Hey, all you cool cats and kittens!
It’s been several weeks since Netflix’s true crime docuseries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness made its splashy debut, but you’d never guess it based on my social media feeds — it seems like every day a new crop of fans is discovering the show, sharing memes, and poring over the many (many) think pieces out there. Tiger King’s buzz has reached a fever pitch, and with a scripted series adaptation reportedly in the works (with Saturday Night Live mainstay Kate McKinnon set to portray Carole Baskin), it’s likely that folks are going to be talking about the head-scratching exploits of Joe Exotic and co. for a long time.
Luckily, there’s no shortage of purrfect read-alikes out there to sate readers’ tastes for the bizarre. For more jaw-dropping stranger-than-fiction tales, try searching GX true crime AND TC dramatic in NoveList Plus (or consider swapping in TC high-drama if you really want to kick things up a notch). If you’re looking for more animal-centric true crime, search GX true crime AND GX nature writing. Animal safety not guaranteed, so proceed with caution!
Looking for fiction read-alikes? GX crime fiction is a good place to start, or try GX transgressive fiction for boundary-pushing books. You might also want to consider titles with an offbeat tone (TC offbeat), racy humor (TC racy humor) or characters who are quirky (CC quirky) or twisted (CC twisted).
Kaitlin Conner is a Readers’ Advisory Librarian at NoveList. Her Tiger King character is Saff.