It’s officially October! Which in my mind means I can cuddle up on my couch with a cup of tea and a book that will scare me silly.
Just me?
I’m not a huge Halloween fan, but I still love the excuse to dive into some “scarier” readers. But um, let’s go with lightly scarier. I wouldn’t consider myself a hardcore thriller reader. More like a fan of the lighter thriller reads? Could I read the hardcore Stephen King stuff? No. But can I go for something creepy like The Couple Next Door. Or at least something that messes with my head a little.
With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to share a few of what I think are the best thrillers for the non-thriller reader.
Hopefully you can pick up one of these and have your own slightly scary October.
All the Missing Girls
By Megan Miranda
Lessons to self: don’t grow up in a small town, don’t have an evil best friend, and don’t get involved in a murder case in said town.
The Girl Before
By JP Delaney
Like with most current thrillers, the most mind-effy part comes at the end. But I trust you, it was twisted.
The Stepford Wives
By Ira Levin
Is there anything scary than domesticity……I was going to leave it at just that but I had a few other things to add. If you saw the most recent adaptation of this movie with Nicole Kidman….yeah no, go read the book. Then maybe go watch the first version of the movie. Then go hug your teddy bear.
Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike, #3)
by Robert Galbraith
I love all of the Cormoran Strike books, but this one was much darker than the others. Apparently writing it gave J.K. Rowling nightmares. I completely understand.
The Ice Twins
by S.K. Tremayne
Six year old twins in a horror story. I really shouldn’t have to say more.
Horrorstör
by Grady Hendrix
How to best describe this one? Well, imagine if you had to work the night shift in a Ikea-like store and zombies are a real thing. Also, don’t get this on kindle. Why? Well every chapter starts with picture instructions for building one of the store’s pieces of furniture.
Broken Monsters
by Lauren Beukes
Okay, this one had to go last because it is by far the scariest on this list. Just think limbs of one thing being on limbs of another thing and I’m just going to leave it at that.
Alright, so now that you have your list of the best thrillers for the non-thriller reader, what am I going to read this month? Well, my book club is reading Frankenstein, so I’m planning to reread it by listening to it on audio and I’m also going to listen to The Girl with All the Gifts which has been sitting on my to read list for forever!
What do you think you’ll pick up for October? Do you think you’ll go with the scary theme?
The only Stephen King I’ve read is 11/22/63 and I think I’ll keep it that way… I am not at all a horror or gory suspense thriller type of person, but thriller lite is great by me! 🙂 I was so so on the other Megan Miranda book but have thought about trying this one. And yes to that Cormoran Strike book! Way creepier than the others for sure, but definitely the best one. I just skimmed the parts that were too much for me, because the rest was worth a read.
Unless King writes another book similar to 11/22/63, I’ll probably keep it the same as well.
Where is the 4th Cormoran Strike book?! For some reason I thought it was suppose to be out sooner but now I’ve heard nothing about it….I wonder if Cursed Child made it take a backseat?