Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Getting in | 1998 | Jennifer Finney Boylan | Buy |
| 2 | Long Black Veil | 2017 | Jennifer Finney Boylan | Buy |
| 3 | Good Boy | 2020 | Jennifer Finney Boylan | Buy |
| 4 | Mad Honey | 2022 | Jennifer Finney Boylan | Buy |
Jennifer Finney Boylan’s standalone novels span nearly 25 years and several different registers. Getting in, published in 1998 before she transitioned, is a comic novel about the college application process. It is a lighter work than her later fiction and reflects the satirical mode she employed in her early career.
Long Black Veil, published in 2017, is a literary mystery with a darker tone. It follows a group of college friends who visited an abandoned prison as students; when one goes missing, the others must confront what happened that night and what secrets they have kept since. The novel alternates timelines and deals with questions of identity and truth, themes that recur throughout Boylan’s work.
Good Boy, published in 2020, is harder to categorize. It is a memoir-novel about Boylan’s rescue dog Ranger and the years they spent together as her family life changed. Mad Honey (2022), co-written with Jodi Picoult, is a YA novel told from two alternating perspectives, a mother and her teenage son, as they navigate a death in their small New Hampshire town. The book addresses themes of domestic violence and transgender identity through the dual narration.