I’m mainly looking for something about manipulative, otherwise unlikely relationships between like a boss and an employee, a professor and student, something with substance and leans towards the psychological aspect of toxic relationships rather than a steamy novel about them. Preferably something where the main character comes out on the other side of it. Does anyone have any recommendations?
by honeybunicedlatte
2 Comments
have you read apt pupil by stephen king
Books with unhealthy relationships:
* **The Blind Assassin** or **The Handmaid’s Tale** by Margaret Atwood. The Blind Assassin is about a woman from an old money family who marries into a new money family. When the book begins you know something’s gone horribly wrong, but not what. The Handmaid’s Tale is a political dystopian classic. The main character is a handmaid, basically a highly ritualized child-bearer with no rights or agency.
* **The Stars Are Legion** by Kameron Hurley. A body horror space opera about a pair of women who are ex girlfriends. One has amnesia, the other is enacting a grand plan they cooked up together before separating. There is arranged marriage.
* **Comfort Me With Apples** by Catherynne M. Valente, a mystery novella I found through this subreddit. It’s very short and uncanny.
* **Autonomous** by Annalee Newitz. Futuristic sci fi, featuring not one but *two* unusual relationships I was a little uncomfortable with. However, it doesn’t really focus on the psychology of them.
* **The Echo Wife** by Sarah Gailey, about a ruthless career woman whose husband leaves her for a different woman. This isn’t about the unhealthy relationships with the husband so much as it is about the two women, though.