Books like “To Kill a Mockingbird”

What to read after “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee: 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 Little Friend
Donna Tartt · 2002
Similar atmosphere: “Southern Gothic”
Years after a boy was found hanged in the family garden, his younger sister sets out to learn who killed him. Her amateur sleuthing among the town's odd characters pulls her from her grieving family into a dangerous, half-understood world.
2
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
Grady Hendrix · 2020
Similar atmosphere: “Southern Gothic”
- Southern Gothic
- Small Town Secrets
Patricia, a suburban housewife in 1990s Charleston, joins a true-crime book club that becomes the only excitement in her week. When a new neighbour is suspected of preying on local children, the women try to convince a town that would rather not listen, and then take matters into their own hands.
3
Sing, Unburied, Sing
Jesmyn Ward · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Southern Gothic”
- Southern Gothic
- Coming of Age
Thirteen-year-old Jojo rides in the back of a truck as his mother drives across Mississippi to collect his white father from prison. The journey stirs up family history and two restless ghosts, drawing Jojo toward a harder understanding of his mother and his own name.
4
Dead Until Dark
Charlaine Harris · 2001
Similar atmosphere: “Southern Gothic”
- Southern Gothic
- Small Town Secrets
Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana, has given up on dating until a vampire named Bill Compton walks into the bar. As the town's first vampire resident, Bill draws suspicion, and when women close to Sookie are murdered, she must use her gift to find the killer.
5
The House Next Door
Anne Rivers Siddons · 1978
Similar atmosphere: “Southern Gothic”
- Southern Gothic
- Small Town Secrets
A new house is built beside the Kennedys in their quiet Atlanta neighbourhood. Over two years the families who move in are destroyed by scandal and violence, and even visitors are touched. Colquitt begins to believe the house itself is malevolent, and decides to warn the world.
6
The Elementals
Michael McDowell · 1981
Similar atmosphere: “Southern Gothic”
- Southern Gothic
Two related families spend a summer at Beldame, a lonely stretch of Alabama coast where three Victorian houses face the Gulf. The third house is slowly drowning in sand, and something inside it has been waiting for the children since they were small.
7
The Wife Upstairs
Rachel Hawkins · 2021
Similar atmosphere: “Southern Gothic”
- Southern Gothic
A broke dog-walker in a gated Alabama neighborhood charms a recent widower whose wife drowned in a boating accident. As she settles into his grand house and hears more about the woman who came before her, the story she is being told keeps failing to add up.
8
The Reformatory
Tananarive Due · 2023
Similar atmosphere: “Southern Gothic”
Florida, 1950. Twelve-year-old Robert is sent to a brutal reform school after a scuffle with a white teenager. He can see ghosts, including the boys who died there, and the warden wants to use that ability. Outside, his sister works with a lawyer to bring him home.
9
Sharp Objects
Gillian Flynn · 2006
Similar atmosphere: “Southern Gothic”
- Southern Gothic
- Small Town Secrets
Reporter Camille Preaker returns to her small hometown to cover the murders of two girls. She must face her mother and half-sister, and her own memories, while the pressure of the assignment pushes her back toward the habits she has tried to leave behind.
10
Where the Crawdads Sing
Delia Owens · 2018
Similar setting: “Small Town Secrets”
Abandoned by her family as a child, Kya grows up alone in a North Carolina marsh, shunned by the nearby town as the Marsh Girl. She teaches herself to survive on the land and inches toward love, until a local man is found dead and she becomes the chief suspect.
11
Ghost Eaters
Clay McLeod Chapman · 2022
Similar atmosphere: “Southern Gothic”
- Southern Gothic
Erin is still grieving her ex-boyfriend Silas when a friend offers her Ghost, a drug that lets users see the dead. She takes it hoping for one more conversation with him, and finds the boundary between the living and the dead starting to give way around her.
12
The Spite House
Johnny Compton · 2023
Similar atmosphere: “Southern Gothic”
- Southern Gothic
Eric Ross is on the run with his two daughters, taking whatever work he can find. He answers an ad offering a large sum to anyone who will stay in the Masson House, a spite house in Texas said to be the state's most haunted, and record what happens there. The house may also hold answers about his family.