Riot Recommendation

Your Favorite Fictional Stories Inspired By Real Events

Vanessa Diaz

Managing Editor

Vanessa is a writer, reader and generally bookish Latina from San Diego. If loving Agatha Christie is wrong, she doesn't want to be right. Vanessa’s penchant for books, travel and tea is rivaled only by her serious addictions to milk, avocado and floral lattes. When not reading books or selling them, she can be found blogging, working on her first novel or cozying up at a library.

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This Riot Recommendation of true events that inspired fictional stories is sponsored by The Man Who Played With Fire by Jan Stocklassa.

In a riveting true crime investigation, journalist Jan Stocklassa follows the trail of intrigue, espionage, and conspiracy begun by Stieg Larsson, one of the world’s most famous thriller writers. For years before he died, Larsson had been amassing evidence on the 1986 unsolved assassination of Olof Palme, the Swedish prime minister. Larsson’s archive was forgotten until Stocklassa was given exclusive access to the author’s secret project. Was Sweden’s most notorious unsolved crime cracked by the author of the Millennium novels? Read The Man Who Played With Fire, the true story of a prolific writer’s last mystery.

We’ve all heard that truth is stranger than fiction, and sometimes it inspires fiction. That’s why we asked you to share your favorite fictional stories inspired by real events! Warning: nothing ups the creep factor like knowing the creepiness is based on real life. Don’t worry—we won’t judge you for reading with the lights on.

Room by Emma Donoghue

The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Women Talking by Miriam Toews

The Long Drop by Denise Mina

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

The Good People by Hannah Kent

See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt

The Girls by Emma Cline

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

*Editor’s Note: We originally asked for nonfiction inspired by fictional stories. You knew what we meant!