What to Read If You’re Obsessed with Tell Me Lies
When I sat down to curate a list of books to add to your TBR if you’re obsessed with Tell Me Lies, did I immediately start humming Fleetwood Mac? Yes. Did I want to create an entire blog post around “Little Lies”? Also yes. (“No more broken hearts/We’re better off apart, let’s give it a try/ Tell me, tell me, tell me lies” It kind of works!) But as much as I love this absolute jam, I also love a dark, dramatic, bingeable show and Tell Me Lies is that. It features a “tumultuous and intoxicating” relationship and a whole big, complicated web of deception. Here’s a list of titles that give off the same energy, the same mood, the same level of drama…with a few titles that might give you a lighthearted break, should you need it.
Famous in Love
by Rebecca Serle
Drama, drama, and more drama. If you love a book-turned-TV-series, and you love romance and duh, drama, then Famous in Love will be the perfect next read.
The book that inspired the hit Freeform series, by the New York Times-bestselling author of In Five Years.
When Paige Townsen gets plucked from high school obscurity to star in the movie adaptation of a blockbuster book series, her life changes practically overnight. Within a month, Paige has traded the quiet streets of her hometown for a bustling film set on the shores of Maui, and she is spending quality time with her costar Rainer Devon, one of People‘s Sexiest Men Alive. But when troubled star Jordan Wilder lands the role of the other point in the movie’s famous love triangle, Paige’s crazy new life begins to resemble her character’s.
In this exciting tale of romance and drama, both on-and offscreen, Paige must adjust to a crazy new life without the daily support of her friends and family, while figuring out who she is–and who she wants–as the whole world watches.
Poems for Tortured Souls
by Liz Ison
We have all either fallen for a tortured soul or are a tortured soul ourselves. If the raw emotion and heart wrenching moments of the show are what draw you in, or you just like being in your feels, we have the collection for you. What better way to really get into your feels than with emotional, romantic poems, many by those writers that have inspired Taylor Swift.
Soothe your spirit with this emotional, romantic, must-have collection, an homage to some of the poets and writers who have inspired Taylor Swift.This collection of timeless poems is a beautiful introduction to the passionate words that have inspired artists and lyricists for generations. Discover poetry that overflows with folklore, love, heartbreak, revenge, and peace – the perfect balm for any tortured soul.
Featuring poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Emily Dickinson, William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Lewis Carroll and more, this moody and melancholy anthology celebrates the English language’s most famous poets, and the emotions that unite us.
Warning: these poems might make you cry!
Gossip Girl
Drama, lies, romance, rumors, scandal…how could I not include Gossip Girl? Chances are you’ve seen the show whether on CW or HBO Max but trust me when I tell you the books are even better. The deception, the toxic relationships, the tangled web every single character seems to find themselves in, it’s ALL here. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
XoXo.
Serena van der Woodsen is back from boarding school, but is she still the Upper East Side’s It Girl? The wickedly funny first book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series that inspired the original hit CW show and the HBO Max series.
Welcome to New York City’s Upper East Side, where my friends and I live, go to school, play, and sleep – sometimes with each other.
S is back from boarding school, and if we aren’t careful, she’s going to win over our teachers, wear that dress we couldn’t fit into, steal our boyfriends’ hearts, and basically ruin our lives in a major way. I’ll be watching closely…
You know you love me.
gossip girl
What I Want You to See
Freshman year of college is a confusing time. There’s excitement, there’s fear, there’s uncertainty. What I Want You to See deals with the cutthroat world of visual arts, and some seriously murky morals. And last time I checked, the moral compass of the characters in Tell Me Lies doesn’t always point due north. If you’re loving the deception plus the undeniable chemistry between characters, give What I Want You to See a try.
A college freshman is swept into shaky moral territory within the cut-throat world of visual arts in this razor-sharp novel.
Winning a scholarship to California’s most prestigious art school seems like a fairy tale ending to Sabine Reye’s awful senior year. After losing both her mother and her home, Sabine longs for a place where she belongs. But the cutthroat world of visual arts is nothing like what Sabine had imagined. Colin Krell, the renowned faculty member whom she had hoped would mentor her, seems to take merciless delight in tearing down her best work—and warns her that she’ll lose the merit-based award if she doesn’t improve.
Desperate and humiliated, Sabine doesn’t know where to turn. Then she meets Adam, a grad student who understands better than anyone the pressures of art school. He even helps Sabine get insight on Krell by showing her the modern master’s work in progress, a portrait that’s sold for a million dollars sight unseen.
Sabine is enthralled by the portrait; within those swirling, colorful layers of paint is the key to winning her inscrutable teacher’s approval. Krell did advise her to improve her craft by copying a painting she connects with…but what would he think of Sabine secretly painting her own version of his masterpiece? And what should she do when she accidentally becomes party to a crime so well-plotted that no one knows about it but her?
Complex and utterly original, What I Want You to See is a gripping tale of deception, attraction, and moral ambiguity.
The Wolves Are Waiting
While Natasha Friend’s The Wolves Are Waiting begins in the aftermath of an attempted assault, it’s a story that goes way beyond that. It’s a dark yet important story that deals with small town college dynamics, family, and the importance of speaking up, ultimately culminating in an inspiring read. If Tell Me Lies is your cup of tea, but you also need a little empowerment, pick up The Wolves Are Waiting.
From award-winning author Natasha Friend comes a compelling investigation of sexual harassment and the toxic and complicit structures of a small college town.
Before the night of the Frat Fair, 15-year-old Nora Melchionda’s life could have been a Gen-Z John Hughes movie. She had a kind-of boyfriend, a spot on the field hockey team, good grades, and a circle of close friends. Of course there were bumps in the road: she and her lifelong BFF Cam were growing apart and her mother was trying to clone her into wearing sensible khakis instead of showy short skirts. But none of that mattered, because Nora always had her dad, Rhett Melchionda, on her side. Rhett was not only Nora’s hero, but as the Athletic Director of Faber College, he was idolized by everyone she knew.
Now, Nora would give anything to go back to that life. The life before whatever happened on the golf course.
She doesn’t want to talk about it—not that she could, because she doesn’t remember anything—and insists that whatever happened was nothing. Cam, though, tries to convince Nora to look for evidence and report the incident to the police. And then there’s Adam Xu, who found Nora on the golf course and saw her at her most vulnerable. She ignores it all, hoping it will all go away. But when your silence might hurt other people, hiding is no longer an option.
The Wolves Are Waiting begins in the aftermath of an attempted assault, but reaches farther than a story about one single night or one single incident. What Nora and her friends will uncover is a story that spans generations. But it doesn’t have to anymore.
Freshman Year
by Sarah Mai
Tell Me Lies starts with freshman year, and voila! Freshman Year! Ok so this a lighter, funnier, graphic novel about the fresh start that is supposed to come with freshman year. But the conflicting emotions, the self-doubt, and the whirlwind of a year are the same. It reminds us that everyone can be overwhelmed by change, and everyone is just figuring it out as they go.
A stylish graphic novel about the unique angst, humor, and self-doubt that comes with going away to college—perfect for fans of Heartstopper.
Everyone gets a fresh start. Who do you want to be? Sarah is leaving suburban Wisconsin for college in Minnesota. She has high hopes for the future: impress her professors, meet interesting new people, stay close to her best friends and boyfriend back home, flourish as an artist, and shed her lingering high school anxieties. What seems manageable at first quickly unravels into a tailspin and she is overwhelmed by the freedom, the isolation, and all the possibilities that await in this new environment. Based on the author’s personal college journal and comics, Freshman Year navigates the inner workings of an 18-year-old girl in witty and heartfelt detail.
All The Yellow Suns
by Malavika Kannan
It’s easy to get swept away whether by a person and their undeniable charm, or by a movement and its mission. It’s easy to become enamored and ignore the little red flags, or the little signs that are telling you to listen to your gut, to dig a little deeper. Maya is confronted with this reality in All The Yellow Suns and must learn to speak her truth, even if that results in heartbreak. When a queer Indian American teenager is swept into a life of art, romance, and resistance, she must make up her own mind when it comes to identity, activism, and love in this story perfect for fans of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.
Sixteen-year-old Maya Krishnan is fiercely protective of her friends, immigrant community, and single mother, but she knows better than to rock the boat in her conservative Florida suburb. Her classmate Juneau Zale is the polar opposite: she’s a wealthy white heartbreaker who won’t think twice before capsizing that boat.
When Juneau invites Maya to join the Pugilists—a secret society of artists, vandals, and mischief-makers who fight for justice at their school—Maya descends into the world of change-making and resistance. Soon, she and Juneau forge a friendship that inspires Maya to confront the challenges in her own life.
But as their relationship grows romantic, painful, and twisted, Maya begins to suspect that there’s a whole different person beneath Juneau’s painted-on facade. Now Maya must learn to speak her truth in this mysterious, mixed-up world—even if it results in heartbreak.
Between emotional threads of first love and identity, comes a powerful exploration of the crusade for social change within a divided community.
I Was Told There Would Be Romance
by Marie Arnold
Wait a minute, I got into Tell Me Lies because there was supposed to be romance! And while yes, there is romance, it’s not all Hallmark movies and happily ever after by any stretch. I Was Told There Would Be Romance is for when you need something that is at once hilarious and heartwarming. It’s all the drama of high school and friendships and perhaps a few tiny lies, but they make for a fabulous story.
For fans of Never Have I Ever and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before comes a hilarious and heartfelt novel about a young Haitian girl navigating high school, friendship, and crushes.
Fifteen-year-old Fancy Augustine is a Haitian American girl with simple desires. She’d like to trade in her floppy, oversize boobs for cute, perky ones. She’d love a boyfriend. And she’s desperate for an invite to the biggest event of the school year: Imani Park’s birthday party. When Fancy learns her BFF, Tilly, has received a coveted invite and has a secret boyfriend, she is (understandably) devastated and wholeheartedly determined to do whatever it takes to get her own happily ever after.
So what if she makes a deal with the devil (Imani) that guarantees her an invite—but only if she can bring a boyfriend? And what’s so bad about letting her crush, Rahim, believe that she can create a voodoo potion for him in exchange for him posing as her boyfriend? And, yeah, maybe she’s destroying her friendship with Tilly and falling hopelessly behind in her schoolwork, but Fancy knows it’ll all be worth it in the end. Plus, it’s not like Fancy’s parents would really make good on their threats of sending her back to Haiti…right?
Twilight Saga
If you like a story about a dramatic, dark, never-ending relationship…Edward and Bella anyone? Plus, if you’re dying to binge the next season of Tell Me Lies, there’s the entire Twilight Saga to binge while you wait.
Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, The Twilight Saga captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires.
