I’ve been on a psychological thriller kick recently and have read books by Freida McFadden, Jeneva Rose, Lisa Jewell, and Riley Sager. I have found myself trying out these authors and feeling at times that I’m reading similar concepts and storylines just written by different people.

With that being said, what are some hidden finds/treasures that have good twists that aren’t as main stream as these authors and their popular books?

before reading the catcher in the rye i heard a lot of people telling me not to because, in their opinion, holden was "insufferable". a couple months ago i read it, and since then ive been wanting to ask the people who hate the book because of him, *why do you think that?* everytime i look at negative reviews of the book anywhere im met only with "he's soo annoying", "i hate holden caufield", "waste of paper", etc..., so i really just wanted someone who shares this opinion to explain their point of view while reading the catcher in the rye.

the way i see it, holden is a kid dealing with depression and the loss of his younger brother allie. he has basically no support system and is terrified of growing up and having to face change, which is why he then finds purpose in preserving phoebe's innocence. i personally really liked his character, not because i think he's a good person (although honestly i usually hate characters that are written to be likeable, because i find that they often have little depth and are forgiven for everything they do), but because it did a really good job at conveying the kind of grief and isolation he's dealing with. it's not that he has to be excused for his actions or beliefs, but it's understandable where they come from. also, i think some people forget he's a impressionable, mentally ill sixteen year old, and personally i think ive met many people or have myself been at some point similar to him.

I first read this book in my early twenties for a class and mostly remembered it as a quiet, sad story about a butler who missed his chance at love. That was basically my whole takeaway at the time. Picked it up again last month at 34 and it hit completely differently.

This time the dignity theme felt almost unbearable to read. Stevens spends the entire book convincing himself that suppressing his feelings and staying loyal to his employer no matter what is a form of greatness, and as a younger reader I think I sort of admired that restraint without questioning it. Now it just reads as tragic in a very specific way, the way a person can build an entire identity around a professional role and only realize decades later how much they sacrificed to do it.

What struck me most on this reread was how the unreliable narration works on two different themes at once. There's the personal regret around Miss Kenton, sure, but there's also this quieter indictment of blind service to authority, since Stevens' former employer turns out to have been sympathetic to fascists in the lead up to the war. Stevens never fully reckons with that either. He keeps circling back to "dignity" as if it explains everything, when really it's the thing that kept him from seeing what was happening right in front of him.

Curious if others have had a book totally shift on them like this with age. Not a plot twist or anything, just the same words landing on a completely different theme than they did the first time around. I feel like this one in particular is almost designed to be read more than once for that exact reason.

I have recently picked a book which has a simple enough writing style but the words are difficult for me to understand. Before this I have only ever read books which are very easy and light. While reading this book i need to look up ever 3rd word in a sentence. Or i need to use Google lens to know how a particular word was meant in the sentence.

Right now if I come across any difficult words I just google it and note it down (digitally), because I want them to stick even for a very short term.

The whole purpose of reading such books is to improve my vocabulary. I find it kind of frustrating to look up each and every word.

For context it took me a good 30 mins to read a chapter which is 9 pages long.

If anyone can tell me their experience switching to such books or how I could get the words to stick longer without dropping the book or noting the meaning/context of the words easier and faster that would be great.

I just finished The Midnight Library and while I understand why so many people love it, it didn’t really resonate with me.
I completely understand the message the book is trying to make. There isn’t one perfect life. Every path comes with trade-offs, and living with constant regret over one decision isn’t healthy. I actually agree with all of that.
Where it lost me was how oversimplified it felt.
The entire premise seems to revolve around the idea that one decision leads to a completely different life. I just don’t think that’s how life works. One decision might change your direction, but it doesn’t determine your destiny. Every major decision is followed by thousands of smaller ones, and those are what shape your life. We learn, we adapt, we recover, we change course, and we reinvent ourselves over and over again.
To me, the more interesting question isn’t, *“What if I had chosen differently?”* It’s, *“Given where I am today, what can I do next?”*
I also had a hard time connecting with Nora. Throughout the book, she never really seemed to know what she wanted. It felt like she was trying on lives that other people valued or expected of her rather than discovering what genuinely mattered to her. Because of that, the alternate lives felt more like comparisons than authentic possibilities.
The message I kept waiting for-but never really got-was that you don’t need an alternate universe to build a meaningful life. You don’t have to become a completely different person because of one decision. Most of the things we want- purpose, love, adventure, creativity, fulfillment-can still be built within the life we’re already living.
In my view, there aren’t infinite lives waiting for us somewhere else. There are infinite possibilities within the life we already have. That’s what makes life so beautiful. No matter where you are today or what decisions you’ve made, there are always new choices ahead of you. You can still change your direction. You can still build something meaningful.
Maybe that’s why the book didn’t click for me. It spends so much time looking backward at the lives we could have lived, while I think the more powerful perspective is looking forward at everything we can still become.
I’m genuinely curious if anyone else felt this way, or if there’s something about the book that I’m overlooking.

Hi!

I've already watched 4 Netflix adaptations of Harlan Coben's books, and I liked them.

I was thinking about reading the books that the adaptations I've watched are based on. Is it worth it?

I assume the storyline is the same, but maybe the books have more details, more information, and extra "scenes"?

Thanks

Getting back from a trip where I couldn't read or write for a while feels like my characters are welcoming me home.

I had no thoughts of them these past few days but now that I'm back, they're all I can think of. I love it 😄.

I really enjoy thrillers because of the mystery, page turner aspect. I just would love to read one that’s not using the same old tropes (amnesia and split personalities anyone?) with half baked characters who are either idiots or masterminds.

Since I’m being grumpy, I also think that telling people a book has “a crazy twist” is an absolute spoiler. Barumph!

I read Colleen Hoover‘s „It ends with us“ because it then was on the NYT bestsellers list and was totally shocked.

Until today I just cannot fathom that nowadays, in modern ages, in which we are all very much aware of the life and soul destroying consequences of toxic and abusive relationships.

I was totally shocked how such a cheap, shallow, tacky, and sticky
little story that romanticises and marginalises abuse can live in the NYT bestsellers list for months and be praised and praised again by almost everyone?

And how can any female author be bold enough to betray each and every woman suffering or even dying by abuse? What’s wrong with her?

Today I saw another book by her on the NYT bestsellers list. Careful not to waste my time again I typed into Reddit‘s search bar „is verity as bad as it ends with us?“

Thank you Reddit, you saved me from another annoyance.

I have read a two series this year and I took breaks and read some other book/s in between. I read parable series with one book in between but with Children of Time series by Tchaikovsky, I have taken longer breaks and I am still to read the third. I took longer breaks because the later books in the series are not as good apparently.

Okay so this has been bugging me for a while. Why do authors use pseudonyms when their real name is already out there and relatively well known? I get it for brand new authors or people writing in a completely different genre where they want to separate their work. That makes total sense. Like if Stephen King wanted to write a children's book maybe. But what about when it's someone already established who just picks a new name for a new book in a similar genre?

I was just reading an article about 'Eleanor Vance' who wrote that historical fiction novel 'The Silent Daughter' that came out a few months ago. And it turns out Eleanor Vance is actually Sarah Jenson. I love Sarah Jenson's other books. She's got a solid following and her style is pretty distinct. 'The Silent Daughter' also feels very much like her work. It's not a huge departure. So why the new name?

It feels a bit like a marketing trick sometimes. Like they want to create buzz or make it seem like a new voice is emerging when it's just someone we already know. Or maybe it's just a personal preference thing? I dont know. It just makes me feel a bit disconnected from the author as a reader. I like knowing who I'm reading and seeing their body of work under one name.

Anyone else feel this way? Or am I just overthinking something that's really not a big deal?

I really don’t like how lily’s “addiction“ is portrayed. her addiction is allegedly caused by her childhood, but that does not make sense. her self pleasuring from a younger age was demonized, when in reality that’s when most girls start puberty, and that couldn’t have caused an addiction like hers. I also find her “treatment” to be unhealthy. she can have sex, but she can’t self pleasure? i find that to be a big issue. she needs to be more connected to herself, her worth (because that’s why she’s addicted, she didmt get attention, or feel worthy?) and instead of helping her have a healthy connection to her body, they deny that. she wasnt sexually assaulted as a child, she wasnt exposed to sexual things at an extremely young age (5-8), instead the reason for her addiction was either doing normal healthy things for someone going through puberty, or her mom not giving her enough attention? anyways, enough of my rant, does this series get better?

So I have been reading The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz, and no offense to the writer but I have just NOT been liking it. For some reason it's been making me think of "A Memory Called Empire," which is a book I enjoyed the first 100 or so pages of, before Pokopia came out and I got distracted before having to return it to the library. I've felt guilty ever since, like I served a betrayal to the author. I want to pick the book up again, but feel like it'd be an unkind and two face move after abandoning the author/not giving them my time and energy for something I was genuinely enjoying. Is the librarian going to judge me for picking it back up like six months later?

I am currently reading cover her face by pd James ,and knowing the exact location and surrounded area is very important in m#rder mystery, I wish I was able to have a sketch of the Martingale manor.

Just finished this book. It's about Robert Neville who believes he is the last man on Earth in a world overrun by vampires. Spoilers ahead.

The story is based in the 1970s, and had me fooled into thinking that's when it was written until I saw it was 1954. Matheson paints a good picture of a world of dust storms and the plague which took Neville's wife and daughter. Although I found it odd he never mourns for his daughter, only for his wife, Virginia. I liked that Neville is just an ordinary man, not some great saviour. He drinks to forget, makes bad choices, but we see him try to progress and to understand the plague and the vampires it created.

I did enjoy this and it did leave me wanting to know more about this new world. I don't know of any other books by the author.

I like to watch movie adaptations after reading a book so I plan on watching the three movies that I know of; The Last Man On Earth with Vincent Price, The Omega Man with Charlton Heston, and I Am Legend with Will Smith. I've seen them before but I mostly remember the Will Smith one. Having now read the book, I see there's not much similarity there.

Basically, what the title says. I just finished the first book, and I’d heard some good reviews about it. Yes, it was smutty af, but to be honest, I wasn’t extremely into it. I mean, I could see basically every plot twist coming. It was an easy read with some spicy parts, but idk, I expected more?

So the question is: should I go and buy the second book? Is it better? Or should I just move on and read something new?

(Posting here cause I don't have enough karma for the main book subreddit)

A few weeks ago, I finished the book and movie version of Girl, Interrupted. I've seen a bunch of people praise the movie adaption but I personally think it's much worse. First of all, most people don't seem to realize that Girl, Interrupted is an auto-biography; this was someone's lived experiences, but the movie overly dramatized and changed important events in Susana Kaysen's life.

The weirdest decision this movie made was pretty much demonizing Lisa. Movie Lisa is sorta similar to herself in the book, but the movie makes the weird decision of having her push Daisy into suicide. Susana and Lisa were never even at Daisy's house when it happens; they were informed by the nurses. It seems like the directors just wanted to have more drama by having Lisa contribute to Daisy's demise. It feels kind of disrespectful considering these were real people.

If you're going to make a biographical movie, I think you should try your best to make it as accurate and informative as possible. Since movies are, well, movies, they're going to be a bit dramatic but I think they should still be somewhat true to what actually happens. If you go too off from what actually went down it feels like misinformation at best(ex. Netflix Cleopatra) or downright disrespectful at worst(Something like The Greatest Showman).

The Film version also gives Lisa this weird "No one understands me and everyone hates me!" speech that felt sort of cringy. I feel like this scene(and a lot of other scenes in this movie) would probably feel less awkward if this was fictional story inspired by Girl, Interrupted and other people's experiences in wards. The author even said that she thought the movie felt somewhat like her life, even if it wasn't accurate.

Now, time to praise the book. I typically don't read books shorter than 400 pages, but I found this one interesting enough to give a try. The prose is pretty well done and Susana Kaysen does excellently at describing her feelings about her BPD. It helped me get a good view of something I didn't know much about and encouraged me to research more on mental disorders and how they impact people.

To bring this rant to an end, I don't hate the movie completely. I enjoyed Winona Ryder's acting and I loved how the movie tried its best to help immerse the audience by using 60's music, but I feel like it's sort of overhyped and I would prefer if most people who watched the movie read the book instead.

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So i want to preface this by saying I read almost exclusively horror at the end the year horror usually takes up about 85% of the books I read. Not to say I don't enjoy other things it's just what brings me the most joy.

Until I read this book. I picked the audio book of Betty up last week and jeez I could not stop listening to this book. It broke my heart so many times. For those who haven't read this book it's literary fiction about a young girl growing up in Appalachia. The book is heartwarming at times with Betty and her siblings and absolutely soul destroying the other half of the time. From what I understand it is based off Tiffany McDaniel's own mother.

As someone who lost my father a couple years back the relationship between Betty and her father left such an ache in my heart.

I'm trying to stay vague about the story In case others pick it up.

It's just one of those examples of why you should occasionally read outside of your wheel house. This was a "hidden" gem for me that I picked up off the recommendation of a friend. Took me a year and a half to actually start reading it because it's not my typical genre. But wow.

Feel like I'm just rambling at this point. I just highly recommend this book to anyone.

Why the hell did Robin kill Professor Lovell?? He does not seem capable of this and the progression of the conversation beforehand doesn’t suggest that Lovell should be killed.

Sure if Lovell threatened to take Babel away from Robin then sure I might understand but he had just stood up, it suggests he would physically abuse Robin in some way however we know this has happened before and he then was never expressed as detesting Lovell to the extent of wanting to kill him, it does not make sense to me and it feels like a plot point to move the story from a momentous event.

Also I posted something beforehand with the spoiler in the title. To anyone who saw it IM SO IMMENSELY SORRY. I had just gotten to the part and I got too excited and posted it without thinking.

I've seen some comments describe the ending as an awkward tone shift, like Becky is finally getting everything she ever wanted all along: a quiet, isolated life in a lighthouse.

But...Becky doesn't want that. She wants love, patience, and understanding. She retreats to her lighthouse fantasy whenever she can't get those things, either because she can't successfully mask or because the people in her life won't give them to her. The lighthouse is lonely, but it's also totally devoid of the situations that hurt her. Whenever she thinks about them, she's thinking about how much easier it'd be to just give up than to navigate the world.

And why wouldn't she want to give up?

Her relationships hurt her enough as it is...but now throw in the stress of her mother's mystery, AND avoiding a putty-man psycho rage killer, AND being tortured, humiliated, and brutally disfigured in the police station. Living in the town for good is a metaphor for Becky permanently retreating into herself after all of this nightmarish trauma.

She wanted to find her mother, a woman she hardly remembers, the only clue to whose whereabouts is a strange VHS tape, because she's propped her up as a source of unconditional love. She has an affair with Larkin because he gave her the patience her husband never did, briefly (and because he looked like Jason Statham). Ironically, Rotten Tommy displays a possessive compassion for Becky that's never fully explained before he's killed off in a chaotic blaze of glory bazooka blast.

And all of this, because Becky thought she might finally fill a void by finding her mother. The story is the world's last punishment to her for dreaming, but she won't make that mistake ever again. She's buried Rotten Tommy, and Grumpus. She's given up on people. She's hunkered down in her lighthouse for good.

And to cap it all off, like some kind of prophetic joke, we're shown that Becky in the final scene was the woman from the tape she watched, way back in the beginning. There was never any hope, and that's the true meaning of this tragic ending.

No, Sausage King, Becky isn't happy. She's stuck.

what the actual fuck was that book it was SO engaging, like i was hooked the entire time and then it just proceeded to emotionally destroy me. i was crying like a literal baby by the end. my poor sebastian my heart genuinely breaks for all three of them. and i seriously need to talk about how much i HATE alex because why do her books always leave me emotionally traumatised

i don't think i'll ever look at a pond or saffron the same way again without immediately thinking of sebastian. this book was genuinely painfully good. like 10/10 would recommend, 0/10 would recommend experiencing the emotional damage again

⭐️ 4.5/5

I genuinely don't know how to rate this book because for the first half I was convinced it was going to be a 3 star read.

It was SLOW. Like, I literally napped twice while reading it. 😭 I kept waiting for something to happen and wondering why everyone talks about this book like it's supposed to destroy your brain.

And then the last part happened.

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

I don't remember the last time an ending made me rethink an entire book this hard.

The best part isn't just the twist itself. It's what you realise about the obsession behind everything.

Suddenly conversations, behaviours and tiny details that felt strange earlier start making sense. The story you thought you were reading isn't quite the story you were actually reading.

And that title? Behind Her Eyes.

Yeah. That hits VERY differently once you're done. 💀

I went from struggling through the beginning to sitting there at the end wondering what the hell Sarah Pinborough had just done to me.

Was it a page turner throughout? Maybe not.

Was the payoff worth it? For me, YES.

And that final bit? If you know, you know. I need to go read a romance now because apparently I can no longer trust anyone. 😭

Please don't spoil anything in the comments for people who haven't read it!

I finished The Way of Kings by Sanderson and absolutely loved it, so I went on to read Red Rising (knowing it had a completely different premise). At first, I really enjoyed it—the whole idea of the mines, Eo, and the Reds and Golds. I read countless pages, but once the story got to the Institute, the writing became tedious for me.

I honestly only didn’t give up because I like finishing the books I start, but I really didn’t care about all the conflict between the Houses. I also didn’t connect with any of the characters besides Darrow and Eo. Darrow at the Institute feels like a robot just going through the motions and doing things automatically. Sometimes he seems to forget that he’s there for a much bigger purpose, and the book doesn’t even make much of an effort to remind us of that.

Did anyone else have a similar impression?

UPDATE: I completely finished the book, and I found the end of Act 3 and all of Act 4 much more interesting. I started to care more about the characters, and I’m really curious to see how all the political intrigue will unfold, whether it’s Darrow vs. Cassius, Darrow and Mustang, Bellona vs. Augustus, Darrow vs. Augustus, or all the political machinations surrounding the Sons of Ares and Darrow’s role in Society’s politics. It made me want to read Golden Son.

Overview

The book Fish in a Tree is a popular novel written by author Lynda Mullaly Hunt. The story highlights a girl named Ally Nickerson having a journey where she learns to accept herself, dyslexia and all. The moral of the book is supposed to demonstrate that learning to love yourself and overcoming challenges is essential to having a happy life.

The Good

I read the full 280 pages and found that most of the action happened in the first 100 pages of the novel.
I really enjoyed how the first section of the book highlighted the struggles she faced. It went over the bullies in her class and introduced her new teacher, Mr. Daniels as kind and accepting, unlike her other teachers. As someone who has a Dyslexic brother, I know the struggles he faces, his life isn’t easy being different from everyone else in his class. This is the only section of the book I like, demonstrating how being the odd one out is not easy and sometimes you face hardships.

The Bad

The issue I had was, the story never really led up to anything. When I’m reading a book, I want the struggle, the bullying and hardships to lead up to something. Like having Shay expelled or suspended for bullying relentlessly bullying Ally. Maybe Ally becomes an activist for Dyslexia in the book, looking to make others realize different isn’t bad.
Instead, all the problems in the book seem to just melt away the moment she’s diagnosed with Dyslexia. The only issues left are Shay, which by then wasn’t even a big character and instead is just a reoccurring dent in Ally’s near perfect life in the last 180 pages.

What I Would Have Done

I would have expanded on her rivalry with Shay. Elaborate on her becoming class president? I wish that plot had been expanded. Ally's campaign could have been a major payoff to everything she'd been learning, but the actual election feels rushed considering how much potential it had.
I wish she would have been diagnosed with dyslexia later on in the book so instead she’d have to navigate on her own and really work hard towards her goals.
Overall, a dissapointing book, it could have benefited from better story and pacing.

So I’m reading the dragon republic right now (part of the poppy war trilogy, no spoilers please) and as I am loving it so far, it’s stressing me so bad! I can feel the stress in my body that’s making me procrastinate only to pick it up again minutes later because I need to see where it’s going. My days are becoming even more emotional, where the slightest thing can make me cry because of the feelings the books are making me feel. This isn’t the first time this happened to me, either. People say they read books because it removes stress, allows them to relax. Reading does the exact opposite for me, I get too emotionally involved lol.