Six literary mysteries set in the 1980s

T. Greenwood grew up in rural Vermont in the 1970s. She began writing stories at seven years old and wrote her first "novel" at nine on her dad's electric typewriter.

Since then, she has published sixteen novels. She has received grants from the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Maryland State Arts Council. She has won three San Diego Book Awards. Five of her novels have been Indie Next picks. Bodies of Water was finalist for a Lambda Foundation award, and Keeping Lucy was a Target Book Club Pick.

[My Book, The Movie: Rust and Stardust; The Page 69 Test: Rust and Stardust; Writers Read: T. Greenwood (August 2019); The Page 69 Test: Keeping Lucy; My Book, The Movie: Keeping Lucy; Q&A with T. Greenwood; The Page 69 Test: Such a Pretty Girl; My Book, The Movie: The Still Point; My Book, The Movie: Everything Has Happened]

Greenwood's new novel is Everything Has Happened.

At CrimeReads the author tagged six favorite literary mysteries set in the 1980s, including:

Megan Abbott, The End of Everything

Megan Abbott has become known as the contemporary queen of noir, but The End of Everything, published in 2011, is the first novel of Abbott’s which explores the intensity of friendships between girls, a subject found in many of her subsequent novels. The End of Everything, set in a midwestern suburb in the mid-1980s, centers on thirteen-year-old Lizzy Hood, whose best friend, Evie, is kidnapped. The novel illuminates the complexity of this friendship, the girls’ burgeoning sexuality, and their respective attractions to older men.

Abbott has said that it was inspired by Lolita, drawing from the second half of the novel during which Humbert Humbert kidnaps the young Dolores Haze and takes her on the road. As with all of Abbott’s books, The End of Everything is atmospheric, and much of the suspense psychologically driven.

Read about the other titles on Greenwood's list.

The End of Everything is among Heather Levy's eight books about dark desires that will crush you, Lisa Levy's eight most toxic friendships in crime fiction and Hallie Ephron's top ten mysteries that harness unreliable narrators.

The Page 69 Test: The End of Everything.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten memoirs that explore the nuances of family estrangement

Jenny Bartoy is a French American writer, critic, and editor based in the Pacific Northwest.

Her new book, No Contact, is an anthology about family estrangement. Ocean Vuong called it "a landmark work."

Bartoy writes essays, author profiles and interviews, and book reviews. Her work appears in a variety of publications, including The Boston Globe, The Seattle Times, The Rumpus, CrimeReads, Chicago Review of Books, Under the Gum Tree, Room, and Hippocampus Magazine, and in literary anthologies such as Sharp Notions: Essays from the Stitching Life.

At Lit Hub Bartoy tagged ten great memoirs that explore "the realities of [family] estrangement with the vulnerability and nuance it deserves, providing a powerful counterpoint to pervasive and reductive sociocultural talking points." One title on the list:

Stephanie Foo, What My Bones Know

In this best-selling memoir, Foo investigates the repercussions of complex PTSD (C-PTSD) caused by her abusive parents and her subsequent estrangement from each of them in turn. The book describes both her research into C-PTSD and her extensive efforts to heal. This is a rich, complex memoir in which Foo explores her familial roots, the impact of intergenerational trauma in Asian-American immigrant communities, the failures of American healthcare, and the patriarchal erasure of women’s suffering. While trauma is its focus, at heart the book wrestles with the concept of parent-less identity and the question of deserving to be loved. “Trauma isn’t just the sadness that comes from being beaten, or neglected, or insulted. That’s just one layer of it. Trauma also is mourning the childhood you could have had,” Foo writes. “Trauma is mourning the fact that, as an adult, you have to parent yourself.” At times heartwrenching, at others darkly funny, this story provides a vivid and layered glimpse into the perspective of a no-contact adult child.

Read about the other entries on the list at Lit Hub.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven literary characters who break the “teen girl” trope

Caroline Bicks is the Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine, where she teaches courses in Shakespeare, early modern culture, and horror fiction. She is the author of Cognition and Girlhood in Shakespeare’s World and Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare’s England; co-author of Shakespeare Not Stirred: Cocktails for Your Everyday Dramas; and co-host of the Everyday Shakespeare podcast. Her essays and humor pieces have appeared in the Modern Love column of the New York Times, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and the show Afterbirth. She lives in Blue Hill, Maine, with her family.

Bicks's new book is Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King.

At Electric Lit Bicks tagged "seven stories [that] feature girls who use their cognitive abilities to challenge social norms and imagine their own destinies." One title on the list:

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson

“Why is the measure of love loss?” This question drives Winterson’s memoir about growing up with an abusive adoptive mother, searching for her past, and making her future. The elder Winterson locks Jeannette outside in the winter and forbids all books except for the Bible. When she discovers that 14-year-old Jeanette is sleeping with her girlfriend, she has a Pentecostal minister force her daughter through three brutal (and unsuccessful) days of conversion therapy. Eventually, Jeanette saves herself by escaping into fiction. She works her way through every work of literature, A-Z, in her local library; and, after Mrs. Winterson evicts her at 16, gets herself into Oxford where she becomes a fiction writer. Here, she writes about how stories give words to those who have been silenced: “We get our language back through the language of others.” Fiction “isn’t a hiding place. It’s a finding place.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is among Tara Westover's four inspirational memoirs.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles for fans of "Margo’s Got Money Troubles"

At Book Riot Megan Mabee tagged seven books for fans of Margo’s Got Money Troubles, including:

The Girls from Corona del Mar by Rufi Thorpe

I couldn’t kick off this list without mentioning Rufi Thorpe’s exceptional backlist, which I’m working my way through now. While I’d recommend them all, this debut novel by Thorpe emphasizes motherhood themes, so it has the closest feel to Margo’s story. Mia and Lorrie Ann have been best friends since they were kids, and as they grow up, they’ll face ups and downs in life, including abortion, motherhood, love, loss, substance abuse, and discovering their passions. I like Thorpe’s nuanced examination of friendship and how these relationships change as we do. This story is so heartbreaking at times, yet hopeful too. It’s one of those books that stays with you.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Girls from Corona del Mar is among Ellen Wehle's five books to whisk us away to sunny vistas and ocean-swept sands.

The Page 69 Test: The Girls from Corona del Mar.

My Book, The Movie: The Girls from Corona del Mar.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles about historic betrayals

Emma Parry's debut novel, Mrs. Benedict Arnold, is a compelling exploration of the life of Peggy Shippen, the wife of Benedict Arnold, during the American Revolution. The novel delves into the complexities of love, loyalty, and treason, as Peggy navigates the political currents of the time while seeking safety and peace for her family. Parry's writing is noted for its historical accuracy and the vivid portrayal of the characters, including the famous figures of the era. The novel has been praised for its fresh take on a well-known historical figure and its ability to shift the reader's perception of America's most famous traitor.

At The Nerd Daily Parry tagged five books about historic betrayals, including:

Alison Weir’s INNOCENT TRAITOR contains a betrayal a page, culminating in the execution of Lady Jane Grey for treason. This was the first work of fiction from the popular historian, and her deep research is beautifully distilled through a fantastic constellation of characters.

Weir leaves the gate and keeps the pace with such assurance, we are delighted by the storytelling even as we are outraged by accelerating events. The poisoning of a King, switching of a body, heresies, rape, endless scheming and the unnecessary death of a sixteen year old girl at the will of her cousin.

I’ve heard fun snark about the Tudors and their dominance of the English heritage industry, but their dramatic stories first excited my interest in history, and definitely made me susceptible to heroines at the center of wildly consequential events getting to exercise some agency…

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five suspense novels with heart

Allison Winn Scotch is the New York Times bestselling author of eleven novels, including Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing, In Twenty Years, and Time of My Life.

She graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Honors History and Concentration in Marketing from the Wharton School of Business.

Scotch lives in Los Angeles with her family and their two rescue dogs, Hugo and Mr. Peanut.

Her new novel is The Insomniacs.

At CrimeReads Scotch tagged five mysteries that pack an emotional punch, including:

Razorblade Tears by S.A Cosby

I know that Cosby is a smash success but if you haven’t read this masterpiece, please correct that immediately. Two fathers go searching for justice for their murdered sons. It’s a beautiful exploration of biases, prejudice, love, acceptance and the lengths parents will go for their children. I listened to this one, and I highly recommend the audio. Genuinely exceptional.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

Razorblade Tears is among Leodora Darlington's five top thrillers by Black writers, David Bell's five great thrillers about domineering parents, Robyn Harding's seven unlikely friendships in crime fiction, Lesley Kara's six crime novels about settling old scores, and Liz Nugent's top ten first lines in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight titles about women with secret lives

Bonnie Friedman is the author of the bestselling, widely anthologized Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction, and Other Dilemmas in the Writer’s Life. She is also the author of the memoirs The Thief of Happiness: The Story of an Extraordinary Psychotherapy and Surrendering Oz.

Her essays have been selected for inclusion in The Best Writing on Writing, The Best American Movie Writing, The Best Buddhist Writing, and The Best Spiritual Writing. Her new novel is Don’t Stop.

At Lit Hub Friedman tagged eight "books that reveal covert lives, truths that society forbids or shames, and an effusion of vibrant spirit." One title on the list:

Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert, translated by Lydia Davis

“You cannot understand that,” said my high school English teacher when her glance fell on this novel on my desk. I rankled. I understood it perfectly! It was about a woman having an affair. Because I knew the literal meaning of the words, I thought I understood the story they told. And I wondered at this teacher’s greedy need to own and to mystify.

But of course she was right. Since then I’ve read this book at least four times, once a decade. Even now I feel Emma Bovary’s novel has more to teach me, about the ways that fantasy can pollute one’s mind, about how appetites aroused can grow ever larger, ever more corrupt, about how ordinary, mundane life itself can seem an affront, and, beyond this, about the construction of magnificent sentences that are marvels of precise detail: “the musicians cooled the tips of their fingers on their tongues” “she put away . . . her satin shoes, whose soles had been yellowed by the slippery wax of the dance floor. Her heart was like them: contact with wealth had laid something over it that would not be wiped away.”

Every story of an affair has some point of contact with Madame Bovary, and one feels somehow the way that high school English teacher did, possessive, wishing to make special claims, as if the book itself had a tender, intimate message that the Charles Bovarys of the world—i.e. everyone else—can’t understand.

Read about the other entries on the list at Lit Hub.

Madame Bovary is on Alastair Campbell's six best books list, Paul Theroux's six favorite books list, Peter Brooks's list of favorite Flaubert's works (at #1), Ed Sikov's list of eight great books that got slammed by critics, BBC.com Culture's list of the three of the worst mothers in literature, Alex Preston's top ten list of sex scenes from film, TV and literature, Rachel Holmes's top ten list of books on the struggle against gender-based inequality, Jill Boyd's list of six memorable marriage proposals in literature, Julia Sawalha's six best books list, Jennifer Gilmore's list of the ten worst mothers in books, Amy Sohn's list of six favorite books, Sue Townsend's 6 best books list, Helena Frith Powell's list of ten of the best sexy French books, the Christian Science Monitor's list of six novels about grand passions, John Mullan's lists of ten landmark coach rides in literature, ten of the best cathedrals in literature, ten of the best balls in literature, ten of the best bad lawyers in literature, ten of the best lotharios in literature, and ten of the best bad doctors in fiction, Valerie Martin's list of six novels about doomed marriages, and Louis Begley's list of favorite novels about cheating lovers. It tops Peter Carey's list of the top ten works of literature and was second on a top ten works of literature list selected by leading writers from Britain, America and Australia in 2007. It is one of John Bowe's six favorite books on love.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight mysteries about cryptids and cryptozoology

Elisa Shoenberger is a freelance writer and journalist. At Book Riot she tagged eight "mystery books [that] explore the wide world of cryptids, from werewolves to Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster." One title on the list:

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Constable Peter Grant was in the right place at the right time … or wrong place, wrong time. He’s keen to make something of himself in London’s Metropolitan Police. But when he gets assigned guard duty over a crime scene, it’s not the kind of work he wants to be doing. That is, until he talks to a witness, who turns out to be a ghost. He finds himself the newest member of the Folly, a formerly dormant part of the Met focusing on magic or weird things. Now he’s befriending genius loci in rivers and other waterways, facing off with otherworldly beings, and trying to stop more horrible crimes. The series has 15 books and novellas so far, including graphic novels; the most recent is Stone and Sky (2025). Peter and his mentor, Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, have to solve cases involving a wide range of mythical creatures and cryptids.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven music-themed books

Delphine Seddon, a graduate of Faber & Faber’s writing academy and studied poetry at Goldsmiths University, writes female-driven contemporary fiction and poetry.

Her debut novel is Darkening Song.

For the past 20 years she has worked in the music business.

At The Nerd Daily Seddon tagged seven favorite books with a music theme. One of the novels on the list:

A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Brilliant, funny, poignant
This book won the Pulitzer Prize. I don’t know if I’d describe it as music fiction exactly – one of the characters is a record label executive, so there is an element of music business, but it felt to me like this was more a book about human behaviour and why we are who we are and the choices we make. There’s an entire chapter which is made up of diagrams on power point slides. Truthfully, I never really understood what that chapter was saying, but big respect to the author for doing something so radical – I love that. Sasha is an incredible character – another strong, flawed, female protagonist (I clearly love a strong, flawed female protagonist!). A Visit From The Goon Squad is to my mind a modern day classic.

Read about the other entries on the list.

A Visit From the Goon Squad is among the Amazon Book Review's list of ten books for fans of Daisy Jones & the Six, Julian Gough's ten top books to help you survive the digital age, Marina Benjamin's ten top books about middle age, four books that changed Alison Lester, Jeff Somers's five top books that blur the line between the novel and short story, Gillian Anderson's six favorite books, and Julie Christie's seven favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten must-read titles for "Devil Wears Prada" lovers

At People magazine Shyla Watson and Lizz Schumer tagged ten must-read workplace dramas for Devil Wears Prada lovers. One title on the list:

Love on Paper by Danielle Parker

At a prestigious teen writing retreat, Macy and Caleb are destined to clash — their parents have been literary rivals for years. But when they’re paired up as critique partners, they’ll have to set aside their differences for a shot at publication. This year’s theme is romance, at least on the page, but as the tension between them turns into something more, Macy and Caleb may find themselves caught in a love story that might just surpass fiction.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles featuring self-sabotaging characters

Pardeep Toor is a winner of the PEN America Dau Prize. His writing has appeared in Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize, Southern Humanities Review, Electric Literature, Catapult, and Longreads. His new short story collection is Hands (Cornerstone Press). Toor grew up in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, and now lives in Colorado.

At Electric Lit the author tagged seven

stories of characters who can’t get out of their own way. These characters are both the aggressors and victims of their circumstances. They are hard to love, but it’s still painful to read about their collapses. In the end, readers are left feeling queasy, hoping for the best while realizing that the worst is inevitable.

One title on Toor's list:

Whiteout Conditions by Tariq Shah

The setup: Ant returns home to Chicago to attend the funeral of his friend’s cousin, who was killed by a neighborhood dog. It’s a complicated setup that is enriched by childhood memories sprinkled throughout the short novel. All Whiteout Conditions’s characters are drunk, high, and unhinged as they mourn the sudden loss in their family. But it’s not Ant’s family. So what is he even doing there? Ant’s unexpected and often unwanted arrival causes drug-induced chaos at the funeral as a family tries to move forward while Ant pulls them back and drowns them in the past. But of course, Ant doesn’t realize his own part in the oxy-laced toxicity of this emotionally and physically violent novel.

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five historical fiction titles featuring older women

Rachel Brittain is a writer, Day Dreamer, and Amateur Aerialist. Her short fiction has appeared in Luna Station Quarterly, Andromeda Spaceways, and others. She is a contributing editor for Book Riot, where she screams into the void about her love of books. Brittain lives in Northwest Arkansas with a rambunctious rescue pup, a snake, and a houseful of plants (most of which aren’t carnivorous).

At Book Riot she tagged five historical fiction books in which "older women prove that it’s never too late to begin a new adventure." One entry on the list:

The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso

Neighbors Hortensia James and Marion Agostino share a hedge and an animosity that belies their eighty-odd years of age. Both women, one white and one Black, have led good lives with impressive careers but have been failed by their late husbands. Now living out their golden years in post-Apartheid South Africa, the women pass their time in committee meetings, volleying thinly veiled insults back and forth. But when unforeseen circumstances force them together, their bickering begins to turn into deeper debates and reminiscences of the lives they’ve both lived. Will it be enough to bridge the divide of racism and animosity that has kept them at each other’s throats all these years?

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six titles that explore the machinery behind celebrity culture

Candice Wuehle is author of Monarch, Fidelitoria: Fixed or Fluxed, Death Industrial Complex, and BOUND. She lives in Iowa City, Iowa.

Her new novel is Ultranatural.

At Lit Hub Wuehle tagged six books that explore the machinery behind celebrity culture. "Taken together, they suggest that celebrity has always been less about visibility and more about narrative control." One title on the list:

Bret Easton Ellis, Glamorama

Bret Easton Ellis’s hallucinatory satire of the 1990s fashion world imagines celebrity culture metastasizing into something far darker. Models, actors, and socialites drift through a world of cameras, parties, and manufactured identities until the line between publicity and conspiracy collapses entirely. As the narrator Victor Ward moves through Manhattan, he registers the world primarily through who is seen and photographed—“the better you looked, the more you were seen”—a logic that turns visibility itself into a form of capital. Glamorama anticipates a future in which fame becomes a spectacle economy, where visibility is both currency and trap. Ellis himself was hardly outside the system he was diagnosing. By the 1990s he had become a literary celebrity in his own right, his novels debated on television, his nightlife chronicled alongside the very models and socialites he fictionalized. The novel reads, in retrospect, less like exaggeration than reportage from inside a culture already learning to treat life as publicity.

Read about the other entries on Wuehle's list at Lit Hub.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten modern fantasy novels that revitalize fairy tale tropes

Moorea Corrigan holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in English literature from the University of Edinburgh and a master of publishing degree from Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. She works at an academic press in Boulder, Colorado. When she is not writing, you can find her singing, spending time with her menagerie of pets, or attending Jane Austen conventions in full Regency regalia.

Thistlemarsh is her debut novel.

At The Nerd Daily she tagged ten books that twist fairy "tales in innovative ways that engage with both the original material and the modern day." One title on the list:

Starling House by Alix E Harrow

Set in contemporary Kentucky, Harrow’s gothic fantasy Starling House engages tropes from Beauty and the Beast, the myth of Hades and Persephone, and Southern mining folklore. It is a novel that seamlessly blends its story about corruption and injustice with its fairytale tropes, making it an extremely satisfying read. Standalone.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten titles where romance meets murder

USA Today bestselling author Letizia Lorini is an Italian writer who is passionate about heartwarming books with high cackling potential. Currently based in a Scandinavian country, she lives with her partner and their fluffy Japanese Spitz. She also has a degree in sociology and one in criminology, speaks three languages, and drinks the daily recommended dose of coffee before breakfast.

Lorini's novels include the murder romcom A Killer Kind of Romance.

At The Strand Magazine she tagged ten titles for "readers wanting sparks alongside murder weapons." One title on the list:

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

Writer Finn can’t catch a break: the nanny quits, her ex is awful, and now someone thinks she’s a contract killer. When she accidentally agrees to “take care” of someone, things spin out of control. It’s chaotic, fun, and the best kind of love‑story‑meets‑crime adventure.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Finlay Donovan is Killing It is among M.K. Oliver's seven great titles about bad moms and Darynda Jones's thirteen must-read laugh-out-loud mysteries.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six twisty dating app thrillers

Corinne Sullivan is the senior news editor at Cosmopolitan, where she covers celebrity and entertainment news. She graduated from Boston College in 2014 with a degree in English and creative writing. She went on to receive her MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College. Her stories have appeared in literary magazines such as Night Train, Knee-Jerk, and Pithead Chapel, among other publications, and her 2018 debut novel, Indecent, was included on several “best of” lists.

Sullivan's new novel is Yours Always.

At CrimeReads she tagged six twisty dating app "thrillers that are filled with twists, turns, and very few happily-ever-afters." One title on the list:

Lisa Unger, Last Girl Ghosted

In Last Girl Ghosted, Wren is devastated when she finds herself ghosted by a man she connected with on a dating app, but then she learns that she isn’t the first match that Adam has ghosted. And what’s more: After being ghosted, those women then went missing. What follows is anything but your typical cat-and-mouse game.

Read about the other novels on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books about characters seeking community and connection

Wendy J. Fox is the author of five books of fiction, including What If We Were Somewhere Else, which won the Colorado Book Award; If the Ice Had Held, a top pick in audio from LitHub; and the newly released The Last Supper. She has written for many national publications including Self, Business Insider, BuzzFeed, and Ms. She authors a column in Electric Literature focusing on the big works of traditional small presses. A lifelong resident of the American West, she currently lives outside of Phoenix.

At Electric Lit Fox tagged eight books that "illustrate the complexity of finding our place in the world, all while showing that it really is possible." One title on the list:

Nadezhda in the Dark by Yelena Moskovich

Partners living in Berlin after having fled the Soviet Union as children—one from Ukraine and one from Russia—are in their apartment, not speaking on a long night. In this narrative in verse, there’s a sense of rootlessness for both women. Between Nadezhda and her unnamed partner, history surfaces and hurt surfaces. Both women process what it means to have lost a homeland. The narrator tries to understand what it means to love Nadezhda. As a writer, Moskovich places that ache the most, and she does it without apology and with a present lyricism that often leads her characters to a place of agency.

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine titles about ordinary and everyday heroes

At Book Riot Megan Mabee tagged nine books about ordinary and everyday heroes, including:

Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian, My Story of Rescue, Hope and Triumph by Yusra Mardini

This powerful memoir by Syrian refugee Yusra Mardini will stay with you long after you finish reading. Yusra and her sister Sarah’s heroism is incredibly inspiring. Yusra recounts the harrowing journey she and Sarah made as they fled Syria and traveled by boat with a number of other refugees to Greece. When their boat’s engine fails, the two teens jump into the water to help pull the boat to safety. The Netflix movie adaptation of Yusra’s story called The Swimmers is very much worth watching too.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels that feature queer domesticity

Like Family is Erin O. White's debut novel.

White is also the author of the memoir, Given Up For You, and essays that have appeared in the New York Times, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere.

She lives in Minneapolis with her wife and two daughters.

At Lit Hub White tagged "five novels I love that tell the story of queer domestic life." One title on the list:

Spent by Alison Bechdel

In this year of grief, of worries and losses piling up for queer people, especially trans people, Bechdel delivered unto us a gift. In Spent Bechdel parts the curtains on the most delightful literary household in recent memory. Each panel is a two-dimensional diorama depicting the habits of that fascinating creature, the New England lesbian. There is visceral pleasure in the recognition, the familiarity, and the gentle teasing; an intimacy that is familiar yet foreign enough to sate my nearly infinite curiosity about the private lives of strangers. Other people’s bedrooms, indeed.

Read about the other entries on the list at Lit Hub.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten memorable horror stories featuring twins

Dana Mele is a Pushcart-nominated writer based in upstate New York. A graduate of Wellesley College, Mele holds degrees in theatre, education, and law.

Mele’s debut, People Like Us, was shortlisted for the 2019 ITW Thriller Award for Best Young Adult Novel and is an ALA Rainbow List Selection. Their sophomore novel, Summer's Edge, was a Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Selection and a New York Public Library Best Books for Teens title.

Mele's new novel is The Beast You Let In.

[Q&A with Dana Mele]

At CrimeReads the author tagged ten memorable horror stories from film and fiction that feature twins, including:

Luke and Nell
Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House is both a novel and a Netflix adaptation, though the characters are only twins in the series. Luke and Nell each battle their own demons stemming from a haunting past, and they share an almost supernatural bond.

Though they drift apart over the years, it’s doubtful even death can drive a wedge between them. Loyalty, love, and realistic flaws make them relatable and lovable, whatever fate holds for the Crane twins.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Haunting of Hill House also appears on Camilla Bruce's list of five novels featuring houses to die for, Jen Williams's list of the five best novels about hauntings, Sara Flannery Murphy's five top thriller and horror books with “House” in the title, Lisa Unger's list of five great horror novels that explore the darkest corners of our minds, Dell Villa's list of seven of the best haunted houses in literature, Kat Rosenfield's list of seven scary October reads, Michael Marshall Smith's top ten list of horror books, Carlos Ruiz Zafón's top ten list of 20th-century gothic novels,  and Brad Leithauser's five best list of ghost tales.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books of immersive dark gothic fantasy for horror fans

Carolina Ciucci is a teacher, writer and reviewer based in the south of Argentina. She hoards books like they’re going out of style. In case of emergency, you can summon her by talking about Ireland, fictional witches, and the Brontë family. At Book Riot she tagged eight titles of immersive dark gothic fantasy for horror fans. One title on the list:

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

When grad student Minerva starts looking into Beatrice Tremblay, she doesn’t expect to find the real story behind The Vanishing, Tremblay’s famous novel. And she definitely didn’t expect to discover that the malevolent force that once haunted Tremblay and her roommate might still be present on campus.

Read about the other titles on the list.

The Bewitching is among Daphne Fama's eight folklore-inspired horror novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine titles with short but rich interior journeys

Irena Smith is the author of the award-winning memoir, The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays and Troika: Three Generations, Three Days, and a Very American Road Trip. Her obsession with how words work began early (as a child growing up in Soviet Russia, she was known to occasionally stand on furniture and recite Pushkin poems), and her writing focuses on migration, memory, motherhood, generational expectations, the petty indignities of middle age, and the importance of embracing a broader, more generous vision of what it means to succeed.

At Electric Lit Smith tagged nine books that take "circumscribed journeys: across a parlor, through a single unruly sentence, back into a childhood bedroom.... But even when hemmed in by economic exigency, physical disability, or cultural constraints, these protagonists show us that nothing is more heroic than a consciousness finding a way forward on its own terms." One title on the list:

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby

Why go outside when you can hang out in your apartment with the internet, the TV, and your garbagemonster cat? Samantha Irby sees no reason for it. Her bowels are irritable, her arthritis is flaring, the dating scene is “fucking dire,” and her job skills are limited to—in her words—surly phone answering, playing the race card, and eating other people’s lunches in the break room. Also, her mind is a “never-ending series of shame spirals” leavened with depression and anxiety, which is why she’s staying home in her day pajamas, eating the snacks she ordered online, and spinning the dross of daily life into gold.

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five expansive horror stories set in New York City

Vincent Tirado is a nonbinary Dominican born and raised in the Bronx. They are a Pura Belpré Award winner, Bram Stoker and Lambda Literary award finalist known for their
books Burn Down, Rise Up (2022), We Don't Swim Here (2023), and We Came to Welcome You (2024). You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom (2026) is their sophomore adult novel. When they’re not writing new spine-chilling horrors, they can be found making another pot of coffee and harassing their cat, Bugsy.

At CrimeReads Tirado tagged "five Big Apple horror novels to get a taste of what expansive terrors you can find in just one city." One title on the list:

Victor LaValle, The Changeling

Though this novel tells the tale of first-time father Apollo Kagwa–starting from his own childhood and all the way to the birth of his very own son–the story doesn’t really start there. It starts on a sloop, carrying fearful immigrants across an unforgivable sea to a new world. That new world later becomes New York City. This is the start of many people. Their history, culture, hopes and dreams intertwines, imbuing the city with a magic that is as unfathomable as it is transformative.

But as the Brothers Grimm are apt to tell you, not all magic is good. When tragedy strikes Apollo’s household, robbing him of both his wife and child, he comes to know the city’s sinister enchantments intimately. He travels all over, from Manhattan to Queens and even North Brother Island.

He meets both suspicious allies and honest enemies and learns how that little sloop did not just carry immigrants. It carried something powerful. Something that promised safe passage over an impossible ocean. Something that would come to collect its bloody due, time and time again.

Apollo’s story doesn’t really start from himself–it starts from those who came before him, a long chain of people who have laid the foundations he walks upon. It takes him time to dig deep inside and find his own great power, and when he does, it’s a reckoning that was always a long time coming. Beware–this gothic horror is one that would rival any Grimm’ fairytale.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

The Changeling is among Andrew DeYoung's eight top sketchy-spouse domestic thrillers, Lucy Foley's six stunning tales of folk horror, Brittany Bunzey's twenty-five "must-read, truly bone-chilling" horror books, Nat Cassidy's eight top unconventional coming-of-age horror novels, Benjamin Percy's top five novels about dangerous plants, James Han Mattson's five top dark and disturbing reads, A.K. Larkwood's five tense books that blend sci-fi and horror, Leah Schnelbach's ten sci-fi and fantasy must-reads from the 2010s, T. Marie Vandelly's top ten suspenseful horror novels featuring domestic terrors and C.J. Tudor's six thrillers featuring missing, mistaken, or "changed" children.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best historical fiction titles of the century so far

The lit pros at Book Riot tagged the best historical fiction books of the century so far. One of Vanessa Diaz's picks:

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

I've loved just about everything that writer, classicist, and comedian Natalie Haynes has ever written, but this is the book that made a fangirl out of me. Hayne's retelling of the Trojan War gives voice to the women involved in the conflict, telling a non-linear tale through a dozen or so perspectives that include goddesses and both Greek and Trojan women. Spoiler alert: there are no winners here, as there rarely are for women in war. Haynes drives this fact home in a feminist retelling that gives a voice to the silenced, and that's witty where you'd least expect it. If you're a mythology nerd, this trip to ancient times is worth the price of admission.

Read about the other books on the list.

A Thousand Ships is among Megan Barnard's top eleven books about misunderstood women in history and mythology, the B&N Reads editors' twenty-four best mythological retellings, Susan Stokes-Chapman's top ten novels inspired by Greek myths, Jennifer Saint's ten essential books inspired by Greek myth, Deanna Raybourn's six top novels based on historical scandals, and Alyssa Vaughn's forty-two books to help you get through the rest of quarantine.

The Page 69 Test: A Thousand Ships.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven slow-burn romances

Laura Vogt is a historian, storyteller, and poet.

She loves all things wild and beautiful.

Vogt lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with her husband and three children.

Her new novel is In the Great Quiet.

At Lit Hub Vogt tagged seven favorite slow-burn romances, including:

Jane Austen, Emma (1815)

If you need a fix after Bridgerton, I’ve got you. You thought I would recommend Pride and Prejudice or Persuasion, right? And, sure, those both spectacularly showcase longing. Austen is the queen of the slow burn. Not only in romance, but in the gradual development of character, relationships, and prose. You must wait—but an Austen book is always worth it.

Emma follows a matchmaker as she wanders the picturesque English countryside. Emma meddles with the romantic life of her entire village—while completely misunderstanding her own romance. In Pride and Prejudice, we have Darcy’s confession of love at 55%, while in Emma we’re on the edge of our seats wondering until the last chapters. Emma is a slow burn of misrecognition. We’re biting our nails, turning those pages. The brilliance of Emma is that she herself is the obstacle—she’s so busy arranging other people’s happiness that she nearly misses her own.

Read about the other entries on the list at Lit Hub.

Emma is on John Mullan's list of ten of the best wines in literature, and among Daniel Mendelsohn's six all-time favorite books, Lucy Worsley's six best books, Sophie Kinsella's six best books, Tanya Byron's six best books, Judith Martin's five favorite novels, and Monica Ali's ten favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles about sibling rivalries

Lisa Lee is the recipient of the Marianne Russo Emerging Writer Award from the Key West Literary Seminar, an Emerging Writer Fellowship from the Center for Fiction, and a Pushcart Prize. She has received other fellowships and awards from Kundiman, Millay Arts, Hedgebrook, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, Tin House, Jentel Artist Residency, and the Korea Foundation. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, VIDA, North American Review, Sycamore Review, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. Lee holds an MFA from the University of Houston and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Southern California. She lives in Los Angeles.

Lee's new novel is American Han.

At Electric Lit she tagged seven books in which we see "characters who look to their brothers and sisters with uncertainty, envy, and love, looking for clues as to who and how they should be."

One title on the list:

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Identical twins Desiree and Stella Vignes grow up in Mallard, Louisiana in the 1970s, in a Black community where light skin confers status and a modicum of protection from the virulent racism that surrounds the community. At age 16, the Vignes twins run away to New Orleans to chase their dreams. Over a decade later, their lives have completely diverged. Desiree is back in Mallard with her dark-skinned daughter after fleeing an abusive husband. Stella is passing as a white woman in California, where she lives with her businessman husband and their daughter. Stella chose to abandon her sister and give up her history and identity for a chance to claim the privilege that comes with whiteness. Desiree spends much of her life searching for her missing sister, who has vanished into whiteness as much as she has physically vanished from the sisters’ Louisiana home. In the divergent fates of Desiree and Stella, Bennett traces how race and racism shape the possibilities of life in America.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Vanishing Half is among Charlene Carr's six top books on belonging and identity and Beth Morrey‘s top ten single mothers in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten books that changed a librarian's life

New Jersey librarian Martha Hickson is a central figure in Kim A. Snyder’s film, The Librarians, a new documentary executive produced by Sarah Jessica Parker about librarians fighting back against the rising tide of book bans.

For Vogue Hickson tagged ten "books that have indelibly shaped her life," including:

My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff

I first read J.D. Salinger’s frequently banned The Catcher in the Rye as a seventh grader. Holden Caulfield’s voice hooked me, and I spent my adolescence becoming a J.D. Salinger completist. Joanna Rakoff’s memoir about the year in her early 20s when she worked in the literary agency that represented Salinger offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the publishing world that he kept at arm’s length. Responsible for shielding Salinger from his incessant fan mail—gatekeeping that silenced readers in its own ironic form of censorship—Rakoff grows to love both the reclusive writer and his wounded correspondents. Her memoir captures that time of life, with one foot leaving adolescence and the other flailing for solid purchase in adulthood, when we begin trying on identities and careers. I loved this book and its forgiving look back at the challenge of finding one’s way.

Read about the other entries on the list.

My Salinger Year was one of Laura Lippman's four favorite reads of 2014.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five true crime titles featuring forgers, fraudsters, and con artists

Born in London, J. R. Thornton graduated from Harvard College in 2014 where he studied history, English, and Chinese. An internationally ranked junior tennis player, he competed for Harvard and on the professional circuit. He was a member of the inaugural class of Schwarzman Scholars, obtaining an M.A. from Tsinghua University in Beijing. He now lives in Italy, working for AC Milan. Lucien is his second novel.

At CrimeReads Thornton tagged five books "on forgers and conmen—on trauma and personality disorders—on imposters and fantasists." One title on the list:

Tom Wright & Bradley Hope, Billion Dollar Whale

The story of Jho Low and the looting of Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB, is the con artist story of the Millennial era, and Wright and Hope tell it with the propulsive energy it deserves.

Although Jho Low became adept at navigating the opaque and secretive world of offshore banking, asset laundering and shell companies, his primary tool was not financial sophistication but social engineering and performance. Rather than attempt to fly under the radar Jho Low did the opposite and hid his crimes in plain sight. He threw parties. He gave extravagant gifts. He befriended Leo DiCaprio, Paris Hilton and Miranda Kerr (and paid them to associate with him). He commissioned a super yacht for $250m. He bankrolled the production of The Wolf of Wall Street. All with stolen funds.

His story is also one of institutional failure—from the failure of financial regulators to the complicity of banks like Goldman Sachs and Rothschild to the involvement of high-ranking political figures including Najib Razak, the sitting Prime Minister of Malaysia (now serving a twenty-year prison sentence for his culpability).

Wright and Hope’s account is meticulously researched and demonstrates a deep understanding of the international shadow-banking system, yet it unfolds with the pace and tension of a thriller.

Read about the other entries on Thornton's list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven of the best dark academia titles

Melissa D’Agnese is a senior editor at FIRST for Women, Woman’s World, and various a360media special interest publications.

At Woman’s World she tagged seven of the best dark academia books, including:

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

When Donna Tartt wrote The Secret History in 1992, she had no idea she was writing a book that would one day be considered the blueprint of dark academia. The compelling premise centers around a group of six students studying at a New England university under a charismatic professor, Julian Morrow. Their studies in Greek lead them to discover a new way of thinking and living—one that’s far away from their everyday life. As morals slip, obsession leads to betrayals and, ultimately, murder.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Secret History is among Nora Garrett’s five titles that take you deep inside the ivory tower, Chris Wheatley's six best dark academia novels, Ali Lowe's six best campus crime novels, Edwin Hill's six perfectly alluring academic mysteries, a top ten Twinkies in fiction, Kate Weinberg's five top campus novels, Emily Temple's twenty best campus novels, and Ruth Ware's top six books about boarding schools.

--Marshal Zeringue