What to read, watch, and listen to if you lovedAdore
Anne Fontaine · Film · 2013
If you loved Adore, start with Blue (Rodrigo García, 2012) — a series on the same thread. Below: 4 books, 4 series and 2 podcasts, each matched to Adore across media.
What hooked you in Adore was the way it exposes the unsettling, fragile intersections between lifelong intimacy and forbidden desire.
Books on the same thread
The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton · Book · 2011
Shares a thread with Adore: Forbidden Love.
Just as Adore explores the friction between personal desire and social convention, this classic mirrors that tension through the lens of a rigid, stifling society that demands repression.
Kin
Tayari Jones · Book
Explores: female friendship, generational trauma, coming-of-age.
If the lifelong bond between the mothers in Adore resonated with you, this story of two women navigating intertwined fates offers a similarly deep look at complex female friendship.
Room
Emma Donoghue · Book · 2023
Shares a thread with Adore: Psychological Drama.
The intense, insular mother-son dynamic that defines the emotional stakes in Adore is echoed here, focusing on the profound ways a parent protects a child from an unfathomable reality.
Betrayed
Patricia Haley · Book · 2013
Explores: Adultery, Forgiveness, Faith.
Much like the domestic complications that unravel in Adore, this drama examines the messy, often painful fallout when family secrets and moral transgressions collide within a tight-knit circle.
Series on the same thread
Bates Motel
Carlton Cuse · Series · 2013
Explores: Mother-Son Relationship, Toxic Relationship, Dark Secrets.
Adore explores the boundary-blurring nature of family relationships, a theme this series pushes to a darker, more psychological extreme by depicting a deeply toxic and transformative mother-son bond.
Euphoria
Sam Levinson · Series · 2019
Explores: Drug Addiction, Mental Health, Teenage Angst.
If you were drawn to the way Adore portrays the collision of youth, trauma, and messy desire, you will find a similar raw intensity in these students' volatile personal lives.
Unchosen
Julie Gearey · Series · 2026
Shares a thread with Adore: Psychological Drama.
The thrill of transgressive desire that drives the narrative of Adore is central to this story, where a forbidden affair serves as the catalyst for exposing hidden, dangerous truths.
Blue
Rodrigo García · Series · 2012
Shares a thread with Adore: Psychological Drama.
This series captures the same anxiety found in Adore, specifically the precarious balance of maintaining a secret life while struggling to preserve a complicated relationship with one's son.
Podcasts on the same thread
The Archers
Podcast
Explores: family life, community, farming.
Those who appreciated the small-town setting and intricate social dynamics of Adore will find a similar, long-form exploration of how personal relationships shift within a stable, rural community.
everybody has a secret
Podcast
Explores: secrets, anonymity, listener stories.
Since Adore relies on the weight of hidden truths between friends, this confessional podcast offers a fascinating look at the private, often shocking realities people keep behind closed doors.
Keep exploring
Common questions
Is Adore a film about the friendship between two mothers?
Yes, Adore centers on the lifelong bond between two women named Lil and Roz. As neighbors in a beach town, their friendship remains the core of the story as their adult sons also form a strong connection that leads to unconventional romantic developments for all four characters.
Does Adore involve the families of two lifelong friends?
Adore follows the lives of two lifelong friends and their sons. The plot explores the shifting dynamics between these four individuals during a summer in an idyllic beach town where they find themselves in relationships that challenge conventional social boundaries.
What is the central conflict in the movie Adore?
The central conflict in Adore involves four people whose long-standing relationships are tested by simmering emotions. These feelings lead the two mothers and their sons to pursue unexpected romantic connections that cross traditional bounds of convention during their time together in a beach town.
Is Adore set in a beach town?
Yes, Adore is set in an idyllic beach town. This location serves as the backdrop where the two lifelong friends and their sons spend a summer confronting mounting emotions and navigating the unconventional relationships that develop between them.