Books like Blankets

Blankets by Craig Thompson reads as melancholic, intimate. These 12 books share its genome — matched by how they actually read, not just their shelf label.

What Blankets is like to read

A quiet, sprawling graphic memoir of first love, faith, and family, told in fluid black-and-white imagery that lingers on small moments. Emotionally resonant and introspective rather than plot-driven. Best for: readers who love introspective coming-of-age memoirs and literary graphic novels.

Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi · 2000

A child's-eye view of revolution and war rendered in stark black-and-white panels, alternating disarming humor with sudden brutality.

Fun Home

Alison Bechdel · 2006

A recursive, literary graphic memoir that circles the same events through the lens of Joyce, Proust and Camus, braiding a daughter's queer self-discovery with the mystery of her closeted father's death.

complete story

Dreams from My Father

Barack Obama · 1995

A reflective, searching memoir that braids family history, racial identity, and a literal journey to Kenya into an emotional reckoning with an absent father.

complete storydeep cut

Maus

Art Spiegelman · 1991

A son interviews his difficult father about surviving Auschwitz, and the act of making the book becomes part of the book — spare cartooning carrying unbearable weight, funny and devastating by turns.

creepy, not gorycomplete story

Spinning

Tillie Walden · 2017

A quiet, introspective graphic memoir tracing Walden's teenage years in competitive figure skating as she grapples with sexuality, identity, and the isolating pressure of performance.

deep cut