Books like 'A Perfectly Messed-Up Story'
Readers who enjoyed A Perfectly Messed-Up Story by Patrick McDonnell also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
psychological comedy humor children postmodernism
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Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThe perennially popular tale of Alexander's worst day is a storybook that belongs on every child's bookshelf.Alexander knew it was going to be a terrible day when he woke up with gum in this hair.And it got worse...His best friend deserted him. There was no dessert in his lunch bag... -
![I Love My New Toy! by Mo Willems]()
I Love My New Toy! by Mo Willems
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsGerald is careful. Piggie is not.Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to.Gerald and Piggie are best friends.In I Love My New Toy!, Piggie can't wait to show Gerald her brand new toy... -
![The Good Egg by Jory John]()
The Good Egg by Jory John
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn this follow-up to Jory John and Pete Oswald’s popular picture book The Bad Seed, meet the next best thing: a very good egg, indeed!The good egg has been good for as long as he can remember. While the other eggs in his carton are kind of rotten, he always does the right, kind, and courteous thing... -
![Third Time's The Charm by Liz Talley]()
Third Time's The Charm by Liz Talley
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen you find someone who has no hope left, give the bracelet to her… Sunshine “Sunny” Voorhees David would rather be dead than back in Morning Glory, Mississippi. But after losing both her husband and a pregnancy, she comes home temporarily to the place she swore she’d never return... -
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![No, David! by David Shannon]()
No, David! by David Shannon
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsWhen 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... -
![All That Charm: by Liz Talley]()
All That Charm: by Liz Talley
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA dying friend’s gift delivers a chance to start over… With Morning Glory in her rearview mirror, Eden Voorhees heads to New Orleans to pursue the dream she put on hold while caring for her disabled mother. But in the Big Easy, she finds a roach-infested apartment, a non-existent job and a dwindling bank account... -
![I'm Sad by Michael Ian Black, Debbie Ridpath Ohi]()
I'm Sad by Michael Ian Black, Debbie Ridpath Ohi
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA girl, a potato, and a very sad flamingo star in this charming sequel to I’m Bored by New York Times bestselling author and comedian Michael Ian Black and celebrated illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi.Everyone feels sad sometimes—even flamingos. Sigh. When Flamingo announces he’s feeling down, the little girl and Potato try to cheer him up, but nothing seems to work... -
![Giraffe Problems by Jory John]()
Giraffe Problems by Jory John
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsPenguins aren't the only animals with problems. . . . A second hilarious collaboration from picture-book superstars Lane Smith and Jory John!Can you guess what's making this giraffe self-conscious? Could it be . . . HIS ENORMOUS NECK?? Yes, it's exactly that--how on earth did you figure it out?Edward the giraffe can't understand why his neck is as long and bendy and, well, ridiculous as it is... -
![Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas]()
Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhat kind of a face would you make if a tickly green bug were sitting on your nose? Or if it were-eek!-inside your shirt? Could you make a scary face to frighten it away? Or, even better, stand up and do the chicken dance? Yes? Then better get to it! This exuberant, interactive picture book starring a bossy little ladybug and a GIANT hungry frog will have kids leaping up and down and out of... -
![Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? by Johan Harstad]()
Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? by Johan Harstad
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA pop-saturated epic novel about the second man on the moon, and the quiet thirty-year-old gardener who idolizes him. A story of unconventional psychiatry, the Faroe Islands, amateur boat building, and the journey across the space that divides us from other people: a journey as remote and dangerous as the trip to the moon itself... -
![Molloy by Samuel Beckett]()
Molloy by Samuel Beckett
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMolloy, the first of the three masterpieces which constitute Samuel Beckett’s famous trilogy, appeared in French in 1951, followed seven months later by Malone Dies (Malone meurt), and two years later by The Unnamable (L’Innommable). Few works of contemporary literature have been so universally acclaimed as central to their time and to our understanding of the human experience... -
![The Beasts of Success by Jasun Ether]()
The Beasts of Success by Jasun Ether
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this dog-eat-dog world, three friends find themselves getting nowhere in their careers despite their education and work skills. They decide to make their own rules to the game of life and play dirty to get ahead. Each of them concoct schemes to sabotage colleagues and clear the path for their swift advancement... -
![The Floating Opera and The End of the Road by John Barth]()
The Floating Opera and The End of the Road by John Barth
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Floating Opera and The End Of The Road are John Barth's first two novels. Their relationship to each other is evident not only in their ribald subject matter but in the eccentric characters and bitterly humorous tone of the narratives. Both concern strange, consuming love triangles and the destructive effect of an overactive intellect on the emotions... -
![Circle by Mac Barnett]()
Circle by Mac Barnett
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMac Barnett and Jon Klassen deliver the final tale about Triangle, Square, and Circle.This book is about Circle. This book is also about Circle's friends, Triangle and Square. Also it is about a rule that Circle makes, and how she has to rescue Triangle when he breaks that rule... -
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![The House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe]()
The House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsLike a surreal and highly caffeinated version of The Big Chill, Jonathan Coe's new novel follows four students who knew each other in college in the eighties. Sarah is a narcoleptic who has dreams so vivid she mistakes them for real events. Robert has his life changed forever by the misunderstandings that arise from her condition. Terry spends his wakeful nights fueling his obsession with movies... -
![I'm Worried by Michael Ian Black, Debbie Ridpath Ohi]()
I'm Worried by Michael Ian Black, Debbie Ridpath Ohi
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA girl, a flamingo, and a worried potato star in the third book in New York Times bestselling author Michael Ian Black and celebrated illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi’s series about feelings—and why they’re good, even when they feel bad.Potato is worried. About everything. Because anything might happen. When he tells his friends, he expects them to comfort him by saying that everything will be okay... -
![Wild Children by Richard Roberts]()
Wild Children by Richard Roberts
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBad children are punished. Be bad, a child is told, and you’ll be turned into an animal, marked with your crime.The Wild Children are forever young, but that, too, can be a curse.Five children each tell a different story of what they became:One learns that wrong can be right, and her curse may be a blessing.Another is so Wild he must learn the simplest lesson, to love someone else... -
![The Baby Diaries by Sam Binnie]()
The Baby Diaries by Sam Binnie
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe hilarious and heart-warming second in the series from the author of The Wedding Diaries."I'd be sick right now, but I never like to reinforce a cliché."A few weeks after Kiki and Thom return from honeymoon, Kiki finds there's a noticeable absence. An extremely serious noticeable absence of something, it turns out, Kiki now realises she was pretty glad about... -
![The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker]()
The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAlthough most of the action of The Mezzanine occurs on the escalator of an office building, where its narrator is returning to work after buying shoelaces, this startlingly inventive and witty novel takes us farther than most fiction written today. It lends to milk cartons the associative richness of Marcel Proust's madeleines... -
![Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames]()
Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the creator of the HBO series Bored to Death, the story of a young alcoholic writer and his personal valet, a hilarious homage to the Bertie and Jeeves novels of P.G. Wodehouse.Alan Blair, the hero of Wake Up, Sir!, is a young, loony writer with numerous problems of the mental, emotional, sexual, spiritual, and physical variety. He's very good at problems... -
![Tauben, Die Den Mambo Tanzen by C.D. Payne]()
Tauben, Die Den Mambo Tanzen by C.D. Payne
Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Jonathan Livingston Seagull as imagined by the Marx brothers." That's one take on Frisco Pigeon Mambo, an uproarious new comic novel by C.D. Payne, author of the cult classic Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp.When a flock of alcohol and tobacco addicted lab pigeons are liberated in San Francisco, our feathered heroes turn the whole city topsy-turvy... -
![It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The 7 Secrets of Awakening the Highly Effective Four-Hour Giant, Today by The Gang]()
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The 7 Secrets of Awakening the Highly Effective Four-Hour Giant, Today by The Gang
Rated: 3.71 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThough most sitcoms don't joke about crack addiction, abortion, and racism, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" turns these subjects into comedy goldmines. This title provides an opportunity to extend the show experience through reimagining some favorite plot lines and the further development of backstory... -
![Giles Goat-Boy by John Barth]()
Giles Goat-Boy by John Barth
Rated: 3.76 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsIn this outrageously farcical adventure, hero George Giles sets out to conquer the terrible Wescac computer system that threatens to destroy his community in this brilliant "fantasy of theology, sociology, and sex" (Time)... -
![Run Program by Scott Meyer]()
Run Program by Scott Meyer
Rated: 3.74 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhat’s worse than a child with a magnifying glass, a garden full of ants, and a brilliant mind full of mischief?Try Al, a well-meaning but impish artificial intelligence with the mind of a six-year-old and a penchant for tantrums... -
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![The War of the Roses by Warren Adler]()
The War of the Roses by Warren Adler
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWarren Adler is the acclaimed author of 25 novels, published in 30 languages. Two of his books, "The War of the Roses" and "Random Hearts" were made into major motion pictures. He lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and New York City. This is the book that became one of the most famous movies about divorce ever produced... -
![Darkmans by Nicola Barker]()
Darkmans by Nicola Barker
Rated: 3.64 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsShortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Darkmans is an exhilarating, extraordinary examination of the ways in which history can play jokes on us all.. -
![All Families are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland]()
All Families are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe most disastrous family reunion in the history of fiction.The Drummond family, reunited for the first time in years, has gathered near Cape Canaveral to watch the launch into space of their beloved daughter and sister, Sarah... -
![The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter]()
The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsStanley Webber is visited in his boarding house by strangers, Goldberg and McCann. An innocent-seeming birthday party for Stanley turns into a nightmare.The Birthday Party was first performed in 1958 and is now a modern classic. Produced and studied throughout the world... -
![Remainder by Tom McCarthy]()
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
Rated: 3.66 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsA man is severely injured in a mysterious accident, receives an outrageous sum in legal compensation, and has no idea what to do with it.Then, one night, an ordinary sight sets off a series of bizarre visions he can’t quite place.How he goes about bringing his visions to life–and what happens afterward–makes for one of the most riveting, complex, and unusual novels in recent memory... -
![The Verificationist by Donald Antrim]()
The Verificationist by Donald Antrim
Rated: 3.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWith The Verificationist , Donald Antrim, acclaimed author of The Hundred Brothers , confirms his place as one of America's strangest and fiercely intelligent young writers.One April night, a group of psychologists from the Krakower Institute meet at a pancake house, where they order breakfast foods and engage in shop talk and the occasional flirtation...Categorized as:
postmodernism humor fiction literary-fiction magical-realism contemporary psychological satire -
![Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland]()
Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsEleanor Rigby is the story of Liz, a self-described drab, overweight, crabby, and friendless middle-aged woman, and her unlikely reunion with the charming and strange son she gave up for adoption. His arrival changes everything, and sets in motion a rapid-fire plot with all the twists and turns we expect of Coupland... -
![Whatever by Michel Houellebecq]()
Whatever by Michel Houellebecq
Rated: 3.54 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsJust thirty, with a well-paid job, depression and no love life, the narrator and anti-hero par excellence of this grim, funny, and clever novel smokes four packs of cigarettes a day and writes weird animal stories in his spare time.Houellebecq's debut novel is painfully realistic portrayal of the vanishing freedom of a world governed by science and by the empty rituals of daily life... -
![Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer]()
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer
Rated: 3.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA wildly original novel of erotic fulfillment and spiritual yearning. pEvery two years the international art world descends on Venice for the opening of the Biennale. Among them is Jeff Atman#8211;a jaded and dissolute journalist#8211;whose dedication to the cause of Bellini-fuelled partygoing is only intermittently disturbed by the obligation to file a story... -
![The Sugar Frosted Nutsack by Mark Leyner]()
The Sugar Frosted Nutsack by Mark Leyner
Rated: 2.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsHigh above the bustling streets of Dubai, in the world's tallest and most luxurious skyscraper, reside the gods and goddesses of the modern world. Since they emerged 14 billion years ago from a bus blaring a tune remarkably similar to the Mister Softee jingle, they've wreaked mischief and havoc on mankind... -
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