What to read next
10 books like Funny Story
Daphne's library work, Miles's local ties, their exes, and new friendships make the town and chosen routines part of emotional recovery. If that is what you want more of after Funny Story, these recommendations preserve that appeal in different ways, without pretending every similar book offers the same experience.
Start with our Funny Story review by Emily Henry.
Choose by reading mood
Where to start
For the fastest read
Loathe to Love You
BriskFor the darkest read
Someone You Can Build a Nest In
DarkFor the strongest romance
Love on the Brain
CentralFor the easiest entry
Love by the Book
AccessibleThe full shortlist
Why each book belongs here
Each match is judged against Funny Story, not merely placed beside it because the books share a broad genre label.
1
People We Meet on Vacation
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- People We Meet on Vacation offers longer romantic history, travel, and more sustained friends-to-lovers tension.
- Best for
- Adult romance readers wanting years-long friendship, opposites, travel, banter, longing, and moderate emotional angst.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
2
Great Big Beautiful Life
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Great Big Beautiful Life adds biographical mystery and a more ambitious narrative frame.
- Best for
- Readers wanting adult romance, writers, hidden biography, family secrets, and an emotional multi-timeline reveal.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
3
Love on the Brain
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Love on the Brain is more archetypal, STEM-focused, and driven by workplace misunderstanding.
- Best for
- Adult romance readers wanting enemies-to-lovers energy, neuroscience, NASA, workplace sexism, banter, and explicit chemistry.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
4
Love by the Book
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Love by the Book has a similar overall reading load, but changes the emphasis. Remy's stalled second novel and Simone's family rupture create distinct forms of isolation, allowing work, sex, ambition, and friendship to collide without one tidy solution.
- Best for
- Readers of contemporary women's fiction who want female friendship, creative work, family conflict, loneliness, humor, and love that is not organized around one couple.
- Pace Brisk
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
5
Loathe to Love You
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Loathe to Love You is faster than Funny Story. Short forms move quickly from professional rivalry or misunderstanding into attraction, while the connected heroines create continuity between couples.
- Best for
- Fans wanting three fast, steamy STEM romances and comfortable with recognizable Hazelwood archetypes.
- Pace Brisk
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
6
Promise Me Sunshine
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Promise Me Sunshine is more measured, darker, and more demanding than Funny Story. Lenny and Miles help each other through meals, childcare, sleep, family conversations, and a list of manageable tasks, so affection grows from repeated care rather than rescue fantasy.
- Best for
- Contemporary-romance readers comfortable with cancer loss, depression, and anxiety who want caretaking, found family, low external drama, and a genuinely gradual relationship.
- Pace Measured
- Darkness Moderate
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
7
Keeper of Lost Children
- Shared ground
- Both books treat family loyalty as a source of both protection and pressure.
- What changes
- Keeper of Lost Children is darker and more demanding than Funny Story. Its shifting lives connect Black American soldiers, German women, mixed-race children, and an American woman seeking purpose without reducing any one of them to historical illustration.
- Best for
- Historical-fiction readers wanting postwar Germany, Black military history, adoption, motherhood, identity, multiple timelines, and an emotionally generous family saga.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Moderate
8
The Girls Who Grew Big
- Shared ground
- Both books treat family loyalty as a source of both protection and pressure.
- What changes
- The Girls Who Grew Big is darker and more demanding than Funny Story. Adela, Emory, Simone, and the other Girls have distinct pressures and desires, while Padua Beach gives their makeshift support network a vivid social and physical setting.
- Best for
- Readers of literary coming-of-age fiction about teenage motherhood, female friendship, class, sexuality, family rejection, and improvised community.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
9
Someone You Can Build a Nest In
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Someone You Can Build a Nest In is darker and more demanding than Funny Story. Shesheshen's improvised bodies and reproductive instincts remain genuinely alien, while Homily's family reveals how ordinary cruelty can be harder to identify than monstrosity.
- Best for
- Readers wanting queer monster romance, body horror, disability themes, abusive-family recovery, dark comedy, and a protagonist whose nonhuman nature remains meaningful.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Dark
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
10
Check & Mate
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Check & Mate is more measured and darker than Funny Story. Mallory's family responsibility, return to competition, and rivalry with Nolan give attraction a shared language of preparation, risk, and public expectation.
- Best for
- YA romance readers wanting chess, gifted rivals, family pressure, banter, and low-spice emotional payoff.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
Side-by-side
Pace, darkness, romance, and difficulty
Use these labels as directional guidance. The individual notes above explain the tradeoffs.
| Book | Pace | Darkness | Romance | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funny Story | Balanced | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
| People We Meet on Vacation | Balanced | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
| Great Big Beautiful Life | Balanced | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
| Love on the Brain | Balanced | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
| Love by the Book | Brisk | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
| Loathe to Love You | Brisk | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
| Promise Me Sunshine | Measured | Moderate | Central | Accessible |
| Keeper of Lost Children | Balanced | Gentle | Central | Moderate |
| The Girls Who Grew Big | Balanced | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
| Someone You Can Build a Nest In | Balanced | Dark | Central | Accessible |
| Check & Mate | Balanced | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
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