Hello!
My favorite genres to read currently are thrillers and horror. My favorite books in the thriller genre that I've read in the past couple years include Watch the Girls by Jennifer Wolfe, The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn, The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (though I was NOT a fan of Into the Water, her second book) and Final Girls by Riley Sager. Some of my favorite horror books that I've read recently include I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid, Slade House by David Mitchell, and Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes.
Some other authors and series I have enjoyed include Jane Harper's Aaron Faulk series about an investigator in Australia, Gillian Flynn's books, and also Ruth Ware's books. I enjoy books that are fast paced, plot driven and include twists and turns. Unreliable female narrators with a dark side are also a favorite of mine. I will read outside my preferred genres if they include these elements. For instance I really enjoyed The Martian by Andy Weir and Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, which aren't books I would normally pick up.
My reading pretty much mirrors my hobbies. I love hiking/backpacking, camping, watching scary movies and tv shows, and listening to the podcast My Favorite Murder so my reading pretty much reflects this, especially on the rare occasion I read nonfiction. Some of my favorite nonfiction include Wild by Cheryl Strayed, I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara, and The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel. When my husband and I are done hiking and settled into our tent I also like to read aloud to him short story compilations featuring spooky ghost stories or other paranormal events.
The genres I've picked to read are thriller, horror, women's lives and relationships, nonfiction, and urban fiction. I've barely read any women's lives books and have never read an urban fiction book so I'm excited to branch out!
My favorite genres to read currently are thrillers and horror. My favorite books in the thriller genre that I've read in the past couple years include Watch the Girls by Jennifer Wolfe, The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn, The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (though I was NOT a fan of Into the Water, her second book) and Final Girls by Riley Sager. Some of my favorite horror books that I've read recently include I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid, Slade House by David Mitchell, and Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes.
Some other authors and series I have enjoyed include Jane Harper's Aaron Faulk series about an investigator in Australia, Gillian Flynn's books, and also Ruth Ware's books. I enjoy books that are fast paced, plot driven and include twists and turns. Unreliable female narrators with a dark side are also a favorite of mine. I will read outside my preferred genres if they include these elements. For instance I really enjoyed The Martian by Andy Weir and Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, which aren't books I would normally pick up.
My reading pretty much mirrors my hobbies. I love hiking/backpacking, camping, watching scary movies and tv shows, and listening to the podcast My Favorite Murder so my reading pretty much reflects this, especially on the rare occasion I read nonfiction. Some of my favorite nonfiction include Wild by Cheryl Strayed, I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara, and The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel. When my husband and I are done hiking and settled into our tent I also like to read aloud to him short story compilations featuring spooky ghost stories or other paranormal events.
The genres I've picked to read are thriller, horror, women's lives and relationships, nonfiction, and urban fiction. I've barely read any women's lives books and have never read an urban fiction book so I'm excited to branch out!
Hi Caitlyn! My favorite genre is thriller too. I read all the books you listed except for Watch The Girls... I hadn’t even heard of it. I’ll have to check it out. I feel like I can read these books in a weekend, which is nice, but also sad because whenever they end I always want MORE. I think it’s awesome you read short scary stories to your husband when you’re camping. As much as I like scary books, I think reading them while camping would be too much for me! Kudos to you!!
ReplyDeleteJust a caveat for Watch the Girls it does have graphic sexual situations and sexual assault. That shouldn't give too much away about the book but I always like to mention that when I suggest it because you never know! I still really liked it and especially liked getting into the seedy underbelly of Hollywood. The use of social media in the book was well done and something you don't see in a lot of books!
DeleteHi Caitlyn! Good to see you in this course! I am newer to the Thriller genre, having just read some in the last few years. I credit Gillian Flynn with turning me to Thrillers because Gone Girl was such a captivating read. I also really liked The Girl on the Train and The Woman in Cabin 10. Ghost stories while hiking might be too much for me, but I can appreciate that the environment would add a lot to the reading! If you haven't read The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani, you might like it... it fits with your profile of liking unreliable/dark female narrators.
ReplyDeleteOoh the Perfect Nanny sounds great! Sometimes I freak myself out when reading these scary stories in the woods but honestly the most you have to be afraid of out there are the raccoons. They are crafty and have tried eating the food from our backpacks a couple of times!
DeleteHi Caitlyn,
ReplyDeleteThrillers and horros are not really my thing. I am more into fantasy and vampires, not dealing with real life dramas. I will say I did see Bird Box, becasue of the cast and Sharp Objects. I felt both those movies did not have enough dialogue or description, so I want to read the books. Unfortunately, the waitlist for Bird Box is lengthly, but one of the librarians at Central where I work, suggested Sharp Objects. She said it was really a great book and better than Gone Girl, so I am anxious to read it.
I haven't read Sharp Objects yet but it is on my list! I also watched the Bird Box on Netflix and am waiting for the hold list to go down. I have read Dark Places by Gillian Flynn and really enjoyed that one.
DeleteI really appreciated seeing all the authors you've read. I can honestly say Gillian Flynn is the only one I really recognize/have read. I'll have to refer back to your list when I need some recommendations in the thriller/horror genres! How do you feel about knowing who the "bad" person is in a book. Would you rather have it revealed in the beginning and see how they make their choices, have to figure it out along the way with clues, or be surprised in the end? I am a little divided on this question since I've seen each one work well, but hate when the clues are too easy and I know right away or the "bad" person comes from out of left field.
ReplyDeleteI am so not a horror film fan, I think my husband and I have seen 2 together and each one ended with us having to call friends to hang out with (or walking the dog together!), we are such wimps when it comes to being scared!!
I would rather figure it out along the way. I don't mind figuring out the ending early, as long as it wasn't too easy for me. I absolutely hate when the book ending comes from left field and makes no sense. Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough is like this and the ending just made me so mad. I for sure didn't guess it, because the ending just wasn't physically possible! I like thrillers/suspense and can suspend my disbelief but that one was a little too far fetched for me.
DeleteHi Caitlyn! It sounds like you enjoy all those "crazy lady" books! I have only read a handful of the ones you mentioned above. I will say that one of my employees was obsessed with Final Girls by Riley Sager! Once she read it, that was the only book she recommended to any patrons for a solid month and a half, and even still she will slip that title into a list of recommendations she gives to people even if they aren't horror/thriller fans! The most recent The most recent psychological thriller I read was The Sandman by Philip Kepler. Let me tell you what, that book got inside my head like no ones business! It was a good one but it took me a bit to pick up another for awhile! I would highly recommend it!
ReplyDeleteI like "crazy lady books" as a descriptor and those are definitely my thing! I'll have to check out The Sandman, it sounds like one I would enjoy. And yeah, I definitely recommended Final Girls a bunch of times to patrons haha!
DeleteGreat reading profile! Full points!
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