4 Smart Thrillers You'll Love This Summer
I love page-turners that suck me into the story and give me a chance to escape. But I often find that popular thrillers can be a little mindless, or the writers are good at plot and bad at everything else. Don’t get me wrong, I love those books (especially when I’m stressed), but these four take it up a notch - they’re smart thrillers that made me think and still kept me enthralled.
The Need by Helen Phillips.
Molly is home alone with her kids when a masked stranger breaks into the house. What happens next is not your ordinary hostage situation. I can’t say more without spoiling it, but it’s a visceral story of motherhood and a brilliantly creative horror story all in one. So creepy and uncanny. I read it in two days.
The Paper Wasp by Lauren Acampora.
Abby is working a dead-end job when her former best friend, now a famous movie star, shows up at their high school reunion. Abby works her way into her inner circle and will stop at nothing to get the life she believes she deserves. I loved her character, even though everything she does is appalling - she’s obsessive, cruel, and unbelievably selfish. If you love books that can make you empathize with really disturbed people, this is a must-read.
My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.
Korede’s sister seems to be making a habit of killing her boyfriends. As the bodies stack up, what - and who - will she sacrifice to save her? It’s darkly witty and provocative, and it made me think about how far I would bend to protect the people I love. I devoured it in a day.
The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani.
A murderous Mary Poppins might sound macabre, but this is a great read. I thought it would be more suspenseful, but it was a more like a creepy, quiet page-turner. It starts at the end - with a gruesome double murder - then backtracks to how they got there, making every seemingly normal part of their daily life feel ominous.