Books To Read if You Love “Fleabag”

Although the Priest and Fleabag were, sadly, not meant to be, their unlikely relationship finds its way into many other storylines. Normal People follows the lives of Marianne and Connell as they drift in and out of each other’s lives, from their shy high school days to their university campus where they grow into the people they do — and don’t — want to be. Their unlikely relationship begins when Connell’s mother works as a cleaner for Marianne’s upper-class family, making their worlds difficult to mesh. While these familiar differences work against their relationship, it doesn’t stop them from trying time and time again.

In their memoir, Emezi recounts the ways in which crucial elements of their past have guided their journey to where they are today — both as a person and as a writer. Emezi’s journey is one which has required a deep exploration of their gender identity and involved making completely life-altering decisions. At the same time, they look at how these decisions affected their relationship with friends, family, and lovers. Fleabag’s own journey to discover her identity is one which takes a different path, yet the outcome is very much the same as she reckons with her own relationships, and how her behavior will change them.

Does an unconventional priest ring any bells? Unlike Fleabag, this is not about a woman and a priest’s attraction towards each other, but it does recount the story of Lockwood and her father — and everyone else’s — Father Greg. The Priest in Fleabag and Father Greg are both unlikely members of the clergy — with their drinking, swearing, and love of rock music — yet their firm beliefs are what keep the protagonists in both stories at a distance. Like Fleabag, Lockwood has no interest in Catholicism or any other religion and fills her memoir with both hilarious and tragic stories that surround the ways she rebelled against the Church, her father, and their community.

Fleabag taught us that sometimes it takes losing what matters most to realize what we need. Michelle Zauner, the vocalist of the indie rock band Japanese Breakfast, reveals her talents as a writer, and as a cook in her memoir Crying in H Mart. Growing up as one of the few Asian American kids in Eugene, Oregon, Zauner remembers how food was a comfort and a way to connect with her family. When she moves to the East Coast for college, Zauner realizes that her distance — both physical and metaphorical — is causing her to lose touch with her culture. Like Fleabag, when Zauner’s mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer, she is shaken by a desperate need to reconnect with those aspects of her past and use her grief to rediscover who she wants to be.

In this compilation of three gripping novellas, de Beauvoir chronicles the lives of three women, each dealing with their own vulnerabilities and insecurities. Fleabag is not about the titular character alone, but also about the women who are in her life. We learn about Boo’s struggle with her mental health, Claire’s loveless marriage, and her godmother’s experiences with art, love, and betrayal. Similarly, each woman in de Beauvoir’s novel feels trapped in her own way and must move forward to rebuild the lives that they have loved and lost.

If you enjoyed learning about the relationship between Fleabag and her best friend Boo, then you’ll love Joy and Annie’s story. When these two thirty-something roommates rent out a room in their home, they don’t expect Theo to be the breaking point of their strong relationship. Joy develops an overwhelming crush on Theo that doesn’t wither even when he begins dating Celine — someone who Joy is equally enamored with. Floored by the choices Joy has made, Annie still has her own conceptions of love to mend. While it may be obvious, Joy and Annie must realize the common thread between their issues — men.

Much like the first season of Fleabag, Out of Love tells its story in reverse. After a couple splits up after nearly five years together, they wonder how they could have gotten to such a place. From there, their love story unfolds and goes back through the years and moments that led to their first meeting. Like Fleabag’s relationships with her best friend, sister, and parents, this story shows the aftermath of betrayal and wrongdoing and their effects on a relationship over time. Through this walk down memory lane, we can pinpoint the places that broke their relationship, and how even the sweetest of love stories can come to an end.

Another novel that follows the lives of multiple women, Dead-End Memories chronicles the lives of five women, each dealing with their own grief.  Like Fleabag, whose experiences with the grief of losing her mother, best friend, and her own sense of self have brought her to rock bottom, we see how she and the women of Dead-End Memories are able to pick up the pieces and move forward.

Fleabag deals with many relationships, but most importantly, the one between Fleabag and her sister, Claire. Like Fleabag and Claire, whose insurmountable grief over the loss of their mother brings them together and pulls them apart, sisters Noreen, Kausar, and Aisha find themselves suddenly orphaned, and learning to contend with their new family dynamic. The eldest, Noreen must now be both a mother and a sister to her siblings, all while trying to hold on to a shred of her own identity. Kausar and Aisha have their own feelings to deal with as they explore aspects of their life without their parents’ guidance. Through their unbreakable bonds, read how these three sisters, like Fleabag and Claire, give each other all the family that they need.