#thriller recommendations

[wttnblog]

Thriller Recommendations: "I Support Women's Rights (and Women's Wrongs)"

I think it might be obvious by now that I am a SUCKER for a good thriller. It has become my most read genre (I have already read more than thirty of them so far this year.) I love trying to figure out the plot twist before it is revealed, and although I am still pretty bad at it, it is still a fun process. I have come to love the trend of “supporting women’s rights and women’s wrongs.” I have…

[no-where-new-hero]

I am actually going to talk about what I call images, or symbols. It seems to me that in our present great drive—fiction-wise—toward the spare, clean, direct kind of story, we are somehow leaving behind the most useful tools of the writer, the small devices that separate fiction from reporting, the work of the imagination from the everyday account. Of these the far most important, and the most neglected, is the use of symbols; I am using the word loosely, because it has altogether different meanings elsewhere, and yet I hardly know what other word to use ... There must be at least one basic image, or set of images, for each character in a story, a fundamental symbol the writer keeps always in mind; as these images grow the character grows, and the accumulation of material and information about the image slowly makes up the character in the story. Various things belong to a character—a manner of speaking, a manner of moving, a particular emphasis, a group of small physical things—and each of these must take on, like a perfume, the essence of the character they belong to. Just as a tune or a scent can evoke for most of us an entire scene, so the basic image of the character must evoke that entire character and his place in the story. As a result of this, of course, the characters themselves grow apart in the writer’s mind, become entirely separate people, and by the end of a book or a story the writer can no more mistake one for another than he can mistake a can of beans for a pearl necklace.

--Shirley Jackson, "Garlic in Fiction"

[grinreaper420]

[4theitgirls]

el’s book reviews & recommendations (pt. 1)

I. Ward D by Freida McFadden

my most recent read and a new favorite! i heard that this one was pretty creepy so of course i had to get it. i’m so glad i did! this book is about a medical student on her psychiatry rotation who has to spend a night on a locked psychiatric floor, but there’s a deeper reason that she’s dreading it. if you like psychological thrillers where you don’t know who you can trust, this one is for you!

II. Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

another psychological thriller that i absolutely loved. this book follows the story of a young girl that goes missing. this one can be a little confusing because you’re going back and forth between timelines and narrators, but you get the hang of it pretty quickly. everyone is interconnected in such an interesting way. i’m not sure what i thought the ending would be, but it wasn’t that.

III. The Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins

this is another one that goes back and forth between two main narrators, one of whom has gone missing. like ward d, you really don’t know who you can trust in this book. i prefer the previous books listed to this one overall, but i really do love this book and i LOVED the ending.

IV. Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

this is one of those books that you either love or hate. i’ve heard that it’s boring while also hearing that people couldn’t get through it because of how graphic it was. it definitely is graphic when it comes to SA, torture, and murder, so please be mindful of that if you would like to read. this book is about a woman who finds snuff films on her newly deceased husband’s computer. whether you love or hate this book, this book is a ROLLERCOASTER.

V. Confessions by Kanae Minato

a shorter book in comparison to the other books on this list, but is just as good and just as thrilling. this book is about a teacher and her students, two of which have murdered her daughter. this is another book that goes back and forth between narrators and timelines, but it wasn’t confusing to me at all. an all time favorite of mine and i’ll always recommend this one!

[mendingbone]

i keep seeing people in their late teens/early twenties having a "[X] content intended for younger audiences does not feel satisfying to me anymore but i don't know where to start to branch out into adult fiction" moment and i thought i would give some recommendations for adult fiction for my fellow creepy crawly queer people. all or at least a LOT of it will be on the darker and more fucked up side bc i primarily engage with horror and thriller media personally but feel free to add on with more or recommendations from other genres :)

edit: i am continuing to add to this list so there might be new recs (highlighted in pink) in here every once in a while! also want to add that there's a variety of POC, queer, and disabled authors in here as well, i am also all of the above (asian, aro lesbian, poly, disabled) and tried to incorporate as many wickedly talented, compelling narratives as possible. that's all, happy reading!

A Certain Hunger, Chelsea G. Summers

A Darker Shade of Magic, V. E Schwab*

A Dowry of Blood, S.G Gibson

Animal, Lisa Taddeo*

A Ripple of Power and Promise, Jordan A. Day*

Bunny, Mona Awad*

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi*

Cursed Bread, Sophie Mackintosh*

Dark Places, Gillian Flynn

Dead Girls Don't Say Sorry, Alex Ritany

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk*

Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh*

Fruiting Bodies, Kathryn Harlan*

Goddess of Filth, V. Castro*

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski

If I Had Your Face, Frances Cha*

Into the Drowning Deep, Mira Grant

Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao

Jackal, Erin E. Adams*

Juniper and Thorn, Ava Reid*

Kindred, Octavia Butler*

Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin*

Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee*

Rabbits, Terry Miles*

Scorched Grace, Margot Douaihy*

Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn

She is a Haunting, Trang Thahn Tran

Slewfoot, Brom

Sorrowland, Rivers Soloman

Summer Sons, Lee Mandelo

Supper Club, Lara Williams*

The Centre, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi*

The Change, Kirsten Miller

The Death of Jane Lawrence, Caitlin Starling*

The Dreamer Trilogy, Maggie Stiefvater

The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher*

The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter, Soraya Palmer*

The Jasmine Throne, Tasha Suri

The Locked Tomb, Tamsyn Muir

The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling*

The Red Tree, Caitlin Kiernan*

The Unfamiliar Garden, Benjamin Percy*

Vicious, V. E Shwab

Wake, Siren, Nina MacLaughlin*

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson

What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher*

[sadexecutivelove]

Alex Michaelides, The silent patient.

[yandere-writer-momo]

I can’t with Hiroki Dan’s Mugs, however I was able to guess the second mug was actually a Bunny, not a cat (Is he bad on purpose or is he actually THAT bad at ceramics and art? 😭) I’m getting back into reading the manga as I needed a breather from the stuff that happens in there and I’m currently at chapter 4 because 😭😂

Why is he so Babygirl? (He’s so scary but he’s so cute with his mugs and he looks so proud of them 🥹) and he gave me a devious idea for a story idea if your interested

He’s the 2nd Serial Killer Babygirl I know about 💞

I’m hearing everyone out on him. EVERYONE IS GETTING HEARD OUT.

Love this manga version of Dexter.

This manga is incredibly horrific, bloody, and dark. I do not recommend if you are sensitive to dark content but the revenge is even more brutal

[watermelinoe]

i complained to my mom abt this book having characters introduce themselves with pronouns and she said wtf dump it lmao

[kiraleighart]

So I heard you like free transmasc psychological thrillers with unkillable bastards surviving hell and finding HEA

In 1997, New York City, a petty criminal named Alex Voss is about to die via bullet shot right between the eyes by his criminal employer: Boris. But was he really a petty criminal, or something even stranger? As all roads lead to death, he recounts his tragic life one last time; murder, sex, drugs, rock and roll, losing his mind and failing at being a true hero. There’s no escape from his tragic ending. At least, that’s how it’s meant to play out. As events fail to line up, is Alex’s mind breaking the fourth wall, has he finally succumbed to madness, or did a deus ex machina from the future save him from himself? It might just be all three, actually.

Hi Tumblr bookworms. I've been sitting on INDIGO VOSS for over a year and I think it's finally time.

If you'd like to champion indie trans literature, please signup for the ARC of INDIGO VOSS. Score an eBook, read, and give me your honest thoughts. Please note there are CWs on the landing page. This is a complex novel about hope against all odds and learning to transcend your damage. Good luck. 💜

Read INDIGO VOSS, Free

[essektheylyss]

re: the fiction/nonfiction kinsey scale poll. just know that I am barely restraining myself from giving nonfiction book recs at all times. there is SO MUCH FUN NONFICTION THAT IS SUPER READABLE AND INTERESTING take my hand we can go pick out some books together

[bluesey-182]

i can't stop thinking about this customer interaction i had yesterday. a woman came in looking for the newest book by this one author so i showed her where it is in the mystery/thriller section and handed her a copy and she goes "thanks! i don't like this woman's writing but i guess since i started reading her books i might as well keep going" ...... WHAT?! HELLO?!?! i could maybe understand it if it was, like, a series and maybe she just really wanted to know how everything played out, but this author writes standalone novels!!!! one and done!!! so i gently said "there are... other things you could read?" and she just shrugged and was like "oh well". so i take her back to the register and im checking her out and then she goes "i just feel so underwhelmed through every book and then the end always pisses me off" and idk what to do at this point but awkwardly laugh but on the inside im screaming "WHAT?!" she's buying a brand new hardcover!!! of a book she knows she's not gonna like bc she's hated every other book this woman has written!!! i seriously can't stop thinking about of insanity of it. may this woman learn to put down this author's books and find other reading material bc girl.... stop doing this to yourself, you have a truly astonishing number of other books to choose from

[algoreithms]

i swear, someday soon, i am just gonna disappear, and you won't have any idea what happened to me.

[jrosesposts]

Every day in September is Halloween Eve <3

[thebibliophile-ambs]

“When you make someone fall in love with the darkest parts of you, there’s nothing you can do that will scare them away. They will be yours forever because they already love all the fucked up bits and pieces of you.”

H.D. Carlton Haunting Adeline

[cleopatragirlie]

❀ 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐧 '𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐭 𝐈𝐧 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬' (𝟏𝟗𝟔𝟕) ❀

[ruminiscence]

Character Analysis of Johan Liebert - Monster, Naoki Urasawa (2004)

In my opinion, Johan represents Jung's concept of the shadow, which is why both Tenma and Nina couldn't kill him in the end. Despite tirelessly, and relentlessly going after him. If they did end up doing so, they would be destroying themselves in the process. The constant fear on Tenma's face once he heard the buzz words 'monster' and 'inside of me' highlights his underlying fear. It is, of course, aggravating, considering how close they both were to killing Johan (multiple times, might I add). But, to them, it would have come at too high a cost.

Consequently, Johan was not the monster he and everyone thought him to be. The forgiveness Nina offered to Johan (as well as) Tenma’s acceptance (in a way) gave Johan that validation. In my opinion, Johan had an identity problem, not a complete lack thereof, as most people say. Johan completely understood how senseless the world is; the picture book from his childhood made sense of that senselessness. That narrative (mostly born from the book) gave significance to his existence, whether he knew it or not. I found it interesting that he went through several names throughout his life, but ‘Johan Liebert’ was recurring. Whether this is just for convenience's sake, I don’t know.

The scene where we see his reaction when re-reading the book (likely the first time since he was a child) furthers this notion. Johan's facial expressions are to be paid attention to, every single one, even if they barely change. We see the most significant change in his face in the final scene: that of sheer disappointment, hopelessness, and defeat. His master plan did not go accordingly; the plan was for him to be completely wiped off the face of the earth, rendered fictitious. The drunk man who unexpectedly shot him stripped him of that. So did Tenma, in not allowing Johan to kill/destroy his (Tenma’s) altruistic nature.

Johan's perfect suicide ultimately fails because he is not the nameless monster he believed himself to be; this is shown merely in the fact that he does not kill (nor even think about killing) Nina & Tenma; he realised that they are the only two people to understand him in this world. This also explains Johan's bizarre attachment to Tenma from the get-go (which also makes a lot of sense). In the scene where we listen to the tape, we're made aware of Johan's desperation; he does not want to forget 'Anna'; he believes they are the only two people in the world. Later on, Tenma was added to that list. Hence, every other person's life is rendered meaningless to Johan; this is the reason for his remorseless killings, of course. He killed everyone that could eventually be tied into his and Anna/Nina's existence, and arguably Tenma, too.

I also think Johan eventually lets go of this (seemingly) obsession with names in the final scene. Whether the last scene of him and Tenma speaking was a dream or not remains significant. Before Tenma reveals his potential real name to Johan, the subject is changed. This is when we learn about the biological mother's sacrifice. Despite her not choosing to sacrifice Johan, he still doubts the decision. All of this is to say that perhaps the failure of his perfect suicidal plan was, in fact, the real success after all. He successfully kills everyone who does not know him but knows of the nameless monster's existence. This explains why the only two people on this earth who did are still alive and were eventually saved emotionally.

In a way, they also saved Johan too. Hence the *seemingly* peaceful disappearance from the hospital. He just wanted to be understood. This is also why I believe he asked Nina to shoot him as a child and then again all those years later. His mother placed this seed of doubt, which he seemed confident in, but because of Nina's existence, he could extend this and not be entirely solid in this sense of doubt. He latched this on to Nina's being, hence merging their identities. As a child, he did seek her forgiveness despite his contradictory actions (asking to be shot). When she finally offered forgiveness in a similar situation later on, the doubt was gone. That little spec of forgiveness and acceptance was all he needed. Acceptance is not to say that he wanted her or even Tenma to accept his actions; hence, Johan says, 'We can't turn back now' when Nina does forgive him. Other people and their deaths (at his hands) simply did not matter to him; he was utterly indifferent to it. So evidently, that one thing mattered to him, which he mostly did not believe to be real; it turned real, giving him what he had so desperately been looking for since childhood. He is saved. The only three people that mattered in the show (concerning Johan's essence) are saved.