Books like Sharp Objects: 10 classics to read next
These classics offer family secrets and psychological crime for readers who loved Sharp Objects. Start with Lady Audley's Secret, where a wealthy woman's hidden past threatens her respectable life.
Lady Audley's Secret
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
A mother's dangerous past threatens a respectable family, bringing Gothic family secrets into focus, as in Sharp Objects.
10 h readMedium
Uncle Silas
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Under her uncle's guardianship, a vulnerable heiress faces murderous family danger in a story of Gothic family secrets.
11 h 20 min readChallenging
The Woman in White
Wilkie Collins
An investigation reveals a plot against an heiress behind respectable family life, connecting psychological crime with the appeal of Sharp Objects.
16 h 10 min readChallenging
The House of the Seven Gables
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Within an ancestral mansion, generations remain shadowed by family wrongdoing, offering Gothic family secrets rooted in an old injustice.
6 h 50 min readChallenging
The Turn of the Screw
Henry James
Children occupy the center of a sinister household mystery, echoing Sharp Objects through psychological suspense with deeply damaged characters.
2 h 50 min readMedium
The Leavenworth Case
Anna Katharine Green
A wealthy merchant's murder draws a lawyer into family secrets, making psychological crime the connection with Sharp Objects.
7 h 20 min readMedium
The Dead Secret
Wilkie Collins
Hidden truths about a mother's past draw a woman toward psychological suspense with deeply damaged characters and a broken promise.
9 h readMedium
The Lodger
Marie Belloc Lowndes
Behind an ordinary household's doors, a landlady suspects her guest is a serial murderer, bringing psychological crime uncomfortably close.
5 h 10 min readMedium
Thérèse Raquin
Émile Zola
Two lovers conceal murder within a claustrophobic household, offering psychological suspense with deeply damaged characters through their ensuing collapse.
4 h 40 min readMedium
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson
Respectability conceals a murderous private life, linking the sinister communities of Sharp Objects with a lawyer's investigation into a doctor's connections.
1 h 40 min readMedium
What are the best classic books like Sharp Objects?
Lady Audley's Secret is a strong starting point for a respectable family's dangerous secrets. The Woman in White offers an investigation into a plot against an heiress, while Thérèse Raquin turns toward murder and its psychological consequences within a constrained household.
Which classic book is closest to Sharp Objects?
Lady Audley's Secret is the closest match here for secrets beneath a respectable family surface. A friend's disappearance threatens a wealthy woman's hidden past, and her beauty and gentle manner inspire trust even as suspicion grows around her.
Where should I start if I loved Sharp Objects?
Read Lady Audley's Secret next for the contrast between a comfortable family life and a dangerous hidden past. For another mood, choose The Lodger for suspicion inside an ordinary household, or The Turn of the Screw for children at the center of a ghostly mystery.
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