This month’s best psychologicals range from emotionally devastating to shockingly funny (just as human experience is wont to do). While each represents a different twist on the genre, all of these kept me reading late into the evening, which is one of the many reasons I’m writing this introduction at 10 at night. Also, does working from home while I’m doing this list mean I’m living in a domestic suspense novel? My cat would prefer to consider our life together as quite cozy, but then again, he can’t read.
Chelsea Bieker, Madwoman
(Little, Brown)
Madwoman is a harrowing psychological thriller about a mother determined to keep her past a mystery; she’s forced to confront her darkest secrets when a figure from her childhood crawls out of the woodwork and threatens to expose all. Chelsea Bieker’s fierce literary style makes for a perfect match with the thriller form, and her careful plotting leads to a genuinely surprising conclusion.
Iman Hariri-Kira, The Most Famous Girl in the World
(Sourcebooks Landmark)
In this sardonic and witty take on the Anna Delvey Affair, Iman Hariri-Kira’s journalist heroine is thrown into a tizzy when the scam artist who she helped put in jail gets an early release—and seems like she’s bent on revenge. At least, when she’s not making insta posts about her new brand sponsorships. Hariri-Kira’s debut is snarky and self-assured, as sharp and biting as an autumn wind…Okay I know that sentence was hokey but this book is not!
Sophie White, Where I End
(Erewhon Books)
I have recommended some truly twisted novels on this site (thank you, Lit Hub, for allowing me to live up to my creepiest potential!) but I think this may be the most disturbing one yet. White’s novel was first published two years ago, to much acclaim and little readership, and given that I was one of the many who remained ignorant when it first graced the earth, I’m so happy this sneaky little masterpiece got another shot at messing up readers. But what is it about? Well, quite a lot, actually, but the bare bones description goes thusly: a young woman lives on a remote Irish island, where she and her grandmother reluctantly care for her comatose mother, known as the “bed-thing”. The island’s small population is convinced the family is cursed, but it isn’t until White’s Shirley-Jackson-esque narrator meets a visiting artist that she begins to understand the full wrong-ness of her short life.
Kristina Pérez, The Many Lies of Veronica Hawkins
(Pegasus)
I have such a soft spot for the viciously status conscious and their baroque internecine disputes, and this Singapore-set thriller checks all the boxes. Perhaps it’s because she went to private school, or perhaps it’s just living in one of the wealthiest cities on the planet long enough to cease to become disillusioned, but Kristina Perez writes class like a mid-century Brit (but thankfully with the twists of an American). In The Many Lives of Veronica Hawkins, a close observer of the elite moves to the famously clean city-state with her finance bro of a husband, only to find herself welcomed into the upper crust by a charismatic heiress who then has the gall to go missing. Fabulous, and so closely observed as to be deserving of the word “gimlet”.
Kelsey Rae Dimberg, Snake Oil
(Mariner)
Another wellness thriller, this one tied into the long con tradition of American capitalism—like gothic fiction for the goop era. Or perhaps, grand guignol for the goop erta? Anyway, his book is a prescient reminder that the modern beauty industry, just like my penchant for alliteration, makes fools of us all.
Sandra Block, The Bachelorette Party
(Scarlet)
Look, everybody’s thinking it so I’m just going say it… more bachelorette parties should involve murder. Right? (I AM KIDDING, I SWEAR). If you like that sort of thing, get your fix from Sandra Block’s criminally fun new novel about a true crime-themed bachelorette party that goes wrong. Give it as a present to all your soon-to-be-married friends! –Olivia Rutigliano, CrimeReads editor
