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Wahala by Nikki May
The cover and premise for Wahala made me think that this novel would be a beach thriller, something in the realms of Liane Moriarty. While the unfolding drama between a trio of ‘friends’ was fairly amusing to read of, Wahala wasn’t quite the suspenseful domestic thriller I’d hoped it to be. Still, this was, for…
3 STARS, 3rd pov, affairs, arc, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, cheating, Contemporary, domestic thriller, drama, england, female authors, friendships, gay side characters, horrible friends, jealousy, lgbtq+ side, LONDON, MARRIAGE, millennial, motherhood, MURDER, My reviews, netgalley, nigerian british author, obsession, psychopaths, published in 2021, read in 2021, reading, SUSPENSE, THRILLER, work culture -
White Ivy by Susie Yang
“She never got too greedy. She never got sloppy. And most important, she never got caught.” Ivy Lin gives characters like Madame Bovary, Becky Sharp, and Lily Bart a run for their money. She’s terrible (and I loved her). White Ivy is an addictive and razor-sharp debut novel. Susie Yang has spun a deliciously dark…
3rd pov, 4.5 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, America, American, bad love, BOSTON, cheating, China, chinese american author, class, coming of age, cultural dissonance, dark, domestic thriller, family, female authors, growing up, identity, intergenerational, introspective, lgbtq+ side, loneliness, Massachusetts, migration/immigration, MURDER, MYSTERY, obsession, psychological, Psychological thriller, published in 2021, read in 2021, rich people, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, Susie Yang, SUSPENSE, terrific prose, toxic relationships, unrequited love, White Ivy -
Symptomatic by Danzy Senna
“Every day in this new city I was trying to live in the purity of the present, free from context. Contexts, I knew, were dangerous: Once you put them into the picture, they took over.” As with her latest novel New People, Symptomatic presents its readers with a claustrophobic and disquieting narrative that becomes increasingly…
1990s, 1st pov, 20th century, 4 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, America, American, cold tone, colorism, Contemporary, Danzy Senna, dark, domestic thriller, doubles, existentialism, favourite authors, female authors, female doubles, feverish, grotesque, hallucinations, illness, introspective, jealousy, journalism, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, madness, mental health, MYSTERY, NEW YORK, obsession, office, passing, psychological, published in 2004, RACE, re-reads, read in 2021, read in 2022, stalking, surreal, Symptomatic, terrific prose, the body, the female malaise, toxic relationships, unnamed narrator, work culture -
Before the Ruins by Victoria Gosling
“To sleep on? Or to wake? This was the question facing me. To sleep, or to wake and face the reckoning, to find out what had been lost.” Although by no means an incompetent debut Before the Ruins does not offer a particularly innovative take on this subgenre (usually we have big houses, a group…
1990s, 1st pov, 20th century, Adult, Before the Ruins, British author, cheating, child abuse, class, cliques, Contemporary, domestic thriller, drama, england, female authors, Florence, friendships, gay side characters, heavy on telling, introspective, Italy, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, LONDON, manor/big house, MEMORY, missing jewels, MYSTERY, psychological, published in 2021, read in 2021, sexual assault/abuse/rape, SMALL TOWN, SUSPENSE, trauma, Victoria Gosling, Wiltshire -
When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole
When No One is Watching is a gripping read, think Hitchcock by way of Liane Moriarty.The novel is set in a predominantly black neighbourhood in Brooklyn. After her divorce Sydney Green, who is her 30s, returns to her old neighbourhood in order to take care of her ailing mother. Soon Sydney can’t help but notice…
1st pov, 3 STARS, Adult, Alyssa Cole, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Black & Black heritage authors, class, creepy setting, domestic thriller, female authors, MYSTERY, NEW YORK, place as character, published in 2020, RACE, read in 2020, ROMANCE, social issues, SUSPENSE, THRILLER, trauma, When No One is Watching -
Three by D.A. Mishani
Three wasn’t quite the “dark psychological thriller with a killer twist” I was anticipating. The blurb and cover suggests a far more suspenseful and possibly subversive tale that the one D. A. Mishani actually delivers. The novel’s tripartite structure didn’t feel particularly original as it has become quite popular in novels that fall under the…
2 STARS, 3rd pov, affairs, Contemporary, CRIME, D.A. Mishani, domestic thriller, drama, heavy on telling, Israel, Israeli, Israeli author, Jewish, male authors, MARRIAGE, published in 2020, read in 2020, serial killers, SUSPENSE, Three, THRILLER, TRANSLATED FICTION, violence against women, west bank -
The House of Stairs by Barbara Vine
“There is no time in our lives when we are so conspicuously without mercy as in adolescence.” I don’t think I would ever picked up this ‘obscure’ and forgotten novel if it hadn’t been for the ‘crime fiction’ module I took during my second year of uni. Thanks to that module, which was in every…
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1st pov, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, Adult, adulthood, ALIENATION, ART/CREATIVITY, atmospheric, bad love, Barbara Vine, beautiful prose, BISEXUAL/PANSEXUAL, books about books, books about writers, British author, class, CRIME, domestic thriller, england, f/f, favourite authors, female authors, first love, friendships, GOTHIC, GUILT, heartbreak/breakups, HISTORICAL FICTION, House As Character, identity, illness, introspective, it’s about the *yearning*, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, LONDON, loneliness, Longing, manor/big house, MEMORY, modern gothic, MURDER, murder mystery, MYSTERY, obsession, psychological, Psychological thriller, psychopaths, published in 1988, queer, re-reads, read in 2018, read in 2020, read in 2022, rich people, sapphic, SEXUALITY, strong sense of place, SUSPENSE, the female malaise, The House of Stairs, toxic relationships, unrequited love, whydunnit -
And Now She’s Gone by Rachel Howzell Hall — book review
“Boyfriends and husbands, baby daddies and one-night stands were always madly, deeply, truly in love. Bloody love. Crazy love. Love-you-to-death kind of love.” Last year I read the first book in Rachel Howzell Hall’s ‘Detective Elouise Norton’ series. It had a great sense of place and a brilliant main character. And Now She’s Gone shares…
3 STARS, 3rd pov, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, And Now She’s Gone, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEWS, California, Contemporary, CRIME, domestic thriller, female authors, los angeles, missing persons, missing women, MYSTERY, private investigator, psychopaths, Rachel Howzell Hall, read in 2020, stalking, SUSPENSE, trauma -
Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent
The opening lines of this novel are wonderfully theatrical: “All three of the Drumm brothers were at the funeral, although one of us was in a coffin.” Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent is a gleefully dark novel, filled with mean, selfish, and cruel individuals. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Nugent’s latest…
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 20th century, 3 STARS, addiction, Adult, affairs, BOOK REVIEW, Booklr, brothers, Contemporary, domestic thriller, drama, Dublin, family, female authors, growing up, HISTORICAL FICTION, illness, IRELAND, IRISH AUTHOR, LIZ NUGENT, MELODRAMA, mental health, MYSTERY, netgalley, Our Little Cruelties, psychological, Psychological thriller, published in 2020, read in 2020, REVIEW, sexual assault/abuse/rape, SUSPENSE, THRILLER, unreliable narrators -
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier — book review
Rebecca is a work of Gothic suspense that is told in a mesmerising prose and makes for an enthralling and evocative read. “Colour and scent and sound, rain and the lapping of water, even the mists of autumn and the smell of the flood tide, these are memories of Manderley that will not be denied.”…
1930S, 1st pov, 20th century, 4 STARS, Adult, age gap, beautiful prose, bluebeard, British author, british classics, CLASSICS, Cornwall, Daphne du Maurier, domestic thriller, england, female authors, first love, GOTHIC, HISTORICAL FICTION, House As Character, introspective, jane eyre, madness, manor/big house, MARRIAGE, Monte Carlo, MURDER, MYSTERY, psychological, published in 1938, READ IN 2019, Rebecca, ROMANCE, SUSPENSE, THRILLER, unnamed narrator
luce [is reading] 