25+ Fiction & Non-Fiction Books About Addiction To Read Now

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

Long Bright River is phenomenal and I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.⁣ The story takes place in Philly’s Kensington neighborhood which is known for having a huge opioid problem. 

You can’t live in my area and not know about the epidemic spreading through our city. It’s devastating and scary and this book deals with it head-on.⁣

The contemporary fiction story revolves around 2 sisters. One is a cop, one is an addict – both are being impacted by a string of murders in the area.⁣ This book dealt with many issues around drug addiction and it handles them without judging.

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

September 2020 Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

Covering drug addiction, immigration, racism, and more, this story is as entertaining as it is stimulating. Its discussion of drug addiction’s impact on the larger family unit was reminiscent of Long Bright River.

I also kept having to remind myself that it was a contemporary fiction story and not a memoir because the emotion and knowledge expressed in the book were so believable.⁣ This is one of the books about grief that you must-read.

Jackie and Maria by Gill Paul

Excuse me while I gush about Gill Paul‘s newest biographical fiction book, Jackie and Maria.⁣ Gill Paul is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me. I loved Another Woman’s Husband and The Lost Daughter, about the Windsors and Romanovs respectively. Paul’s take on a new dynasty, The Kennedys, is equally compelling.⁣
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Most people know about Jackie’s life during her White House years, but hearing the tale of what caused her to marry Aristotle Onassis was fascinating. I loved the dual narrators of Jackie and Onassis’s long-time lover, opera singer Maria Callas.⁣ It’s a perfect political novel about music!

Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

While I usually am not an avid reader of non-fiction, this memoir is completely captivating from the very first page.  I had no idea about the Hillbilly culture so, everything in this book was completely foreign to me. 

The book reads like a novel which adds to the appeal for me.  A big reason we chose this book as the best of 2016 is how much we both loved this book despite the fact that it is outside of our preferred genre. It says so much about a book that has universal appeal.

Heroine by Mindy McGinnis

I read this book as part of our 2021 Reading Challenge. The prompt this month was books about addiction. It was a study on how a person could go from an elite athlete to a heroin addict.

It was a heartbreaking, but thought-provoking read. It also induced so much anxiety in me as a parent thinking about the signs I need to be on alert for in my own children in the future. I’m glad I read this, even though it was difficult at times.

There, There by Tommy Orange

Oh boy, do you love full cast audiobooks? Well, this one is a tear-jerker. This one had me feeling all the feelings. I was angry, laughing, frustrated, crying, and happy at various points during this tremendous debut book.

I loved everything up until the point where it ended (it leaves you on a bit of an ambiguous ending.) No wonder it won so many awards!

The Woman in the Window: A Novel by AJ Finn

If you love old movies, you will adore this book. It is a spin on Hitchcock’s Rear Window and features an agoraphobic narrator who is often unreliable.

Anna Fox lives alone in her house. She is agoraphobic and cannot leave, so she sits at her window and watches everyone in the neighborhood. 

When she sees something across the street, she is sure there has been a crime but, what is real and what is imagined? Amy Adams stars in the Netflix adaptation of this unreliable narrator book.

Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Rachel takes the same train every day and peers out the window watching people.  She watched 2 people in particular as they lead what appears to be a perfect life until one day she sees something terrible while watching them. 

She reports it to the police but, can they trust a dysfunctional alcoholic? This is a domestic thriller story that will have you questioning who is telling the truth. Unreliable narrators like Rachel make the best page-turners! You’ll never know what to believe, making it perfect for our list of books with stalkers.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

March 2019 Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

This best book of 2019 pick needs to be listened to, not read. Seriously, I think this might be one of the best audiobooks of all time.

I expect it to sweep the Audies this year for sure because full cast audiobooks can really take the story to the next level. The book is laid out in chronological order about the making of a band in the 70s, but the story is told in interview style from a dozen sources.

The audio version has a different narrator for each character and the performances the actors give are stupendous. I was overcome with emotion numerous times while I was listening.

This celebrity fiction story about the rise and fall of one of the hottest bands was so utterly fabulous – it’s pure sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll in all the best ways. This is one of the novels about music that isn’t for the faint of heart and is a feel-good book you will not want to miss.