Breakups usually provoke strong emotions in us. When a significant relationship ends, we may reflect on various facets of who we are, how we interact with people, how we cope, and what we may or may not be missing in our lives. It can be helpful to have resources to guide you through these thoughts that may be coming to mind because breakups can lead to this kind of reflection and introspection.
Best Breakup Books to Read
Let’s face it; ending a relationship can be a really unpleasant event. A certain level of pain can develop while ending a relationship—and for a while, after it ends—regardless of whether you were the one to start it or not. We frequently find ourselves nostalgic about what was and what might have been and fretting over arbitrary triggers like well-known songs, odors, or locations that make us think of our ex.
A good book can provide you with a lot of consolation through a breakup. I have very specific tastes when it comes to breakup literature. I basically had no patience for anything that wasn’t current fiction written by a woman, with a female narrator who had a bit melancholy and honest-yet-droll voice—voices that reflected my own one—when my most recent sorrow was at its most raw. As time passed, my focus extended a bit, but all of the top breakup books, in my opinion, share the following trait: They give you a chance to get away, but not mindlessly. The finest of both reading worlds, their insights assist you in processing what is happening when you are completely absorbed in something else.
Here are some of the books that surely help you cope with a breakup:
The Pisces by Melissa Broder
- Hogarth; Reprint Edition (February 5, 2019)
- English
- 304 Pages Paperback
- 1 Ounces Weight
Overview
The Pisces by Melissa Broder is a must-read for anyone going through love addiction withdrawal, even though her collection of articles, So Sad Today, is also a great book to read after a breakup. Although there is an intense romantic plot with her merman rebound (just go with it), the novel begins with a breakup. This book is anything but sweet. It’s the ideal getaway for people who want to reflect about why they even need to flee. The only thing that kept me from finishing this book in two days had to deal with a new sense of sadness after it was over.
While alone on the beach rocks one night, Lucy is captivated by a disturbingly gorgeous swimmer and everything changes. However, their relationship and Lucy’s perception of love take a much-unexpected turn when she discovers the truth about his identity. THE PISCES is a story about falling in love with a merman, a figure of Sirenic fantasy whose very existence forces Lucy to question everything she thought she knew about love, lust, and meaning in the one life we have. It is a masterful blend of vivid realism and giddy fantasy, pairing hilarious frankness with pulse-racing eroticism.
P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han
Key Features
- Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (May 26, 2015)
- English
- 352 Pages Hardcover
- 4 Ounces Weight
Overview
Lara Jean wasn’t prepared to fall head over heels for Peter.
She and Peter were faking it. But all of a sudden, they weren’t. Lara Jean is now more perplexed than ever. Lara Jean’s love for another boy from her past came back when he reappeared in her life. A girl can only have one true love at a time, right?
We witness first love through the incomparable Lara Jean’s eyes in this endearing and touching follow-up to the New York Times bestseller To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Love is never simple, but perhaps that’s one of the reasons it’s so great.
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
Key Features
- Andrews McMeel Publishing (August 28, 2018)
- English
- 226 Pages Hardcover
- 3 Ounces Weight
Overview
A hardback gift version of Rupi Kaur’s poetry and prose collection Milk and Honey, which is now the #1 New York Times bestseller and has more than 3 million copies sold worldwide. A collection of poems and prose about surviving, milk and honey. Concerning one’s personal experiences with violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity.
This clothbound edition has a foreword written by the author, deckled edge paper, and a woven ribbon marker. The book is structured into four chapters, each of which has a distinct function. It handles a new kind of suffering. It helps to heal another kind of heartache. Because there is sweetness everywhere if you are only ready to look, milk and honey take readers on a journey through some of life’s most difficult experiences and discovers sweetness in them.
The Modern Breakup by Daniel Chidiac
Key Features
- Undercover Publishing House; Illustrated Edition (November 1, 2021)
- English
- 244 Pages Paperback
- 6 Ounces Weight
Overview
A direct, raw, and incredibly illuminating book about relationships, dating, and separations!
Amelia finds herself caught in a tangle of contradictory ideas and feelings following an unexpected breakup with another man she had finally begun to open herself to.
She is compelled to consider her life and what dating means in the contemporary era once more. She becomes even more desperate to find something more genuine as a result of the solutions she discovers, particularly thanks to a new male buddy who reveals the way guys “truly” think.
All of it might help her find freedom.
“Particularly Amelia, the characters really spoke to me. It’s a much deeper and more complex story than merely one about a breakup.” – Model Demi Rose
“It truly amazed me how precise it is. Definitely recommended” – Lizzie Sobinoff from the movie Married At First Sight (MAFS)
Popsugar.com included The Modern Break-Up in its list of the best romance books to read.
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
Key Features
- Penguin Books; Reprint Edition (February 13, 2018)
- English
- 464 Pages Paperback
- 8 Ounces Weight
Overview
a picture of the artist when she was a teenager. A book about creating oneself rather than just discovering it.
1995, and email is a relatively new technology. The daughter of Turkish immigrants, Selin, arrives at Harvard during her first year. She enrolls in classes she has never taken before, makes friends with her dynamic and worldly Serbian classmate Svetlana, and almost by mistake starts corresponding with Ivan, an older mathematics student from Hungary. The act of writing seems to take on new and more enigmatic meanings with each email Selin and Ivan exchange, even though they have hardly ever talked in person.
After the school year, Ivan spends the summer in Budapest, while Selin moves to the countryside of Hungary to work as an English teacher for a program sponsored by one of Ivan’s friends. She visits Paris for two weeks while traveling with Svetlana. In contrast to what Selin had previously heard about the normal experiences of American college students, or indeed of any other kind of people, her summer in Europe was unlike anything she had ever experienced. With the realization that she is destined to be a writer and the indescribable, exciting bewilderment of first love, Selin is taking a trip deeper inside herself.
Batuman dramatizes the ambiguity of life on the verge of adulthood with exceptional emotional and intellectual sensitivity, mordant humor, and pitch-perfect style. Her writing possesses a unique ability to combine sensitivity and knowledge, and her logic is as simple and opaque as memory itself. The Idiot is a brave yet humble examination of the joy and terror of growing up in a fascinating and unsettling world. The full spectrum of thinking and emotion these affronts and beauties involve is at the disposal of Batuman’s fiction, which is unguarded against both.
The Upside of Falling by Alex Light
Key Features
- HarperTeen (March 16, 2021)
- English
- 288 Pages
- 4 Ounces
Overview
Becca Hart, then seventeen, hasn’t believed in genuine love in years. However, when her ex-best friend makes fun of her for not having a boyfriend, Becca hastily claims to have been seeing someone.
It’s all there for Brett Wells. He should have no trouble finding a date because he is the captain of the football team and one of the most well-liked boys in his school, but he has always been more concerned about his future than who he should invite to prom.
After hearing Becca lie, Brett decides to take the role of the mystery guy. It’s the ideal answer since it lets her maintain the pretense that she has a boyfriend while also getting others to stop criticizing him for not being in a committed relationship.
However, acting like the ideal pair is difficult when you don’t really know the other person. But as Brett struggles to keep his world together and Becca continues to pick up the pieces after her world was destroyed years ago, they start to see more similarities than they ever could have anticipated.
Is this phone romance the most real thing in each of their lives when the distinction between what is pretend and what is real starts to get hazy?
The Fascinators by Andrew Eliopulos
Key Features
- Quill Tree Books (May 11, 2021)
- English
- 352 Pages Paperback
- 9 Ounces
Overview
Sam needs his pals James and Delia—and their time spent together in their school’s magic club—to see him through to graduation because he lives in a tiny town where magic is frowned upon.
However, as the senior year gets underway, small fissures start to appear in their group. Sam and James could be in a relationship. Delia’s irritation with their amateur magic club is escalating. And James admits that over the summer, he got tangled up with some shady magicians, making all their targets.
Sam is forced to acknowledge that the same magic of love that brought his gang together is also ripping them apart—and there are some problems that no magic can fix—as so many fault lines threaten to wreck his hopes for the year.
The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen
Key Features
- Blazer + Bray; Reprint Edition (May 5, 2020)
- English
- 448 Pages Paperback
- 8 Ounces Weight
Overview
Emma Saylor’s mother passed away when she was twelve. Therefore she doesn’t have many memories of her. She does, however, recall her mother’s tales about the large lake that seemed to go on forever, with its icy waters and moss-covered trees at its margins.
With just Emma and her father left, life is wonderful despite being rather predictable.
Till Emma gets a surprise invitation to spend the summer with her mother’s relatives, whom she hasn’t seen since she was a young child.
Emma discovers there are actually two very distinct communities in North Lake when she gets there. While her father spent summers in the more affluent Lake North resort, her mother was raised in the working-class community of North Lake. Emma begins to feel like she is split into two individuals as she spends more time there. She is Emma in her father’s eyes. But she is Saylor to her new family, as her mother always called her.
Then there is Roo, a boy who was Roo’s childhood best buddy. It’s difficult to resist being enchanted by North Lake, and Saylor discovers that she too is falling under Roo’s spell. She can progressively piece together her past with the aid of Roo, who holds the secret of her family’s past.
Saylor feels as though a completely new world is being available to her. But when it comes time to return home, who will prevail—Emma or Saylor?
Final Words
Breakups can emotionally disturb a person a lot. We are all vulnerable when it comes to emotions, and getting hurt by the closest of people can leave us thinking a thousand things. There is no best buddy than a book in such hard times, and what’s better than a breakup book to read in such a phase? We have reviewed the top 8 best breakup books that you can read to nurse your heart. Let us know about your favorite books, or drop any suggestions in the comments below.
FAQ
What is the Best Therapy After a Breakup?
Whether you’re thinking about individual, couple, family, or marital counseling, therapy can offer a safe space to examine your breakup grief while learning how to cope effectively with challenging emotions, develop resilience, and embrace independence.
What Hurts the Most After a Breakup?
Contrary to the long-held belief that men are less emotionally committed in relationships than women, a recent study has revealed that males are more likely than women to suffer greater emotional distress after a breakup.