Reading Ideas for Lit Fic Lovers

Down the Drain by Julia Fox

Down the Drain isn’t lit fic, but I was drawn to it by the cover below (not the other one lol), which gave a lit fic air. I’m not sure who Julia Fox even is but I love open and honest memoirs that say it like it is…or was. From the few snippets of it I heard, Down the Drain fits the bill.

Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter

Ripe was on my list of reading ideas before it went live so I already read it. In Ripe, we experience the main character’s bleak San Fransisco-based life including her hellish high tech job she moved there for. My review for Ripe is up…and spoiler alert, I loved it!

Piglet by Lottie Hazel

Two weeks before her wedding, Piglet’s fiancé shares a betrayal with her. They decide to go ahead with the wedding but still, she’s unsettled…and hungry, very hungry. Food has always been her coping mechanism so I’m sure that will tie in. Anyway, this seems like an intriguing set up. I’m waiting for the soft cover to come out in March before I purchase. But if you like hardcover, check Piglet out.

Milk Fed by Melissa Broder

Though I haven’t read either yet, Milk Fed and Piglet strike me as similar in the way they’re written: focused and artistic. At a glance, Milk Fed is about an anorexic woman and an overweight orthodox ice cream store worker who bond over ice cream. A recipe for…an interesting read.

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

Big Swiss seems to have a lot of people confused, but in a good way. This makes a lot of sense now that I realize it’s written by Jen Beagin, the author of Pretend I’m Dead, a book that also had me intrigued and confused. Big Swiss is about a woman whose job is to transcribe therapy sessions for the small town she lives in’s sex therapist. Sounds like a disaster…but a disaster I want to know more about. Also, I never heard of this job existing before, have you?

Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly

I thought I ordered this book but it never came so I’m kind of sour about that. But maybe I’ll order it again. Anyway, people say it’s lol-worthy. The cover and description are giving me Lovers and Writers vibes which I can’t say no to. What Greta and Valdin seems to be about in one sentence: we follow a pair of siblings’ disastrous love lives.

I’m A Fan by Sheena Patel

I’m A Fan is a book about obsession….a theme that’s hard to go wrong with. It carries the story forward with an emphasis on the psyche. Here we have an unlikeable main character obsessed with the wife of the man she’s seeing. Yes, she’s seeing someone’s husband and is obsessed with his wife 🤔 and that includes following her every move on social media. I’m getting A Touch of Jen vibes.

Elena Knows

People really rave about Elena Knows, emphasizing its structure. In it, Elena is a frail, old woman whose daughter is found dead. A suicide, everyone believes. But Elena just knows that’s not the case. I don’t love mysteries or books about crime but this one seems like it could really stand out with its literary elements. I didn’t realize Elena Knows was made into a movie as well, so I’ll have to check it out after reading it.

The Push

So far The Push reminds me of the movie We Need to Talk about Kevin so although it’s also not my usual genre I think it could be really well done. In it, a mother, Blythe has some concerns that her daughter Violet is a psychopath. But Blythe’s husband thinks any issues stem from her not showing warmth to Violet. What’s the real story and who’s to blame?

A Little Life

I don’t know that much about A Little Life other than the fact that it’s deep and delves into trauma. Everyone on my side of Bookstagram seems to recommend it so even if it is a bit overhyped I’m gonna give it a go.

Edit: I started reading A Little Life and though it is very well written and high quality in general, there are too many characters with too many tangents for my taste. Gonna give it a rest for now, but I felt it still deserved a spot on this list of reading ideas.

Thank you for reading. I hope these books make it from my list of reading ideas to yours!