This month’s best psychological thrillers come with a certain symmetry, as well as a speculative twist. There are two novels included that explore celebrity and obsession to their logical (and rather horrifying) conclusions; you’ll also find two different books about robot wives! Scattered amongst these visions of the near-future are plenty of more typical examples of the genre, each one sure to send you late into the night reading and terribly tired the next day, just as I am now while writing this…Enjoy! And never say I didn’t warn you 🙂
S. B. Caves, Honeycomb
(Datura)
In this high-concept psychological thriller, six strangers congregate in an old mansion to test a strange new drug with world-changing implications. Caves uses the intriguing set-up for an action-packed meditation on obsession, celebrity, and the behavior of groups. It also reads as a send-off of reality television, with eager investors watching the bloody results of their experiment as it goes increasingly haywire.
Olivia Gatwood, Whoever You Are, Honey
(Dial Press)
Olivia Gatwood’s new novel juxtaposes community solace against dystopian futures in a seaside neighborhood near San Francisco. Two women living in an old cottage befriend their new neighbors, the wealthy and beautiful couple that have purchased the glittering glass home next door. The husband is a successful and handsome entrepreneur, but he pales next to the flawless perfection of his wife, who the neighboring women soon suspect is neither human nor free.
Liz Moore, The God of the Woods
(Riverhead)
Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods reminds me a bit of Picnic at Hanging Rock in the best way; it’s the story of a teenager who vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp in August 1975, and the frantic and foreboding search that follows. See, he girl who disappears, Barbara Ban Laar, isn’t simply a camper; she’s the daughter of the owners of the camp. And she’s the second person in her family to disappear in this fashion. –OR
Jenna Satterthwaite, Made For You
(Mira)
Jenna Satterthwaite’s novel is a cutting and creative take on reality television and artificial personhood. Her heroine is the first “synth” to compete on a reality dating show, and only the third to exist publicly in the world. Her romance is fairy-tale perfection, but her marriage is decidedly less so, and when the husband she worked so hard to win goes missing, suspicion falls immediately on his robotic partner. Will she be able to prove her own innocence, and will the world finally accept her autonomy and sense of self?
Hayley Krischner, Where Are You, Echo Blue?
(Dutton)
Where Are You, Echo Blue? is another tale of obsession, celebrity, and fandom, but comes at the subject from rather different angle. Echo Blue, once a huge star in her childhood, has disappeared ahead of a long-awaited reunion. Only her biggest fan stands a chance of tracking her down, her search interspersed with Echo Blue’s memories of her unstable upbringing by narcissistic stage parents.
Sarah Easter Collins, Things Don’t Break on Their Own
(Crown)
Willa’s sister Laika disappeared at just 13 years old, and Willa has agonized over her vanishing ever since—that is, until the holiday dinner party that begins and ends Sarah Easter Collins’ astutely observed debut. Flashbacks between dinner scenes reveal a long and twisting orbit towards the surprising, and quite satisfying, conclusion.
Carinn Jade, The Astrology House
Carinn Jade takes on the locked-room mystery and makes it her own in this psychological-thriller-cum-comedy-of-manners. A wealthy group of friends decamps to a remote house for an astrology-oriented getaway only to find their host has her own agenda for the weekend. This book will have you wondering about your own charts—and whether that house in Mercury Retrograde just might make you a murderer.
