When you're looking to get lost in a book, sometimes you need your reading material to match your mood. With Marie Claire's series "Buy the Book," we do the heavy lifting for you. We're offering curated, highly specific recommendations for whatever you're looking for—whether you're in your feels or hooked on a subgenre trending on #BookTok.
Breakups are the worst. Whether you were dumped or the one who walked away, the ending of a relationship can be rough—from splitting up your shared belongings to spending holidays alone to the urge to check their social media and the gut punch that follows when you hear they’re dating someone new. While breakups can be brutal, they also make for a hell of a page-turner.
Writers have looked to heartbreak and the dissolutions of relationships for years, diving into the challenges and inevitable growth that can occur when you and your significant other part ways. That’s why we rounded up some of the best books about breakups, from certified classics to #BookTok favorites to new, must-read novels, for whatever stage of relationship recovery you’re in. Just look to these books—about a he-said, she-said divorce, a woman reprioritizing her mental health above all else, and more—when you need to be reminded not to text your ex. These novels are complete with humor, drama, and big-hearted messiness you won’t want to put down, so, below, find the best breakup books to add to your TBR stack now.
If you were part of the #Booktok contingent that championed Mona Awad’s dark academia darling, Bunny, this one’s for you. Awad’s sophomore novel, All’s Well, feels like a spooky mix of Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh and, well, Shakespeare—just don’t tell the main character, Miranda, we said that.
Once a promising actress, Miranda had a bad fall while performing in a Shakespearean play. Since the tumble, her life has been upended. Suffering from chronic pain, Miranda is gaslit by doctors and in competition with students she directs in a college theater troupe. Oh, her marriage has crumbled, too. It’s as if the fall plummeted her to an all-time low.
When presented with an offer to dispel her pain, Miranda doesn’t ask questions. What happens next is a blissed-out retribution sequence that will have any underdog rooting from the sidelines. But Miranda will learn there are consequences, especially for revenge. In usual Awad fashion, the plot is carried by a creeping darkness threatening to shroud the characters if they’re not careful.
Release date: March 18
In this upcoming sexy novel, Rachel is about a week into her life as a newly divorced mom when COVID-19 storms N.Y.C. where she lives, raises her children, and works as a UX designer. Now stuck at home and incredibly horny, Rachel immerses herself in the world of online dating, pushing her vibrator to its limits. After careful safety screenings, Rachel takes the sexting to the sheets, hooking up with random men for the first time in her life.
Though the wild nights are delicious, Rachel can’t shake a convo she had with her best friend about her ideal person. What attributes would she program into them? She has the chops to design those very characteristics into a chatbot—but will she?
Leaving Chicago and her husband behind, Lois arrives at the Golden Yarrow, a divorce ranch in ‘50s Reno. What’s a divorce ranch, you may ask? In the ‘50s, divorce ranches served as loopholes to restrictive laws that made it difficult for women to meet divorce requirements. In Nevada, however, women simply needed to live in the state for six weeks to meet the criteria for divorce. While staying at The Golden Yarrow, future divorcées drink their weight in gin, flirt with local cowboys, and prepare for their freedom.
Lois, a somewhat meek former housewife, is a good girl. She listens to her father’s instructions on how to behave at the ranch and keeps to herself. But when a new resident checks into the ranch, Lois receives an education on her untapped potential.
There are two sides to every story. And, boy, does Fates and Furies deliver on that premise. When Lotto and Mathilde get together in college, everyone is confused. Lotto is the man about campus, gregarious, and driven to shake his family name and make it big on his own as an actor. Meanwhile, Mathilde is an enigma who’s quiet and contained.
It’s a case of opposites attract that the pair only leans further into, even when Lotto’s wealthy family cuts him off. Though they’re full of promise when they graduate college, marry, and move to New York together, it’s up to Mathilde to support them when Lotto’s career goes nowhere. That is until Lotto writes a play based on his family, and it’s a hit.
The novel follows the couple as Lotto’s success continues to rise, thanks to the sacrifices of his wife. And then Mathilde gets to tell her side of the story. The novel, which features echoes of Greek mythology, reveals the inconsistencies and biases that can make up a marriage. If you were a fan of the Showtime series, The Affair, chances are, you’ll probably love this book.
Toby Fleishman is a father of two who recently separated from Rachel, his wife of 15 years. And though difficult, Toby thought he was managing his new life pretty well—until Rachel abandoned him with their children. The novel, adapted to screen as a Hulu series, sings with tension as Toby struggles to balance his new single life, caring for his children, hunting down Rachel, and holding onto his job. Above all, he can’t shake the bewilderment over what would cause Rachel, his formerly driven, insanely successful wife, to do such a thing. Fortunately for readers, she’ll fill you in…eventually.
Andy, a flailing, London-based comedian, has gone off the deep end. After being dumped by his longtime partner, Jen, Andy becomes consumed with what went wrong in the relationship—and how he can get her back (or, at least, make her jealous). This novel is all sorts of relatable. Take, for example, the extremes Andy swings from after the breakup. One second, he’s working on his “revenge body,” the next he’s reminiscing about their life together, the following moment he’s moving into a houseboat.
Dolly Alderton expertly explores the special Hell that is post-breakup life—often raw with emotion, insecurity, and misunderstanding. Told in quippy prose fit for a comedy show, Alderton saves up for a surprise ending that will leave you crying into your pillow in the best way possible. And if you’re on the go (good for you, post-breakup activities are a must!), the audiobook delivers.
Before You’ve Got Mail and When Harry Met Sally, there was Heartburn. In the ‘80s, Nora Ephron, the Queen of Romantic Comedies and dreamy movie sets, wrote a banger of a breakup novel that ultimately launched her career. In the novel, which inspired a feature film of the same title, cookbook author Rachel is married to Mark, a political journalist based in Washington, D.C. Seven months pregnant with their second child, Rachel stumbles across evidence that Mark is cheating on her. Rachel then does what any sensible woman would do: She goes to New York. Imbued with humor, the story tracks Rachel’s steps to recover from the shock, plan for her next chapter, and seek laughter, even through tears. Come for this classic’s high jinx, and stay for the must-try recipes and snackable prose.
Raise your hand if you’ve buried parts of yourself to make a relationship work. Such is the case for Jane, a writer married to filmmaker, John. At the beginning of their relationship, Jane is convinced that she and John want the same things: to cultivate a loving marriage, build a family, achieve their artistic dreams, and become unapologetically successful. But as John’s star begins to rise, Jane is expected to shoulder the brunt of, well, everything else. A scathing look at gender roles and working as a female artist, this book is for anyone who’s ever felt unappreciated or overlooked in their relationships. (If you find yourself a fan of this one, check out The Wife by Meg Wolitzer.)
Part punk manifesto, part breakup book, the LGBTQ+ novel Nevada is a cult classic for a reason. Meet Maria, a trans woman working and living in N.Y.C. While she’s an online expert on trans life, Maria struggles to maintain relationships offline. When she’s not tending to her blog about transgender rights, she’s avoiding her girlfriend, Steph. And so, after losing her job and splitting up with Steph, Maria embarks on the age-old quest west, seeking answers and self-reflection.
Instead, she meets James, who she’s convinced is trans but has yet to come out. In a near-pitch-perfect arc, Maria is transported from the role of needing care to giving it. This novel exposes the messiness that follows a breakup while illuminating the complexities and beauty of trans life. With biting prose that hums along like your favorite Sex Pistols song, this novel is unflinching in its complicated warmth.
There’s a reason that Sally Rooney has been coined the “first great millennial novelist.” It’s because of books like Normal People, her second novel, which was so popular it was adapted into a Hulu series.
For newcomers to her work, Normal People is arguably the best of her novels to read first. The novel follows the classic enemies-to-lovers(ish) romance book trope, featuring Connell, the classically popular boy in school, and Marianne, the quiet outsider. But, after a fateful meeting, their lives become inexplicably intertwined. The book examines their relationship over several years, mapping their misunderstandings and missed connections that are so believable you’ll forget that you’re reading fiction.
So, you’re newly single and feel like the world is over. Now what? Read this book. Because, if you’re looking for a relatable novel about a woman struggling to make sense of the flaming trainwreck that is her life, you’ve come to the right place.
Maggie is pushing 30, newly divorced, and can’t get offline. This debut, penned by Monica Heisey who used to be a writer on the hit comedy Schitt’s Creek, teems with full belly laugh moments as Maggie relearns how to function as a single woman. Readers will delight in her missteps as she pieces her life back together, leans into her group chat (been there), and returns to the world of random hookups and 4 a.m. hamburgers.
If it’s your turn to rec a title for your book club, consider this one; it’ll have everyone in your group cackling and cringing in equal measure.
Whether it’s martial arts, language, or relationships, Katie Kitamura applies surgical precision to every topic she explores in her novels. In A Separation, Kitamura turns her keen eye to grief and absence. The novel begins when the unnamed narrator learns her husband, Christopher, whom she’s been separated from for six months, has gone MIA while on a work trip in Greece. The catch: She and Christopher have kept their separation a secret. Traveling to Greece to aid in the search, the narrator maintains the charade that she and Christopher are still together, contributing to oozing tension.
If in the hands of a lesser author, the plot has the potential to become overbearing and heavy-handed. But, fortunately for us, Kitamura unfurls her typical, bone-clean prose that illuminates plenty in their white space. Lines like, “Our marriage was formed by the things Christopher knew and the things I did not,” will have you silently nodding along, especially as the story heats up.
An excellent depiction of the impact of mental health on relationships, Sorrow and Bliss blends comedy with heart-wrenching scenes about mental illness that will stick with you long after you’ve finished the novel. Martha, once a writer with a bright future, has come up short in life. Though if you asked her, she couldn’t begin to tell you when or how everything went sideways. On paper, she has (or had) it all. For one, there’s her husband Patrick, who she’s loved since she was a girl, a loyal sister, and an aunt who fiercely supports her. Somehow, she’s ruined everything.
It may be due to the random mood swings that can override everything else, causing her to push away everyone she loves, cannibalize her career, and mirror the chaos she experienced in childhood. To understand her outbursts, Martha revisits key moments of her upbringing to understand and address her behavior, hopefully before it’s too late. This book has a host of trigger warnings, from alcohol abuse to mental health issues, so be sure to give it a quick skim before diving in if you’re unsure if it’s right for you.
