Books like Running with Scissors
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs reads as dark-humor, shocking. These 12 books share its genome — matched by how they actually read, not just their shelf label.
What Running with Scissors is like to read
A darkly comic memoir of a chaotic adolescence spent in a squalid, rule-less household — the tone swings between horror and absurdist punchline as young Augusten narrates his own survival. Best for: readers who want gallows-humor memoir about surviving a surreal, unsafe childhood.
The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls · 2005
A clear-eyed, unsentimental memoir of a chaotic nomadic childhood, told with startling matter-of-factness that makes the poverty and parental dysfunction land harder.
A wolf at the table
Augusten Burroughs · 2008
A brutally honest family memoir in Burroughs' signature confessional voice, recounting childhood trauma and psychological damage with unflinching candor and dark humor.
Prozac nation
Elizabeth Wurtzel · 1994
A raw, self-lacerating first-person account of depression that swings between harrowing confession and mordant wit — generational reportage filtered through one relentlessly interior voice.
THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE
David Sedaris · 2025
Sedaris does his signature thing: short, wry autobiographical essays that swerve from the absurd (a train passenger vomiting in his face) to the quietly aching (dead friends in his address book).
Kasher in the rye
Moshe Kasher · 2012
A stand-up comic's memoir of a childhood spent careening through rehab, mental wards, and Oakland schools, told with self-lacerating irreverence that turns horror into punchlines.
Wishful Drinking
Carrie Fisher · 2008
A rapid-fire, self-deprecating tour through Fisher's chaotic life, delivered like a one-woman stage show in prose — funny on the surface, raw underneath.
I love you more than you know
Jonathan Ames · 2005
Shares the vvoice thread
Broken
Jenny Lawson · 2020
Reading Broken feels like sitting with a funny, exhausted friend who swings from absurd tangents (bears, vacuums, Shark Tank pitches) to raw, unguarded honesty about depression and its treatment.
That's Mr. Faggot to You
Michael Thomas Ford · 1999
A candid, funny, and sharply observed set of essays on gay identity that mixes personal confession with social critique.
Rose of no man's land
Michelle Tea · 2006
Shares the vvoice thread
How to murder your life
Cat Marnell · 2017
A breathless, chaotic confessional voice narrates addiction and self-sabotage inside the glossy fashion-magazine world, mixing dark humor with raw self-loathing.
A Girl Named Zippy
Haven Kimmel · 2001
Shares the vvoice thread
About Running with Scissors — what the genome says
Is Running with Scissors a complete story or a cliffhanger?
It's a complete, standalone-satisfying story.
Who is Running with Scissors for?
readers who want gallows-humor memoir about surviving a surreal, unsafe childhood
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