On Friday Nov. 12, Taylor Swift’s rerecording of the 2012 album “Red,” now called “Red (Taylor’s Version),” was released. It was a highly anticipated album with its inclusion of the 10 minute version of the song “All Too Well” rumored to be about the breakup of Swift and Jake Gyllenhaal (“The Guilty”). 

In honor of the album and its success with being out only a week, why not share a few book titles that give the same emotional drive “All Too Well” presents. Know that all of these books will not catch the interest of every reader but the hope is that people find a good book that helps to reminisce the same feelings Swift provides in her heart-wrenching lyrics. 

“It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover is a very popular recommendation when it comes to “All Too Well,” with readers commenting on actress Sadie Sink (“Stranger Things”) and actor Dylan O’ Brien (“Teen Wolf”), who starred in the short film that accompanied the song, resembling the two main characters of the book, Lily and Altas. While the “All Too Well” short film effectively captures a heartbreaking breakup with vivid memories of a former lover, “It Ends With Us” gives readers a similar concept as the book follows Lily in a new relationship with Ryle, a seemingly ideal partner. However, when things go downhill in her current relationship, she seeks out her old high school diaries, remembering her old relationship with her first love, Atlas. 

The lyric “Maybe this thing was a masterpiece until you tore it all up” speaks high volumes in many relationships. In “People We Meet On Vacation” by Emily Henry, the lyric alludes to having something that is good go downhill due to self destruction. The story follows two best friends who are total opposites. While Poppy loves adventures and to travel, Alex prefers to stay home with a book. For the majority of the year, they live apart, she lives in New York City while he remains in their small hometown. Every summer, for a decade, they would reunite for one week of vacation together until two years ago from present day when their friendship had a falling out leaving the two to not speak. Poppy is the one to initiate a vacation with Alex to try and fix things that she may have been responsible for in the first place. 

“Heartbreakers and Fakers” by Cameron Lund was hard to incorporate into the relation between it and the song but the line “And I know it’s long gone and there was nothing else I could do and I forget about you long enough to forget why I needed to” is the most relatable. The story revolves around a fake dating trope that follows Penny Harris, one of the most popular girls in school, whose life gets flipped upside down after she is caught kissing her arch-nemesis and best friend’s boyfriend Kai Tanaka when she has a boyfriend of her own, Jordan Parker. After the incident, her life falls apart losing friends and her boyfriend who starts to seek out comfort and a little more from her now ex-best friend Olivia. Penny comes up with a plan to win back her ex-boyfriend by making him jealous by pretending to be in a relationship with Kai, his best friend. Kai wants to fix his relationship with Olivia so he agrees, however things get complicated when new emotions float to the surface and present itself. Penny questions if those feelings are enough to make her forget her previous relationship with Jordan. 

These books cover very little of the iconic lyrical lines Swift gives listeners. However, these stories are still capable of replicating some of the deepest feelings that come from listening to a song like “All Too Well” that has many yelling in their cars, singing along to the song. They also incorporate true angst which makes the stories more relatable to the readers and helps them to gain attention to new audiences. Read the books with caution, check the trigger warnings and see if the heart can take it. 

Image from Colleen Hoover via Instagram