To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
A girl in a small Southern town watches her lawyer father defend a Black man accused of a crime, in a classic that deals with racism and uses racial slurs.
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Books like Where the Crawdads Sing
Where the Crawdads Sing follows a girl who grows up alone in a North Carolina marsh, with a murder mystery running through it. These six books share its sense of place, its loneliness or its Southern setting.
Books to read next
The Secret Life of Bees
Sue Monk Kidd
In 1964 South Carolina, a girl and her caregiver flee to a house of beekeeping sisters, in a warm story that also holds grief and racial violence.
The Great Alone
Kristin Hannah
A family moves to the Alaskan wilderness in 1974, where the harsh land becomes a test, in a gripping saga that includes domestic abuse.
Educated
Tara Westover
A memoir of growing up in a survivalist family in rural Idaho and reaching school late, with scenes of family violence.
The Snow Child
Eowyn Ivey
A childless couple homesteading in 1920s Alaska meet a mysterious girl in the woods, in a quiet novel with a fairy-tale flavor.
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Gail Honeyman
A lonely, rule-bound office worker in Glasgow slowly lets people in, in a funny and moving novel that touches on past trauma.
How to choose
Decide what drew you to Kya's story. For Southern atmosphere and small-town prejudice, To Kill a Mockingbird is the classic, and The Secret Life of Bees is warmer and more hopeful. For wild settings and survival, try The Great Alone, or the quieter, magical The Snow Child. Educated is a true story that reads like a novel. If the lonely, watchful heroine was your favorite part, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the closest in feeling, with more humor. Several of these deal with heavy subjects: Mockingbird and Bees include racism and racial violence, while The Great Alone and Educated include domestic abuse. The Great Alone is the most harrowing of the six.
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