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The Usual Rules

Joyce Maynard · back to the book

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24 books with the same feel

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❤️

The Year of the Rat

Clare Furniss · 306 pages

I always thought you'd know, somehow, if something terrible was going to happen. I thought you'd sense it, like when the air goes damp and heavy before a storm and you know you'd better hide yourself away somewhere safe until it all blows over. But it turns out it's not like that at all. There's no scary music playing in the background like in films. No warning signs. Not even a lonely magpie. One

Grief Over a ParentSudden LossDeath of a ParentGrief and Mourning
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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Jonathan Safran Foer · 326 pages

A new novel by the author of Everything Is Illuminated introduces Oskar Schell, the nine-year-old son of a man killed in the World Trade Center bombing who searches the city for a lock that fits a black key his father left behind. Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tendern

Grief Over a ParentSudden LossDeath of a ParentGrief and Mourning
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The Namesake

Jhumpa Lahiri · 304 pages

"With a new afterword from Jhumpa Lahiri, a new edition of the contemporary classic. Meet the Ganguli family, new arrivals from Calcutta, trying their best to become Americans even as they pine for home. The name they bestow on their firstborn, Gogol, betrays all the conflicts of honoring tradition in a new world--conflicts that will haunt Gogol on his own winding path through divided loyalties, c

Grief Over a ParentSudden LossDeath of a ParentGrief and Mourning
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In the Unlikely Event

Judy Blume · 512 pages

In 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life. Thirty-five years earlier, when Miri was fifteen, and in love for the first time, a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving a community reeling. Against this backdrop of actual events that Blume experienced in the early 1950s, when airline travel was new and

Sudden LossGrief and MourningGrief Over a ParentDeath of a Parent
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A Soft Place to Land

Susan Rebecca White

Grief Over a ParentSudden LossDeath of a ParentComing of Age
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The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Ann Brashares · 310 pages

Carmen got the jeans at a thrift shop. They didn't look all that great; they were worn, dirty, and speckled with bleach. On the night before she and her friends part for the summer, Carmen decides to toss them. But Tibby says they're great. She'd love to have them. Lena and Bridget also think they're fabulous. Lena decides they should all try them on. Whoever they fit best will get them. Nobody kn

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningEmotional
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The Boy in the Black Suit

Jason Reynolds · 272 pages

Soon after his mother's death, Matt takes a job at a funeral home in his tough Brooklyn neighborhood and, while attending and assisting with funerals, begins to accept her death and his responsibilities as a man.

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningEmotional
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The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt · 817 pages

"The Goldfinch is a rarity that comes along perhaps half a dozen times per decade, a smartly written literary novel that connects with the heart as well as the mind....Donna Tartt has delivered an extraordinary work of fiction."--Stephen King, The New York Times Book Review Composed with the skills of a master, The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present day America and a drama of enthra

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentEmotionalTeen Protagonist
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The Last Song

Nicholas Sparks · 390 pages

#1 bestselling author Nicholas Sparks's new novel is at once a compelling family drama and a heartrending tale of young love.Seventeen year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alientated from her parents, especially her father...until her

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentComing of AgeCharacter-Driven
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Thunderwith

Libby Hathorn · 311 pages

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningTeen Protagonist
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Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance

Alison Espach · 352 pages

Sudden LossGrief and MourningEmotionalComing of Age
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Out of the Dust

Karen Hesse · 235 pages

"Dust piles up like snow across the prairie. . . ." A terrible accident has transformed Billie Jo's life, scarring her inside and out. Her mother is gone. Her father can't talk about it. And the one thing that might make her feel better -- playing the piano -- is impossible with her wounded hands. To make matters worse, dust storms are devastating the family farm and all the farms nearby. Wh

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningComing of Age
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Putting Makeup on Dead People

Jen Violi · 326 pages

Donna's discovery, that she wants to be a mortician, helps her come into her own and finally understand that moving forward doesn't mean forgetting someone you love. Donna Parisi, still grieving over her father's death, comes to the realization while standing in front of the dead body of a classmate at a funeral home that she could find purpose in a career in the funeral industry. The plot contai

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningComing of Age
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Perfect

Natasha Friend · 232 pages

Following the death of her father, a thirteen-year-old uses bulimia as a way to avoid her mother's and ten-year-old sister's grief, as well as her own.

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningComing of Age
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Where She Went

Gayle Forman · 284 pages

It's been three years since the devastating accident . . . three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever. Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Juilliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the cit

Grief Over a ParentGrief and MourningNew York CityEmotional
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A Monster Calls

Patrick Ness · 224 pages

A brilliant, graphic novel written by young but promising Patrick Ness. This is the story about 13 year old Conor and his mother who is dying of cancer. Conor has to face the cruelty of real life and learn to let his close and dearest go. When no human can help him Monster appears...

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningComing of Age
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The One & Only

Emily Giffin · 582 pages

Centering her life on the successful Walker family, into which she plans to marry, Shea struggles to end her affair with a less-than-stellar boyfriend only to have her entire existence placed in question by the death of the family's mother.

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningEmotional
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A Prayer for Owen Meany

John Irving · 543 pages

"I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice - not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany." So begins John Irving's new novel. In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys - best friends - are playing ina Li

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentComing of AgeEmotional
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I'll Give You the Sun

Jandy Nelson · 400 pages

A brilliant, luminous story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three y

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningEmotional
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Alice Bliss

Laura Harrington · 306 pages

When Alice Bliss learns that her father is being deployed to Iraq, she's heartbroken. Alice idolizes her father, loves working beside him in their garden, accompanying him on the occasional roofing job, playing baseball. When he ships out, Alice is faced with finding a way to fill the emptiness he has left behind. Matt will miss seeing his daughter blossom from a tomboy into a full-blown teenager.

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningEmotional
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You Have Seven Messages

Stewart Lewis · 304 pages

Death of a ParentGrief and MourningEmotionalNew York City
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The Secret Hum of a Daisy

Tracy Holczer · 316 pages

"After 12-year-old Grace's mother's sudden death, Grace is forced to live with a grandmother she's never met. Then she discovers clues in a mysterious treasure hunt--one that will help her find her true home"-- After the sudden death of her mother, twelve-year-old Grace is forced to live with a grandmother she's never met. Then she discovers clues in a mysterious treasure hunt, one that will help

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningEmotional
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Amy & Roger's Epic Detour

Morgan Matson · 352 pages

After the death of her father, Amy, a high school student and Roger, a college freshman, set out on a carefully planned road trip from California to Connecticut, but wind up taking many detours, forcing Amy to face her worst fears and come to terms with her grief and guilt.

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentComing of AgeEmotional
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A Northern Light

Jennifer Donnelly · 396 pages

In 1906, sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and fiance, takes a job at a summer inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest. Based on a true story.

Grief Over a ParentDeath of a ParentGrief and MourningComing of Age

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