Eight dark science mystery novels

Nova Jacobs has an MFA from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and is a recipient of the Nicholl Fellowship from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Jeremy. She is the author of The Stars Turned Inside Out and The Last Equation of Isaac Severy.

At CrimeReads Jacobs tagged:

eight dark science gems: some are recent, some prefigure the dark academia craze entirely—all use science to underpin the murkier aspects of human nature.

One title on the list:

Give Me Your Hand, Megan Abbott

This is truly a laboratory novel. Abbott’s story pitches between past and present, but we spend much of our time among the benches of a chemistry lab getting a sense for our heroine Kit’s postdoctoral research into a severe premenstrual disorder, right down to the grim business of the laboratory mice. After the research group’s newest hire turns out to be Kit’s high school frenemy—and a dead body on the grounds throws their relationship into a shaky détente—the already fraught tension of the lab is heightened by a police investigation. Add to that a rich backstory of female friendship tainted by grave secrets and academic competition, and you’ve got an all-consuming science thriller.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Give Me Your Hand is among Stephanie Feldman's seven top novels featuring ambitious women, Alafair Burke's eight best female friendships in books, Lisa Levy's eight top thrillers about women in the workplace, Layne Fargo's eight top thrillers featuring ambitious women, Allison Dickson's ten thrillers featuring a dance of girlfriends and deception and Carl Vonderau's nine notable moral compromises in crime fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best historical fiction books

At Vogue Mia Barzilay Freund tagged ten "of the best historical fiction books of the last several decades," including:

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

This stunning debut novel follows a single family over eight generations and numerous settings, from colonial Ghana to Jazz Age Harlem. Gripping and emotionally resonant, theirs is a story of hope, sacrifice, and heritage, as the plans and promises made by characters in one chapter become the lived realities of those characters’ descendants many pages later.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Homegoing is among Catherine Menon's top ten homecomings in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels of generational wealth and income inequality

Glenn R. Miller launched his professional career by working on television soap operas and game shows on the back lots of NBC Burbank. He holds a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and has served as a CBS-affiliate news producer, public television producer, and creative director at production agencies within the Twin Cities. He and his wife live in Minneapolis and are the parents of two grown sons.

Miller's new novel is Doorman Wanted.

At Lit Hub he tagged five old and new titles which thoughtfully explore generational wealth and income inequality, including:

Kevin Kwan, Crazy Rich Asians

In Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians, the matter of hiding one’s inheritance and family stature takes center stage. Kwan’s main character, Nick, hides from his family’s outrageous wealth by coming to America and joining the world of academia. It would be hard to imagine a more effective hiding place. So effective, in fact, that his professor girlfriend, Rachel, has no idea of his background or familial circumstances. This allows him to develop an authentic relationship with her based on love, not pocketbook.

But as the reader soon realizes, downplaying one’s financial standing does not necessarily mean that one is not obsessed by wealth and status. This fixation on social status is most effectively demonstrated through the character of Nick’s mother, Eleanor. Throughout the novel, Kwan explores various strata of social hierarchies, almost all based on variations of wealth and income, and, arguably, superficial.

Like [Buddenbrooks author Thomas] Mann’s writing of the previous century, Kwan effectively explores themes of conflict between commerce and intellectual or artistic pursuits.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Crazy Rich Asians is among Julia Fine's eight titles about friendships with wealth disparities and Joseph Finder's seven best books about dysfunctional rich families.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books about social media

Aneesa Ahmed is a 2022/23 recipient of the Scott Trust bursary.

At the Guardian she tagged five "titles that explore how we consume, share, and manipulate information on social media platforms." One book on the list:

Irresistible by Adam Alter

Have you ever wondered why you can’t stop scrolling on your TikTok “for you” page, or obsessing over how many likes you got on a recent Facebook post? You’re not alone, and Adam Alter’s book explores why we get sucked into the digital world. He answers what makes an online addiction, whether it be to emails, Instagram, or Netflix, different to other forms of addiction – and warns us of the dangers this could cause long-term. As well as introspection, he gives practical solutions to how digital addiction can be controlled for good.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles about unconventional serial killers

Joanna Wallace studied law before working as a commercial litigation solicitor in London. She now runs a family business and lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband, four children, and two dogs. She was partly inspired to write You’d Look Better as a Ghost, her debut, following her father’s diagnosis of early onset dementia.

At Electric Lit she considered:

seven books that have introduced us to unforgettable characters and pose the question—why do we find these serial killers so likeable? (And what does that say about us?)

One title on the list:

Hannibal by Thomas Harris

Someone else who is extremely interesting to ponder but definitely from a safe distance, is Hannibal Lecter. In fact, if one was brave/unfortunate enough to meet him in real life, the list of questions for the serial killer first introduced in the novel, ‘Red Dragon’ by Thomas Harris would be endless. How can a genius doctor and cannibalistic monster co-exist in the same human form? And maybe therein lies the answer. Maybe the behaviour of Hannibal Lecter is so extreme, so far removed from conventional norms that we no longer consider him human. Perhaps it is his complete lack of morality that allows us to skim over the killing and be entertained instead by his intelligence, charisma and sharp wit. Any character who ‘preferred to eat the rude’ is indisputably grotesque, but certainly not boring.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five mysteries and thrillers with a reality TV twist

Heather Gudenkauf is the Edgar Award nominated, New York Times & USA Today bestselling author of ten novels including Everyone Is Watching, out this week. Her debut novel, The Weight of Silence, was an instant New York Times bestseller and remained on the list for 22 weeks. Gudenkauf’s critically acclaimed novels have been published in over 20 countries and have been included in many Best Of lists including Seven Thrillers to Read This Summer by the New York Times, The 10 Best Thrillers and Mysteries of 2017 by The Washington Post, Amazon Best Book of 2022, GoodReads Most Anticipated Mysteries of 2022.

[Coffee with a Canine: Heather Gudenkauf and Maxine; Coffee with a Canine: Heather Gudenkauf & Lolo; My Book, The Movie: Not A Sound; The Page 69 Test: Not A Sound; Writers Read: Heather Gudenkauf (April 2019); The Page 69 Test: Before She Was Found; The Page 69 Test: This Is How I Lied; The Page 69 Test: The Overnight Guest; Q&A with Heather Gudenkauf]

At CrimeReads the author tagged "five mysteries and thrillers that put the thrill in books with a reality TV twist," including:

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

When fourteen-year-old Marjorie Barrett begins to display troubling behavior, her parents take her to their family physician, but they are unable to offer any answers. Desperate for help, the Barretts turn to the local Catholic priest, Father Wanderly, for guidance. Convinced that an evil entity possesses Marjorie, Father Wanderly believes the only way to save her is through an exorcism. Out of work and drowning in household and medical bills, the Barretts reluctantly agree to have their experience filmed for a new reality series called The Possession, which becomes an overnight sensation. What the camera captures is terrifying and will change the Barrett family forever. Years later, Merry Barrett, Marjorie’s younger sister, reflects on her family’s dance with the devil; she comes to question everything that occurred in the home and what was real in front of and behind the cameras.

Read about the other entries on the list.

A Head Full of Ghosts is among Lee Kelly's eight fictional dinner parties gone wrong and Wendy Webb's eight top modern gothic mysteries.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top rabbit books

The Zoomer Book Club's Nathalie Atkinson tagged eight books with a connection to the "rabbit, a symbol of feminine power, arguably has connections to creativity, resistance and survival." One title on the list:

RABBIT RABBIT RABBIT by Nadine Sander-Green

The Calgary-based, B.C.-raised author’s debut literary novel explores a woman’s identity and coming of age in a toxic relationship. The novel follows the dysfunctional relationship between Millicent, 24, a young reporter who has relocated to Whitehorse to work at the local newspaper, and the middle-aged filmmaker she meets there, set against the stark isolation of the landscape and her struggle to regain her sense of self.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven stories of robot-human relationships

Sierra Greer grew up in Minnesota before attending Williams College and Johns Hopkins University. A former high school English teacher, she writes about the future from her home in rural Connecticut.

Greer's new novel is Annie Bot.

At Lit Hub she tagged seven "novels and stories [in which] authors delve into personal relationships between humans and A.I. consciousnesses that may or may not inhabit bodies. Themes of loneliness, love, personhood, and power are inescapable." One title on the list:

Isaac Asimov, I, Robot

In “Robbie,” the introductory story in Isaac Asimov’s collection I, Robot (1950), eight-year-old Gloria is distraught when her parents dismiss her wordless robot playmate, Robbie. Asserting that Robbie is not a machine but a person and a friend, Gloria pinpoints the essential paradox of the robot conundrum.

If an entity is merely a machine, it can be dismissed as insignificant, but once we love this entity, it merits our respect, and in turn, this expands our hearts. In short, a machine can make us more human, if we let it. Asimov’s iconic story presages all the works that follow.

Read about the other entries on the list.

I, Robot is among Lorna Wallace's ten thought-provoking novels about Artificial Intelligence, KT Tunstall's six best books, and Matt Haig's ten top fictional robots. Susan Calvin from I, Robot is on io9's list of the ten greatest (fictional) female scientists.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles that show storytelling has consequences

Toby Lloyd was born in London to a secular father and a Jewish mother. He studied English at Oxford University before moving to America to pursue an MFA in creative writing at NYU. He has published short stories and essays in Carve Magazine and the Los Angeles Review of Books and was longlisted for the 2021 V. S. Pritchett Short Story Prize. He lives in London.

Lloyd's new novel is Fervor.

At Electric Lit he tagged seven "novels and memoirs that reveal truths (or untruths) that were better left unsaid." One title on the list:

Zuckerman Bound by Philip Roth

Like [Francine] Prose, Roth was particularly energized by the ethics of writing Jewish stories in postwar America. This quartet of novels, written after he was catapulted to fame by Portnoy’s Complaint, chart the rise and fall of the novelist Nathan Zuckerman. In the beginning, Zuckerman is a writer in his twenties, enjoying the first flashes of literary success for short stories that offer intimate, sometimes unflattering portraits of Jewish characters. Already, he faces a backlash; certain Jewish authority figures accuse Zuckerman of recycling tropes that will provoke hatred of his people. As he embarks on his literary career, he has a choice. Will he do as he’s told by his father and his rabbi, and only write nice stories about nice Jewish families? Or will he continue down the road he’s started along, and pursue a darker form of artistic truth whatever the consequence?

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Four novels that show the power of siblings in mysteries & thrillers

Margot Douaihy is the author of the lyrical crime novel Scorched Grace, which was named a Best Crime Novel of 2023 by The New York Times, The Guardian, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, CrimeReads, and BookPage, and one of the most anticipated crime books of the year by THEM and LGBTQ Reads. The second book in the Sister Holiday Mystery series, Blessed Water, was named a most anticipated crime book by BookRiot and Apple Books. She is also the author of Bandit/Queen: The Runaway Story of Belle Starr, a true-crime poetry project, and Scranton Lace, a documentary poetry collection about a lace factory.

At CrimeReads Douaihy tagged "four novels [that] show us how sibling relationships can be much more than backdrops or backstories in crime fiction, supercharging narratives with primal terror and emotional range." One title on the list:

My Sister, the Serial Killer

Oyinkan Braithwaite’s narrative is a case study in scalpel-sharp dark humor, inventive scene work, and sisterhood reimagined. The bond between sisters Korede and Ayoola is constantly tested, not by quotidian squabbles, but by a string of boyfriends who end up dead (murdered in cold blood, in fact). Braithwaite keeps this tensile book alert with vital questions of loyalty and survival, threading gender and societal commentary into an incredibly tight ripper. The novel doesn’t just entertain, which it absolutely does; it dissects the very essence of “sisterly duty,” drenching a crime narrative with resonant explorations of PTSD, where and how trauma is stored in the body, and complex ethical decisions. I teach this book in my “Plotting the Perfect Crime” course, a plot-centric crime writing class at Emerson College; it’s illuminating to see how the MFA students celebrate the novel’s fine-tuned craft, confident plotting, emotional wreckage, humor, and creative quotient. I love books that offer a dialect—asking how two apparent opposites are simultaneously true? This narrative is distinct in its ability to balance withering satire with poignant insights into the love and sacrifice of sisters who just want to survive and thrive in an unfair world.

Read about the other entries on the list.

My Sister the Serial Killer is among Francesca McDonnell Capossela's seven books about women committing acts of violence, Tessa Wegert's five thrillers about killer relatives, Catherine Ryan Howard's five notable dangers-of-dating thrillers, Sally Hepworth's top five novels about twisted sisters, Megan Nolan's six books on unrequited love and unmet obsession, Sarah Pinborough's top ten titles where the setting is a character, Tiffany Tsao's top five novels about murder all in the family, Victoria Helen Stone's eight top crime books of deep, dark family lore, and Kristen Roupenian's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the best titles about the Victorians

Kathryn Hughes is emerita professor of life writing at the University of East Anglia and a literary critic for The Guardian. She is the author of Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum and George Eliot: The Last Victorian.

Her latest book is Catland: Louis Wain and the Great Cat Mania.

At the Guardian Hughes tagged "five of the best books that track how the Victorians gradually unravelled and learned to let loose." One title on the list:

The Other Victorians by Steven Marcus (1966)

At the height of the sexual revolution, Steven Marcus, a professor at Columbia University, produced a book suggesting that the Victorians could swing with the best of them. Delving deep into medical sources on taboo topics including masturbation, as well as such out-and-out pornographic texts as My Secret Life by the pseudonymous “Walter”, Marcus rewrites Victorian England as an erotic playground. Within weeks of appearing in Britain in 1966, The Other Victorians sailed past Nancy Mitford’s biography of Louis XIV, The Sun King, to top the national bestseller list. The Times described the book as “ghastly stuff” and derided Marcus as “a student of smut”. These days, the book is revered as a gamechanger.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten Taylor Swift song-to-book recommendations

At B&N Reads Isabelle McConville shared ten Taylor Swift song-to-book recommendations, including:

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Marriage is work, for better or for worse. When a woman’s husband goes to jail for something she knows he didn’t do and she leans on their childhood best friend for support, we get a brilliant story that makes us think of Betty, James and Augustine from “cardigan,” all grown up.

Read about the other entries on the list.

An American Marriage is among Robin Kirman's seven novels told from both members of a couple, Christopher Louis Romaguera's nine books about mistaken identity, Scarlett Harris's eight classic and contemporary novels, written by women, that offer insight into damaged male psyches, Tochi Onyebuchi's seven books about surviving political & environmental disasters, Ruth Reichl's six novels she enjoyed listening to while cooking, Brad Parks's top eight books set in prisons, Sara Shepard's six top stories of deception,and Julia Dahl's ten top books about miscarriages of justice.

--Marshal Zeringue