Authors Like Jodi Picoult: 6 Writers to Read Next

Jodi Picoult has sold tens of millions of books by turning the hardest questions in life into unputdownable family dramas. From My Sister’s Keeper to Small Great Things to Nineteen Minutes, her novels take a thorny ethical issue — medical autonomy, racism, gun violence, faith — and dramatise it through a family in crisis, told from multiple viewpoints and capped with a signature twist. The result is fiction that makes book clubs argue for hours. If you have read your way through Picoult and want that same blend of moral weight and emotional pull, these six authors deliver.

Below are the writers who each capture a key element of the Picoult experience, with a starting point for each.

What Makes a Jodi Picoult Read-Alike

Picoult’s appeal rests on a few pillars. There is the moral dilemma with no easy answer at the heart of each book. There is the multiple-viewpoint structure that makes you sympathise with every side. There is the emotional intensity, often involving children, illness, or loss. And there is the twist that reframes everything. Most read-alikes lean into one or two of these, so the best pick depends on which one you read Picoult for.

It also helps to know whether you read her more for the issue or the emotion. Some readers love the courtroom-style argument and the ethical knot; others come for the tears and the family bonds. The authors below split the same way — Celeste Ng and Liane Moriarty on the issue-and-secrets side, Kristin Hannah and Jojo Moyes on the emotional side, with Reid and Owens bridging the two through sheer book-club magnetism.

Celeste Ng — The Moral Dilemma

For Picoult’s gift of a moral question with no clean answer, Celeste Ng is the closest match. Little Fires Everywhere sets a custody battle and a question of motherhood ablaze in a tidy Ohio suburb, dramatising class, race, and family from every angle. Thoughtful, propulsive, and morally complex, it is pure Picoult territory done with literary polish.

Liane Moriarty — The Suburban Secrets

Liane Moriarty shares Picoult’s interest in ordinary families harbouring explosive secrets, often building toward a courtroom-adjacent reckoning. Big Little Lies weaves three women’s lives toward a death at a school fundraiser, mixing dark comedy with real questions about abuse and motherhood. For Picoult fans who love the domestic tension and the slow reveal.

Kristin Hannah — The Emotional Sweep

Kristin Hannah matches Picoult’s ability to wreck a reader, often on a historical canvas. The Nightingale, about two sisters in Nazi-occupied France, delivers the impossible choices and devastating emotion Picoult fans crave. For readers who come to Picoult for the family bonds and the tears, Hannah is essential.

Jojo Moyes — The Impossible Choice

Jojo Moyes builds her best novels on exactly the kind of ethical dilemma Picoult loves. Me Before You turns a question of autonomy and love into one of the most-cried-over novels of the century. The moral weight and the emotional payoff make Moyes a natural next read.

Taylor Jenkins Reid — The Book-Club Magnet

Taylor Jenkins Reid shares Picoult’s knack for an unputdownable, endlessly discussable story. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo wraps questions of ambition, identity, and sacrifice in a glamorous, devastating package. For Picoult fans who want a different setting with the same book-club pull — see our authors like Taylor Jenkins Reid guide.

Delia Owens — The Atmospheric Drama

Delia Owens combines a coming-of-age story with a courtroom drama, very much in Picoult’s wheelhouse. Where the Crawdads Sing pairs lush nature writing with a murder trial and a heroine readers cannot forget. The blend of emotion, mystery, and moral question makes it a perfect fit.

A Note Before You Choose

One thing worth knowing about Picoult and her heirs: the heavy subject matter is a feature, not a bug. Picoult’s novels deliberately sit with grief, illness, injustice, and loss, and the authors here do too, so it is worth gauging how much weight you want to carry into your next read. If you are after the full Picoult intensity — the lump in the throat, the moral argument you cannot resolve — Celeste Ng, Jojo Moyes, and Kristin Hannah deliver it without flinching. If you would rather keep the page-turning drama but lighten the load a little, Liane Moriarty laces hers with dark comedy and Taylor Jenkins Reid with glamour and momentum. It also helps to remember that part of Picoult’s signature is the multiple-viewpoint structure, which forces you to sympathise with every side of an impossible question; Ng and Moriarty use that same technique most directly, so they will feel the most familiar. Whatever you choose, expect a book that refuses easy answers — which is exactly why Picoult’s readers keep coming back.

How to Choose Your Next Read

If you read Jodi Picoult for the moral dilemma, start with Celeste Ng. For suburban secrets, read Liane Moriarty. For the emotional historical sweep, go to Kristin Hannah. For an impossible choice, read Jojo Moyes. And for book-club magnetism, read Taylor Jenkins Reid or Delia Owens.

What unites them is Picoult’s central gift: making you care so deeply about a family that their hardest question becomes yours. For more, our best books for book clubs and best historical fiction books roundups gather many more. Pick the writer who matches whatever kept you up arguing with yourself, and your next discussion-starter is waiting.