Books like 'Where the Moon Isn't'

Readers who enjoyed Where the Moon Isn't by Nathan Filer also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  psychological  mystery  literary-fiction  drama  family  realistic  grief  coming-of-age  unreliable-narrator 

  • The Light Through the Leaves by Glendy Vanderah

    The Light Through the Leaves by Glendy Vanderah

    Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    One unbearable mistake at the edge of the forest.In a moment of crisis, Ellis Abbey leaves her daughter, Viola, unattended—for just a few minutes. But when she returns, Viola is gone. A breaking point in an already fractured marriage, Viola’s abduction causes Ellis to disappear as well—into grief, guilt, and addiction...
  • 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...
  • 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...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  dark  drama  family  grief  male-mc  realistic  sad
  • 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...
  • You'd Be Home Now by Kathleen Glasgow

    You'd Be Home Now by Kathleen Glasgow

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    From the New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces comes a breathtaking story about a town, its tragedies, and the quiet beauty of everyday life.For all of Emory's life she's been told who she is. In town she's the rich one--the great-great-granddaughter of the mill's founder. At school she's hot Maddie Ward's younger sister...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  dark  drama  family  grief  medical  realistic  sad
  • The Boy Under the Table by Nicole Trope

    The Boy Under the Table by Nicole Trope

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Tina is a young woman hiding from her grief on the streets of the Cross. On a cold night in the middle of winter she breaks all her own rules when she agrees to go home with a customer.What she finds in his house will change her life forever.Across the country Sarah and Doug are trapped in limbo, struggling to accept the loss that now governs their lives...
    Categorized as:
    dark  family  literary-fiction  abuse  adult  book  contemporary  crime
  • A List of Cages by Robin Roe

    A List of Cages by Robin Roe

    Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    When Adam Blake lands the best elective ever in his senior year, serving as an aide to the school psychologist, he thinks he’s got it made. Sure, it means a lot of sitting around, which isn’t easy for a guy with ADHD, but he can’t complain, since he gets to spend the period texting all his friends...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  dark  drama  family  grief  male-mc  realistic  sad
  • 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:
    coming-of-age  dark  drama  family  male-mc  medical  sad  adult
  • Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah

    Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 39 ratings
    Dr. Julia Cates was one of the country's preeminent child psychiatrists until a shocking tragedy ruined her career. Retreating to her small western Washington hometown, Julia meets an extraordinary six-year-old girl who has inexplicably emerged from the deep woods nearby—a child locked in a world of unimaginable fear and isolation...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  literary-fiction  medical  realistic  sad  abuse  adult
  • Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

    Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 43 ratings
    In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five....In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge...
  • The Day She Came Back by Amanda Prowse

    The Day She Came Back by Amanda Prowse

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    When her loving, free-spirited grandmother Primrose passes away, Victoria is bereft, yet resilient—she has survived tragedy before. But even her strength is tested when a mysterious woman attends Prim’s funeral and claims to be the mother Victoria thought was dead...
  • 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...
  • 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...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  dark  drama  family  grief  male-mc  realistic  sad
  • The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain

    The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 31 ratings
    In 1977, pregnant Genevieve Russell disappeared. Twenty years later, her remains are discovered and Timothy Gleason is charged with murder. But there is no sign of the unborn child. CeeCee Wilkes knows how Genevieve Russell died, because she was there. And she also knows what happened to the missing infant, because two decades ago she made the devastating choice to raise the baby as her own...
  • Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry

    Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    We forgive murderers, not pedophiles. Not since Lionel Shriver brought us We Need to Talk About Kevin has a writer delved into the complexities of a disturbed mother/son relationship. Until now. Meet Noah—an A-honor roll student, award-winning swimmer, and small-town star destined for greatness...
    Categorized as:
    dark  drama  family  medical  sad  abuse  adult  audiobook
  • Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

    Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate? Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed. Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die...
  • 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:
    coming-of-age  dark  family  male-mc  realistic  sad  abuse  angst
  • I Liked My Life by Abby Fabiaschi, Susan Bennett

    I Liked My Life by Abby Fabiaschi, Susan Bennett

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    9 hours, 52 minutesMaddy is a devoted stay-at-home wife and mother, host of excellent parties, giver of thoughtful gifts, and bestower of a searingly perceptive piece of advice or two. She is the cornerstone of her family, a true matriarch...until she commits suicide, leaving her husband Brady and teenage daughter Eve heartbroken and reeling, wondering what happened...
  • The Passing Storm by Christine Nolfi

    The Passing Storm by Christine Nolfi

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    A gripping, openhearted novel about family, reconciliation, and bringing closure to the secrets of the past.Early into the tempestuous decade of her thirties, Rae Langdon struggles to work through a grief she never anticipated. With her father, Connor, she tends to their Ohio farm, a forty-acre spread that itself has enjoyed better days...
  • My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

    My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 84 ratings
    New York Times best-selling author Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into the hearts and minds of real people. Now she tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness. Anna is not sick, but she might as well be...
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

    We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 40 ratings
    The gripping international bestseller about motherhood gone awry.Eva never really wanted to be a mother - and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday...
  • The Art of Hiding by Amanda Prowse

    The Art of Hiding by Amanda Prowse

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    What would you do if you learned that the life you lived was a lie? Nina McCarrick lives the perfect life, until her husband, Finn, is killed in a car accident and everything Nina thought she could rely on unravels.Alone, bereft and faced with a mountain of debt, Nina quickly loses her life of luxury and she begins to question whether she ever really knew the man she married...
    Categorized as:
    drama  family  literary-fiction  realistic  sad  adult  audiobook  book
  • 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...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  dark  drama  family  grief  realistic  sad  audiobook
  • Room by Emma Donoghue

    Room by Emma Donoghue

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 85 ratings
    To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world....Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience—and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play...
  • 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...
  • Freeze Frame by Heidi Ayarbe

    Freeze Frame by Heidi Ayarbe

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    No matter how many times Kyle rewrites the scene, he can't get it right. He tries it in the style of Hitchcock, Tarantino, Eastwood, all of his favorite directors—but regardless of the style, he can't remember what happened that day in the shed. The day Jason died...
  • Learning Not to Drown by Anna Shinoda

    Learning Not to Drown by Anna Shinoda

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Family secrets cut to the bone in this mesmerizing debut novel about a teen whose drug-addicted brother is the prodigal son one time too many.There is a pecking order to every family. Seventeen-year old Clare is the overprotected baby; Peter is the typical, rebellious middle child; and Luke is the oldest, the can’t-do-wrong favorite. To their mother, they are a normal, happy family...
  • 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...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  drama  family  grief  male-mc  realistic  abuse  book
  • 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...
  • Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin

    Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    The Walker family is good at keeping secrets from the world. They are even better at keeping them from each other. Max Walker is a golden boy, with a secret that the world may not be ready for. This novel is a riveting tale of a family in crisis, a fascinating exploration of identity, and a coming-of-age story like no other...
  • After the End by Clare Mackintosh

    After the End by Clare Mackintosh

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    Max and Pip are the strongest couple you know. They're best friends, lovers—unshakable. But then their son gets sick and the doctors put the question of his survival into their hands. For the first time, Max and Pip can't agree. They each want a different future for their son...
  • 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...
  • The Ones We Choose by Julie Clark

    The Ones We Choose by Julie Clark

    Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Lisa Genova meets 23andMe in this exploration of the genetic and emotional ties that bind, as debut author Julie Clark delivers a compelling read about a young boy desperate to find his place in this world, a mother coming to terms with her own past, and the healing power of forgiveness...
  • Defending Jacob by William Landay

    Defending Jacob by William Landay

    Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars
    · 44 ratings
    Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis - a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years...
  • Asking For It by Louise O'Neill

    Asking For It by Louise O'Neill

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    In a small town, where everyone knows everyone, Emma O'Donovan is different. She is the special one - beautiful, popular, powerful. And she works hard to keep it that way.Until that night...Now, she's an embarrassment. Now, she is a slut. Now, she is nothing.And those pictures - those pictures that everyone has seen - mean she can never forget...
  • 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...
  • What Remains True by Janis Thomas

    What Remains True by Janis Thomas

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    In this mesmerizing drama, one life-altering event catapults a family into turmoil, revealing secrets that may leave them fractured forever . . . or bind them together tighter than ever before.From the outside, the Davenports look like any other family living a completely ordinary life—until that devastating day when five-year-old Jonah is killed, and the family is torn apart...
  • 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...
  • She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper

    She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Eleven-year-old Polly is smart far beyond her years. But she's a loner. Her mother tells her she has 'gunfighter eyes', like the father she's never met. In prison, about to be released, Nate runs afoul of the powerful leader of the Aryan Brotherhood. Marked for death on his release, Nate soon realizes that everyone he has ever loved is a target - including his daughter, Polly...
  • Right Behind You by Gail Giles

    Right Behind You by Gail Giles

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    When he was nine, Kip set another child on fire. Now, after years in a juvenile ward, he is ready for a fresh start. But the ghosts of his past soon demand justice, and he must reveal his painful secret...
  • Girl Underwater by Claire Kells

    Girl Underwater by Claire Kells

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    An adventurous debut novel that cross cuts between a competitive college swimmer’s harrowing days in the Rocky Mountains after a major airline disaster and her recovery supported by the two men who love her—only one of whom knows what really happened in the wilderness. Nineteen-year-old Avery Delacorte loves the water...
  • Scouting for the Reaper by Jacob M. Appel

    Scouting for the Reaper by Jacob M. Appel

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Each of the characters in Scouting for the Reaper faces an unanticipated challenge: transporting a truckload of penguins across the country, arranging a proper Jewish burial for the remains of Gregor Samsa, selling tombstones dressed as a Girl Scout. These stories explore the domestic and professional adventures of people in over their heads, while leavening their struggles with humor.Jacob M...
  • The Ninth Session by Deborah Serani

    The Ninth Session by Deborah Serani

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    An edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller that brings a unique mix of Psychotherapy, American Sign Language and Coda Culture. Just when you think you have it figured out, think again! Dr. Alicia Reese takes on a new patient. Lucas Ferro suffers with crippling anxiety, and as sessions progress, he begins to share the reasons why he's struggling...
  • The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain

    The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain

    Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    A beloved daughter. A devastating choice. And now there's no going back. Four years ago, nineteen-year-old Travis Brown made a choice: to raise his newborn daughter on his own. While most of his friends were out partying and meeting girls, Travis was at home, changing diapers and worrying about keeping food on the table. But he's never regretted his decision. Bella is the light of his life...
  • Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett

    Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett

    Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    This is a darkly comic novel about a young girl named Elvis trying to figure out her place in a world without her mother. Twelve-year-old Elvis Babbitt has a head for the facts: she knows science proves yellow is the happiest color, she knows a healthy male giraffe weighs about 3,000 pounds, and she knows that the naked mole rat is the longest living rodent...
  • The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter

    The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Cassie O’Malley has been trying to keep her head above water—literally and metaphorically—since birth. It’s been two and a half years since Cassie’s mother dumped her in a mental institution against her will, and now, at eighteen, Cassie is finally able to reclaim her life and enter the world on her own terms.But freedom is a poor match against a lifetime of psychological damage...
  • Loyalties by Delphine de Vigan

    Loyalties by Delphine de Vigan

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    From the bestselling French novelist. Adults are as lost as the children they should be protecting, in this compelling exploration of the destructive secrets and loyalties that are kept behind closed doors Thirteen-year-old Théo and his friend Mathis secretly drink on an almost daily basis...
  • Dark Horses by Susan Mihalic

    Dark Horses by Susan Mihalic

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    A darkly gripping debut novel about a teenage girl’s fierce struggle to reclaim her life from her abusive father.Fifteen-year-old equestrian prodigy Roan Montgomery has only ever known two worlds: inside the riding arena, and outside of it. Both, for as long as she can remember, have been ruled by her father, who demands strict obedience in all areas of her life...
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