Still trying to get a copy of 2018’s smash hit novel Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens? Us too! Don’t know what Crawdads is about? We’ve got you there too: viewed with suspicion in the aftermath of a tragedy, a beautiful hermit who has survived for years in a marsh becomes targeted by unthinkable forces. This book has topped the New York Times Bestseller list for over 30 weeks and was also selected for Reese Witherspoon’s book club.
While you wait, try one of the novels below! They are recommended by our librarians as being similar in feel to Crawdads. Click any book cover for a link to our library catalog, where you can put the book on hold with your library card number and PIN. And we know they’ll probably come in faster than Crawdads! Links to our ebook services have been included where available.
Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Her world upended by the death of a beloved artist uncle who was the only person who understood her, fourteen-year-old June is mailed a teapot by her uncle’s grieving friend, with whom June forges a poignant relationship.
My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
Enduring an isolated existence after the death of her mother, 14-year-old Turtle roams the rocky shores and tide pools of the California coast and refutes every outside attempt to engage her before an unexpected friendship with a newcomer helps her realize the vulnerabilities of her life with her charismatic father.
Let’s No One Get Hurt by Jon Pineda
A teenage girl squatting in an abandoned boathouse with her disgraced college professor father in the swamps of the American South begins an unbalanced relationship with the rich, bratty son of a developer who has bought the property.
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
Jess Hall, growing up deep in the heart of an unassuming mountain town that believes in protecting its own, is plunged into an adulthood for which he is not prepared when his autistic older brother, Stump, sneaks a look at something he isn’t supposed to, which has catastrophic repercussions.
Miller’s Valley by Anna Quindlen
Coming of age in a dwindling 1960s farming community in eastern Pennsylvania, Mimi struggles with profound family secrets and the pain of falling in love with the wrong person against a backdrop of dynamic historical periods.
All book summaries courtesy of Novelist. Check back next Sunday for our next ‘Readalikes’ installment of the Virtual Book Club!
Read it or Weep 