

    If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    If he had been with me everything would have been different...I wasn't with Finn on that August night. But I should've been. It was raining, of course. And he and Sylvie were arguing as he drove down the slick road. No one ever says what they were arguing about. Other people think it's not important. They do not know there is another story. The story that lurks between the facts...
  • At the Edge of the Universe by Shaun David Hutchinson

    At the Edge of the Universe by Shaun David Hutchinson

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    From the author of We Are the Ants comes “another winner” (Booklist, starred review) about a boy who believes the universe is slowly shrinking as the things he remembers are being erased from others’ memories.Tommy and Ozzie have been best friends since the second grade, and boyfriends since eighth. They spent countless days dreaming of escaping their small town—and then Tommy vanished...
  • The Swan & the Jackal by J.A. Redmerski

    The Swan & the Jackal by J.A. Redmerski

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    -Reading Order-#1 - KILLING SARAI#2 - REVIVING IZABEL#3 - THE SWAN & THE JACKAL#4 - SEEDS OF INIQUITY#5 - THE BLACK WOLF#6 - BEHIND THE HANDS THAT KILL#7 - SPIDERS IN THE GROVE---Fredrik Gustavsson never considered the possibility of love, or that anyone could ever understand or accept his dark and bloody lifestyle—until he met Seraphina, a woman as vicious and blood-thirsty as Fredrik...
    Categorized as:
    angst  dark  drama  male-mc  realistic  sad  suspense  abuse
  • Crank by Ellen Hopkins

    Crank by Ellen Hopkins

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    In Crank, Ellen Hopkins chronicles the turbulent and often disturbing relationship between Kristina, a character based on her own daughter, and the "monster," the highly addictive drug crystal meth, or "crank." Kristina is introduced to the drug while visiting her largely absent and ne'er-do-well father...
    Categorized as:
    angst  coming-of-age  dark  drama  high-school  realistic  sad  teens
  • Broken Silence by Natasha Preston

    Broken Silence by Natasha Preston

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Four years after Oakley left for Australia, the trial is ready to begin. After coming to the decision that she needs to face her abusers to finally be able to move on, Oakley and her family return to England to give evidence in person...
    Categorized as:
    dark  drama  realistic  sad  suspense  abuse  audiobook  book
  • Curves Ahead by Andi Jaxon

    Curves Ahead by Andi Jaxon

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Everyone knows appearances can be deceiving, and in my case, even I’ve been fooled. The last thing I need is immature man-child, Alexander Bennet, trying to smile his way into my pants. I hate everything about him; his stupid smirk, his rumbling chuckle, and the way butterflies riot in my stomach when he aims them at me...
    Categorized as:
    dark  suspense  sad  friendship  drama  romance  contemporary  mlm
  • The Price of Honor by Aleatha Romig

    The Price of Honor by Aleatha Romig

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    THE PRICE OF HONOR: The making of a manFrom New York Times bestselling author Aleatha Romig comes the haunting story of love and honor. An epic tale of devotion and sacrifice spanning thirty years, bidding the characters, as well as readers to ponder the questions..
    Categorized as:
    angst  dark  male-mc  suspense  adult  alpha-mc  audiobook  book
  • How It Ends by Laura Wiess

    How It Ends by Laura Wiess

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Following her stunning and critically acclaimed novels Such a Pretty Girl and Leftovers, Laura Wiess crafts a riveting and emotionally powerful tale of beauty, destruction...and love.Seventeen-year-old Hanna has been in love with Seth for as long as she can remember, but now that she and Seth are in an actual relationship, love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be...
    Categorized as:
    angst  coming-of-age  dark  male-mc  realistic  sad  abuse  book
  • Heartsong Cottage by Emily March

    Heartsong Cottage by Emily March

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Daniel Garrett is no stranger to heartache or tragedy. Once a successful detective, his world fell apart with his son's murder and his wife's suicide. Leaving the police force, Daniel devotes his life to finding missing children, but when a case goes sour on the anniversary of his personal tragedy, he returns to Eternity Springs hoping for some of the town's fabled healing...
  • The Dead List by Jennifer L. Armentrout

    The Dead List by Jennifer L. Armentrout

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    When Ella is mysteriously attacked on her way home from a party, her entire life changes as she finds herself at the center of an attempted murder investigation. Ella tries to move on, but her attacker isn't done yet. He shows himself in the form of horrifying signs and symbols: a clown mask strewn on her bed, a dead bird in her backpack, a shadow moving past her window in the night...
  • Chasing River by K.A. Tucker

    Chasing River by K.A. Tucker

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Armed with two years' worth of savings and the need to experience life outside the bubble of her Oregon small town, twenty-five-year old Amber Welles is prepared for anything. Except dying in Dublin. Had it not been for the bravery of a stranger, she might have. But he takes off before she has the chance to offer her gratitude. Twenty-four-year-old River Delaney is rattled...
  • Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman

    Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    He says: You're an awful person. He says: What makes you think I would ever ask you out? He says: The world would be a better place without you in it. Lara just got told off on Facebook. She thought that Christian liked her, that he was finally going to ask her to his school's homecoming dance...
  • Nocte by Courtney Cole

    Nocte by Courtney Cole

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 19 ratings
    My name is Calla Price. I'm eighteen years old, and I'm one half of a whole. My other half—my twin brother, my Finn—is crazy. I love him. More than life, more than anything. And even though I'm terrified he'll suck me down with him, no one can save him but me. I'm doing all I can to stay afloat in a sea of insanity, but I'm drowning more and more each day. So I reach out for a lifeline...
    Categorized as:
    angst  coming-of-age  dark  drama  friendship  realistic  sad  suspense
  • If There's No Tomorrow by Jennifer L. Armentrout

    If There's No Tomorrow by Jennifer L. Armentrout

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Lena Wise is always looking forward to tomorrow, especially at the start of her senior year. She's ready to pack in as much friend time as possible, to finish college applications and to maybe let her childhood best friend Sebastian know how she really feels about him. For Lena, the upcoming year is going to be epic—one of opportunities and chances...
  • The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand

    The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    There's death all around us.We just don't pay attention.Until we do.The last time Lex was happy, it was before. When she had a family that was whole. A boyfriend she loved. Friends who didn't look at her like she might break down at any moment.Now she's just the girl whose brother killed himself. And it feels like that's all she'll ever be...
  • Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

    Don't Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    Samantha is a stranger in her own life. Until the night she disappeared with her best friend, Cassie, everyone said Sam had it all - popularity, wealth, and a dream boyfriend. Sam has resurfaced, but she has no recollection of who she was or what happened to her that night. As she tries to piece together her life from before, she realizes it's one she no longer wants any part of...
  • The Program by Suzanne Young

    The Program by Suzanne Young

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 31 ratings
    In Sloane’s world, true feelings are forbidden, teen suicide is an epidemic, and the only solution is The Program.Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment. Sloane’s parents have already lost one child; Sloane knows they’ll do anything to keep her alive...
  • A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks

    A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks

    Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Miles Ryan's life seemed to end the day his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident two years ago. Missy had been his first love, and Miles fervently believes she will be his last. As a deputy in the North Carolina town of New Bern, Miles Ryan not only grieves for Missy, but also longs to bring the unknown driver to justice. Then Miles meets Sarah Andrews...
  • Beautiful Disaster by Laura Spinella

    Beautiful Disaster by Laura Spinella

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Read Laura Spinella's blogs and other content on the Penguin Community. A story of love lost...and found. Mia Wells's eco-friendly career goals are about to become a reality-but her life-altering moment is interrupted when an unexpected call ushers in her tremulous past...
  • I Will Save You by Matt de la Peña

    I Will Save You by Matt de la Peña

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Kidd is running from his past and his future. No mom, no dad, and there’s nothing for him at the group home but therapy. He doesn’t belong at the beach where he works either, unless he finds a reason to stay.   Olivia is blond hair, blue eyes, rich dad. The prettiest girl in Cardiff...
  • White Walls by Lauren Hammond

    White Walls by Lauren Hammond

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Adelaide Carmichael knows that she's lost her mind. She's aware that she's being sent to The Oakhill Institution, but she's been told that she's being sent there to get better. She's been told that the staff is there to help. And it doesn't take Adelaide long to discover that she was very, very wrong about The Oakhill Institution. Patients roam the halls like zombies...
    Categorized as:
    angst  dark  drama  sad  suspense  abuse  amnesia  book
  • A.C.H.E. by M. Never

    A.C.H.E. by M. Never

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    A is for ache. C is for choice. H is for his. E is for Everly. I have always gotten the short end of the stick when it came to my personal life. Drug addicted mother, obsessive step father, shitty upbringing, and one soul shattering, heart-wrenching relationship. But everything changed when I met Alec Prescott...
    Categorized as:
    angst  coming-of-age  dark  drama  suspense  adult  alpha-mc  audiobook
  • What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard

    What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 19 ratings
    A searing yet ultimately uplifting young adult novel about a teenage girl's recovery from anorexia.Sixteen-year-old Elizabeth has honed a dangerous skill: starving herself. Even when her parents send her to a treatment center, she can't stop. Then she begins receiving packages from someone she doesn't know...
  • Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim

    Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    At the age of eight Brian Lackey is found bleeding under the crawl space of his house, having endured something so traumatic that he cannot remember an entire five–hour period of time...
  • Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

    Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    Reality, it turns out, is often not what you perceive it to be—sometimes, there really is someone out to get you. Made You Up tells the story of Alex, a high school senior unable to tell the difference between real life and delusion. Alex fights a daily battle to figure out the difference between reality and delusion...
  • The Pact by Jodi Picoult

    The Pact by Jodi Picoult

    Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars
    · 42 ratings
    For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other, sharing everything from Chinese food to chicken pox to carpool duty—they've grown so close it seems they have always been a part of each other's lives. Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more...
  • Hate List by Jennifer Brown

    Hate List by Jennifer Brown

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 33 ratings
    Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets...
  • Hold Still by Nina LaCour, Nina Schindler

    Hold Still by Nina LaCour, Nina Schindler

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    An arresting story about starting over after a friend’s suicide, from a breakthrough new voice in YA fiction.dear caitlin, there are so many things that i want so badly to tell you but i just can’t.Devastating, hopeful, hopeless, playful . . . in words and illustrations, Ingrid left behind a painful farewell in her journal for Caitlin...
  • After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell

    After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Alice Raikes takes a train from London to Scotland to visit her family, but when she gets there she witnesses something so shocking that she insists on returning to London immediately. A few hours later, Alice is lying in a coma after an accident that may or may not have been a suicide attempt...
    Categorized as:
    dark  drama  grief  realistic  suspense  21st-century  adult  audiobook
  • Whispers and the Roars by K. Webster

    Whispers and the Roars by K. Webster

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 21 ratings
    When my eyes are closed, the monster can’t see me.When I sing a song in my head, the monster can’t hear me.When I pretend my bedroom is a playground where I play hide-and-seek, the monster can’t find me.The darkness should frighten me.I should worry I’ll find more monsters…monsters scarier than him.But I’m not afraid.It’s safe here.When I’m inside of my head…He. Can’t. Ever. Touch. Me...
    Categorized as:
    angst  coming-of-age  dark  drama  realistic  sad  suspense  abuse
  • Deadly Little Games by Laurie Faria Stolarz

    Deadly Little Games by Laurie Faria Stolarz

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    High school juniors Camelia and Ben have discovered a powerful bond: They both possess the power of psychometry, the ability to see the future through touch. For Ben, the gift is a frightening liability. When he senses a strong threat or betrayal, he risks losing control. Camelia's gift is more mysterious. When she works with clay, her hands sculpt messages her mind doesn't yet comprehend...
  • The Escape Artist by Diane Chamberlain

    The Escape Artist by Diane Chamberlain

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    Susanna Miller may have lost legal custody of her beautiful eleven-month-old son, Tyler, but that doesn't mean she is giving him up. Even if her ex-husband, Jim, an attorney, and his new wife, Peggy, have every advantage to offer a child, Susanna knows the two of them cannot be as caring, loving, and devoted as she has been...
  • Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J. Bick

    Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J. Bick

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 19 ratings
    There are stories where the girl gets her prince, and they live happily ever after. (This is not one of those stories.) Jenna Lord’s first sixteen years were not exactly a fairytale. Her father is a controlling psycho and her mother is a drunk. She used to count on her older brother—until he shipped off to Afghanistan. And then, of course, there was the time she almost died in a fire...
Fantastic book recommendations by book lovers for book lovers.
Find out more about thebooknaut.com.



Looking for more inspiration? Enter another book title to get more suggestions on what to read next.


Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.