Books like 'Poor Deer'
Readers who enjoyed Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary fantasy grief magical-realism literary-fiction lgbtq dark historical-fiction wlw family
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Where Butterflies Wander by Suzanne Redfearn
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of In an Instant comes the moving story of a family grappling with grief and a woman with the power to help them through it—or stand in their way.After a tragic accident claims the life of one of her children, Marie Egide is desperate to carve out a fresh start for her family...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family literary-fiction grief female-mc magical-realism north-america usa -
The Houseplant by Jeremy Ray
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsGeorge, a fern, doesn’t appreciate being bought by Brenda at Garden Palace.And he certainly doesn’t appreciate being trapped in her house of humans. He yearns to be with the plants outside in the garden. With time, George learns to trust Brenda and think of her as his human. Then one day, tragedy strikes and George’s life will never be the same...Categorized as:
grief literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction -
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:
family historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction magical-realism romantic-love wlw audiobook -
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:
family female-mc historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction magical-realism romantic-love wlw -
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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 -
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 family romance fantasy fiction contemporary -
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... -
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... -
The Witches of Santo Stefano by Wendy Webb
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn investigative journalist uncovers the haunting secret history of her own ancestors in a bewitching novel by the bestselling author of Daughters of the Lake.When Cassie Graves discovers her husband’s affair, it’s enough to chip away at the foundation of her life. But after researching her family’s Italian ancestry, it completely crumbles beneath her...Categorized as:
historical-fiction magical-realism romantic-love family female-mc fiction mystery contemporary -
The Shiver by Jakub Małecki
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsONLY ONE CHAPTER - 1938-1969 One of the most renowned books of 2015.Polish bestseller.The book compared to the works of Johnatan Carroll, Fiodor Dostojewski, Andy Weir and Jurij Andruchowycz.The novel has been recommended by the best Polish Wiesław Myśliwski, Jacek Dukaj, Szczepan Twardoch, Wit Szostak.Masterly prose wrapped in magical realism...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism historical-fiction family fiction contemporary audiobook fantasy -
Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"A lost young woman returns to small-town New Hampshire under the strangest of circumstances in this one-of-a-kind novel of life, death, and whatever comes after from the acclaimed author of Rabbit Cake. The Starlings live in Everton, an ordinary enough New Hampshire town...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism adult animals book contemporary -
Ella: An Amish Retelling of Cinderella by Sarah Price
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn Sarah Price’s heartwarming Amish version of this best-loved fairytale, a hardworking, overlooked young woman is rewarded in unexpected ways . . . “Be kind and have faith.” Ella Troyer strives to abide by her mother’s final words, although life in the small Amish town of Echo Creek isn’t always easy...Categorized as:
family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book christian contemporary -
Three Scenarios In Which Hana Sasaki Grows A Tail by Kelly Luce
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThree Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail is a debut collection of stories from Kelly Luce. Hana Sasaki will introduce you to many things—among them, an oracular toaster, a woman who grows a tail, and an extraordinary sex-change operation. Set in Japan, these stories tip into the fantastical, plumb the power of memory, and measure the human capacity to love... -
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... -
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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... -
In a Thousand Different Ways by Cecelia Ahern
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFinding your way is never a simple journey…Alice sees the best in people.She also sees the worst.She sees a thousand different emotions and knows exactly what everyone around her is feeling.Every. Single. Day.But it’s the dark thoughts.The sadness. The rage.These are the things she can’t get out of her head. The things that overwhelm her...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction magical-realism fiction contemporary fantasy audiobook drama -
The Axeman's Carnival by Catherine Chidgey
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsEverywhere, the birds: sparrows and skylarks and thrushes, starlings and bellbirds, fantails and pipits – but above them all and louder, the magpies. We are here and this is our tree and we’re staying and it is ours and you need to leave and now.Tama is just a helpless chick when he is rescued by Marnie, and this is where his story might have ended...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism family historical-fiction fiction fantasy animals contemporary -
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 Book of X by Sarah Rose Etter
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Book of X tells the tale of Cassie, a girl born with her stomach twisted in the shape of a knot. From childhood with her parents on the family meat farm, to a desk job in the city, to finally experiencing love, she grapples with her body, men, and society, all the while imagining a softer world than the one she is in... -
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 -
Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors by Livia Llewellyn, Laird Barron
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDeath and pleasure. Freud's Todestrieb, his statement that ''libido has the task of making the destroying instinct innocuous, and it fulfils the task by diverting that instinct to a great extent outwards....The instinct is then called the destructive instinct, the instinct for mastery, or the will to power... -
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 -
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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...Categorized as:
magical-realism lgbtq literary-fiction family female-mc fantasy fiction contemporary -
All About Evie by Cathy Lamb
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSet against the natural beauty of the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest, acclaimed author Cathy Lamb’s latest novel tells the emotionally compelling story of one woman’s life-changing discovery about her past . . . As a child, Evie Lindsay was unnerved by her premonitions... -
Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDarnmoor, The Gateway to Happiness. The sign taunts a fool into feeling some sense of achievement, some kind of end- that you have reached a destination in the very least. Yet as the sign states, Darnmoor is merely a gateway, a waypoint on the road to where you really want to be.Darnmoor is the home of the Billymil family, three generations who have lived in this 'gateway town'... -
Kokoschka's Doll by Afonso Cruz
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAt the age of forty-two, Bonifaz Vogel begins to hear a voice.But it doesn't belong to the mice or the woodworm, as he first imagines. Nor is it the voice of God, as he comes to believe. It belongs to young Isaac Dresner, who takes refuge in the cellar of Vogel's bird shop on the run from the soldier who shot his best friend... -
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 family literary-fiction female-mc fantasy fiction gothic -
The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland, Emmanuelle Mattana
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom international bestselling author of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Holly Ringland, comes a haunting and magical novel about joy, grief, courage, and transformation. 'On the afternoon that Esther Wilding drove homeward along the coast, a year after her sister had walked into the sea and disappeared, the light was painfully golden...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction grief historical-fiction female-mc romance fiction contemporary -
The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsFrom New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman comes a heartfelt short story about family, independence, and finding your place in the world.Isabel Gibson has all but perfected the art of forgetting. She’s a New Yorker now, with nothing left to tie her to Brinkley’s Island, Maine... -
The Mires by Tina Makereti
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA literary page turner that explores the intertwined lives of three neighboring families in a small coastal New Zealand town—a blend of Little Fires Everywhere and The Island of Missing Trees, combining domestic drama, suspense, indigenous folklore, and the threat of extremism on ordinary lives.Three women give birth in different countries and different decades...Categorized as:
literary-fiction female-mc historical-fiction family magical-realism fiction audiobook contemporary -
Baby Be-Bop by Francesca Lia Block
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsEveryone has a story to tell ... Dirk McDonald's life was almost perfect. He lived with this grandmother, Fifi, in a beautiful gingerbread cottage in Hollywood. He had the beach, and his surfboard, and Fifi's red-and-white 1955 Pontiac convertible. But Dirk wasn't happy. Inside, he was harboring a deep, dark secret...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction lgbtq magical-realism book coming-of-age contemporary fiction -
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 magical-realism historical-fiction wlw literary-fiction dark romantic-love fiction -
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Green Frog: Stories by Gina Chung
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA short story collection that explores Korean American womanhood, bodies, animals, and transformation as a means of survival...Categorized as:
magical-realism historical-fiction literary-fiction family fiction fantasy contemporary audiobook -
The Threads of the Heart by Carole Martinez
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThey say Frasquita knows magic, that she is a healer with occult powers, that perhaps she is a sorcerer. She does indeed possess a remarkable gift, one that has been passed down to the women in her family for generations...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century adult book contemporary -
Devil Is Fine by John Vercher
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom acclaimed novelist John Vercher, a profoundly moving novel of what it means to be a father, a son, a writer, and a biracial American fighting to reconcile the pastReeling from the sudden death of his teenage son, our narrator receives a letter from an he has just inherited a plot of land from his estranged grandfather...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction historical-fiction dark family grief fiction audiobook -
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 -
The Garden of Magic by Sarah Painter
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA magical Pendleford prequel novella from the bestselling author of The Language of Spells, that introduces the world to Iris Harper – the original Harper witch.Iris Harper has lived in Pendleford for decades, the local witch is mistrusted by the townsfolk, but that doesn't stop some coming to her begging for potions, spells and quick-fixes...Categorized as:
family female-mc literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies audiobook contemporary -
A Tiny Upward Shove by Melissa Chadburn
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“Wild and ambitious . . . [with] something ablaze at its core. It burns.” ― The New York Times Book ReviewA Tiny Upward Shove is inspired by Melissa Chadburn's Filipino heritage and its folklore, as it traces the too-short life of a young, cast-off woman transformed by death into an agent of justice―or mercy.Marina Salles’s life does not end the day she wakes up dead...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction dark historical-fiction lgbtq grief fiction fantasy -
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... -
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... -
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... -
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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... -
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 -
Carry Me Like Water by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAs an abandoned deaf mute son of Mexican migrant workers struggles as a dishwasher in El Paso, drawing solace only from his makeshift circle of friends, his sister lives an assimilated Yuppie life in San Francisco, taking great pains to keep the past buried forever. Saenz's epic tale brings to light amazing revelations about the wonders of love, family, friends, and compassion...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction magical-realism book contemporary disability -
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...
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