The best books set in South Carolina and Charleston are tightly intertwined with its culture and history. There are great historical fiction, contemporary fiction, Southern gothic novels, and more inspired by the charming Southern state.
Whether you’re traveling to South Carolina mentally or physically, you won’t want to miss these amazing Lowcountry books, particularly those by famous local authors like those pictured below. Let’s get literary, y’all!
Best Books Set in South Carolina and Charleston
TOP PICKS
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix: best for fans of horror
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd: best for fans of bestsellers and found family stories
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead: best for fans of Oprah’s Book Club and diverse historical fiction
Quick List
- The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe
- Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
- The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
- Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs
- Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
- Five Survive by Holly Jackson
- The House on Tradd Street by Karen White
- How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
- The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd
- The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
- Lowcountry Boil by Susan M. Boyer
- The Match by Sarah Adams
- North and South by John Jakes
- Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
- Porgy by DuBose Heyward
- The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
- Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank
- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
- The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Details of the Best South Carolina Books to Read
METHODOLOGY
I created this list of books about South Carolina based on research, reading experiences, perusing Charleston bookstores, and talking with the booksellers there.
The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe
The tone of The Beach House is exactly what you would expect from a Southern book of this title. Mary Alice Monroe’s books were as abundant in Charleston as Elin Hilderbrand’s are in Nantucket!
Caretta is a big-city businesswoman who returns to the Lowcountry upon her mother’s request, just as her life spirals out of control.
The return forces her to slow down and enjoy the quieter pace as she repairs her family’s beach house and reunites with old friends. In reconnecting with her mother, she learns the values of family, sacrifice, forgiveness, and true love.
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Brown Girl Dreaming is a memoir of being raised in the South (South Carolina) and the North (New York) during the 1960s and 1970s when the Civil Rights movement was growing. It’s about finding yourself when two different places feel like home, particularly through writing.
I’ve read several of Woodson’s works, and this one aligns with the brevity and sumptuous prose I expected. It excels at giving the reader a great sense of time and place.
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
In The Dead Romantics, Florence is a big-city ghostwriter who gives up her belief in love. Then, when her editor won’t extend her deadline and her father dies, she returns home to her South Carolina family’s funeral parlor. There, she finds the ghost of her editor, and he’s ready to challenge everything she believes about love.
It’s a unique ghost romance that’s nowhere near as dark as it sounds. Poston has become known for whimsical magical realism.
Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs
Laura Childs’ “Tea Shop Mystery” books were recommended to me by a reader of The Literary Lifestyle.
In the first, Death by Darjeeling, Charleston tea shop owner Theodosia must prove her innocence when a man is poisoned by tea at the annual historical homes garden party.
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
Ella Minnow Pea is an epistolary fable about freedom of speech. A young named Ella lives on a fictional South Carolina island called Nollop, which was named after the author of the famous sentence containing all the letters of the alphabet, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
She is tasked with saving everyone from the island’s Council, which is banning the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they drop from a memorial statue of Nollop.
Reading Tips: As the letters drop from the novel’s statute, they also drop from its text. Based on this visual writing style, print or digital reading is recommended.
Five Survive by Holly Jackson
In Five Survive, Red is on an RV road trip for spring break with five friends–including a killer. And, when they break down without cell service, it becomes clear that it was intentional.
They must either escape or find out who’s lying by daybreak. Not everyone will make it out alive in this nail-biter.
The House on Tradd Street by Karen White
The House on Tradd Street is the first in a beloved series about a Charleston real estate agent and the secret histories inside the town’s old houses.
Melanie has inherited a historic home in which Jack, a writer of unsolved mysteries, believes are hidden diamonds from the Confederate Treasury.
As he begins to fall for her, he catches the attention of an evil ghost, and they must try to solve a mystery of love, heartbreak, and, perhaps, murder.
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
How to Sell a Haunted House is the weirdest book that I couldn’t put down. At its core, it’s a book about demonic puppets, trauma, and grief. (Yes, you read that right!)
After their parents tragically die, Louise and Mark reunite in Charleston to sell the family home. Complicating things, however, is a possessed puppet named Pumpkin, who has been part of the family for many years.
This book mixes horror with family drama in all the right ways, making it so beloved by readers.
The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd
The Indigo Girl tells how one sixteen-year-old teenager produced the important export indigo dye.
In 1739, Eliza Lucas’s family is about to lose everything when she learns how much the French pay for indigo dye and believes it can save her family. A seemingly impossible task, her dreams are reached through the help of an aging horticulturalist, a married lawyer, and a slave whom she illegally teaches to read.
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
The Invention of Wings tells the story of the feminist women in the Grimke family and their quest to free Black slaves.
It’s an excellent read about women of different classes who yearn for freedom in different ways and find common ground therein. It was informative, yet the chapters were also short and moved quickly.
Lowcountry Boil by Susan M. Boyer
Lowcountry Boil is the first in the series about a woman who’s both a Southern belle and a private investigator. When her grandmother is murdered, she returns to South Carolina to solve the mystery with her brother, the chief of police, who ends up shutting her out.
When more residents die in the small seaside town, she becomes even more determined to catch the killer before he catches her, even if she’s on her own in doing so.
The Match by Sarah Adams
In The Match, Evie works for a struggling service dog company in Charleston and needs a major fundraiser to save it. She meets Jacob Broaden, who sees the value in a service dog for his daughter Sam, who has epilepsy.
As Evie helps find a perfect match for Sam with a golden retriever named Daisy, she longs for a loving family. Jacob, despite knowing he shouldn’t, starts falling for Evie.
This book is a cute modern romance with loveable dogs, health struggles, and real-life issues, making it perfect for fans of Abby Jimenez’s books.
Reading Tip: If you’re already a fan of this author and/or book, check out the second book in the “It Happened in Charleston” series, The Enemy.
North and South by John Jakes
North and South is the first book in a popular trilogy.
While training at West Point and serving in the Mexican-American War together, a close-knit friendship forms between a Pennsylvania man and a South Carolina man.
But, when the first shots of the American Civil War are fired at Fort Sumter off the coast of Charleston, their bond is tested. It’s an immersive saga in which the tale of these two men reflects the tensions of a nation.
Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
In the reader-favorite Other Birds, the Dellawisp is a cobblestone building on a small Mallow Island, South Carolina alley. It was named after the turquoise birds who reside there and, like the human tenants, have a sense of bearing magical secrets.
When Zoey claimed her deceased mother’s apartment there, she meets many unique residents, including three ghosts. Then, a neighbor mysteriously dies, and she discovers that the missing pages of a famous writer may be hidden there.
The quest reveals that the building is filled with unfinished stories and pasts that must be confronted for the residents to move forward.
Porgy by DuBose Heyward
Porgy was the basis for George Gershwin’s musical Porgy and Bess.
It’s based on a true story about the rise and fall of a Charlestonian street beggar living in the Black tenements during the 1920s as he pursues a woman named Bess.
Reading Tip: Some passages contain a Creole language named Gullah, which enslaved persons developed.
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
I spotted Pat Conroy’s books all over Charleston, and the most popular among them is The Prince of Tides, which is considered “a masterpiece.” It has been compared to one of my all-time favorite books, John Steinbeck’s East of Eden.
It’s an epic, decades-long family saga that moves between the fast-paced New York City and the slower lifestyle of the Lowcountry and follows the volatile Tom Wingo and his smart but troubled twin sister, Savannah.
Note: Other popular titles by Pat Conroy include South of Broad and The Water is Wide.
Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank
In Queen Bee, Holly is a Southern beekeeper living with her strong-willed mother and crushing on the handsome widowed next-door neighbor. When her exuberant sister moves back in, they fixate all their attention on the neighbor, causing some slapstick moments unfurl.
It’s a light family story filled with strong women and Southern charm that feels as sweet as honey!
Note: While Queen Bee is my favorite beach read of Frank’s, she has many other titles that are also popular with readers.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Secret Life of Bees is a popular choice from the Gilmore Girls reading list. It’s a beautiful story of found family and so many other hot topics, including Civil Rights. There’s even a bit of mystery and romance.
Set in South Carolina in 1964, Lily is a young girl with a blurry memory of the day her mother died and a stand-in mother in the form of a Black woman named Rosaleen.
Together, they escape to Tiburon, South Carolina, where they uncover the secret to the past of Lily’s mother after being taken in by Black beekeeping sisters.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is a popular book described as Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meets Dracula.
Patricia is a middle-aged mother of teens, wife of a workaholic, and daughter-in-law of a woman needing constant care. She takes solace in her Charleston book club that loves to read true crime.
After a neighbor attacks her, she becomes acquainted with his handsome nephew, James. But, when local children go missing and the police write off their deaths, she begins to believe James may be a monster.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Set partially in South Carolina, The Underground Railroad is a modern masterpiece that weaves the story of a young female slave named Cora seeking freedom with that of other characters, including her mother, her grandmother, a slave catcher; a South Carolina doctor conducting a social experiment, the wife of a North Carolina station agent, and a fellow slave who escapes the plantation with Cora.
These various perspectives, along with excellent writing, breathe new life into what may seem like a familiar story of the Antebellum South. It’s not as familiar as you may think, and it surprised and educated me as much as other great works of historical fiction about suppressed stories.
Recap
The best books set in South Carolina to mentally transport you to the Palmetto state and immerse you in its longstanding history and culture.
TOP 3 PICKS
Get started here:
- How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
remember, it’s a good day to read a book. – jules
