Are you a mood reader? October puts me in the mood for spooky, murderous thrillers! Here’s a list of my six recent faves:
The Temple House Vanishing
This is the perfect Gothic boarding school book.
At a Catholic boarding school, a male art teacher, Mr. Lavelle, and his teenage student, Louisa, disappear together, leaving no trace. A journalist with a childhood connection to Louisa begins digging into it on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the disappearances. The reader alternates between the perspectives of the journalist in the present and Louisa in the past.
Louisa’s a scholarship student from a family in chaos who gets drawn into the world of Mr. Lavelle and his favorite student, Victoria. Louisa and Victoria quickly become inseparable as each others’ only friends. The girls’ affection for Mr. Lavelle both draws them together and pits them against each other.
Louisa’s voice is powerfully evocative of the intensity of emotion that colors everything in a teenage girl’s world. The writing brings the world of Temple Manor to life and made me feel like I could almost taste the salt air and hear the ocean myself. Louisa looks back at everything that went wrong – and right – with her semester at Temple Manor with all the perspective of hindsight.
“I thought words were my ally and could be sculpted into stories, shaped into things that people could understand. Because even if a story is not true, it can serve a purpose.”
This was a quick – but very beautiful! – read. Perfect for anyone who’s a fan of a spooky, intense Gothic atmosphere.
Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin for the advance review copy of this book.
The Last House on Needless Street
Chilling and atmospheric, this book pulls you right in. Ted lives in a boarded-up house on Needless Street with his cat Olivia who he adores and his troubled daughter Lauren, who visits. But when a new neighbor suspects that the windows might be boarded up for sinister reasons, all of Ted’s rituals may not be enough to protect his secrets.
Ted’s both creepy and empathetic, as you get glimpses into his interior life. Olivia’s point of view is a delight, from her reliance on her incorrect interpretations of the Bible for guidance to her insistence on referring to all humans as teds, because she doesn’t realize that’s just what her person is called. Her love for Ted makes you want to root for him, even as he does very questionable things.
This book has as many layers as an onion. As soon as you think you’ve figured it out, it reveals another layer. The final twists are shocking, and the book will stick in your head for a long time after.
Thank you to the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The Project
Have you ever wondered how people get pulled in by cult leaders? This book is the story of how two different sisters react when they get entangled in a cult by its charismatic leader.
Lo’s struggling to prove herself and find her big break at the magazine where she works as an assistant. So when she sees a boy throw himself in front of a train, then his father claims The Project killed him, Lo thinks she might have her big break. Her sister disappeared into The Project years earlier, and Lo is determined to find out all the dirt, because she’s convinced there has to be dirt.
Years earlier, Bea’s pleading in the hospital chapel for her little sister, Lo, to survive the accident that killed their parents, when the leader of The Project approaches her. When her sister survives, she gives him the credit. Willing to follow him anywhere, she even gives up contact with Lo on the promise that she’ll find her way to The Project in her own time. The leader, Lev, saw it in a vision, and Bea has unflinching faith.
The closer Lo gets to The Project, the more she learns, but the less she knows. This is the devastatingly brutal tale of how two girls – one sweet and vulnerable, one tough-as-nails, can get embroiled with the same cult leader. This tale draws you along with Lo into The Project right up until the shocking end.
Cursed Objects
I find this sort of thing fascinating. This book tells the history – and legends – of numerous cursed objects, from the famous ones like the Hope diamond, the amber room and King Tut’s tomb, to the obscure, like the doll Robert and a cursed chest of drawers. Each object gets a short chapter on its origins.
The author keeps a degree of disbelief as he recounts the legends that I found refreshing.
They Wish They Were Us
If you’re a Player, you’re practically guaranteed success. And everyone else wishes they were you. That is, if you survive.
Jill’s a Player, counting on the secret society to guarantee her admission to Brown and help her win the scholarship she desperately needs. But when her little brother begins the process of becoming a Player too, it dredges up the old memories Jill has tried desperately to shove down – how her best friend Shayla was murdered on orientation night and Shayla’s boyfriend Graham was arrested, drenched in blood.
But now Graham’s sister Rachel, who sponsored Jill for the Players, insists that she can prove Graham’s innocent. But it turns out that people don’t want Jill to go digging into the past, and she has to decide what she’s willing to risk for the truth.
This glitzy, seductive, booze-drenched tale pulls you into the world of the popular cliche times ten. The Players have a network most high schoolers can only dream of. Jill’s sympathetic as the scholarship girl struggling to fit in with her wealthier, more influential peers.
A great thriller for fall.
The Cousins
I loved The Cousins, though I admit the cover had me thinking it was going to be a bit more murder-y. When a mysterious letter shows up from their estranged wealthy grandmother that they’ve never met, inviting three teens to come work at a summer resort on her island, all of their parents force them to go. They see it as a chance to get back in her good graces and possibly inherit her fortune.
But the teens aren’t all on board. Sarcastic, asshole Jonah Story makes it widely known that he’d much rather be at his science camp prepping for Harvard. Milly has to be bribed with a diamond necklace to go. Only Aubrey is looking forward to it as a way to escape the super-dramatic falling apart of her parents’ relationship and her own cooling relationship with her boyfriend.
All of their parents swear they have no idea why their mother cut them off by sending a letter that said, “You know what you did,” and refusing to ever see them again. But when the cousins start digging into their parents’ last years at home on the islands, secrets begin to come to light. There’s some interesting revelations and family drama along the way. This kept me turning the pages and was an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
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