Contemporary fiction · Similar reads
Books like Little Fires Everywhere
The best books like Little Fires Everywhere are Beloved, The Namesake, and Normal People. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng is about race and privilege, motherhood, identity and belonging. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.
- Beloved
01
Toni Morrison · Literary fiction
Beloved is set in post-Civil War Ohio, where Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman, lives with her daughter Denver in a house shadowed by the ghost of a baby she killed rather than let be taken back into slavery.
Both dig into motherhood.
Read the summary → - The Namesake
02
Jhumpa Lahiri · Literary fiction
The Namesake follows the Ganguli family across three decades, beginning with Ashoke and Ashima's arranged marriage and their immigration from Calcutta to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and extending into the American adulthood of their son, Gogol.
A kindred contemporary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Normal People
03
Sally Rooney · Literary fiction
Normal People follows Connell and Marianne from their small-town Irish secondary school through their years at Trinity College Dublin.
A kindred contemporary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Exit West
04
Mohsin Hamid · Literary fiction
Exit West follows Saeed and Nadia, two young people who meet and fall in love in an unnamed city beginning to fracture under the pressure of civil conflict.
Both dig into identity and belonging.
Read the summary → - Conversations with Friends
05
Sally Rooney · Literary fiction
Conversations with Friends is told by Frances, a twenty-one-year-old Dublin student who performs spoken-word poetry with her best friend and ex-girlfriend Bobbi.
A kindred contemporary fiction read.
Read the summary → - Reminders of Him
06
Colleen Hoover · Contemporary fiction
Kenna Rowan is released from prison after serving five years for a drunk driving accident that killed her boyfriend Scotty.
Both dig into motherhood.
Read the summary → - The Simple Wild
07
K.A. Tucker · Contemporary fiction
The Simple Wild follows Calla Fletcher, a Toronto-based woman who has grown up estranged from her father Wren, a bush pilot living in rural Alaska.
Both dig into identity and belonging.
Read the summary → - A Darker Shade of Magic
08
V.E. Schwab · Fantasy
A Darker Shade of Magic is set across four parallel versions of London — Red, Grey, White, and the long-destroyed Black — each existing in the same location but separated by the barriers between worlds.
Both dig into identity and belonging.
Read the summary → - Circe
09
Madeline Miller · Fantasy
Circe is the daughter of Helios, god of the sun, but she inherits neither divine radiance nor power — only a human voice that embarrasses her immortal family.
Both dig into motherhood.
Read the summary → - Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
10
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
J. D. Vance · Memoir
Hillbilly Elegy is J.
Both dig into class.
Read the summary → - Homage to Catalonia
11
George Orwell · Memoir
Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell's firsthand account of fighting in the Spanish Civil War, which he joined in late 1936 as a volunteer with the POUM militia — a Trotskyist revolutionary organization that was later suppressed by the Soviet-backed Stalinist wing of the Republican forces.
Both dig into class.
Read the summary → - Oliver Twist
12
Charles Dickens · Classics
Oliver Twist is the story of an orphan born in a workhouse who runs away from an abusive apprenticeship, falls in with a gang of thieves in London, and — in Dickens's scheme — is eventually rescued and restored to his rightful identity.
Both dig into identity and belonging.
Read the summary →
Books like Little Fires Everywhere: quick answers
What are the best books like Little Fires Everywhere?
The best books like Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng are Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, Normal People by Sally Rooney, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Little Fires Everywhere, such as race and privilege, motherhood, identity and belonging.
What should I read after Little Fires Everywhere?
A natural next read after Little Fires Everywhere is Beloved by Toni Morrison. Both dig into motherhood. Other strong choices are The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, Normal People by Sally Rooney, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid.
What books are similar to Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng?
Little Fires Everywhere centers on race and privilege, motherhood, identity and belonging. Books with a similar feel include Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, Normal People by Sally Rooney, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
