I’ve read 5 of her books this year, and I’ve enjoyed them! However, I want something different. I’ve read two shorties this week: The Guest by Annie Neugebauer and A Short Stay in Hell by Steven Peck. These have both toyed with my brain but I want something more f*cked. I’m currently reading Chain-Gang All-Stars. Not sure if this is enough to describe my genre preferences but pleaaaase. Life is awful right now and I’d love to dissolve into something mind-ruining.
by ickygods
3 Comments
If you’re coming off Lisa Jewell and want something that genuinely messes with your head (especially after *A Short Stay in Hell*), I’d lean harder into the existential/weird side rather than straight thrillers.
A few that might scratch the “more f*cked” itch:
• *I’m Thinking of Ending Things* — Iain Reid
Very effective psychological spiral. Quiet at first, then increasingly… wrong. Short, unsettling, and very brain-sticky.
• *The Library at Mount Char* — Scott Hawkins
If you want “what the hell did I just read” energy, this delivers. Dark, weird, occasionally brutal, but extremely compelling.
• *Bunny* — Mona Awad
Surreal, unhinged, and increasingly disorienting. Starts odd and keeps sliding sideways.
• *Earthlings* — Sayaka Murata
Deeply disturbing in a very controlled way. Not horror exactly, but definitely not emotionally safe territory.
• *Tender Is the Flesh* — Agustina Bazterrica
Bleak, sharp, and morally corrosive. If *Chain-Gang All-Stars* is working for you, this might hit the same nerve.
If you want my top “mind-ruining” pick from this list:
→ *The Library at Mount Char* (for sheer WTF momentum)
→ *Earthlings* (for existential/emotional damage)
All the Ugly Wonderful Things- Bryn Greenwood (weird romance, poverty life)
Gone Girl- Gillian Flynn (classic thriller: twists, lies, scandal)
The Kind Worth Killing- Peter Swanson (super fun, twisty)
Broken Country- Clare Leslie Hall (sad, drama, lines crossed)
My Dark Vanessa- Kate Russell (brokenness, inappropriate relationship)
Still Beating- Jennifer Hartmann (thriller romance that will break your heart and put it back together again)
Little Secrets- Jennifer Hillier (kidnapping, drama, very realistic characters and setting)
Verity by Colleen Hoover – you don’t get more twisted than this!
(Also, Layla by Colleen Hoover)
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
The Silent Patient by Michaelides
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Junior Missing by Khristina Chess
Our Last Echoes by Kate Alice Marshall
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
Drowning Instinct by Ilsa Beck
I also agree with Broken Country and Gone Girl, mentioned elsewhere.