Messy Relationships

toxic, complicated, messy, and just all around complex.

There’s nothing more human and relatable than a messy relationship. I am not a romance girl. In general, I just find them pretty cringey. However, I do love the complexities of a complicated romantic relationship. I’ve rounded up a list of books that revolve around complex, messy, and sometimes toxic relationships, but without the cringe of a romance book. A lot of these books explore power imbalances, obsession, and the human urge to be seen, known, and loved.

My ratings on these vary, but just because I didn’t like it, doesn’t mean you won’t!

• Green Dot

• Bitter Sweet

• Thirst For Salt

• My Last Innocent Year

• Alone With You In the Ether

• Ruins

• If You Love It Let It Kill You

• The Most

• Disappoint Me

• Just By Looking at Him

• Intermezzo (honestly anything by Sally Rooney)

• Paradise Logic

  

• Acts of Desperation

• Magnolia Parks

• What It’s Like in Words

• The Adult

• Perfume & Pain

• Annie Bot

• Out of Love

• Better by Far

• Loved One

• Seduction Theory

• The Rachel Incident

• Wellness

  

• We Do What We Do in the Dark

• Norwegian Wood

• My Dark Vanessa

• Cleopatra and Frankenstein

• These Violent Delights

• Broken Country

• One Day in December

• Evenings & Weekends

Happy Reading!