Me and my neighbour/bestie are having a book club for two this year. She chose first (Haunting Adeline) and now it is my turn.
We have very different taste and I fear my preferances are a bit boring for her.
She loves stalker/thriller books. I know she has read books like Calender Girl, Fifty Shades, Pretty Girls, but also Harry Potter.
I loooove generational drama like Pachinko, anything Lucinda Riley, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Daevabad Trilogy, Stephen King, norwegian crime, Harry Potter etc.
I am a bit clueless on what to choose. I really want something mindblowing and difficult to put down. But also that «tickles my brain» more than just some sexual thriller 😂.
by Massive_Ad_3449
8 Comments
Ghost Story by Peter Straub
Try the Cazalet Chronicles! Everyone I’ve ever shared them with falls in love. Great generational drama
Unraveller by Frances Hardinge
Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss
one of the Anne Cleeves Shetland Island books
The Neapolitan series by Elena Ferrante might be a good balance because it follows two women and their families throughout their entire lives but also focuses on corruption and violence in post-war Italy.
If you think you would both enjoy a thriller about crime families in Southern India, try [Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60177466). It’s a well-written, fast-moving story, and I for one couldn’t put it down. Despite its length, I finished it in less than 2 weeks.
[The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29584452-the-underground-railroad) might be different enough to satisfy both your tastes, if you think historical fiction (with a bit of fantasy) might do it for you. He is one of my favorite authors (I’ve read all his books). He won the Pulitzer and National Book Award for this one.
Maybe *My Sister, the serial killer* by Oyinkan Braithwaite, it’s – as the title suggests – a thriller involving murder and is very fast-paced (fun 4 her), it’s also a subtle family drama & psychologically very astute (fun 4 you)
Maybe also the *Sympathizer* by Thanh Viet Nguyen, it’s a historical drama/thriller about a double agent which goes hard and brutal at times and is impossible to put down (fun 4 her), it’s also a cerebral enough tale of displacement and struggle that I think you’ll enjoy if you liked Pachinko (fun 4 you).
Also maybe *Ghana Must Go* by Taiye Selasi which frankly is a generational family drama (good 4 you) but also I felt very fast-paced and with some elements of mystery and suspense that might make it fun 4 her as well!
If she and you like horror as well, *The Earthlings* by Sayaka Murata, it’s fast-paced and terrible and it also *will* tickle your brain in what it does with the themes it explores!
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
Excellent time travel novel with a very satisfying, mind blowing ending.
Try something outside of your comfort genres…
Mystery for your neighbor.
Historical Fiction for you.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Happy reading, hope you find just the right book.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow fits the bill here. It’s epic, has a brilliant romance, is fast paced and I am pretty sure there’s lists of book club questions somewhere on the Internet about this one.