Books like “Their Eyes Were Watching God”

What to read after “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger · 1951
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
Expelled from prep school and drifting through New York before going home, teenager Holden Caulfield narrates a few days of restless encounters. He rails against adults he calls phonies while quietly grieving a brother and his own place in the world.
2
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy · 1891
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
Tess Durbeyfield, a poor country girl, is sent to wealthy relatives who share her family name. There she is wronged by a young man and later falls in love with Angel Clare, who knows nothing of her past. Society's judgement of her becomes the story's central cruelty.
3
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Benjamin Alire Sáenz · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
In 1987 El Paso, two Mexican American boys meet at a swimming pool and slowly become friends. Over long summers they share books, secrets and fears, and each begins to understand the love and longing he has been afraid to name.
4
All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque · 1929
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
Paul Baumer and his classmates enlist in the German army straight from school, urged on by a patriotic teacher. Trench life strips away everything they were taught, and the friends cling to each other as the war grinds them down.
5
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath · 1963
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
Esther Greenwood wins a magazine internship in New York, but the city and the pressure of her bright future leave her feeling hollow. Back home, her mind begins to slip and she is drawn toward a darkness she cannot name, even as she tries to recover.
6
The King of Elfland's Daughter
Lord Dunsany · 1924
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Star-Crossed Lovers
When the people of Erl ask to be ruled by a magic lord, their lord sends his son Alveric into Elfland to win the hand of Lirazel, the King's daughter. Their marriage cannot hold against the pull of Elfland, so Alveric sets out on a long, hopeless quest to bring her home while centuries pass in the mortal world.
7
The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton · 1920
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Star-Crossed Lovers
Newland Archer is engaged to May Welland in old New York society when May's cousin, the Countess Olenska, returns from Europe after leaving her husband. Newland and the Countess are drawn to each other, but the rules of their world demand that he marry May and hide what he feels.
8
The Fault in Our Stars
John Green · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
Hazel Grace, a teenager with terminal cancer, meets Augustus Waters at a support group. Their cautious romance grows through shared wit and a planned trip to Amsterdam, while both confront what they can and cannot control.
9
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
A young woman in colonial Korea, Sunja, leaves home for Japan with a husband she barely knows and raises a family that lives as outsiders for generations. Through war and poverty, the household holds on to its dignity and its secrets.
10
They Both Die at the End
Adam Silvera · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
On the day they both receive a call saying they will die within twenty-four hours, Mateo and Rufus meet through an app for people facing their last day. The two teenagers spend it together, trying to live a lifetime in the time they have left.
11
The Time Traveler's Wife
Audrey Niffenegger · 2003
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Star-Crossed Lovers
Henry has a genetic condition that pulls him through time without warning, so his life with the artist Clare never runs in the usual order. They meet again and again at different ages, and their love must hold through long absences and a future neither of them can change.
12
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak · 2005
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Coming of Age
Narrated by Death, the story follows Liesel Meminger, a girl sent to live with a foster family in Nazi Germany. She steals books, shares them with a Jewish man hiding in the basement, and grows up amid bombs, loss and small acts of kindness.