thriller books i'll always recommend

if you ask me to recommend a thriller read, i will send you these picks.

trust me when i say these will have you ignoring your phone, skipping your latest binge, and staying up waaaay too late. after you have read one or all of them, you better let me know what you think!

titles are listed in no particular order.

and then there were none by agatha christie

look, there's a reason this is the best-selling mystery novel of all time. ten strangers on an isolated island, each hiding a dark secret, each dying one by one according to a creepy nursery rhyme? christie wrote this in 1939 and it still holds up as one of the most perfectly constructed mysteries ever. this is the original "trust no one" thriller. while this book is over 85 years old, it feels fresh and shocking with every read. if you want to understand where all your favorite thrillers got their inspiration, you need this on your shelf.

i also can’t recommend this book without naming the previous title was extremely racist.

the couple next door by shari lapena

this thriller plot surrounds a missing child. the couple’s perfect life shatters when they leave their six-month-old alone–with a monitor checking every half hour, and apparently people do this–to attend a dinner next door. what follows is basically everyone becoming a suspect, including the parents, and me gasping out loud on the plane to vegas and not putting the book down until the last page. it's giving "everyone has secrets" energy while you're questioning your own memory of what you just read.

the housemaid by freida Mcfadden

imagine landing what seems like the perfect job cleaning for a rich family, only to discover the house is a horror movie set with better furniture. the main character millie is just trying to rebuild her life, but the family has more secrets than they have rooms in their mansion. absolutely unhinged in the most satisfying way possible.

behind closed doors by b.a. paris

this one stressed me out so much i had to take tiny breaks to breathe, and still read this one in under two days. jack and grace appear to have the perfect marriage - he's successful, she's gorgeous, and they're never apart... but why tho? this book explores the terrifying reality that you never really know what happens behind closed doors, even in the most picture-perfect relationships. it's one of those reads where you're screaming at the main character while simultaneously being like "what would i even do in this situation?"

big little lies by liane moriarty

i watched the HBO series before i read the book, and i enjoyed that order. i was able to visualize and hear all the characters based on who played them in the dynamic series. this absolutely addictive book is about kindergarten politics. this story follows three moms navigating school drama that escalates to actual murder. moriarty nails the whole "perfect lives with messy insides" vibe, and even though you know someone dies from the beginning, finding out who and why will keep you turning pages until your eyes hurt. it's gossip-y and intense and somehow still manages to tackle serious issues without feeling heavy-handed.

the husband's secret by liane moriarty

imagine finding a letter from your husband that says "to be opened in the event of my death"... except he's very much alive and just at work. what would you do? because cecilia opens it (i mean, wouldn't you?), and what she discovers changes everything. moriarty is the queen of writing characters that make questionable choices that spiral into absolute chaos. this book had me thinking about the ripple effects of secrets for weeks afterward, and features one of the most satisfying epilogues i've ever read. it's the kind of story that makes you shove this book in your bestie's hand so they can read it too to discuss together later.

then she was gone by lisa jewell

a fifteen-year-old girl disappears, and her mother has spent years trying to rebuild her life. then she meets a man whose nine-year-old daughter looks exactly like hers, and things get weird. like, really weird. it creates this creeping sense of dread that builds so slowly you don't realize how tense you are until your shoulders are up around your ears. it's dark and twisty and somehow still manages to punch you in the heart when you least expect it.

none of this is true by lisa jewell

this book will have you looking at denim differently. it’s about a podcaster just trying to get content when she meets a woman who shares her birthday at a cafe on their birthday. suddenly this birthday-twin-stranger is everywhere, and the line between subject and stalker gets blurrier by the page. this book explores the weird modern phenomenon of sharing our lives with strangers online. It absolutely nails the growing unease of realizing you've invited the wrong person into your world, and the ending left me staring at my wall questioning everything for a solid ten minutes.

the family game by catherine stedman

it’s like succession meets the horror movie the strangers. imagine meeting your fiancé's super-wealthy family for the first time and learning about violent story written by a family member as some kind of twisted "welcome to the family" gift. this book takes the whole "meeting the in-laws" anxiety and cranks it to eleven. the main character is pulled into elaborate family games that become increasingly disturbing, and i spent the entire book wondering what-the-fuck-are-you-doing-girl!

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hit reply and let me know which one you're picking up first! or if you've read any of these, we need to discuss immediately because i have THOUGHTS.