Here are Some Must Read Books If You Like Watching Shameless
Or, some book recs if dark humor and messy family dynamics are your thing.
You can almost always find me consuming stories in some way….whether it be watching tv, movies, or (my personal favorite) reading books.
The thing is, as much as I love reading books, I do have to be in the right mindspace for it. It’s not as easy as turning on Netflix. It requires more of my undivided attention. I can’t multitask when I’m reading like I can when I’m binging a show or movie I’ve seen a million times before.
So, how do I build a veracious reading habit? How do I keep up with it when I’m not in the mood to read?
I think about the other stories on my mind….and there is ALWAYS a story I’m obessesing about.
If I’m finding myself watching more tv than reading books, I think about what it is that I’m in the mood to watch. And then I analyze. I think about my favorite characters, situations, tropes, and I look for those things in the books I choose to read.
I’m a creature of habit when it comes to the stories I intake and it always helps if elements of the book feel familiar to me.
So, why am I telling you all this?
I want to start a book reccomendation series for my fellow story carnivores. In this series I’ll present a tv show or movie (maybe even music, art, etc. because there are many different ways to get your story fix) and break it down.
What tropes does is highlight? Situations? Character types?
And then I’ll give you a list of book recs that I think will appeal to you if you like the show/movie/song/etc.
I’m going to start with a show I’ve recently been rewatching over the last two months—Shameless.
I watched Shameless when it was first airing, but it’s been a few years since I’ve seen it and I had forgotten how good it is.
Shameless is the story of the Gallagher family—a large family of siblings taking care of eachother and barely getting by without the help of their addict parents in Chicago.
It’s cringy and hilarious at the same time and just so very messy. It captures an element of real life that as a viewer and a writer I just really really love.
Let’s look at some of the characters that stuck with me:
Fiona Gallagher
Fiona is the oldest of the Gallagher siblings and has given up her life to make sure her siblings stay afloat. The series follows her journey of trying to carve out a space for herself in a world that has been unbelievably hard on her.
Fiona is burdened by responsibilites, a motherly duty to her siblings, and a necessary hard-working additude that doesn’t leave much room for her to be young herself.
Lip Gallagher
Lip is the second oldest sibling in the Gallagher family and is the characteristic bad boy genius type. He’s too smart for his own good, but his family situation leaves him little room to explore his potential.
Lip is often left disappointed by Fiona, because if it weren’t for Fiona the real bruden of caring for his siblings would fall on him. Whenever Fiona even remotely drops the ball, it falls on Lip to pick things up.
Steve
Steve plays a critical role in Fiona’s character arc. He’s the boulder the pushes Fiona off the edge when it comes to doing things for herself. He’s a major character in the first few seasons of the show, but he definitely left his mark as a favorite of mine in the show.
What draws me to him is the contrast he provides to the Gallagher clan. He’s selfish in a way that they simply can’t afford, due to the family money that he comes from. His own family drama provides a stark contrast to the lower class drama the Gallaghers experience.
Also, as far as love stories go, Steve and Fiona’s unrequited love definitely pulls on some heart strings.
Now let’s look at some situations/tropes:
Messy Family Situations
The heart of this show centers around the consequences that fall on the Gallagher siblings due to their parents substance abuse and mental health problems. It explores family trauma in a way that just feels very real by exploring the siblings own addictive personalities, hereditary mental health issues, and parental neglect.
Large Family Dynamic
The Gallagher family is of the large Irish variety—6 kids and two often absent parents. Often the best moments of this show are the mundane moments where you really get to see the chaos of a large family in play.
Family of Misfits/Choosen Family
Probably a result of the parental neglect they experience, the Gallagher siblings are often both misfits themselves and attract an ecclectic choosen family to them. Shameless highlights the fact that you can choose who your family is, even if you can’t necessarily always pick who your family is.
Urban Poverty/Gentrification
Shameless is set in the southside of Chicago—a neighborhood known for it’s poverty, and as the show progresses it’s gentrification as well. Outside of the Gallagher families personal struggles is the rapidly growing threat of gentrification in their neighboorhood. The show does a really good job of showing the middle class moving into this lower class neighborhood and pushing out its poverty ridden citizens.
Dark Humor
Shameless plays with a lot of really hard topics—substance abuse, mental health struggles, deep poverty, gentrification, etc. Basically, you name the tragic event and it’s most likely represented in this show at some point. However, on top of all that is this mentality that says if you can’t change your situation, find the humor in it. This leads to some really successful dark humor moments throughout the series.
And now on to the book recomendations:
We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange
We Are the Brennans explores the Irish Catholic family dynamic that Shameless often makes light of. It also looks like it explores the topic of family trauma through secrets that come back to haunt the main characters.
“Some secrets you keep from your family. Some secrets you keep for your family.
When 29-year-old Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital, bruised and battered after a drunk driving accident she caused, she swallows her pride and goes home to her family in New York. But it’s not easy. She deserted them all—and her high school sweetheart - five years before with little explanation, and they've got questions.
Sunday is determined to rebuild her life back on the east coast, even if it does mean tiptoeing around resentful brothers and an ex-fiancé. The longer she stays, however, the more she realizes they need her just as much as she needs them. When a dangerous man from her past brings her family’s pub business to the brink of financial ruin, the only way to protect them is to upend all of their secrets - secrets that have damaged the family for generations and will threaten everything they know about their lives. In the aftermath, the Brennan family is forced to confront painful mistakes - and ultimately find a way forward, together.
In the vein of Maggie O'Farrell and John Boyne, Tracey Lange’s critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, We Are the Brennans, explores the staying power of shame - and the redemptive power of love - in an Irish Catholic family torn apart by secrets.”
Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
I’ve already written about my love of Colleen Hoover books here. Regretting You is the book that started that love, and I think if you like Shameless, you might like this book too.
Shameless and Regretting You share parallels when it comes to dealing with the fallout of a major betrayal from a family member. Both stories highlight how that betrayal can strengthen other relationships.
“Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, would like nothing more than to be nothing alike.
Morgan is determined to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. By getting pregnant and married way too young, Morgan put her own dreams on hold. Clara doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Her predictable mother doesn’t have a spontaneous bone in her body.
With warring personalities and conflicting goals, Morgan and Clara find it increasingly difficult to coexist. The only person who can bring peace to the household is Chris—Morgan’s husband, Clara’s father, and the family anchor. But that peace is shattered when Chris is involved in a tragic and questionable accident. The heartbreaking and long-lasting consequences will reach far beyond just Morgan and Clara.
While struggling to rebuild everything that crashed around them, Morgan finds comfort in the last person she expects to, and Clara turns to the one boy she’s been forbidden to see. With each passing day, new secrets, resentment, and misunderstandings make mother and daughter fall further apart. So far apart, it might be impossible for them to ever fall back together.”
The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell
Secrets and tragedy play a heavy role in this family drama. This is a book I haven’t read yet, but the description sounds like it would have some similarities and similar tropes to Shameless.
“OUR HOUSE. OUR FAMILY. OUR SECRETS.
Meet the picture-perfect Bird family: pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and towheaded twins Rory and Rhys, one an adventurous troublemaker, the other his slighter, more sensitive counterpart. Their father is a sweet, gangly man, but it’s their beautiful, free-spirited mother Lorelei who spins at the center. In those early years, Lorelei tries to freeze time by filling their simple brick house with precious mementos. Easter egg foils are her favorite. Craft supplies, too. She hangs all of the children’s art, to her husband’s chagrin.
Then one Easter weekend, a tragedy so devastating occurs that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass and the children have become adults, while Lorelei has become the county’s worst hoarder. She has alienated her husband and children and has been living as a recluse. But then something happens that beckons the Bird family back to the house they grew up in—to finally understand the events of that long-ago Easter weekend and to unearth the many secrets hidden within the nooks and crannies of home.”
The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
One of my favorite elements of Shameless is that it centers on the anti-hero. A whole cast of anti-hero characters, actually. It’s not about anyone who is going to change the world or save the day, and that’s kind of refreshing. Patrick Ness’s ‘The Rest of Us Just Live Here’ shares a similar story element by centering on a character adjacent to the golden boy. The one that often is no more than a side kick in most stories.
“What if you aren't the Chosen One? The one who's supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?
What if you're like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.
Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week's end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.
Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions.”
Did you like this post? Do you have a favorite tv show or movie you’d like me to do next? Let me know in the comments!