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15 Authors like Jenny Hollowell

Jenny Hollowell is known for her powerful fiction exploring human emotions and relationships. Her acclaimed novel, Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe, showcases her talent for storytelling with honesty and depth.

If you enjoy reading books by Jenny Hollowell then you might also like the following authors:

  1. Aimee Bender

    Aimee Bender writes stories full of imagination and emotional depth. Her characters often experience strange events, and her storytelling feels both fairy-tale-like and oddly real.

    People who like Jenny Hollowell's emotional narratives and subtle strangeness might appreciate Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, a story about a young girl who tastes emotions in food.

  2. Miranda July

    Miranda July creates quirky and heartfelt stories exploring human connection and loneliness in everyday settings. Her work often features characters who are shy or awkward trying to connect with each other in curious, tender ways.

    Fans of Jenny Hollowell’s thoughtful insights into humanity may connect deeply with July's No One Belongs Here More Than You, a collection of short stories celebrating life's odd moments.

  3. Karen Russell

    Karen Russell blends reality with elements of fantasy and folklore in a style that feels both whimsical and emotionally powerful. Her characters often face strange situations that reveal deeper truths about family, identity, and growing up.

    Readers who like the quiet surrealism and emotional weight of Jenny Hollowell might enjoy Swamplandia!, Russell's novel about a young girl trying to save her family's unusual alligator-themed amusement park.

  4. Alissa Nutting

    Alissa Nutting writes daring, darkly comedic, and provocative stories that openly examine uncomfortable emotions and topics. She explores relationships, obsessions, and human behaviors that other authors might shy away from, using sharp humor and honest insights.

    Readers appreciative of Jenny Hollowell's frank depiction of complex relationships might be drawn to Nutting’s novel Tampa, an unsettling yet powerful look at forbidden desires.

  5. Ottessa Moshfegh

    Ottessa Moshfegh creates sharply observant, darkly funny portraits of lonely, peculiar characters trying to exist within a confusing and often absurd society.

    Her writing style is both clear-eyed and emotionally exposed, capturing the uncomfortable and the sadly humorous aspects of life.

    Readers attracted to the insight and emotionally honest character portrayals found in Jenny Hollowell's work may connect deeply with Moshfegh’s novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation, the story of a young woman attempting to escape her unhappiness through sleep.

  6. Catherine Lacey

    Catherine Lacey writes fiction that's thoughtful, quirky, and sharply observant. Her novels often explore loneliness, identity, and existential struggles with quiet humor and empathy.

    In her novel Nobody Is Ever Missing, Lacey follows a woman who impulsively leaves her life to wander alone in New Zealand, painting a vivid portrait of emotional isolation with poetic intensity.

  7. Halle Butler

    Halle Butler's writing captures the weird, uncomfortable rhythms of daily life with a dry, dark sense of humor. Her novels often introduce characters who feel stuck or dissatisfied, hilariously and painfully exploring our anxieties and frustrations.

    In The New Me, Butler dives into the grimly humorous story of a temp worker longing to reinvent her life but stumbling hilariously along the way.

  8. Sheila Heti

    Sheila Heti creates novels that playfully blur the line between fiction and memoir. Her writing feels personal and immediate, often digging deeply into ideas about art, friendship, and identity.

    Her novel How Should a Person Be? blends her own experiences with invented scenarios to explore questions about creativity, meaning, and the expectations placed upon women artists.

  9. Alexandra Kleeman

    Alexandra Kleeman often writes surreal and sharp stories that tackle themes of consumer culture, self-image, and modern anxieties.

    Her novel You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine uses absurd humor and unsettling imagery to examine our obsession with appearance, consumption, and relationships. It's funny, strange, and thought-provoking.

  10. Mona Awad

    Mona Awad explores complex themes like body image, self-worth, and the dark sides of modern life with dark humor and biting honesty. Her novel Bunny is a wild, darkly comic satire about friendship, creativity, and academia that dips its toes into fantasy and horror.

    Awad pushes boundaries, making the reader laugh while feeling deeply uncomfortable—often at the same time.

  11. Leigh Stein

    Leigh Stein writes with wit and sharp humor about the challenges facing young women, exploring anxiety, identity, and relationships. Her novel, The Fallback Plan, follows Esther, a recent graduate who moves back home and struggles to navigate adulthood.

    Stein's voice is candid and insightful, highlighting the funny and difficult moments that shape us.

  12. Weike Wang

    Weike Wang's writing explores personal struggles, cultural expectations, and balancing ambition and wellbeing. Her novel Chemistry features a doctoral student whose life unravels as she questions her academic path, relationships, and inherited pressures.

    Wang crafts her stories with sharp clarity, humor, and emotional honesty.

  13. Diana Spechler

    Diana Spechler creates relatable, flawed characters confronting insecurity, family conflicts, and self-discovery in contemporary settings.

    Her novel, Skinny, portrays Gray Lachmann, who grapples with grief, body image, and emotional hunger while working at an upscale weight-loss retreat. Spechler's writing is engaging, heartfelt, and empathic.

  14. Jean Kyoung Frazier

    Jean Kyoung Frazier delivers stories filled with dark humor and vivid, unconventional characters.

    Her novel, Pizza Girl, introduces readers to a disillusioned pregnant teenager working at a pizza parlor whose obsession with a regular customer propels her toward increasingly risky decisions.

    Frazier approaches loneliness and uncertainty with honesty and compassion, creating a memorable and relatable narrative.

  15. Maryse Meijer

    Maryse Meijer writes boldly and provocatively, often mixing the ordinary and disturbing to explore the darker sides of human nature and relationships. Her short story collection, Heartbreaker, delves into unsettling emotional territory with sharp prose and fearless storytelling.

    Meijer's work challenges and surprises readers while drawing them into intense and emotionally charged worlds.