it’s complicated: mother-child relationships
Fiction & nonfiction books that explore the complexities and traumas of mother-child relationships or in which such relationships play a central role. While many books on this list are what I’d classify as including “mommy issues” there are others that are more about the different perspectives and nuances of the mother-child (often specifically mother-daughter) relationship. Some books center the child, some the mother, some both.
Suggestions are welcome.






Hey You!
Books written in or featuring 2nd person POV






Feral and Hysterical: Works by Women
List of recommendations included in Sadie Hartmann's Feral and Hysterical: Mother Horror’s Ultimate Reading Guide to Dark and Disturbing Fiction by Women.
Pairs with 50 States, 50 Books by Women list.






Literary birth control
Horror stories about pregnancy and children that will immediately take away any baby fever you might have






Mysteries and Thrillers
This includes book that have either mystery or thrillers as a primary or secondary genre. If you have recommendations to add please comment and I'll happily add them 💕






pray god you can cope: pregnancy horror
pregnancy horror has been a prevalent form of body horror for decades, popularised by the arrival of rosemary’s baby. this list offers a mix of classics and more niche picks, traversing the many questions of authority, complexities, and subversions of the subgenre. these books explore pregnancy and its aftermath, sometimes literally, and sometimes through metaphor.






Weird and Unhinged Women 2.0
All sorts of stories about all sorts of women and girls.
This list will be deleted in a few days. Go follow the masterlist by @yarnandbooks instead! :)






the kids are (not) alright
you definitely don’t want to babysit the kids in these books!! these are some bad kids, some might even say evil kids, like they’re possessed by demons or something, think Damien from The Omen or the twins in Goodnight Mommy
as always, taking any and all suggestions!






Weird and Unhinged Women
All sorts of stories about all sorts of women. Mostly litfic, some horror.






Weird books for weird people 😈
Being weird is fun!






Goodreads Best Books of the Decade: The 2020’s
The top 100 books of the 2020’s as voted on by Goodreads members
How many have you read?
The top 5 have switched order, they should be: 5) I’m Glad My Mom Died 4) The Midnight Library 3) The House in the Cerulean Sea 2) Project Hail Mary






books involving motherhood
some book recs that involve the complexities of motherhood: the tough and tender, chaotic and beautiful, exhausting and full of purpose.






Weird Motherhood
"Weird girl literature" featuring themes around pregnancy or motherhood
💜 yarnandbooks






Motherhood: Dark & Deadly
A collection of stories that explore themes of motherhood & mother-child relationships through a darker lens.
Tags: Horror, Motherhood, Matriarch, Matriarchy, Magical Realism, Thriller






Read the North 🇨🇦
Celebrating Canadian authors, with an emphasis on fiction. I'm also trying to include a lot of Indigenous authors in this list! Open to suggestions.






behind closed doors: domestic thrillers
sometimes the secrets buried under family relationships and everyday routines are unearthed and it goes poorly for everyone involved






The Family Curse
Thrillers and horror books with a family setting. This list focuses on relationships between siblings, parent and child etc.






Unreliable Narrators: Trick me once, shame on you.
Trick me twice, shame on Me!! Books that feature narrators who lie by omission to the reader or they don’t have enough information so have a narrow view of the plot.






The 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century
The New York Times published a list on August 5th, 2026, of the 50 best thrillers published since 2000 as voted on by hundreds of writers of every kind of crime fiction, from legal thrillers to spy novels to cozy mysteries, as well as librarians, editors, critics and Bookstagrammers.






Killer Thrillers
True thrillers that you can't put down and keep you heart racing.





