Haven’t we all had this experience? You meet someone, get to know them, and then find out they’re not as they seem. The soccer mom who bakes the perfect brownies is actually a compulsive gambler. The president of the local bank whose stodgy exterior hides an inexhaustible appetite for pornography. The kid next door, that freckled-face cutie who used to deliver your morning newspaper, who is now running a lucrative drug business from his parents’ basement.
Okay, the revelations are likely more mundane: your best friend secretly had Botox injections while telling everyone she was trying a new diet.
But why are we fascinated with these more gruesome discoveries?
For one, it gives us satisfaction to discover that perfection is rarely so. Admit it: we’re all a little thrilled when the neighbor with the gorgeous lawn is socked with a particularly resistant type of crab grass. Unless, of course, that pestilence travels across the street to our property.
I suspect it’s more than the need to compare ourselves to others and, as often as possible, come up on top. Perhaps we all wonder if underneath our own well-kept exteriors lurks a deeper, darker truth. Under what circumstances would we alter what we think we know about ourselves, causing us to make decisions we would otherwise never consider making?
If you’re looking for books about characters who aren’t what they seem, here are some I recommend:
Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
Abandoned as a child, Kya Clark—known locally as “Marsh Girl”—had to raise herself under desperate circumstances. Her life, by design and, ultimately, preference, is solitary, focused on survival, the sea birds, and her fascination with the marshlands of the North Carolina coast. When she finally becomes receptive to the attentions of two local men, the unthinkable happens and Kya is tested. How we judge others and how often these prejudices skew our assessments is at the crux of this mystery.
Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng
When Lydia Lee’s body is found in the local lake, the ties that have been keeping the Lee family together begin to unravel. Her parents, Marilyn and James, find out that everything they assumed about their daughter—that she was popular and excelled in school—was wrong. Her brother, Nath, believes that a womanizing neighbor is responsible for his sister’s death. Misperceptions abound but at its core, this novel reminds us of the divisions between cultures and of the imperativeness of trying to truly know and understand those closest to us before it’s too late.
Then She Was Gone, by Lisa Jewell
Ellie Mack, a beautiful and gifted fifteen-year-old, vanishes. In the next ten years following her daughter’s disappearance, her mother, Laurel, struggles to reconstruct her shattered life. One day, in a coffee shop, she meets Floyd, a charismatic man. They begin a relationship and he eventually introduces her to his daughter, Poppy, who is a mirror image of Ellie. Where did Ellie go? Did she run away or did something more sinister happen to her? Who is Floyd, really? And to what lengths would we, as parents, go in order to protect our children?
The Pilot’s Wife, by Anita Shreve
When a knock on her door at 3:24 am awakens Kathryn Lyon, her life is forever changed. She’s told that a plane piloted by her husband crashed off the Ireland coast and that he and 103 others died. She and her daughter are devastated. Then Kathryn learns through the discovery of the plane’s cockpit voice recorder that her husband apparently planned the accident and she has no choice but to delve deeply into the life of the man she married. It’s a journey through the depths of love and deception, an investigation into how well we really know the people closest to us.
One True Thing, by Anna Quindlen
Ellen Gulden has it all—a promising career, a great apartment in New York City, a wonderful boyfriend—until she’s called home by her father to care for her dying mother. Always closer to her father, George, an emotionally removed and philandering academic, Ellen comes to see her mother, Kate, in an entirely new light and becomes increasingly disenchanted with her father. The reality behind Kate’s death forces Ellen to examine how well she actually knows either of her parents. You’ll also question the truths about familial relationships that seem to be one thing but are another.
The Perfect Mother, by Aimee Molloy
The May Mothers, a group of new moms, gets together twice a week to discuss, bemoan and dissect the joys and anxieties of their child-centric lives. When one of the babies goes missing on July 4th, the women are scrutinized by each other, the public and the media. Mothers will agonize over the potential loss of a child and empathize with the unbearable and unrealistic struggle to get it all right, all of the time.
Rosemary’s Baby, by Ira Levin
And you thought your neighborhood association was tough?
Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling actor husband, Guy, move into the prestigious Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with a dubious reputation. Rosemary is thrilled when she becomes pregnant but everyone (including the reader) knows the truth behind the joyous event. I know—plenty of spoilers here because of this novel’s and the movie’s popularity, but it still holds up as a frightening lesson about what someone might do in pursuit of stardom. You’ll find a hard time trusting your spouse after this one.
The Bad Seed, by William March
Colonel Kenneth Penmark and his wife, Christine, dote on their daughter, Rhoda. And for good reason. She’s unfailingly polite, never dirties her clothes, practices the piano dutifully and always gets the highest honors in school. Until she doesn’t. Missing out on a coveted school prize, Rhoda is determined to make things right, and Christine begins to fully comprehend what’s behind her child’s perfect façade. What lurks beneath our exemplary child’s seeming perfection? This book epitomizes the ultimate truth in plain sight reading experience.
