Images and stories of romantic love surround us—but that isn’t the only kind of love that sustains us. This collection of stories about friends, siblings, cousins, parents, and children explores how love is all around us in all its forms. Celebrate platonic love with these suggestions for books about family and friendship!
Content warnings are listed along with each book.
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
It is 1943. Her code name is Verity, and she is a British spy whose plane just crashed in Nazi-occupied France. But while arrested by the Gestapo and threatened with execution, the plane’s pilot, her best friend, Maddie, may still have a chance. As Verity confesses her mission to the Gestapo, she desperately hopes trading her secrets will be enough to save her life. This book is about survival and how far friends may go to rescue each other. Code Name Verity is available at Georgetown Public Library in physical and eBook form. Content warnings include torture, death, war, violence, gun violence, confinement, and sexual assault.
The Compound by S. A. Bodeen
The world ended six years ago, and Eli and his family have lived safely in the underground Compound his father built ever since. The endless monotony of their routine is enough to drive Eli mad, and as more problems threaten their existence, he starts to wonder if he’d be better off in the wasteland outside. He starts to wonder why his father built the Compound in the first place. The Compound is a story of complicated family ties and how they can support or suffocate us. It is available as a physical copy at the Georgetown Public Library and the Smith Library Center. Content warnings include child abuse, confinement, and domestic abuse.
When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar
When their parents die, three orphaned Muslim sisters are left to raise one another. Noreen, the eldest, tries to play the role of sister-mother while creating her own life. Aisha, the middle sister, attempts to hold on to her sense of family, and Kausar, the youngest, contends with the grief of losing her parents and her understanding of gender. As Kausar grows and her public and private worlds collide, she must decide whether to remain in the life of codependency she’s known or tread her path. When We Were Sisters explores the complexity of sisterhood and how we find togetherness after losing everything. It is available at Georgetown Public Library in physical form. Content warnings include the death of a parent, child abuse, sexual assault, Islamophobia, abandonment, and racism.
Saints of the Household by Ari Tison
Max and Jay, a pair of Bribri American brothers with an abusive father, have always depended on one another to protect themselves and their mother, keeping their heads down and holding to a schedule. But, when they hear a classmate in trouble in the woods, they intervene in a fight and attack their school’s star soccer player, threatening their dreams for the future and their beliefs about how they are. As they learn more about that fateful event in the woods, they must come to terms with their changing relationship and how they’re more like their father than they thought—and only through reaching back to
their Bribri roots will they find a way to move forward. A haunting novel about brotherhood, recovery, and how complicated it can be to do the right thing, Saints of the Household conveys its message through vignettes and poems, alternating points of view. It is available at Georgetown Public Library in physical form.
Content warnings include domestic abuse, child abuse, violence, injury, blood, addiction, racism, alcoholism, and suicide.
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Elatsoe lives in an America slightly stranger than our own–an America shaped by magic, monsters, and the legends of its people. Some of these forces are charming and commonplace, but some are far more deadly. Elatsoe can raise the ghosts of dead animals—a skill passed through her Lipan Apache family. When her beloved cousin gets murdered in a town with gruesome secrets, she will tear off the façade to protect her family. Elatsoe is a story about the family bonds that guide us and what we would do to keep those we love safe. It is available at Georgetown Public Library in physical and eBook form.
Content warnings include death, grief, car accident, racism, murder, and animal death.
Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott
Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a street performer and con artist, are the Yaga siblings, estranged since childhood. A shared inheritance brings them
together, but their bequest is a sentient house on chicken legs—Thistlefoot, from their ancestral home outside of Kyiv. A sinister figure called only the Longshadow Man has tracked it to America, and he brings with him violent secrets from the past hidden in the siblings’ blood. As they embark on a cross-country tour of their family’s traveling theater show, the Longshadow Man follows, leaving destruction in his wake. Inspired by Jewish myth and Eastern European folklore, Thistlefoot explores how we heal from multi-generational trauma only with the help of each other. It is available at Georgetown Public Library as a physical copy.
Content warnings include antisemitism, child death, genocide, violence, war, and xenophobia.
Isle of Blood and Stone by Makiia Lucier
Everyone in the island kingdom of St. John del Mar knows the story—how, eighteen years ago, the rival kingdom of Mondrago kidnapped and murdered the two elder sons of the king. The three of them will never forget it. The first is Elias, whose father died in defense of the princes. Mercedes, who is half-Mondragan, and grew up under the weight of that history, and Ulises, the youngest prince, now inheriting the throne. But when a pair of maps surface, each containing the same riddle, questions arise that leave them unable to move on. Is that truly what happened to the young princes? And why is it that the maps look to be drawn by the hand of Elias’ father—whose body never was found? Isle of Blood and Stone is an epic fantasy about the influence of history and what we’re willing to do in the names of those we love. It is available at Georgetown Public Library as a physical copy. Content warnings include death, child death, sexism, physical abuse, terminal illness, violence, animal cruelty, animal death, and confinement.
Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
In the peaceful land of the Shire, which war has never touched, a young Hobbit is both entrusted and burdened with a task—he must undertake a dangerous journey across the continent of Middle Earth to destroy the Ruling Ring of Power in the place of its creation, preventing the dominion of the Dark Lord. But he won’t have to do it alone; at his side are cousins and friends, the sons of princes and future kings, who will aid him on his way. The bedrock of modern fantasy, The Fellowship of the Ring, is the first part of a trilogy about the strength of will and the power of unity. It is available at Georgetown Public Library in audiobook, eBook, and physical form and at the Smith Library Center in physical form. Content warnings include violence, death, grief, war, animal death, xenophobia, alcohol, and blood.
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
A mysterious child, mute and burdened with power, lands in the care of a ship captain and a millennia-old woman haunted by mistakes. They find love and belonging among each other, connected across time and space, but the past isn’t ready to leave them alone. The Vanished Birds is a book about the families we make. It is available at Georgetown Public Library in physical and eBook form. Content warnings include child abuse, death, violence, medical trauma, murder, physical abuse, sexual content, body horror, and emotional abuse.
Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman
During his life, Vincent van Gogh wrote 658 letters to his brother Theo— on lovers, friends, successes, failures, ambitions, and dreams. Theo was Vincent’s confidant and pillar of strength, and their lives intertwined. Meticulously researched, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers shows us how no one ever succeeds alone. It is available at Georgetown Public Library as a physical copy.
Content warnings include eating disorders, mental illness, dementia, suicide attempts, suicide, chronic illness, alcohol, addiction, and alcoholism.