Books like 'Sarahland'
Readers who enjoyed Sarahland by Sam Cohen also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary fantasy wlw literary-fiction lgbtq coming-of-age magical-realism romantic-love female-mc
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Dark Mother Earth by Kristian Novak
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn amnesiac writer’s life of lies and false memories reaches a breaking point in this stunning English-language debut from an award-winning Croatian author.As a novelist, Matija makes things up for a living. Not yet thirty, he’s written two well-received books. It’s his third that is as big a failure as his private life...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century adult book contemporary crime -
The Girl and the Goddess: Stories and Poems of Divine Wisdom by Nikita Gill
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBestselling poet, writer, and Instagram sensation Nikita Gill returns with a collection of poetry and prose exploring Hindu mythology and legend.Let her be a little less human, a little more divineGive her heart armor so it doesn't break as easily as mineMeet Paro. A girl with a strong will, a full heart, and much to learn...Categorized as:
coming-of-age lgbtq literary-fiction magical-realism romantic-love wlw audiobook book -
We Were Witches by Ariel Gore
Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsSpurred on by nineties “family values” campaigns and determined to better herself through education, a teen mom talks her way into college. Disgusted by an overabundance of phallocratic narratives and Freytag’s pyramid, she turns to a subcultural canon of resistance and failure. Wryly riffing on feminist literary tropes, it documents the survival of a demonized single mother figuring things out...Categorized as:
coming-of-age female-mc lgbtq literary-fiction magical-realism romantic-love wlw adult -
Recapitulation by Jerica MacMillan
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Jerica is a talented author who knows how captivate her readers to keep then wanting more." - Goodreads reviewer "I am in love with these books." - Goodreads reviewer Jonathan: Exhilaration. Elation. Triumph. Launching my North American tour is everything I ever dreamed it would be. Except ... I only see Gabby in weekends shoehorned around shows... -
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Joe Nuthin's Guide to Life by Helen Fisher
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA thoroughly uplifting novel about a neurodivergent young man who unexpectedly builds a community and saves a friend in need by following—in a way only he can—his mother’s words of wisdom.Joe-Nathan likes the two parts of his name separate, just like dinner and dessert. Mean Charlie at work sometimes calls him Joe-Nuthin. But Joe is far from nothing...Categorized as:
literary-fiction female-mc magical-realism fiction contemporary audiobook fantasy friendship -
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsFierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom is the highly sensational, ultra-exciting, sort-of true coming-of-age story of a young Asian trans girl, pathological liar, and kung-fu expert who runs away from her parents’ abusive home in a rainy city called Gloom...Categorized as:
coming-of-age female-mc lgbtq literary-fiction magical-realism romantic-love wlw action-adventure -
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsYears ago, a reclusive mega-bestselling children’s author quit writing under mysterious circumstances. Suddenly he resurfaces with a brand-new book and a one-of-a-kind competition, offering a prize that will change the winner’s life in this absorbing and whimsical novel.“Clever, dark, and hopeful . .Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction female-mc romance fantasy fiction contemporary mystery -
Silver Threads by Bette Lee Crosby
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOn the day Jennifer Green was born a pile of stones was placed alongside her scale of life. A few were the dark gray of sorrow, but most were a pale blush color. The largest stone was the rose hue of a sunrise. That one would be placed on the scale the day she married Drew Bishop. Even more brilliant but a wee bit smaller was the pink stone glistening with specs of silver... -
Every Gift a Curse by Caroline O'Donoghue
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA spellbinding supernatural teen drama and final book in the Gifts series from a New York Times bestselling author.With the return of the Housekeeper on the cards, Maeve must find out everything she can about the vengeful tarot spirit in order to finally defeat her...Categorized as:
lgbtq romantic-love wlw magical-realism coming-of-age fantasy young-adult contemporary -
Your Absence is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA spellbinding saga about the inhabitants and inheritors of one rural community, by one of Iceland's most beloved novelists. A man comes to awareness in a church in rural Iceland, not knowing why he’s there or how he arrived... -
Afterlove by Tanya Byrne
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsIn this powerful, all-encompassing YA love story, a girl who becomes a grim reaper must figure out what the future holds—especially when it comes to the girlfriend she left behind. When Ashana Persaud meets Poppy Morgan on a school trip, she’s sure it’s too good to be true. Ash has never had much luck with girls, but Poppy proves different... -
No More by P.S. Power
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIf you like new things, different things, good things... You'll love this book and it's main character! Hannah de Peyser has it all.At least on paper.She's rich. Good looking. Fun. Even a minor celebrity.Also a victim of crime. After being kidnapped for ransom four times in ten years, she decides she's simply had enough... -
Battle of Forces: Sera Toujours by Ali Vali
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn book two of the Forces series, Kendal and Piper return to New Orleans, both now immortal. The peace along the Mississippi River is short-lived with the arrival of Kendal’s old friends, Morgaine and Lenore. They come with an order from the Genesis Clan for Kendal to return with them to face judgment for mixing the elixir of the sun for Piper without their consent... -
Little Dip by Gill McKnight
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt’s 1977, and Connie Fortune has an easy, freewheeling life as a wildlife photographer and illustrator. A new contract brings her to the Little Dip valley in Oregon to track down a rare bird, but a clash with Sylvie Garoul, the valley’s owner and matriarch of the mysterious Garoul family, and her daughter, the haughty, frustrating, but somehow bewitching Marie Garoul, ruins the deal... -
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The Last Girl by Susan Ward
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWe were a scandal waiting to happen. But I didn’t care. For years my life had already been an unending downward spiral. Then my grandfather, Jack, gave me an apartment no one knew about. A secret bequest after his death, and the brief note that accompanied the gift sent me running to Italy. I’d gone to Venice to find peace, knowing I was weak, and instead I found him...Categorized as:
female-mc literary-fiction coming-of-age romance contemporary fiction realistic classics -
Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA wondrous, tender novel about a young girl grappling with her role in a tragic loss—and attempting to reshape the narrative of her life—from PEN/Faulkner Award nominee Claire OshetskyMargaret Murphy is a weaver of fantastic tales, growing up in a world where the truth is too much for one little girl to endure. Her first memory is of the day her friend Agnes died.No one blames Margaret...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction wlw lgbtq female-mc romantic-love fiction contemporary -
The Lamb by Lucy Rose
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMargot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember. When Margot is not at school they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door—"strays," Mama calls them, people who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm... -
Fruiting Bodies: Stories by Kathryn Harlan
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn stories that beckon and haunt, Fruiting Bodies ranges confidently from the fantastical to the gothic to the uncanny as it follows characters—mostly queer, mostly women—on the precipice of change. Echoes of timeless myth and folklore reverberate through urgent narratives of discovery, appetite, and coming-of-age in a time of crisis... -
Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA rural island community steeped in the mystical superstitions of its founders and haunted by an unsolved murder is upended by the return of the suspected killer in this deeply atmospheric novel.Emery Blackwood’s life was forever changed on the eve of her high school graduation, when the love of her life, August Salt, was accused of murdering her best friend, Lily...Categorized as:
coming-of-age female-mc magical-realism book contemporary fiction friendship mystery -
Through the Storms by Rita Potter
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDark clouds are gathering for cocky storm chaser Oakley Pierce as she throws herself into a bruising Oklahoma tempest that will change the course of four lives.Tracking her path is down-to-earth TV meteorologist Lana Monroe, who’d dearly love a commitment from her free-spirited partner, Oakley, after eight long years of absence and career sacrifice... -
The Note Keeper by Cindy Kirk
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHe was a man who kept his promises… Taylor Higgs’s dad always promised that, like a compass, he may not always show her the way, but he’d be there to point her in the right direction.During her childhood, he frequently wrote her notes of encouragement, filled with his own brand of wisdom. In the aftermath of her father's sudden passing, Taylor is adrift, grasping for guidance... -
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAn extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side...Categorized as:
coming-of-age female-mc lgbtq literary-fiction magical-realism romantic-love wlw 21st-century -
Oração para Desaparecer by Socorro Acioli
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPrimeiro romance de Socorro Acioli após A cabeça do santo, Oração para Desaparecer conta a história de uma mulher que, sem lembrança nenhuma de seu passado, precisa reconstruir a vida em um lugar completamente desconhecido, apenas com a língua portuguesa como porto seguro.Cida, uma mulher sem identidade nem memória, reconstrói pouco a pouco uma nova vida em um lugar completamente desconhecido...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction romance fiction fantasy contemporary audiobook book -
Portable Childhoods by Ellen Klages, Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEmerging from a unique and powerful voice, this innovative collection offers a tantalizing glimpse of what lies hidden just beyond the ordinary, skirting the border between childhood and adulthood...Categorized as:
lgbtq literary-fiction magical-realism anthologies contemporary fiction low-fantasy magic -
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Versions of Her by Andrea Lochen
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOn the surface, Melanie Kingstad-Keyes’s life is the picture of success. She’s a tenure track professor at a prestigious university and has a perfect husband. But a recent miscarriage has left her reeling and her marriage tenuous. Selling her family’s Lake Indigo summer home, which she hasn’t visited in fifteen years, feels like the perfect distraction from her problems... -
The Lonely Book by Meg Grehan
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsA warm and loving story about how a non-binary person comes to understand and accept themselves by an award-winning queer author. Every morning, when Annie’s moms open up their bookshop, there’s a pile of books on the counter, waiting for the right reader to come and find them. But one day, there’s a book nobody comes for... -
Safe as Houses by Marie-Helene Bertino
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSafe as Houses, the debut story collection of Marie-Helene Bertino, proves that not all homes are shelters. The titular story revolves around an aging English professor who, mourning the loss of his wife, robs other people's homes of their sentimental knick-knacks. In "Free Ham," a young dropout wins a ham after her house burns down and refuses to accept it...Categorized as:
female-mc literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary female-author fiction -
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsInspired by C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, this wild and wondrous novel is a fairy tale for grown-ups who still knock on the back of wardrobes—just in case—from the author of The Wishing Game... -
Timeskipper by Stefano Benni
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the author of Margherita Dolce Vita One late-winter morning as he is "hop-hiking" downhill toward his character-building destination, a vomit-yellow cube surrounded by a garden of barbarously unkempt weeds known as the Bisacconi elementary school, Stefano Benni's young hero encounters a peculiar man--as big as a mountain and as filthy as a garbage dump, with a vast beard the color of a...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction magical-realism adult book contemporary fiction humor -
The Warbler by Sarah Beth Durst
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the author of The Lies Among Us comes a magical tale about mothers and daughters, choices and consequences, and the real meaning of home when every place feels like a cage.Ten months. That’s the longest Elisa has stayed anyplace, constantly propelled by her fear that if she puts down roots, a family curse will turn her into a tree...Categorized as:
magical-realism romantic-love literary-fiction female-mc fantasy fiction gothic mystery -
Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body by Megan Milks
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsMeet Margaret. At age twelve, she was head detective of the mystery club Girls Can Solve Anything. Margaret and her three best friends led exciting lives solving crimes, having adventures, and laughing a lot. But now that she's entered high school, the club has disbanded, and Margaret is unmoored--she doesn't want to grow up, and she wishes her friends wouldn't either...Categorized as:
lgbtq coming-of-age magical-realism wlw literary-fiction romantic-love fiction mystery -
The Wrong Heaven by Amy Bonnaffons
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"In her amazing, wildly inventive collection, Amy Bonnaffons writes about transformation, each story further complicating the world as we know it. With a style that blends humor and sincerity in such strange, perfect ratios, Bonnaffons reveals the mysteries inside of us, just waiting to make themselves known. The Wrong Heaven, so wondrous, will alter you in all the necessary ways...Categorized as:
lgbtq literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies audiobook contemporary feminism -
Before You Go by Tommy Butler
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this “dazzling debut” (Publishers Weekly), the moving story of one man’s quest for happiness is interwoven with speculative tales of the Before and After, resulting in a profound yet playful literary journey into the ache and wonder of being human.In the Before, humankind is created with a hole in its heart, the designers not realizing their mistake—if it was a mistake—until too late...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction magical-realism adult audiobook book contemporary fiction -
Darling Girl: A Novel of Peter Pan by Liz Michalski
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this beautiful, grounded, and darkly magical modern-day reimagining of J. M. Barrie's classic, to save her daughter's life one woman must take on the infamous Peter Pan--who is not the innocent adventurer the fairy tales make him out to be . . . Life is looking up for Holly Darling, granddaughter of Wendy--yes, that Wendy...Categorized as:
female-mc literary-fiction magical-realism adult audiobook book contemporary fairy-tale -
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The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMixing the mundane with the metaphysical, the pairings of the everyday and the extraordinary in this collection of short fiction yield supernatural results—a young musician perceives another world while drinking coffee, a fairy chronicles his busy life in a sandcastle during the changing tide, a demonic 16th-century chess set shows up in a New Jersey bar, and Charon, the boatman of hell, takes a... -
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOn a train filled with quietly sleeping passengers, a young man’s life is forever altered when he is miraculously seen by a blind man. In a quiet town an American teacher who has lost her Japanese lover to death begins to lose her own self. On a remote road amid fallow rice fields, four young friends carefully take their own lives—and in that moment they become almost as one...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary epic fiction -
May We Shed These Human Bodies by Amber Sparks
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratings***Best Small Press Debut of 2012 -- The Atlantic Wire***May We Shed These Human Bodies peers through vast spaces and skies with the world's most powerful telescope to find humanity: wild and bright and hard as diamonds...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary female-author fiction fantasy -
Sodom Road Exit by Amber Dawn, Deborah Burgess
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt's the summer of 1990, and Crystal Beach has lost its beloved, long-running amusement park, leaving the lakeside village a virtual ghost town. It is back to this fallen community Starla Mia Martin must return to live with her overbearing mother after dropping out of university and racking up significant debt... -
The Jade Cabinet by Rikki Ducornet
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMade speechless by her eccentric father, the beautiful Etheria is traded for a piece of precious jade. Memory, her sister, tells her story, that of a childhood enlivened by Lewis Carroll and an orangutan named Dr. Johnson and envenomed by the pernicious courtship of Radulph Tubbs, Queen Victoria's own Dragon of Industry...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult book contemporary female-author fiction -
The Bobcat by Katherine Forbes Riley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHaunting and lyrical, The Bobcat is Katherine Forbes Riley’s magical debut novel in which Laurelie, a young art student who suffers in the aftermath of a sexual assault, has grown progressively more isolated and fearful.She transfers from her busy city university to a small college in rural Vermont, where she retreats into her vivid imagination, experiencing the world through her art... -
Hunt by L.C. Mawson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen the Earth is reduced to a smoking crater, the only thing left to do is turn back the clock.Lily Snow, granddaughter of Death and one of the most powerful magical beings on Earth, knows that her daughter most likely won’t survive in this timeline, so she gives her life to create another... -
Girl Like a Bomb by Autumn Christian
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAutumn Christian's third novel is a dark journey of self-discovery. An existential labyrinth of love, sex, and self-actualization where the only way out is through. When high schooler Beverly Sykes finally has sex, her whole life changes. She feels an explosion inside of her that feels like her DNA is being rearranged, and she discovers a strange power within... -
Kim by T. Cooper, Allison Glock-Cooper
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhat if every year of high school you woke up as somebody else?When we last saw Oryon Small he was kidnapped and locked in a basement, his best friend Chase dying in his arms. In Changers Book Three: Kim, Oryon awakens as Kim, an Asian American girl who looks nothing like she expected or desired... -
Verdigris by Michele Mari
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAt the tail end of the 1960s, the thirteen-year-old Michelino spends his summers at his grandparents’ modest estate in Nasca, near Lake Maggiore, losing himself in the tales of horror, adventure, and mystery shelved in his grandfather’s library... -
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Open Throat by Henry Hoke
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsA lonely, lovable, queer mountain lion narrates this star-making fever dream of a novel. A queer and dangerously hungry mountain lion lives in the drought-devastated land under the Hollywood sign...Categorized as:
lgbtq literary-fiction magical-realism wlw romantic-love north-america usa california -
Cada seis meses by Clara Duarte
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHana conoce a Ro. Ro conoce a Hana.Hana es esta chica medio coreana que reparte los pedidos del wok de sus padres, y Ro aparece de pronto. Ro es alta como Madrid y las farolas. La historia de Hana y Ro empieza así: una pelea. Un supermercado. La puerta rota de un baño sucio. Un piano electrónico y ocho plantas con nombre. Es cutre y torpe, como todo, pero es bonita. Es normal... -
The Many Futures of Maddy Hart by Laura Pearson
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsSuddenly Maddy is right there… in her very own future. And it’s all wrong, yet again.It happens to her every time. When the kisses lead to the bedroom, just when she thinks she might have found the one… Just for a split second, Maddy disappears, and she finds that she’s living her own life. But ten years into the future.She’s only there for a little while...Categorized as:
magical-realism coming-of-age female-mc romance fiction womens-fiction fantasy friendship -
Music of the Swamp by Lewis Nordan
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNordan's fiction invents its own world, a world populated by madly heroic misfits. In MUSIC OF THE SWAMP, he focuses his magic and imagination on a single theme--a boy's utterly helpless love for his utterly hopeless father... -
Somos astronautas by Clara Cortés
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCuatro amigos, un verano lleno de preguntas y la inmensidad del futuro por delante.Cuatro amigos viven en un pueblo de Florida y están a punto de acabar el último año de instituto. Se sienten perdidos y aplazan una y otra vez el momento de plantearse qué quieren hacer con sus vidas... -
The Deepest Roots by Miranda Asebedo
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsCottonwood Hollow, Kansas, is a strange place. For the past century, every girl has been born with a special talent, like the ability to Fix any object, Heal any wound, or Find what is missing.Best friends Rome, Lux, and Mercy all have similar talents, but to them, their abilities often feel like a curse...Categorized as:
coming-of-age female-mc lgbtq magical-realism book contemporary female-author feminism
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