My family isn't perfect. 

Yours probably isn't either.

Growing up, I thought every family was like mine. Then I started reading books about other families. I realised, oh, everyone's family is complicated. 

Some are toxic.

Some are loving but broken.

Some are holding secrets that poison everything.

These 28 books show the messy, complicated, sometimes painful reality of family life. No perfect Instagram families here. Just honest stories about the people who shape us, for better or worse.

Some made me cry. Some made me angry. A few made me laugh at how absurd family dynamics can get. All of them made me feel less alone.

Let's find out which ones they are.

If you need lighter reads between these heavy books, check my books like The Alchemist for more hopeful stories. Read the ones that call to you. Skip the ones that feel too close to home. Take breaks. Therapy might help too (seriously).

These books explore parents who damage their children. Either through abuse, neglect, or impossible expectations. Reading them feels like validation if you grew up walking on eggshells.

Educated by Tara Westover

Tara grew up in rural Idaho with survivalist parents. 

No school. No doctors. Her father's paranoia controls everything. Her mother enables the abuse. Tara teaches herself enough to escape to college. But leaving means losing her entire family.

This memoir gutted me. 

Westover writes about family loyalty versus self-preservation. She shows how hard it is to break free when love and trauma are tangled together. Her father's mental illness destroys the family, but they all pretend everything's normal.

I kept thinking: how do you choose yourself when it means losing everyone you've ever known?

• Best for: Readers who survived difficult childhoods  
• Trigger warnings: Physical abuse, religious extremism, no medical care  
• Vibes: Memoir, devastating, ultimately hopeful

The Push by Ashley Audrain

Blythe loves her husband. 

She wants to be a good mother. But from the moment her daughter Violet is born, something feels wrong. Violet seems to hate her. Small cruelties. Cold stares. Disturbing behaviour.

Is Violet a bad seed? Or is Blythe a bad mother? The truth is worse than either option.

This book terrified me. 

If you like psychological thrillers about families, you'll also love my list of 17 books like The Silent Patient.

Audrain explores maternal ambivalence, what happens when you don't instantly love your child. She shows generational trauma passing from grandmother to mother to daughter like a curse. 

The ending destroyed me.

• Best for: Parents who've felt "un-maternal" feelings  
• Trigger warnings: Child death, postpartum depression, gaslighting  
• Vibes: Psychological thriller, uncomfortable, haunting  
• Note: Will make you question everything about motherhood

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Merricat and Constance live alone in their family mansion. 

The rest of their family died. Poisoned at dinner six years ago. The village hates them. Merricat protects Constance fiercely. Their uncle, Cousin Charles, arrives and threatens their isolated world.

Jackson writes gothic family horror like no one else. 

The atmosphere drips with dread. You slowly realise this family was poisonous long before the actual poisoning. Merricat's voice is childlike and terrifying. She'll do anything to keep her sister.

I loved how weird and dark this book gets. It's about families that destroy themselves from the inside.

• Best for: Gothic fiction lovers who like unreliable narrators  
• Trigger warnings: Murder, agoraphobia, village cruelty  
• Vibes: Classic (1962), gothic, atmospheric, strange  
• Note: Shirley Jackson's masterpiece

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

A woman suffers from "nervous depression" after childbirth. 

Her physician husband prescribes "rest cure"—she's forbidden from working, writing, or leaving her room. She slowly loses her mind, obsessing over the yellow wallpaper in her prison bedroom.

This short story is only 6,000 words, but it punched me in the chest. 

Gilman shows how families (husbands) can gaslight women into madness while claiming to help. The narrator's husband "knows best." He dismisses her feelings. He isolates her. He destroys her.

Written in 1892, but feels shockingly modern. Every woman who's been told "you're overreacting" will feel this one.

• Best for: Feminist literature lovers, anyone interested in mental health history  
• Trigger warnings: Postpartum depression, gaslighting, confinement  
• Vibes: Classic, short (30 min read), psychological horror  
• Note: Free to read online

Siblings should be your first friends. But sometimes they're your first enemies, competitors, or the people who know exactly how to hurt you.

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Korede is a nurse in Lagos. 

She's practical, responsible, overlooked. Her younger sister Ayoola is beautiful, charming, and adored. Ayoola also keeps killing her boyfriends. Korede keeps cleaning up the bodies.

Then Ayoola starts dating the doctor Korede secretly loves. Now Korede must choose: protect her sister or protect him?

I devoured this book in one sitting. 

For more dark, twisty reads, see my thriller recommendations or mystery books for beginners.

Braithwaite writes dark humour so well. The sister dynamic is painfully real—the "good" daughter always sacrificing for the "golden" one. Set in Nigeria, which adds richness to the family dynamics. 

The ending shocked me.

• Best for: Readers who love dark comedy and sibling rivalry  
• Trigger warnings: Murder, domestic violence, body disposal  
• Vibes: Dark comedy, thriller, Nigerian setting, quick read  
• Note: Shortlisted for Women's Prize for Fiction

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Identical twin sisters Stella and Desiree grew up in a small Black town in the 1950s, Louisiana. 

At sixteen, they run away together. Then Stella vanishes. She passes as white, marries a white man, and never looks back. Desiree returns home with her dark-skinned daughter.

Decades later, their daughters' lives intersect.

This book explores identity, colourism, and family secrets. Bennett shows how one choice ripples through generations. Stella's passing separates the twins forever. Neither can fully live without the other. 

The parallel stories broke my heart.

• Best for: Readers interested in race, identity, and family bonds  
• Vibes: Literary fiction, multigenerational, beautifully written  
• Note: Oprah's Book Club pick

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Cadence comes from a wealthy, perfect family. 

Every summer, the family gathers on their private island. Cadence, her cousins, and Gat are inseparable—"the liars." Then, during summer fifteen, something terrible happens. Cadence can't remember. She has migraines, gaps in memory, and a family that won't tell her the truth.

Two years later, she returns to the island to remember.

The twist destroyed me. I won't spoil it, but it reframes everything. 

Lockhart shows wealthy families and their inability to deal with real problems. They smile for photos while everything crumbles underneath. 

The ending is brutal.

• Best for: YA readers who like unreliable narrators and shocking twists  
• Trigger warnings: Accidental death, grief, family manipulation  
• Vibes: YA, mystery, wealthy family drama, gut-punch ending  
• Note: Reread immediately after finishing

Every family has secrets. These books explore what happens when those secrets surface—and destroy everything.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Two families collide in 1990s suburban Ohio.

The Richardsons are wealthy, perfect, rule-following. Mia and her daughter Pearl are nomadic artists living hand-to-mouth. When the Richardsons rent Mia a house, their lives tangle. A custody battle over a Chinese-American baby tears the community apart.Then the Richardson house burns down. All the fires were set deliberately.

Ng writes about privilege, motherhood, and the lies we tell ourselves.

For more family drama, check out books about loneliness. 

Elena Richardson thinks she's a good person. She's not. The Richardson kids are suffocating under perfection. Mia carries a devastating secret. 

Everything explodes beautifully.

• Best for: Book club discussions, readers who love character-driven drama  
• Vibes: Suburban drama, multiple POVs, slow-burn, explosive ending  
• Note: HBO limited series adaptation

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Libby inherits a London mansion on her 25th birthday. 

When she arrives, she learns the dark history: twenty-five years ago, police found three dead bodies and a crying baby (Libby) in that house. The story switches between past and present, slowly revealing what happened.

A charismatic man. 

A cult-like dynamic. Children trapped. Secrets that won't stay buried.

I couldn't stop reading. 

Jewell builds dread masterfully. The past timeline shows a family destroyed by manipulation. The present shows the survivors dealing with trauma. The family dynamics are creepy and claustrophobic. That house holds horrors.

• Best for: Thriller readers who like family gothic vibes  
• Trigger warnings: Child abuse, cult-like control, death  
• Vibes: Gothic thriller, dual timeline, creepy house, dark secrets

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

Cecilia finds a letter from her husband. 

"To be opened only in the event of my death." But he's not dead. She opens it anyway. Inside is a confession that will destroy their family and someone else's.

Moriarty weaves three women's stories together. 

One discovers the secret. One has been destroyed by it without knowing. One will face an impossible choice. When the truth emerges, no one escapes unscathed.

I loved how Moriarty shows that perfect families are performances. 

Cecilia's marriage looks ideal. Underneath? Built on a terrible lie. The moral questions haunted me: would you protect your family at someone else's expense?

• Best for: Book clubs, readers who love moral dilemmas  
• Vibes: Domestic drama, page-turner, "what would you do?" questions  
• Note: Liane Moriarty at her best

Trauma doesn't stop with one generation. These books show how pain passes from parents to children to grandchildren—until someone breaks the cycle.

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

Gifty is a neuroscience PhD student studying addiction in mice. 

She's trying to understand why her brother Nana died of an opioid overdose. Why her Ghanaian immigrant mother fell into depression. Why did their family fall apart after her father abandoned them?

Science can't answer everything. 

Faith failed her family. Gifty searches for meaning in the wreckage. Gyasi writes with such emotional precision. 

She shows how immigrant families carry double burdens: racism, cultural displacement, and the American Dream crushing them. Gifty's mother's depression is generational and cultural. The brother's addiction started with a sports injury.

This book asks: how do we survive what breaks us?

• Best for: Readers who want literary fiction about grief and science  
• Vibes: Literary, immigrant family, addiction, grief, faith vs. science  
• Note: Deeply moving, slow-paced

Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbag

Translated from Kannada

A poor South Indian family lives cramped in an ant-infested house. 

Then they get rich overnight. They moved to a big bungalow. Everyone celebrates the money. But wealth changes them. Relationships sour. The conservative family dynamics twist into something toxic.

The narrator watches helplessly as his family becomes unrecognisable.

"Ghachar Ghochar" means tangled up—and that's exactly what happens. Shanbag shows how money poisons family bonds. The uncle becomes tyrannical. The women lose autonomy. The narrator escapes to a café, unable to fix what's broken. 

Under 130 pages but devastatingly powerful.

• Best for: Readers who like short, impactful literary fiction  
• Vibes: Translated, Indian family, wealth corrupting, psychological  
• Note: One of the best Kannada novels in English

Weyward by Emilia Hart

Three women across centuries share the Weyward name. 

Altha, accused of witchcraft in 1619. Violet, trapped in her family's crumbling manor in 1942. Kate escaped an abusive relationship in 2019. All connected by magic, trauma, and survival.

Each woman inherits both gifts and curses from the women before her. 

They're drawn to nature, animals, and danger. The family history reveals itself slowly, showing patterns of abuse and resilience.

I loved how Hart weaves three timelines seamlessly. 

The "witchcraft" is really women's knowledge and power. The generational abuse runs through all three stories. But so does the strength to break free. Feminist historical fiction done beautifully.

• Best for: Historical fiction fans who love feminist themes  
• Vibes: Triple timeline, witchy, generational trauma, ultimately hopeful  
• Note: Perfect for fans of The Prophets and Mexican Gothic

Sometimes family isn't just dysfunctional; it's actively dangerous. These books show families where someone is violent, manipulative, or deadly.

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

Translated from Korean

Yeong-hye has a nightmare about blood and meat. 

She stops eating meat. Her husband is embarrassed. Her father is furious. Her family tries to force-feed her. She becomes more extreme—stops eating almost everything, believes she's becoming a tree.

Three perspectives: her husband, her brother-in-law, her sister. All see her descent, but can't save her.

This book disturbed me deeply. 

Kang shows a woman erased by her family until she erases herself. Yeong-hye's vegetarianism is a rebellion against Korean patriarchal family structures. Her family's violent response proves she was right to resist. The body horror is intense. The metaphor is devastating.

• Best for: Literary fiction readers who can handle disturbing content  
• Trigger warnings: Eating disorder, sexual violence, family violence, self-harm  
• Vibes: Translated, surreal, dark, body horror  
• Note: Man Booker International Prize winner

The Couple Next Door  by Shari Lapena

Anne and Marco leave their baby home alone (with a monitor) while they attend dinner next door. 

When they return, the baby is gone. Kidnapped. The police investigate. Everyone's lying. Anne's parents are controlling and toxic. Marco is hiding financial problems. The neighbours have secrets.

As the truth emerges, you realise this family was broken long before the kidnapping.

Lapena writes addictive domestic thrillers. The family dynamics, Anne's mother's constant criticism, Marco's resentment, and their crumbling marriage create the conditions for tragedy. I suspected everyone. The twists kept coming. 

The ending shocked me.

• Best for: Fast-paced thriller readers  
• Trigger warnings: Infant kidnapping, postpartum depression  
• Vibes: Domestic thriller, twisty, fast-paced  
• Note: Perfect for fans of Gone Girl

Sadie by Courtney Summers

Sadie's little sister, Mattie, is murdered. 

The police aren't helping. Sadie disappears to hunt the killer herself. The story alternates between Sadie's road trip and a podcast investigating her disappearance.

Sadie is nineteen. 

She's been protecting Mattie from their addict mother and dangerous men their whole lives. This family failed both girls. Now Sadie will get justice or die trying.

This book wrecked me. 

Summers writes about girls failed by every system—family, police, society. Sadie is fierce and broken. The audio format adds another layer (the podcast episodes are actual audio). 

The ending is gutting and realistic.

• Best for: YA thriller readers who want something raw and real  
• Trigger warnings: Child abuse, sexual abuse, murder, addiction  
• Vibes: YA thriller, podcast format, road trip, devastating  
• Note: Listen to the audiobook for the full experience

These books explore families caught between cultures, where tradition 

clashes with modernity, and identity becomes a battleground.

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Rachel thinks she's meeting her boyfriend, Nick's family, in Singapore. 

She doesn't know his family is insanely wealthy and powerful. His mother 

Eleanor hates Rachel immediately—she's not Singaporean enough, not rich enough, not good enough. The family dynamics are cutthroat.

Behind the glamour, this family is a battlefield. Eleanor controls everything. Nick's relatives are vicious. Rachel must survive a family that wants her destroyed.

I loved how Kwan shows Asian family expectations and pressure. 

Eleanor isn't just a monster; she's protecting the family legacy in her twisted way. The wealth is absurd. The family politics are Shakespearean. It's funny, entertaining, but also shows real cultural family tensions.

• Best for: Light reads about family drama with humour  
• Vibes: Romantic comedy, Singaporean family, wealth, cultural clash  
• Note: First in trilogy, major film adaptation

The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay

Shalini grows up in Bangalore with distant parents. 

Her mother has mental illness. Her father is cold. A Kashmiri salesman visited yearly—he was the only warmth in her childhood. When her mother dies, Shalini travels to Kashmir to find him.

What she discovers about her mother, Kashmir, and herself changes everything.

Vijay writes about fractured families and fractured nations. Shalini's family avoided emotions and intimacy. Her mother's mental illness was ignored. The Kashmir conflict mirrors the family dysfunction. Both are beautiful on the surface, violent underneath. 

This book is slow and literary but deeply rewarding.

• Best for: Literary fiction readers interested in India and Kashmir  
• Vibes: Literary, Indian setting, Kashmir conflict, family secrets  
• Note: Debut novel, highly acclaimed

Those Pricey Thakur Girls by Anuja Chauhan

The Thakur family had five daughters in 1980s Delhi. 

Everyone wants to marry them (they're beautiful, well-connected). But this family is messy. The father is a retired judge with strong opinions. The mother manages chaos. The sisters fight, love, and interfere in each other's lives.

When the youngest daughter Debjani falls for a "low-class" journalist, family drama explodes.

I loved this warm, funny portrayal of a big Indian family. 

Yes, they're dysfunctional; controlling parents, sibling rivalry, class prejudice. But they also deeply love each other. Chauhan captures Indian family dynamics perfectly: intrusive, loud, smothering, but ultimately protective. 

A lighter read on this list.

• Best for: Readers who want dysfunctional-but-loving family stories  
• Vibes: Indian romcom, 1980s Delhi, big family, warm and funny  
• Note: Bollywood-style family drama

These thrillers use family as the source of suspense. Who can you trust when the danger lives in your own home?

The Adults by Caroline Hulse

Claire and Matt are divorced. 

They're trying to be mature adults. For their daughter Scarlett's sake, they plan a Christmas holiday together with their new partners. At a resort. With activities planned. What could go wrong?

Everything. 

Absolutely everything goes wrong. This book is hilarious and cringe-inducing. Hulse nails blended family awkwardness. The adults are all trying so hard to be mature while passive-aggressively destroying each other. Scarlett (age 7) is watching and learning all the wrong lessons. It's a comedy about divorce, blended families, and how adults are just tall children.

• Best for: Readers who want dark comedy about divorce  
• Vibes: British humour, blended family chaos, Christmas disaster  
• Note: Genuinely funny while showing family dysfunction

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Kya grows up abandoned in the North Carolina marshes. 

Her mother leaves. Her siblings leave. Her father leaves. She raises herself alone from age 10. The town calls her "Marsh Girl" and treats her like trash. When a popular boy is found dead, everyone blames Kya.

This book shows family abandonment and its lifelong effects. 

Kya never learns to trust. Her isolation shapes everything. The mystery unfolds alongside her survival story. Owens writes beautifully about nature and loneliness.

Not quite a thriller, but the family dysfunction (abandonment, abuse) drives the entire plot. Kya's father was violent. Her mother fled but left the children behind. 

The trauma ripples through Kya's entire life.

• Best for: Readers who loved atmospheric mysteries with a strong sense of place  
• Trigger warnings: Child abandonment, domestic violence, poverty  
• Vibes: Mystery, coming-of-age, nature writing, isolated protagonist  
• Note: Massive bestseller, polarising

The Bedroom Window by KL Slater

Claire witnesses something shocking from her bedroom window. 

A crime. She reports it. But her family starts acting strangely. Her husband is defensive. Her teenage daughter is hiding something. Claire realises the people she trusts most might be lying.

As she investigates, her family falls apart. Everyone has secrets. The The bedroom window reveals truths she wasn't supposed to see.

Slater writes twisty domestic thrillers. 

The family seems normal until it isn't. Claire questions her sanity (gaslighting). Her husband's behaviour gets suspicious. The daughter won't talk. The revelations keep coming. 

Fast-paced and addictive.

• Best for: Domestic thriller fans who love unreliable perspectives  
• Vibes: British thriller, family secrets, twisty, fast-paced  
• Note: KL Slater specialises in domestic suspense

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Pippa investigates a closed murder case for her school project. 

Five years ago, Sal Singh supposedly killed his girlfriend, Andie, and then died by suicide. Everyone believes it. Pippa doesn't. As she investigates, she uncovers secrets about both families.

Andie's family was toxic: a controlling father, an abused wife, resentful sister. Sal's family is destroyed by his supposed crime. Pippa's own family gets pulled into danger as she gets closer to the truth.

Jackson writes YA thrillers that don't talk down to teens. The family Dynamics: Andie's abusive home, Sal's immigrant family facing racism, drive the mystery. Both families hid terrible secrets. The truth about what really happened is shocking.

• Best for: YA mystery fans, readers who love investigative plots  
• Vibes: YA thriller, podcast-style investigation, small town secrets  
• Note: First in trilogy, highly addictive

The mother-daughter relationship is complicated. These books explore it at its most difficult: when love and damage exist in the same person.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Christopher is 15 and autistic. 

He finds his neighbour's dog dead. He decides to investigate. His investigation reveals a truth his parents have hidden: his mother isn't dead—she left because she couldn't handle raising him. His father has been lying for years.

Christopher's journey to find his mother in London is both heartbreaking and triumphant. 

The family fell apart because they couldn't communicate. 

His mother felt like a failure. His father couldn't cope. Christopher was caught in the middle.

Haddon writes Christopher's voice brilliantly.  Haddon writes Christopher's voice brilliantly. For more unique perspectives, see my 100 best Indian books, which include diverse voices.

The family dysfunction comes from love, not cruelty—but it's still deeply damaging. Shows how special needs parenting can break marriages. How parents' inability to cope affects children. 

Honest and moving.

• Best for: Readers who want neurodivergent perspectives  
• Vibes: Mystery, neurodivergent narrator, family discovery, moving  
• Note: Modern classic

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

Eva and Shane had one intense week together fifteen years ago. 

Both became successful writers. Now they meet again in New York. The chemistry is still explosive. But both carry trauma—Eva from her mother's addiction and absence, Shane from foster care and violence.

Eva is raising her daughter alone, trying not to repeat her mother's mistakes. Shane battles mental health issues. Their families broke them. 

Can they break the cycles?

Williams writes swoon-worthy romance but doesn't shy from family trauma. 

Eva's mother was a drug addict—glamorous but neglectful. Eva overcompensates with her daughter. Shane has no family. Both are trying to build something healthy from broken foundations. Sexy, funny, and emotionally deep.

• Best for: Romance readers who want emotional depth  
• Vibes: Contemporary romance, second-chance love, family trauma, Black characters  
• Note: Romance with real family issues

Dear Amy by Helen Callaghan

Margot teaches at a high school. 

Her student Bethan disappears—just like Margot's friend Amy disappeared twenty years ago. Margot receives letters that might be from Amy. But Amy should be dead. As Margot investigates, family secrets emerge.

Margot's own family is fractured, her sister's mental illness, her mother's coldness, and her father's death. Bethan comes from a troubled home. Amy's family had dark secrets. All three girls are connected by families that failed to protect them.

Callaghan writes gripping psychological thrillers with heart. 

The family dysfunction isn't just background—it's the reason these girls disappeared. The mystery unfolds alongside Margot's own family revelations. 

Twisty and emotional.

• Best for: Psychological thriller fans  
• Vibes: British thriller, missing girl, dual timeline, family secrets  
• Note: Published as "Dear Amy" in the UK, a different title in the US

Twenty-Seven Minutes by Ashley Tate

Ten years ago, Phoebe's brother Grant drowned. 

It took twenty-seven minutes for help to arrive. Those minutes haunt three people: Phoebe, her former best friend June, and the boy who loved them both. All three carry guilt and secrets about that night.

The story unravels through multiple perspectives, showing how one family's tragedy destroyed multiple families. 

Phoebe's family never recovered. June's family won't talk about it. The town is divided into sides. Everyone blames someone.

Tate explores how families process (or don't process) grief. Phoebe's parents shut down. She grew up in a house of silence. The guilt and blame poisoned every relationship. 

The truth about those twenty-seven minutes is devastating.

• Best for: Readers who love character-driven mysteries  
• Trigger warnings: Drowning, grief, guilt, family dysfunction  
• Vibes: Multiple POVs, small town secrets, slow-burn reveal  
• Note: Debut novel

Boat Number Five by Monika Kompanikova

Translated from Slovak

Jarka is 15 and lives with her alcoholic mother in a small Slovak town. 

Her mother is unpredictable, sometimes loving, often cruel. Jarka must parent herself and protect her mother from her own worst impulses. She dreams of escape but feels trapped by obligation.

Kompanikova writes about Eastern European poverty and family dysfunction with stark honesty. 

Jarka's situation is bleak, but her voice is hopeful. She finds small moments of beauty. The mother-daughter relationship is 

Painful. Jarka loves her mother but also resents her. 

No easy answers.

I loved this slim, powerful novel. It shows dysfunctional families from a child's perspective. The confusion, love, anger, and exhaustion of parenting your own parent.

• Best for: Readers who want translated fiction about complex family bonds  
• Vibes: Translated, coming-of-age, poverty, mother-daughter relationship  
• Note: Rare Slovak literature in English

If you recognised your family in any of these books, you're not alone.

I've found comfort in reading about messy families. They remind me that:

• Family dysfunction isn't personal failure
• You can love people who hurt you
• Breaking toxic cycles is possible (and necessary)
• Your family doesn't define your future

Some of these books are dark. Some will trigger difficult memories. But all of them validate a simple truth: families are complicated, and pretending they're not doesn't help anyone.

Read the ones that call to you. If you want more honest book recommendations, check my books like The Silent Patient or my psychological thrillers list.

And remember: just because you came from a dysfunctional family doesn't mean you have to create one.