Friday, November 14, 2014

If You Loved GONE GIRL...

Loved Gone Girl? Loved the movie, too? I've seen a few of these lists circulating but nobody's mentioned my favorite Gone Girl read-alikes. So without further ado...

Drowned, by Therese Bowman. Released around the same time as Gone Girl, this small-press gem from Other Press is not to be missed if you want to read a twisty tale of sexual obsession, about a woman fascinated by her sister's lover. It'll send shivers to the end.

The Days of Abandonment, by Elena Ferrante. A paean to female rage, Ferrante tells the story of a woman whose husband has left her for another woman, the destruction he left behind and how it festers. Unmissable.
The Dinner, by Herman Koch. Twisty, twisty, sick and twisty tale of two families, murder and deception. I can't even bring myself to read Koch's latest since this one shook me up so much. Amy and Nick have nothing on these folks!

I'll mention this book in a later post on Halloween reads, but for now, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by horror master Shirley Jackson, gives us another preturnaturally messed up family in all its dysfunctional glory. Amy and Merricat have a lot in common!

Finally we have Hygiene and the Assassin, about a verbal duel between a reporter and a reclusive writer. Secrets, murder and crazy sh*t abounds in a book that is either unreadable or unputdownable. Give it a shot! It's an edgy, difficult, crazy-good read.

Have you read any of these? I'd love to know what you think.

I did an informal poll of my Facebook friends who offered some of their own suggestions:

Jeanne of Necromancy Never Pays loves Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos, specifically the translation by Constantine.

Men and Angels by Mary Gordon came highly recommended by Robin Abrahams, AKA Miss Conduct of the Boston Globe.

Bury This, by Andrea Portes, came recommended by my friend Kalen.

Librarian Chava Pinchuk seconds The Dinner and adds Flynn's Sharp Objects. Fellow librarian Sarah Wenzel likes Jeffrey Deaver's October List.

I think we've got a lot of good suspenseful reading to choose from!

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