Books like 'The Rules of Survival'

Readers who enjoyed The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  action / adventure  psychological  realistic  survival  coming-of-age  family  drama  suspense  high-school 

  • 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...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  crime  drama  family  realistic  sad  survival  suspense
  • 내 토끼가 또 사라졌어! by Mo Willems

    내 토끼가 또 사라졌어! by Mo Willems

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Korean edition of the last story of Knuffle Bunny series, KNUFFLE BUNNY FREE: An Unexpected Diversion by Mo Willems, the author of a three-time Caldecott Honor winner (for Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny, and Knuffle Bunny Too)...
  • Bad Blood by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

    Bad Blood by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    When Cassie Hobbes joined the FBI's Naturals program, she had one goal: uncover the truth about her mother's murder. But now, everything Cassie thought she knew about what happened that night has been called into question. Her mother is alive, and the people holding her captive are more powerful—and dangerous—than anything the Naturals have faced so far...
    Categorized as:
    crime  dark  drama  family  high-school  realistic  survival  suspense
  • 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...
  • Jabari salta by Gaia Cornwall

    Jabari salta by Gaia Cornwall

    Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Jabari is definitely ready to jump off the diving board. He's finished his swimming lessons and passed his swim test, and he's a great jumper, so he's not scared at all. "Looks easy," says Jabari, watching the other kids take their turns. But when his dad squeezes his hand, Jabari squeezes back...
  • After the Fire by Will Hill

    After the Fire by Will Hill

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    The things I've seen are burned into me, like scars that refuse to fade.Before, she lived inside the fence. Before, she was never allowed to leave the property, never allowed to talk to Outsiders, never allowed to speak her mind. Because Father John controlled everything—and Father John liked rules. Disobeying Father John came with terrible consequences...
  • Brainwalker by Robyn Mundell, Stephan Lacast

    Brainwalker by Robyn Mundell, Stephan Lacast

    Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars
    · 35 ratings
    One teen’s incredible journey may just blow his father’s mind…Fourteen-year-old Bernard thinks outside the box. The only problem is that neither his school nor his ultra-rational physicist father appreciate his unique ideas. When he reacts to a stressful situation at school by mooning the class, his suspension sends him straight to his father’s workplace...
  • 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  crime  dark  drama  family  high-school  realistic  sad
  • The Shadow Box by Luanne Rice

    The Shadow Box by Luanne Rice

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    An Amazon Charts bestseller.The Amazon Charts bestselling author of Last Day delivers a haunting thriller about how far one wife is willing to go to expose the truth—and the lengths someone will go to stop her.After artist Claire Beaudry Chase is attacked and left for dead in her home on the Connecticut coast, she doesn’t know who she can trust...
    Categorized as:
    crime  dark  domestic-drama  drama  family  survival  suspense  abuse
  • Heroine by Mindy McGinnis, Brittany Pressley

    Heroine by Mindy McGinnis, Brittany Pressley

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    A captivating and powerful exploration of the opioid crisis—the deadliest drug epidemic in American history—through the eyes of a college-bound softball star. Edgar Award-winning author Mindy McGinnis delivers a visceral and necessary novel about addiction, family, friendship, and hope...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  crime  dark  drama  family  high-school  realistic  sad
  • A Summer of Good-Byes  (Blue Triangle Press Book 2) by Fred Misurella

    A Summer of Good-Byes (Blue Triangle Press Book 2) by Fred Misurella

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    PASSION IN PROVENCE: Ben and Lee Alto follow Van Gogh’s 19th century path to Provence, hoping to find inspiration for their own lives and give their son, Misha, some insight into a world completely different from their own. They find art, of course, and a world of beautiful landscapes, warm temperatures, and, yes, wonderful food...
    Categorized as:
    crime  dark  drama  family  suspense  teens  action-adventure  book
  • The Lost Man by Jane Harper

    The Lost Man by Jane Harper

    Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars
    · 37 ratings
    Two brothers meet in the remote Australian outback when the third brother is found dead, in this stunning new standalone novel from New York Times bestseller Jane HarperTwo brothers meet at the remote fence line separating their cattle ranches in the lonely outback. In an isolated belt of Western Australia, they are each other’s nearest neighbor, their homes four hours’ drive apart...
  • Hide by Lisa Gardner

    Hide by Lisa Gardner

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    You have good reason to be afraid. . . . It was a case that haunts Bobby Dodge to this day—the case that nearly killed him and changed his life forever. Now, in an underground chamber on the grounds of an abandoned Massachusetts mental hospital, the gruesome discovery of six mummified corpses resurrects his worst nightmare: the return of a killer he thought dead and buried...
  • The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith

    The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    In the tradition of Speak, this extraordinary debut novel shares the unforgettable story of a young woman as she struggles to find strength in the aftermath of an assault.Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn’t change who she was. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes.What was once simple, is now complex...
  • The Truth of the Matter by Andrew Klavan

    The Truth of the Matter by Andrew Klavan

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    "Never give in." Ever since he woke up in a terrorist torture chamber--with a year of his life erased from his mind--Charlie West has been on the run. He has one desperate hope of getting his life back: track down the mysterious agent named Waterman. But in fact, reaching Waterman--and recovering the secrets lost in his own memory--will only increase his danger...
  • No, David! by David Shannon

    No, David! by David Shannon

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 33 ratings
    When author and artist David Shannon was five years old, he wrote a semi-autobiographical story of a little kid who broke all his mother's rules. He chewed with his mouth open, jumped on the furniture, and he broke his mother's vase...
  • Hush Little Baby by Suzanne Redfearn

    Hush Little Baby by Suzanne Redfearn

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    If I stay, he will kill me. If I leave, he'll destroy Addie and Drew.Jillian Kane appears to have it all - a successful career, a gorgeous home, a loving husband, and two wonderful children. The reality behind closed doors is something else entirely...
  • These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

    These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    No electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world. For eight years, Cooper and his young daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. And that's exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he's got a lot to hide. Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin’s shelves and the beautiful but brutal code of life in the wilderness...
  • The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean

    The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    A woman being held captive is willing to risk everything to save herself, her unborn child, and her captor’s latest victim in this claustrophobic thriller in the tradition of Misery and Room. On an isolated farm in the United Kingdom, a woman is trapped by the monster who kidnapped her seven years ago...
    Categorized as:
    crime  suspense  dark  drama  survival  fiction  mystery  horror
  • Vanished by Kendra Elliot

    Vanished by Kendra Elliot

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    From Wall Street Journal bestselling author Kendra Elliot.When an eleven-year-old is abducted on her way to school, the FBI doesn’t waste a moment, sending agents to scour the area and embedding Special Agent Ava McLane with the distraught family...
    Categorized as:
    crime  dark  drama  family  sad  suspense  action-adventure  adult
  • Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein

    Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    We don’t pick and choose what to be afraid of. Our fears pick us.Tash Carmody has been traumatised since childhood, when she witnessed her gruesome imaginary friend Sparrow lure young Mallory Fisher away from a carnival. At the time nobody believed Tash, and she has since come to accept that Sparrow wasn’t real. Now fifteen and mute, Mallory’s never spoken about the week she went missing...
  • When Smiles Fade by Paige Dearth

    When Smiles Fade by Paige Dearth

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Alternate cover edition.ASIN: B00B8XPVL6Young Emma Murphy kills people, but only if they deserve to die.Emma's father's coldblooded beatings and the ultimate abuse to which he subjects her, lays the foundation of the person she becomes. As she matures into a resourceful teenager, she is unwilling and unable to stifle her desire for revenge...
    Categorized as:
    crime  dark  drama  family  survival  suspense  abuse  action-adventure
  • The Long Way Home by Andrew Klavan

    The Long Way Home by Andrew Klavan

    Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    Sometimes you have to go home to find out who you really are.Charlie West went to bed one night an ordinary high-school student. He woke up a hunted man. Terrorists are trying to kill him. The police want to arrest him for the stabbing death of his best friend. He doesn t know whose side he s on or who he can trust...
  • Scars by Cheryl Rainfield

    Scars by Cheryl Rainfield

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Kendra, fifteen, hasn't felt safe since she began to recall devastating memories of childhood sexual abuse, especially because she still can't remember the most important detail-- her abuser's identity. Frightened, Kendra believes someone is always watching and following her, leaving menacing messages only she understands...
  • Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

    Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

    Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars
    · 42 ratings
    One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles...
  • Blood of My Blood by Barry Lyga

    Blood of My Blood by Barry Lyga

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 21 ratings
    Jazz Dent has never been closer to catching his father.Jazz has been shot and left to die in New York. His girlfriend, Connie, is in the clutches of Jazz's monstrous father, Billy--the world's most notorious serial killer. And his best friend, Howie, is bleeding to death on the floor of Jazz's new home...
  • Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

    Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

    Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    An Alternate Cover Edition for this ASIN can be found here.A captivating novel about mental illness that lingers long beyond the last page, Challenger Deep is a heartfelt tour de force by New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman.Caden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench...
  • Game by Barry Lyga

    Game by Barry Lyga

    Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    Billy grinned. “Oh, New York,” he whispered. “We’re gonna have so much fun.”I Hunt Killers introduced the world to Jazz, the son of history’s most infamous serial killer, Billy Dent.In an effort to prove murder didn’t run in the family, Jazz teamed with the police in the small town of Lobo’s Nod to solve a deadly case...
  • All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

    All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 49 ratings
    The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.Soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning! Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him...
  • Savage Love: A Dark Romance by Jane Henry

    Savage Love: A Dark Romance by Jane Henry

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    USA Today bestselling author Jane Henry concludes the Savage Island duet with a fast-paced, high-stakes novel of survival, suspense, and heart-breaking passion. The island took everything from me. It won't take her. They created a monster. A savage. They're about to see exactly what that means. Because Harper Lake is mine...
  • Devils Within by S.F. Henson

    Devils Within by S.F. Henson

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Killing isn’t supposed to be easy. But it is. It’s the after that’s hard to deal with.Nate was eight the first time he stabbed someone; he was eleven when he earned his red laces—a prize for spilling blood for “the cause...
  • Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen

    Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    It's a cold, hard, cruel fact that my mother loved heroin more than she loved me. Holly is in her fifth foster home in two years and she's had enough. She's run away before and always been caught quickly. But she's older and wiser now--she's twelve--and this time she gets away clean. Through tough and tender and angry and funny journal entries, Holly spills out her story...
  • This Is Our Story by Ashley Elston

    This Is Our Story by Ashley Elston

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    Five went in. Four came out.No one knows what happened that morning at River Point. Five boys went hunting. Four came back. The boys won’t say who fired the shot that killed their friend; the evidence shows it could have been any one of them...
  • If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

    If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    There are some things you can’t leave behind… A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival...
    Categorized as:
    coming-of-age  crime  dark  drama  family  high-school  realistic  sad
  • 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...
    Categorized as:
    children  coming-of-age  crime  dark  drama  family  realistic  sad
  • The Rise by Shari King, Shari Low

    The Rise by Shari King, Shari Low

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    When we bury our secrets, they always come back to haunt us...Their rise was meteoric.Only a few years before, they had been three friends from Glasgow, just trying to survive tough lives of danger and dysfunction.But on one Hollywood evening in 1993, they were on the world’s biggest stage, accepting their Oscar in front of the watching world.That night was the beginning of their careers...
  • Shock Point by April Henry

    Shock Point by April Henry

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Cassie discovers that her stepfather, Rick, a teen psychiatrist, has been illegally prescribing a new behavioral drug to his patients— and three teens have died. Before she can report him, Rick commits Cassie to Peaceful Cove, a boot camp for troubled teens in Mexico. Cassie knows she has to get out now, before more teens die...
  • OCDaniel by Wesley King, Roman De Campo

    OCDaniel by Wesley King, Roman De Campo

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    From the author of Incredible Space Raiders from Space! comes a brand-new coming-of-age story about a boy whose life revolves around hiding his obsessive compulsive disorder—until he gets a mysterious note that changes everything.Daniel is the back-up punter for the Erie Hills Elephants. Which really means he’s the water boy...
  • The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry

    The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    “Take her out back and finish her off.”She doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know where she is, or why. All she knows when she comes to in a ransacked cabin is that there are two men arguing over whether or not to kill her.And that she must run.In her riveting style, April Henry crafts a nail-biting thriller involving murder, identity theft, and biological warfare...
    Categorized as:
    crime  dark  drama  family  realistic  survival  suspense  teens
  • Dear Child: A Novel by Romy Hausmann

    Dear Child: A Novel by Romy Hausmann

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    A woman held captive finally escapes—but can she ever really get away?Gone Girl meets Room in this page-turning, #1 internationally bestselling thriller from one of Germany’s hottest new talentsA windowless shack in the woods. A dash to safety. But when a woman finally escapes her captor, the end of the story is only the beginning of her nightmare.She says her name is Lena...
    Categorized as:
    crime  dark  drama  family  survival  suspense  abuse  action-adventure
  • 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 Stillwater Girls by Minka Kent

    The Stillwater Girls by Minka Kent

    Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars
    · 29 ratings
    Two sisters raised in fear are about to find out why in a chilling novel of psychological suspense from the author of The Thinnest Air.Ignorant of civilization and cautioned against its evils, nineteen-year-old Wren and her two sisters, Sage and Evie, were raised in off-the-grid isolation in a primitive cabin in upstate New York...
  • There's A Boy In The Girl's Bathroom by Louis Sachar

    There's A Boy In The Girl's Bathroom by Louis Sachar

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    With the new school counselor's help, Bradley begins to see himself as less of a monster and more of an individual capable of believing in himself...
  • Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King

    Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    Lucky Linderman didn't ask for his life. He didn't ask his grandfather not to come home from the Vietnam War. He didn't ask for a father who never got over it. He didn't ask for a mother who keeps pretending their dysfunctional family is fine. And he didn't ask to be the target of Nader McMillan's relentless bullying, which has finally gone too far...
  • The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle

    The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    A young widow raising two boys, Sarah Laden is struggling to keep her family together. But when a shocking revelation rips apart the family of her closest friend, Sarah finds herself welcoming yet another troubled young boy into her already tumultuous life.Jordan, a quiet, reclusive elementary school classmate of Sarah's son Danny, has survived a terrible ordeal...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  realistic  sad  survival  suspense  abuse
  • 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...
  • Underwater by Marisa Reichardt

    Underwater by Marisa Reichardt

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    In order to move on after a traumatic experience, Morgan must learn to forgive - first someone who did something that might be unforgivable, and then herself.But Morgan can't move on. She can't even move beyond the front door of the apartment she shares with her mother and little brother. Morgan feels like she's underwater, unable to surface. Unable to see her friends. Unable to go to school...
  • The Lucky Ones by Liz Lawson

    The Lucky Ones by Liz Lawson

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    For fans of Thirteen Reasons Why, This Is How It Ends, and All the Bright Places, comes a new novel about life after. How do you put yourself back together when it seems like you've lost it all?May is a survivor. But she doesn't feel like one. She feels angry. And lost. And alone...
    Categorized as:
    bullying  crime  dark  drama  family  high-school  realistic  sad
  • Rape Girl by Alina Klein

    Rape Girl by Alina Klein

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Valerie always wanted to be the smart girl. The pretty girl. The popular girl.But not the rape girl.That’s who she is now. Rape Girl. Because everyone seems to think they know the truth about what happened with Adam that day, and they don’t think Valerie’s telling it.Before, she had a best friend, a crush, and a close-knit family...
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