100 books like Eat Your Heart Out

By Kelly deVos,

Here are 100 books that Eat Your Heart Out fans have personally recommended if you like Eat Your Heart Out. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Shutter

Yi Shun Lai Author Of A Suffragist's Guide to the Antarctic

From my list on women and girls who rocked the boat.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been writing about women and girls who rock the boat for two decades. I’ve written about it from my own point of view, in award-winning essays, and from imagined points of view, in almost-award-winning women’s contemporary novels. Now, I’ve tackled it in the YA genre. I want to keep on exploring what it means to buck the system and live to tell the tale. We’re still making up for men writing women’s voices, for women’s voices going unheard. I’m trying to do my part to ask, what if we heard about history from the women’s point of view? 

Yi's book list on women and girls who rocked the boat

Yi Shun Lai Why did Yi love this book?

Another unlikely heroine, but only because she sees ghosts—okay, okay, maybe also because seeing ghosts or even talking about them is strictly forbidden in Rita Todacheene’s Navajo culture.

I loved this book so, so much for both its detail and its unusual premise. Todacheene’s ghosts haunt her and play an active part in her investigations as a forensic photographer. And, since the author was a forensic photographer herself, the work rings true and sharp. Ghosts aside, she also has to contend with her own culture, a struggle with which I’m intimately familiar.  

I also loved the way that Emerson structured this book—Todacheene’s beloved cameras, acting as framing devices, guide us through her timeline, and she keeps on learning things about herself even as we go from the most advanced camera to the oldest possible film-based option. I can’t wait to read the second in this series to see what our…

By Ramona Emerson,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Shutter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Longlisted for the National Book Award

This blood-chilling debut set in New Mexico’s Navajo Nation is equal parts gripping crime thriller, supernatural horror, and poignant portrayal of coming of age on the reservation.

Rita Todacheene is a forensic photographer working for the Albuquerque police force. Her excellent photography skills have cracked many cases—she is almost supernaturally good at capturing details. In fact, Rita has been hiding a secret: she sees the ghosts of crime victims who point her toward the clues that other investigators overlook. 

As a lone portal back to the living for traumatized spirits, Rita is terrorized by…


Book cover of The Silence of Bones

Yi Shun Lai Author Of A Suffragist's Guide to the Antarctic

From my list on women and girls who rocked the boat.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been writing about women and girls who rock the boat for two decades. I’ve written about it from my own point of view, in award-winning essays, and from imagined points of view, in almost-award-winning women’s contemporary novels. Now, I’ve tackled it in the YA genre. I want to keep on exploring what it means to buck the system and live to tell the tale. We’re still making up for men writing women’s voices, for women’s voices going unheard. I’m trying to do my part to ask, what if we heard about history from the women’s point of view? 

Yi's book list on women and girls who rocked the boat

Yi Shun Lai Why did Yi love this book?

I didn’t even know that indentured servitude to the police could be a thing for young women. Sure, sure, we’re talking about another place, another era—1800s Korea—but the immediacy with which Hur tells this story puts it right there for me. 

She weaves exacting detail and information throughout this gripping mystery: If the premise didn’t already hook me, I’d be pulled in by the way this mystery rapidly turns personal for Seol, our heroine. 

By June Hur,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Silence of Bones as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

I have a mouth, but I mustn't speak;
Ears, but I mustn't hear;
Eyes, but I mustn't see.

1800, Joseon (Korea). Homesick and orphaned sixteen-year-old Seol is living out the ancient curse: "May you live in interesting times." Indentured to the police bureau, she's been tasked with assisting a well-respected young inspector with the investigation into the politically-charged murder of a noblewoman.

As they delve deeper into the dead woman's secrets, Seol forms an unlikely bond of friendship with the inspector. But her loyalty is tested when he becomes the prime suspect, and Seol may be the only one capable…


Book cover of Forgive Me Not

Yi Shun Lai Author Of A Suffragist's Guide to the Antarctic

From my list on women and girls who rocked the boat.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been writing about women and girls who rock the boat for two decades. I’ve written about it from my own point of view, in award-winning essays, and from imagined points of view, in almost-award-winning women’s contemporary novels. Now, I’ve tackled it in the YA genre. I want to keep on exploring what it means to buck the system and live to tell the tale. We’re still making up for men writing women’s voices, for women’s voices going unheard. I’m trying to do my part to ask, what if we heard about history from the women’s point of view? 

Yi's book list on women and girls who rocked the boat

Yi Shun Lai Why did Yi love this book?

This book gave me insights I never knew I needed.

I wanted to keep on diving into Violetta Chen-Samuels’ world and hang out with her until she taught me everything she knew about life, love, family—and incarceration. I don’t have a lot of experience with justice-impacted people, and I haven’t even read a lot of fiction about this population, so it was important to me to read this work, but discovering Baker’s near-future/alternate reality world also kept me going.

I found myself marveling over her skill and her gutsiness. I lived in Queens, where this book is set, for six years, and the sense of odd familiarity her work evokes was eerie because it’s definitely not the Queens I know. Baker’s methodology of alternating chapters between Violetta and Vince, Violetta’s brother, kept me on my toes. The sense of discovery from one chapter to the next kept me turning pages,…

By Jennifer Baker,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Forgive Me Not as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

In this searing indictment of the juvenile justice system, one teen in detention weighs what she is willing to endure for forgiveness.

All it took was one night and one bad decision for fifteen-year-old Violetta Chen-Samuels' life to go off the rails. After driving drunk and causing the accident that kills her little sister, Violetta is incarcerated. Under the juvenile justice system, her fate lies in the hands of those she's wronged-her family. With their forgiveness, she could go home. But without it? Well . . .

Denied their forgiveness, Violetta is now left with two options, neither good-remain in…


Book cover of Beautiful Little Fools

Yi Shun Lai Author Of A Suffragist's Guide to the Antarctic

From my list on women and girls who rocked the boat.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been writing about women and girls who rock the boat for two decades. I’ve written about it from my own point of view, in award-winning essays, and from imagined points of view, in almost-award-winning women’s contemporary novels. Now, I’ve tackled it in the YA genre. I want to keep on exploring what it means to buck the system and live to tell the tale. We’re still making up for men writing women’s voices, for women’s voices going unheard. I’m trying to do my part to ask, what if we heard about history from the women’s point of view? 

Yi's book list on women and girls who rocked the boat

Yi Shun Lai Why did Yi love this book?

Terrible things happen to the women in this book, but they all, every single one of them, rock the boat to try and make their own lives. In this retelling of The Great Gatsby that centers the POVs of three women critical to the story (Jordan Baker, Daisy Buchanan, and Myrtle Wilson’s suffragist sister), we get the story that was always hiding between the lines.

I found myself proud of and mourning the lives of each of these women. I felt furious on their behalf and hopeful that the generations that came after them would reap the benefits of their mistakes and their work. 

Perhaps most surprising to me, I found myself wanting to know these women more than I ever, ever wanted to get to know Gatsby’s world. 

By Jillian Cantor,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Beautiful Little Fools as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“Jillian Cantor beautifully re-crafts an American classic in Beautiful Little Fools, placing the women of The Great Gatsby center stage: more than merely beautiful, not so little as the men in their lives assume, and certainly far from foolish. Both fresh and familiar, this page-turner is one to savor!” —Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code

“Jillian Cantor’s shifting kaleidoscope of female perspectives makes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic tale of Jazz Age longing and lust feel utterly modern. A breathtaking accomplishment.”—Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue 

USA Today bestselling…


Book cover of How to Avoid Being Killed in a Warzone

Jane Harvey-Berrick Author Of Troll: My Life in Bomb Disposal

From my list on first-hand accounts of warzones.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have no expertise in the military – I wish I did. But I have incredible respect for their work. I remember reading about the death of Oz Schmid, a bomb disposal officer who was killed in Afghanistan. It was the bravery of his widow, Christina, discussing the appalling lack of equipment and her quiet dignity that touched me profoundly. I asked myself, what can I do to help? Being a writer, I decided to write about it. I quickly realised that I needed an insider’s insight, and found Troll through Felix Fund, the bomb disposal charity. Troll and I wrote the play Later, After, seeing it performed was the proudest moment of my career. 

Jane's book list on first-hand accounts of warzones

Jane Harvey-Berrick Why did Jane love this book?

Most books about the military are written by men. But I was fascinated by this practical tip-based book by journalist Rosie Garthwaite. Wonderful anecdotes amongst real gems for staying safe in dangerous places. I also used it as research for one of my novels about a female war correspondent in Afghanistan.

By Rosie Garthwaite,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked How to Avoid Being Killed in a Warzone as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Everyone needs this book if they want to know how to get out of difficult situations whether at home or abroad. Written by Rosie Garthwaite, whose career as a journalist started in war-torn Basra, this book combines practical advice with contributions from many journalists and commentators including Rageh Omar and John Simpson, who share their own experience and advice on surviving in difficult and dangerous situations. Topics include how to avoid being misunderstood; how to avoid bombs and booby traps; how to escape from a riot; how to deal with frostbite and heat exhaustion; how to avoid trouble in sex,…


Book cover of Flesh

Katarina Vance Author Of Dead Heat

From my list on zombie apocalypse romance.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve loved zombie movies since I was a kid and first saw Return of the Living Dead during a slumber party. Since then I’ve watched as many as I could, along with shows like The Walking Dead and Z Nation. The changes in the publishing industry over the past few years have given me something even better – hundreds of amazing books about romance and survival in the zombie apocalypse to read. The five books on my list are the very best of those that eventually inspired me to write my own books. I hope you like them!

Katarina's book list on zombie apocalypse romance

Katarina Vance Why did Katarina love this book?

Flesh has it all – zombies, characters who come alive on the page, romance that sizzles, and action to keep the suspense going. Ali, Daniel, and Fin have to discover how to deal with each other as their relationship develops, while at the same time battling zombies and other survivors to reach safety. They learn to fight for each other, make sacrifices they would never have imagined in their old lives, and love like they would never have believed possible. The key to it all is the trust they develop in each other which forms a team that nothing can break.

By Kylie Scott,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Flesh as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ali has been hiding in an attic since civilization collapsed eight weeks ago. When the plague hit, her neighbors turned into mindless, hungry, homicidal maniacs.Daniel has been a loner his entire life. Then the world empties and he realizes that being alone isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.Finn is a former cop who is desperate for companionship, and willing to do anything it takes to protect the survivors around him.When the three cross paths they band together; sparks fly, romance blooms in the wasteland and Ali, Daniel and Finn bend to their very human needs in the ruins of…


Book cover of The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions

Michael R. Rampino Author Of Cataclysms: A New Geology for the Twenty-First Century

From my list on mass extinctions of life.

Why am I passionate about this?

A visit to the American Museum of Natural History when I was seven years old hooked me on dinosaurs and geology in general. I have maintained that passion to uncover the history of the earth with fieldwork on all seven continents, cutting-edge research, and teaching undergraduates to appreciate the implications of our tenancy on the planet, and our place within the solar system, the galaxy, and the wider universe.

Michael's book list on mass extinctions of life

Michael R. Rampino Why did Michael love this book?

Brannen examines the major mass extinctions in earth’s past and concurrent times of eruptions of massive floods of lava. He introduces us to the front-line researchers who are using the forensic tools of modern geology to uncover the connection between these titanic eruptions and the release of volcanic gases, severe greenhouse warming, ocean stagnation and eventual mass extinctions of life. This leads to the possibility that catastrophes can come from inside as well as outside the earth.

By Peter Brannen,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Ends of the World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'A book about one apocalypse - much less five - could have been a daunting read, were it not for the wit, lyricism, and clarity that Peter Brannen brings to every page.' Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes

Apocalypse, now?

Death by fire, ice, poison gas, suffocation, asteroid. At five moments through history life on Earth was dragged to the very edge of extinction.

Now, armed with revolutionary technology, scientists are uncovering clues about what caused these catastrophes. Deep-diving into past worlds of dragonflies the size of seagulls and fishes with guillotines for mouths, they explore how - against…


Book cover of Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction

Carrie Vaughn Author Of Bannerless

From my list on imagining life after an apocalypse.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have an idea. A conviction, let's call it, that humanity is not doomed. The Mad Max scenario where civilization collapses, thrusting us into an anarchic hellscape in which the living envy the dead, is totally unrealistic and not likely to happen. So let's imagine a post-apocalyptic scenario in which people come together to help each other, to save what knowledge they can, to build something new and useful. To learn the lessons from the destruction that came before. This is what I tried to imagine in my novel Bannerless, and this is why this topic interests me so much.

Carrie's book list on imagining life after an apocalypse

Carrie Vaughn Why did Carrie love this book?

When you study the long arc of history you begin to suspect that apocalypses aren't just inevitable, they're common. And so is survival, which is a really heartening thought. Human beings are crazily adaptable, and our ability to come together in communities (ideally, when we're at our best, which granted isn't always and is hard to see sometimes) will aid our survival. Annalee Newitz tells us how this is has happened before, and how it can happen again.

By Annalee Newitz,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Scatter, Adapt, and Remember as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist in Science & Technology

In its 4.5 billion-year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times: shattered by asteroid impacts, entombed in ice, smothered by methane, and torn apart by unfathomably powerful megavolcanoes. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How? In this brilliantly speculative work of popular science, Annalee Newitz, editor of io9.com, explains that although global disaster is all but inevitable, our chances of long-term species survival are better than ever. Scatter, Adapt, and Remember explores…


Book cover of Refugee

Alda P. Dobbs Author Of Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna

From my list on kids in war.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m passionate about this topic because my own great-grandmother escaped a war, the Mexican Revolution of 1913, at the age of nine years old. Family stories described her journey of marching across the desert, almost dying, determined to reach the United States. I am also an immigrant myself and I enjoy relating to stories that depict the immigrant experience. 

Alda's book list on kids in war

Alda P. Dobbs Why did Alda love this book?

My favorite part of this book is that it is three stories that are narrated and each one is very unique. However, the dreams, hopes and fears parallel one another making the reader understand that these journeys are universal.

You also learn that history repeats itself because each story is set in a different era. 

By Alan Gratz,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Refugee as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 10, 11, 12, and 13.

What is this book about?

This action-packed novel tackles topics both timely and
timeless: courage, survival, and the quest for home.

JOSEF is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With
the threat of concentration camps looming, he and
his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world .
. .

ISABEL is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and
unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft,
hoping to find safety in America . . .

MAHMOUD is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his
homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he…


Book cover of The Worst-Case Scenario: Mars

Andrea Menotti Author Of How Many Jelly Beans?

From my list on math and science.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a deeply curious person who has always loved the intersections of science and art, and the related intersection of the humanities and technology. I also have a passion for children’s books and have worked as both a writer and an editor, and as a developer of interactive apps and games based on children’s books. My latest book is a collaboration with one of my favorite childhood (and teenage) writing partners, Hena Khan. It’s an adventure where you get to make choices that turn you into a hero or a villain. It’s called Super You: The Power of Flight. I hope you’ll check it out!

Andrea's book list on math and science

Andrea Menotti Why did Andrea love this book?

For the oldest kids, I find this whole Worst-Case Scenario series to be so excellent! This one was developed with an expert consultant on Martian exploration, so it takes kids through the real choices they would have to make if they traveled to Mars. There is nothing like being in the driver’s seat, making life or death choices, to help someone really learn about a subject. This book will have them so stepped in Mars as they read, their fingertips will be covered in red dust! Well, almost!

By Hena Khan, David Borgenicht, Robert Zubrin , Yancey Labat (illustrator)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Worst-Case Scenario as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this ultimate adventure, join the youngest crew of astronauts ever to make the trip to Mars! You'll be faced with real dangers and decisions, and your choices will determine your fate on the Red Planet. Will you achieve your mission and return home to Earth safely, successfully earning the title of the youngest astronaut to make it to Mars? Or will you be forced to turn back early? Only you can determine your own fate. There are twenty-two endings to this adventure, but just one will lead to the ultimate success.


5 book lists we think you will like!

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