The Book You Should Read Next, Based On Your Favorite Classic

When her best friend dies mysteriously, Elizabeth cannot stop herself from searching for answers. Hoping to get her life back on track, she hires a personal assistant—but soon, the assistant Elizabeth hired to distract her from her obsession with her friend’s death is the same person working with her to uncover the truth behind it. This is because the assistant, Brianna, wants answers, too. She wants to know why the police killed her young Black son after someone in Elizabeth’s neighborhood called the cops on him while he was riding his bike. The only way to get answers is to entwine herself deep into Elizabeth’s life.

If you liked the exploration of race, justice, and honor in To Kill a Mockingbird, you won’t be able to put While We Were Burning down.

Phoebe has dreamed of staying at the Cornwall Inn in Newport, Rhode Island, for years. She pictured shucking oysters and taking sunset sails with her husband. Instead, she has come alone, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. But Phoebe is far from the only guest at the Cornwall, which is filled with attendees of Lila’s upcoming wedding. Lila has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe’s plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

If you appreciated the honest account of Esther Greenwood’s experience with mental illness in The Bell Jar, then you’ll enjoy this equally honest but surprisingly funny tale of Phoebe’s.

William Waters’ world lights up when he meets Julia Padavano. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. But when darkness from William’s past resurfaces, it jeopardizes not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but also the sisters’ devotion to each other, resulting in a catastrophic family rift. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?

If you love beautiful and proper Meg, headstrong Jo, gentle Beth, and pampered little Amy in Little Women, then you’ll love the Padavano sisters, too.

Mia, irreverent and hyper-analytical, has an explanation for everything—which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother, Eugene, don’t return from a walk in a nearby park. But by the time Mia’s brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing, and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak. What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance.

If you were interested in Steinbeck’s story of society’s treatment of disabled individuals, then you’ll enjoy the twisting storyline of Happiness Falls.

When Lucy’s best friend, Bridget, suddenly flees Toronto a week before her wedding, Lucy drops everything to follow her to Prince Edward Island. But while on the island, she’ll need to not only help Bridget but also stay out of Bridget’s brother’s bed. Bridget doesn’t know that Lucy and Felix hooked up the first time Lucy came to Prince Edward Island and have walked the line between friends and friends with benefits ever since.

If you loved the Prince Edward Island setting and friendship story in Anne of Green Gables, you’ll love This Summer Will Be Different. Plus, you’ll enjoy the quotes from Montgomery’s series that open each section and the trip Lucy and Felix take to Green Gables Heritage Place.

When Andy’s girlfriend, Jen, breaks up with him, he is left without a home, waiting for his stand-up career to take off, and wondering how everyone else around him has already grown up. Set adrift in the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. He believes that if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, including his ex-girlfriend’s side of the story.

If you loved Holden Caulfield’s honest narration of his journey of self-discovery amidst a refusal to grow up, you will be obsessed with Good Material.

Seeing her father’s worship of her Navy brother and ancestors, Frankie McGrath decides to join the Army Nurse Corps. But when she arrives in Vietnam, she quickly realizes that she isn’t at all prepared for what she has signed up for. Through the help of two fellow nurses who become her friends and doctors who see her willingness to learn, Frankie improves her nursing skills. She joins a surgical unit and is sent to the Seventy-First Evac in Pleiku, deep in the jungle where there is heavy fighting. When she returns home, she is met with parents who want to know nothing about her time in Vietnam, hostile war protestors who spit on her for her involvement, and fellow veterans who refuse to believe she was ever in Vietnam at all.

If you enjoyed learning about the Vietnam War in The Things They Carried, you’ll appreciate learning more about women’s involvement in the war in The Women.

On the precipice of Y2K in New York City, 22-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire, Matthew is the opposite of Lily, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Their differences don’t stop them from falling in love. Over 20 years later, their son, Nick, lives on an isolated Washington island with Lily. Certain Lily is hiding something, Nick sets out to find the biological father he has never known—but his journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers.

If you were intrigued by Huxley’s technologically advanced future where humans are genetically bred, then you will be interested in Khong’s exploration of genetics and destiny in Real Americans.

When Vivian Morris gets kicked out of college due to her lackluster freshman-year performance, her affluent parents send her to Manhattan to live with her aunt, who owns a flamboyant, crumbling midtown theater. At the Lily Playhouse, Vivian is introduced to an entire cosmos of unconventional and charismatic characters that enthrall and excite her. However, when she makes a personal mistake that results in professional scandal, her new world is turned upside down.

If you love the glamour, parties, and scandal of The Great Gatsby, then you’ll love City of Girls.

Jane is a broke dog walker who steals from her clients. But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester. Eddie was recently widowed when his wife, Bea, and her friend drowned in a boating accident, their bodies lost to the deep. Jane can’t help but see an opportunity in Eddie, whose wealth and influence can give her the kind of protection she’s always yearned for. Yet Jane is increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, fearing that she’ll never be able to measure up to Eddie’s former love. Can she win Eddie’s heart before her past—or his—catches up to her?

Fans of Jane Eyre will love this retelling that flips the script on the timeless tale of forbidden romance, ill-advised attraction, and a wife who just won’t stay buried.

When the Tox came, it started slow. First, the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, the remaining survivors don’t dare wander outside their school’s fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. But when one of their own goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her.

If you enjoyed the survival story of Lord of the Flies, you’ll love this feminist take on Golding’s classic.

Elliot is a bisexual incoming freshman at Emerson College in Boston who says, “If you must label me, my sexuality is horny.” Picking a major is the last thing on her mind because she’s too busy experiencing all that college has to offer—from dancing all night at off-campus parties to testing her RA Rose’s patience to setting up her new friends to having the best sex one can have on a twin-size dorm-room bed. But when things start to get serious—when finals creep up on her, when the sex she’s having isn’t that great, when the friendships she’s built aren’t as solid as she thought—Elliot will have to take the time to figure out who she wants to be.

If you love the matchmaking plotline in Emma, you’ll love this retelling of Austen’s classic.

Anna K is an unhappy teenage girl who is miserable in her own special way. She’s at the top of Manhattan and Greenwich society, though she prefers the company of her horses and dogs. She has a perfect but boring boyfriend. And she has always made her Korean-American father proud, even though he’s controlling. But everything changes when Anna meets notorious playboy Alexia “Count” Vronsky. As Anna is pulled to Alexia, she has to decide how much of her life she is willing to let go for the chance to be with him. And when a shocking revelation threatens to shatter their relationship, she is forced to question if she has ever known herself at all.

Fans of Anna Karenina will enjoy this retelling of the dizzying, glorious, heart-stopping experience of first love and first heartbreak.

Evie Barnes and her friends are bad. They wear bold makeup, laugh too loud, and run around with boys. Most of all, they protect their own against the world. So when Evie is saved from a sinister encounter by a good girl from the “right” side of the tracks, every rule she’s always lived by is called into question.

Fans of The Outsiders will enjoy this gripping gender-flipped reimagining of the classic that explores the deep bonds of female friendship and what it takes to be a “bad girl.”

Korede’s sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, the possible sociopath. Thankfully, for Ayoola, when Korede finds Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row dead, she knows how to clean up the mess. Clean the blood with bleach, move the body wrapped in a sheet like a mummy, and keep Ayoola from posting to Instagram when she should be mourning her “missing” boyfriend. But when Korede’s crush asks her for Ayoola’s number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she’s willing to go to protect her.

If you enjoyed Dostoevsky’s exploration of morality, you will enjoy Braithwaite’s chilling yet slightly humorous novel.

In 1926, Shanghai is home to two gangs who run the streets red, leaving the city in the grip of chaos. Juliette Cai is the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang, a network of criminals far above the law. Roma Montagov is the heir of the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. Roma is also Juliette’s first love—and first betrayal. As deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.

Fans of Romeo and Juliet will enjoy this imaginative retelling of a tale of star-crossed lovers.