Thriller · Similar reads
Books like The Maidens
The best books like The Maidens are The Bell Jar, Beloved, and Homage to Catalonia. The Maidens by Alex Michaelides is about obsession, mythology and power, grief. 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.
- The Bell Jar
01
Sylvia Plath · Memoir
The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath's only novel, published in January 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, one month before Plath's death.
A kindred thriller read.
Read the summary → - Beloved
02
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.
A kindred thriller read.
Read the summary → - Homage to Catalonia
03
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.
A kindred thriller read.
Read the summary → - The Alchemist
04
Paulo Coelho · Religion & Spirituality
The Alchemist is a Brazilian novel first published in 1988 and translated into 80 languages, making it one of the most translated books in history.
A kindred thriller read.
Read the summary → - Verity
05
Colleen Hoover · Thriller
Lowen Ashby is a struggling author hired to ghostwrite the remaining books in bestselling thriller writer Verity Crawford's series, while Verity recovers from a traumatic brain injury.
Shares obsession and grief with The Maidens.
Read the summary → - The Silent Patient
06
Alex Michaelides · Thriller
Alicia Berenson, a celebrated painter, shoots her husband five times in the face and then never speaks another word.
Both dig into obsession.
Read the summary → - The Snowman
07
Jo Nesbø · Thriller
Detective Harry Hole of the Oslo Police is drawn to a series of disappearances connected by one detail: a snowman appears outside each woman's home before she vanishes.
Both dig into obsession.
Read the summary → - A Fatal Grace
08
Louise Penny · Mystery
A Fatal Grace is the second novel in Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, set in the fictional Quebec village of Three Pines.
Both dig into grief.
Read the summary → - A Grief Observed
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
10
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Dave Eggers · Memoir
Dave Eggers's debut memoir about losing both parents to cancer within five weeks and raising his younger brother Toph while trying to start a literary magazine in San Francisco in the mid-1990s arrived in 2000 with unusual self-consciousness about its own nature.
Both dig into grief.
Read the summary → - Barbarian Days
11
William Finnegan · Memoir
Barbarian Days is William Finnegan's memoir of a life spent surfing — from his childhood in Los Angeles and Hawaii through decades of obsessive searching for waves across the Pacific, Asia, Africa, and eventually the cold waters of New York.
Both dig into obsession.
Read the summary → - Beach Read
12
Emily Henry · Contemporary fiction
January Andrews is a romance novelist who has completely lost faith in love after discovering her late father had a secret mistress for years.
Both dig into grief.
Read the summary →
Books like The Maidens: quick answers
What are the best books like The Maidens?
The best books like The Maidens by Alex Michaelides are The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Verity by Colleen Hoover, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with The Maidens, such as obsession, mythology and power, grief.
What should I read after The Maidens?
A natural next read after The Maidens is The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. A kindred thriller read. Other strong choices are Beloved by Toni Morrison, Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
What books are similar to The Maidens by Alex Michaelides?
The Maidens centers on obsession, mythology and power, grief. Books with a similar feel include The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Verity by Colleen Hoover, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
