Love. It isn’t all hearts, flowers, and romantic, moonlight strolls in the park. Real, wild love, can come become violent, angry, destructive. Other times it’s grasping and obsessive. We choose people who are not right for us. Or we meet someone who we think we can share ourselves with, and it turns out that he’s someone else altogether. Or our devotion to someone twists around us like a vine, keeping us in a relationship that we know is dangerous. Of course, you might argue that these things are not real love. But desire has so many faces. Who can say what’s real?
In my new novel, Last Girl Ghosted, advice columnist Wren Greenwood isn’t really looking for romance. In fact, if it weren’t for her best friend Jax, Wren wouldn’t have even thought about experimenting with online dating. But experiment she does— indulging in a few pleasant but underwhelming hook-ups.
Then Wren meets Adam. And she falls for him—hard.
When after a few short weeks of romance and sensual pleasure Adam ghosts Wren, she just can’t move on. She decides to follow his very dangerous digital trail into his dark past and into hers.
Last Girl Ghosted is not a love story, though it is about love in many ways. I am always interested in choice, what draws us to people. Is it what we see? Or something deeper? Often attraction is complicated and sometimes twisted and strange. Some people say that we don’t choose who we love. But I think it’s more layered than that. We choose and are chosen for myriad reasons, often following impulses and appetites we don’t understand. And sometimes those impulses are dark.
Here are some of my favorite books that explore the dangerous side of loving someone:
Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier
You probably have some bad exes, right? I mean—who doesn’t? But I promise that whoever he is, he’s not as bad as Geo’s ex. Calvin was Geo’s first love. But their relationship was turbulent, obsessive, and dangerous. Let’s just say that when Geo was with Calvin, she was not her best self. Because Calvin James is a serial killer, and Angela, Geo’s high school best friend, becomes one of his victims. Geo, tied up with Calvin in so many ways, keeps his secret for fourteen years—until Angela’s remains turn up. And then things really get bad. In this twisting, layered story of poisonous relationships, Hillier digs in deep to all the ways we love and hurt each other and the toxic nature of buried secrets. The story doesn’t end with Geo being arrested for her role in Angela’s murder. In fact, that’s where the story really begins. Because suddenly the bodies are piling up again. And Geo must face all the things she’s tried to hide, discovering that the line between love and murder is thin indeed.
You by Caroline Kepnes
When Joe falls in love, he really falls hard. The guy is all in. I recently spoke to author Caroline Kepnes about her iconic character Joe Goldberg and why we find ourselves so intrigued by this violent and dangerous anti-hero. She thinks it’s because we appreciate how closely he’s paying attention to the women that he loves. He notices them in a way that other men don’t seem to. He invests. And he’s willing to obliterate any obstacle that might stand between him and his true love. Even if this means, you know, murder. When Joe meets Guinevere Beck at the bookshop where he works, his attraction is instant. Then he does what anyone would do, he stalks her in social media and real life. She makes it easy – baring all online and through the window of her NYC apartment. It’s easy enough to orchestrate a “chance encounter” where they meet again. They’re perfect for each other; their obsession is mutual. But they are each hiding so much, have so many secrets that you know the story will end badly. The question is how badly? Kepnes never takes her foot off the gas, and you’ll have no choice but to go along for the deadly ride. This is also a killer Netflix series; pun intended.
My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
It’s bad enough when your sister is the “pretty one,” and the clear favorite of, well, everyone. It’s worse when she keeps killing her boyfriends, and calling you to help clean up the mess. There always seems to be a good reason. Three times Ayoola claims she’s had to kill in self-defense; and three times older sister Korede has had to rush in for the rescue. While Korede is wracked with guilt, and fears that they will be caught, the silly and shallow Ayoola doesn’t seem bothered at all. She continues to happily post on social media when she’s supposed to be mourning. When Ayoola starts to date Tate, the sweet doctor with him Korede is secretly in love, Korede worries that he will be his sister’s next victim. Korede has to decide how far she’ll go for her sister. This is a slim volume but Braithwaite writes with bone deep understanding of all the ugly things we’ll do for love. We feel Korede’s devotion for her disturbed sister, even as we hope she’ll find a life of her own. But these sisters are bound by trauma, and it may be that ultimately no other love can compete with all the twisted things they share.
Misery by Stephen King
Every author hopes for a reader to be as invested in his work as Annie Wilkes is in the writing of famed romance novelist Paul Sheldon. Well, maybe not this invested. Annie, a nurse, is a superfan, completely wrapped up in the life of Misery Chastain, Sheldon’s heroine. When a car accident leaves Sheldon clinging to life by the side of the road, it’s Annie who saves him. But then she learns of the plans that her favorite author has for her favorite character, and she is not amused. At first, Annie seems like a savior, but her love for her favorite author and character quickly veers into madness. (To be fair, she already had a pretty scary history.) Paul is Annie’s captive, injured and now addicted to the pain pills she’s giving him. The more we get to know Annie, and the volume and pitch of her adoration, the more we fear for Paul who is completely helpless in her brutal hands. King is a master of suspense, and a keen observer of obsession, madness, and the horror we inflict on each other in the name of love. We can’t stop turning these pages, even as we want to look away from Annie’s terrifying and violent brand of fandom.
This Sweet Sickness by Patricia Highsmith
David Kelsey is in love with Annabelle. He plans to marry her, and has bought a house for her in the woods. He has decorated this house exactly as she likes it, and spends all of his free time creating a home for the two of them. The only problem is that Annabelle has no plans to marry David. In fact, Annabelle has married someone else. David can’t accept this and writes endless letters, finally showing up at Annabelle’s house asking her to leave her husband—even though they now have a child. When Annabelle’s husband Gerald shows up to confront David, things go badly. And then they get worse. Because nothing will stop David from being with Annabelle—not even reality. Patricia Highsmith, one of the greatest crime fiction writers who ever lived, was a student of abnormal psychology. And she digs in deep here, mining the depths of David’s delusion about his relationship with Annabelle. This Sweet Sickness is perfectly written, tightly plotted, and utterly compelling as Highsmith disturbingly, convincingly takes us down the dark spiral of madness masquerading as love.
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