Books like Toxic Beauty by Caroline B. Cooney

Alicia Berenson, a celebrated painter, shoots her husband Gabriel and then falls silent, becoming a media sensation. In North London’s Grove secure unit, psychotherapist Theo Faber devotes himself to uncovering why she became the Silent Patient and his own true motives.

The Bell Jar is the sole novel by Sylvia Plath, a psychologically intense and autobiographical look at a young woman’s decline into mental illness.

Eighteen‑year‑old Susanna Kaysen is admitted to McLean Hospital in 1967, where she documents life in the psychiatric ward, exploring mental illness, recovery, and the cultural landscape of the late 1960s.

Reporter Camille Preaker returns to her hometown after a brief stay in a psychiatric hospital to cover the murders of two preteen girls, and must confront the trauma of her own past to uncover the truth.

At Pirriwee Public, a beachside school, a routine trivia night spirals into chaos when a parent dies—raising questions of murder, accidental death, or toxic truths. Parents discover how small lies can become deadly.

A suspenseful look inside the seemingly perfect marriage of Jack and Grace, where love, secrecy, and abuse mask a household of hidden violence.

xxxv, 338 pages ; 21 cm

When their teenage sister Julia disappears 25 years ago, sisters Claire and Lydia are united again by new tragedies—Claire’s husband is murdered and a missing child case resurfaces. Together they confront family secrets, grief, and the possibility of redemption and revenge.

A husband’s new engagement unexpectedly draws a determined ex‑wife into a web of lies, secrets, and psychological tension that threatens the lives of all involved.

A fresh high‑school romance follows Frannie as she keeps her authenticity in a new relationship while supporting her cousin through her first love, all set against the backdrop of teenage popularity culture.

After a prank steals her prized bag, a popular high‑school princess teams up with a self‑proclaimed film geek to document school popularity. Together they discover that true friendships—and a happily ever after—require more than social status.

A shy high‑schooler discovers that a pop‑culture influenced friendship strategy can dramatically boost her social standing – but the one boy she really likes remains stubbornly distant.

From Kay Redfield Jamison - an international authority on manic-depressive illness, and one of the few women who are full professors of medicine at American universities - a remarkable personal testimony: the revelation of her own struggle since adolescence with manic-depression, and how it has shaped her life. Vividly, directly, with candor, wit, and simplicity, she takes us into the fascinating and dangerous territory of this form of madness - a world in which one pole can be the alluring dark land ruled by what Byron called the "melancholy star of the imagination," and the other a desert of depression and, all too frequently, death. A moving and exhilarating memoir by a woman whose furious determination to learn the enemy, to use her gifts of intellect to make a difference, led her to become, by the time she was forty, a world authority on manic-depression, and whose work has helped save countless lives.

A New York attorney inherits her estranged mother’s will, prompting her to reunite with siblings who survived a traumatic family past and to confront a brother who turned their shared trauma into a lucrative business.

When an encounter at Heathrow turns into a murderous plan, the tangled lives of Ted Severson, his wife Miranda, and a mysterious stranger collide across continents, forcing each to decide whether to pursue their own violent course or to protect their futures.

A modern retelling of the classic high‑school drama, following homeschooled Cady Heron as she navigates the cliques and politics of North Shore High in suburban Illinois.

At Temperley High, a strict English boarding school, seventeen‑year‑old Stella Hamilton dominates the exclusive clique while aiming to become Head Girl and secure a romance with her equally popular classmate—until the arrival of New Yorker Caitlin Clarke threatens to upend her plans.

Freshman friends Patty Greene and Lauren Hutchinson chase popularity at Weemawee High, navigating crushes, cliques, and mishaps in their quest to fit in.

A high‑school junior grapples with doubts as the mysterious disappearance of a class outcast forces him to confront his own emotional struggles and peer pressure.

Mattie reconnects with her school friends after deciding to leave her self-imposed isolation.

When newcomer Ashley joins East High, Gabriella offers to guide her, but soon questions whether Ashley's friendliness is genuine or manipulative.