Whether you're the oldest kid, stuck in the middle or the baby, these books about siblings will keep you flipping pages
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My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Piccoult
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Even if you’ve watched the 2009 movie adaptation of what is perhaps Jodi Piccoult’s best-loved book (no small feat!), you’re in for a shock when you pick up a copy of My Sister’s Keeper. Anna has long lived in big sister Kate’s shadow. In fact, Kate is the whole reason she exists. A bone marrow baby, she was conceived and born to help Kate (perhaps, maybe, just barely) survive her fight with leukemia. But now, at 13, she’s wondering if she actually wants to keep helping Kate in her fight to survive. Or maybe it’s time she chose life on her own terms.
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Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Mira T. Lee’s remarkable debut, Everything Here Is Beautiful, spans decades and continents as it follows the travails of opposites Lucia, a decidedly free spirit, and her prim and proper older sister, Miranda. The Chinese American sisters grow up in New Jersey with a hardworking single mom but part ways, reuniting when Miranda learns that Lucia has been grappling with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The very idea of the reunion sends fissures through both their lives and marriages, but sometimes “in sickness and in health” applies to siblings as well, and that means protecting your sister—no matter the cost.
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Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Genre: Classic
Inspired by Louisa May Alcott’s experiences growing up as part of a quartet of sisters, Little Women is a quintessential sister story. The beloved classic follows the triumphs and tribulations of the March sisters: impetuous Jo, steady Meg, dreamy Beth and petulant Amy. As the girls grow up on the heels of war and their fortunes unfold, they find their footing in the bonds that tie them together—and sometimes must overcome the infractions that could tear them apart.
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The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Genre: YA thriller
When Tobias Hawthorne dies, all four of his grandsons—Grayson, Jameson, Nash and Xavier—expect to be the heir apparent. But then scholarship kid Avery Grambs shows up in Tobias’s will as his heir, despite the fact that Avery doesn’t even know who Tobias is. Described as a YA Knives Out, Jennifer Lynn Barnes’s stunning series-starter is a cunning, competitive and compulsively readable look at the psychology of sibling dynamics, with a bit of a love triangle thrown in for good measure. Pick up The Inheritance Games when you’ve got a hankering for a fast-paced book series that’s complete and ready to be gobbled up.
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Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
Genre: Contemporary fabulism
I know, I know, you can already hear it: “You put the lime in the coconut …” The 1998 movie starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman is beloved for good reason, but the book version of Practical Magic is definitely worth diving into. (Especially as we await the 2026 prequel to the movie!) Alice Hoffman is a master of craft, and this tale of sisterhood and magic is the author at her best. Wild child Gillian and staid-and-steady Sally know the Owens family—rumored to be witches—have always been outcasts and outsiders, blamed for everything that goes awry in their small town. So they split. But when Gillian shows up on Sally’s doorstep in big trouble, the sisters reunite to create the kind of magic only family can bring.
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The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Genre: Literary fiction
Four siblings visit a fortune teller in 1960s New York, and what she scries will inform and upend their lives for decades to come. The psychic, who swears she can tell you exactly when you will die, has a profound effect on the Gold siblings, who are just bursting out of their teens at the start of The Immortalists. As each sibling’s tale unfolds, we learn that, in the end, what matters is how you spend your life living, not the circumstances of your death.
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Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Genre: YA contemporary fiction
Don’t let the young adult category dissuade you. Long Way Down is a masterpiece worthy of readers of all ages. Told in Jason Reynold’s spare, stunning verse, this Printz- and Newbery-honored book—which also won the Walter Dean Myers Award and an Edgar Award—follows 15-year-old Will as he stands in an elevator, headed down and out, on a mission, a gun tucked into the waistband of his jeans. His brother Shawn is dead, murdered, and now it’s time for justice. But on each floor, as the elevator stops, he learns one more part of the story and must unravel, by the time he hits the ground, who his brother really was and what justice truly means.
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The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Genre: Literary fiction
The Virgin Suicides has staying power for a reason. At once voyeuristic and shattering, Jeffrey Eugenides’s debut, first published in 1993, follows a group of boys as they observe the fishbowl existence of the five teenage Lisbon sisters—stunning, ethereal, otherworldly—as they commit suicide, one by one, over the course of a single year.
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To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
Genre: YA contemporary fiction
OK, so yes, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is very much a coming-of-age meets rom-com novel, and while the Netflix movie trilogy is beloved, it’s 100% worth reading the book and its sequels for a richer story. At the heart of this YA trilogy is a tale of three sisters, motherless but held steady by their strong sibling dynamic—even if they drive one another slightly crazy sometimes. Take, for example, kid sister Kitty’s slightly vengeful, somewhat sly decision to mail out those swoony love confessions her sister Lara Jean’s been stashing in a hatbox for years. That is, after all, what sets the whole thing in motion.
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In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner
Genre: Contemporary fiction
You may have seen the 2005 movie starring Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz, but believe me, it’s worth reading Jennifer Weiner’s 2002 novel, In Her Shoes, which inspired the Hollywood flick. The fan-favorite author imbues the story of motherless sisters Rose and Maggie Feller with so much bittersweet tension, you almost feel there’s no salvaging their sibling relationship. But as misfit Maggie finds her footing, and stern Rose finally learns how to lose herself and let go a little, they come to realize that maybe only they can truly save each other.
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The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Summoned to their mother’s deathbed to hear one final wish, the British Punjabi Shergill sisters have been semi-estranged for years. Mom wants them to make a pilgrimage—together—to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to carry out her final rites. Can they reconnect with one another (and themselves) long enough to honor their mother’s wishes? Smart, sassy, sweet and laugh-out-loud funny, The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters will make you wish you were part of the family.
The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Genre: YA contemporary fiction
When it comes to novels about siblings, Jandy Nelson is an absolute must-read. Her stunning I’ll Give You the Sun and recent follow-up, When the World Tips Over, are powerful, moving glimpses into complex sibling dynamics. But don’t sleep on her debut novel, The Sky Is Everywhere, which approaches sibling relationships from a different angle: coping with the loss of them.
The biggest thing with loving someone is, of course, that losing them feels like a gut punch—one that you just might never recover from. That’s how it is for teen Lennie, who up until very recently was merely her sister Bailey’s shadow. Now that Bailey’s gone, Lennie must learn how to become herself, or fall into a pool of sorrow so deep, the only one in there is her sister’s ex-boyfriend, who’s also drowning. Can a bright-eyed boy pull her out of her grief long enough for her to taste first love?
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