did you love gillian flynn’s lost girl? I also! These are my recommendations for 9 more books, like Lost Girl, to add to her bookshelf.
Gone Girl is widely regarded as one of the best thrillers of all time and with good reason. It’s a psychological thriller written from the alternating perspectives of Amy and Nick Dunne.
You are reading: Books like gone girl
From the outside, they seem like the perfect couple, but they are both deeply flawed individuals and their marriage takes a rocky turn with dark consequences.
After the popularity of gone girl (both in print and on screen), the book market was flooded with similar psychological thrillers. In this post, I list some of the best psychological thrillers starring women.
let’s start with other books similar to lost girl that will make you flip through the pages of those books like crazy.
before i go to sleep by s j watson
christine wakes up every morning in an unknown bed with an unknown man. she looks in the mirror and sees an unknown middle-aged face. And every morning, the man she has woken up with must explain to her that he is Ben, he is her husband, she is forty-seven years old, and a terrible accident two decades earlier decimated her ability to form new memories.
Each day, Christine must start anew rebuilding her past. and the closer he gets to the truth, the more incredible it seems.
Before I Go to Sleep is a chilling psychological thriller about a woman suffering from a severe form of amnesia. Every time Christine falls asleep, she loses most of her memories and wakes up having lost years of her life.
She has absolutely no recollection of the accident that gave her amnesia or that the man she wakes up with every day is her husband, ben.
ben explains the situation to her every morning and christine takes care of the house until he gets home from work. But everything changes when she receives a call from a doctor who tells her that they have been working together to recover her memory and that she keeps a secret diary in the back of her closet.
It’s obvious from the start that something is seriously wrong in Christin’s life, but obviously since the book is written from her perspective and she is an amnesiac, the reader spends most of the novel in the dark.
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having a main character with memory problems is a very clever device and s j watson totally pulls it off in this book where you find yourself desperate to find out what happened in the past and what will happen in the future.
Before I Go to Sleep was made into a movie in 2014 produced by Ridley Scott and starring Nicole Kidman.
related: before I go to sleep book review
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Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies
every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. and sometimes it turns out that the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the center of this rich, expansive, and layered novel, Lauren Groff presents the twenty-four-year story of one such marriage.
At the age of twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends, but with an electric shock we realize that things are even more complicated and surprising than they seemed.
if you’re looking for books like the lost girl and the girl on the train, the fates and furies of lauren groff should be on your radar. the difference is that this novel focuses much more on the secrets between a man and his wife than on the psychological suspense aspects.
destinies and furies is a novel told in two parts, the first from the perspective of the husband, the second from the perspective of the wife. while the first half is a pretty average story, the second half is what makes this a truly amazing work of literary fiction.
just like amy and nick, matilde and lotto look like the perfect couple from the outside, but the reality is another story. everything you learned in the first half is turned upside down in the second half when you see the wife’s turn on her husband’s memories of her and you will be shocked at the revelations.
Lastly, obama himself chose this as his 2015 book of the year and if that’s not good enough endorsement to convince him to buy it, then I don’t know if it would be.
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the girl on the train by paula hawkins
rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. she knows she’ll wait for the same signal every time, overlooking a row of back gardens. she has even begun to feel that she knows the people who live in one of the houses. “Jess and Jason”, she calls them her. her life, as she sees it, is perfect. I wish Rachel could be this happy.
and then sees something shocking.
It only takes a minute for the train to move forward, but that’s enough. now everything has changed. now rachel has the chance to become a part of lives she has only seen from afar. now they will see; she is much more than the girl on the train…
the girl on the train is usually the first book that comes to mind when people think of books like missing girl. is one of the best known thrillers today, in part due to the popular film that was released in 2016 starring emily blunt.
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How often do you see something on your ride or something happen on the bus and wonder what happened there or who those people were? I think everyone is familiar with that sentiment. For Rachel, however, that feeling of curiosity turns into something much more when she sees something she can never forget.
The book jumps between past and present to keep you on your toes for glimpses of where the story is headed from the beginning. it is told from the perspective of rachel, a woman on the verge of alcoholism, on the verge of an emotional collapse and who definitely does not have her life in order. pretty much the exact opposite of amy dunne.
However, Rachel is an equally unreliable narrator who keeps the reader guessing at every turn. The Girl on the Train is a really quick read as you’ll be desperate to find out what the truth is and if Rachel’s version of events is accurate. heck, even rachel doesn’t know if rachel’s story is true.
related: book review towards water
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liane moriarty little lies
A murder… a tragic accident… or are the parents just being bad? what is indisputable is that someone is dead. Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. she is funny, sharp and passionate; she remembers everything and forgives no one. Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare, but she’s paying a price for the illusion of perfection. New in town, single mom Jane is so young another mom mistakes her for a babysitter. she comes with a mysterious past and a sadness beyond her age. these three women are at different crossroads, but they will all end up in the same shocking place. Big Lies and Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the little lies that can turn deadly. .
little lies seems like a cross between a missing girl and desperate housewives. focuses on various stay-at-home moms, the kind who are obsessed with keeping up appearances. we know from the beginning that someone is dead and the rest of the story is based on how exactly that happened.
It’s a book like gone girl in that it’s written from multiple perspectives and you know from the start that something is wrong. amy dunne would have hated all these women, but i imagine after the events of missing girl, she became one of these mommy characters. if you can still remember how lost girl ends, then maybe you’ll see the connection.
liane moriarty explores marriage, mothers at school, friendship and more in this surprisingly humorous and dark story. this book was also made into a tv show on hbo in 2017. it stars reese witherspoon, nicole kidman and shailene woodley and i highly recommend it!
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the silent patient by alex michaelides
alice:
Alicia Berenson journals as a release, an outlet, and to show her loving husband that all is well. She can’t bear the thought of worrying Gabriel or causing him pain.
Until, late at night, Alicia shoots Gabriel five times and then never says another word.
Theo: Forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber is convinced that he can successfully treat Alice where all others have failed. Obsessed with investigating his crime, his discoveries suggest that Alicia’s silence is much deeper than he first thought.
and if she talks, would he want to hear the truth?
the silent patient is about a woman who brutally murders her husband and then never says another word. no one knows what really happened that night and what the motives for it may have been. she was a famous painter, he was a renowned photographer. Her friends think they were a couple still very much in love so what went wrong?
I absolutely broke this one and it kept me hesitating until the last second. the silent patient plays with perspectives and timelines to convince the reader of one version of events before pulling the rug out entirely. even after the twist was revealed, there were a couple more surprises in store.
is the perfect book for fans of the lost girl: there are unreliable narrators, intrigue, extreme personalities and more. It’s addicting and a speed read too!
The rights to the silent patient movie have already been sold, so grab it now to see what all the fuss is about. Plus, this book is the author’s (impressive) debut, so look out for more thrilling thrillers by Alex Michaelides.
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the girl with the dragon tattoo by stieg larsson
Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family reunion on the island inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. His body was never found, however, his uncle is convinced it was murder, and that the killer is a member of his own tight-knit but dysfunctional family. He hires disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and tattooed and raunchy computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate.
When the pair connect Harriet’s disappearance to a series of grotesque murders that occurred forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and gruesome family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they’re willing to go to protect themselves.
the girl with the dragon tattoo is a strong book and for fans of suspense, action and crime novels. features tense family dynamics and a discussion of money and power.
The main plot involves an investigation into the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, a young woman who was part of the incredibly powerful, wealthy and influential Vanger family. she disappeared years and years ago, but her uncle never forgot her or stopped wondering what happened to her. he hires disgraced journalist blomkvist to help secretly investigate her disappearance.
There is a whole cast of characters and several different subplots to understand, but one of the most interesting has to be lisbeth salander, a scheming young woman and excellent hacker who helps blomkvist unravel the mystery of this girl’s disappearance. she is the “girl with the dragon tattoo” and has her own dark story that slowly unravels in this book.
At first it can be a bit difficult to understand the different subplots, but when you get into this story, it’s addictive. All of these stories are expertly woven together and it wasn’t until the end that I realized who was responsible for what.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is smart and complex, so it’s going to require a little more brainpower than some of the other quick titles on this list of books like The Girl Gone Away.
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The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is the first in a series of books by Stieg Larsson, and after the first, you’ll be looking for the second book.
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lullaby by leila slimani
When myriam, a French-Moroccan lawyer, decides to return to work after having children, she and her husband search for the perfect caregiver for their two young children. They never dreamed they’d find Louise: a quiet, polite, and devoted woman who sings to her children, cleans the family’s posh apartment in Paris’ posh 10th arrondissement, stays late without complaint, and is capable of throwing enviable birthday parties. birthday.
the partner and the babysitter become more dependent on each other. But as jealousy, resentment, and suspicion mount, Myriam and Paul’s idyllic picture is shattered…
This story is every parent’s nightmare. come home and find your children dead. your death appears to be at the hands of the beloved nanny you hired yourself.
While gone girl, and many of the other titles on this list, focus on marriage, the lullaby focuses on family and one woman’s desperate attempt to become part of that perfect family unit.
The story is an engaging look at femininity and motherhood, the inner struggle a woman faces when she chooses to go back to work after having children, and the trust she must place in another woman to care for the ones she does have. dear.
The parents and babysitter become increasingly dependent on each other, snowballing to the point of obsession, which is when things start to go terribly wrong.
lullaby by leila slimani is the second translated work of fiction on this list and one of the few popular thrillers not originally written in English. i read and compared the first chapters of lullaby in both french and english and the translation is very good. so good that many readers don’t seem to realize this is even a translation!
The French writing is lyrical and the English translation conveys it well, making this an amazing story and translation. read them!
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sharp objects by gillian flynn
Fresh back from a brief stint in a psychiatric hospital, reporter Camille Preaker is faced with an unsettling assignment: she must return to her small hometown to cover the murders of two pre-teen girls. For years, Ella Camille has barely spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old girl with a strange grip on the city.
Now, ensconced in her old bedroom in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims, too strongly. Haunted by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she is to understand the story and survive this homecoming.
The first thing I do when I discover a new favorite book is look up what else that author has written. Gillian Flynn has written a number of suspense novels, and while none of the others are as famous or as fast as The Lost Girl, they’re still very, very good reads.
If there was a word to describe sharp objects, it would be unsettling. Sharp Objects is a psychological thriller that also focuses on women: the two dead girls, our female lead, Camille, and her mother and half-sister.
There are two main plot points, one is a murder investigation and the other is family dynamics, and the latter is arguably the most important.
Camille’s past is dark and there are a number of passages that make reading very uncomfortable. As such, it’s hard to say I “enjoyed” this book and it won’t be for everyone.
just like amy dunne, camille is a complex character and you’re really drawn to her. flynn is brilliant at writing about women, albeit usually in the most disturbing way, and i highly recommend this book if you loved the lost girl.
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the wife among us by greer hendricks & sara pekkanen
When you read this book, you will make many assumptions. You’ll assume you’re reading about a jealous ex-wife. he will assume that she is obsessed with her replacement: a beautiful younger woman who is about to marry the man. they both love each other. You’ll assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle. don’t assume anything.
The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen twists and delightfully chilling, exposes the secret complexities of an enviable marriage and the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love.
Set in New York, The Wife Among Us explores marriage and its breakup in a way that makes this book akin to Lost Girl. Vanessa marries Richard (rich, sophisticated, yadda yadda yadda) thinking that together they will have the perfect life and marriage, but things go awry when Richard starts sleeping with his assistant. cliche I know, but what happens next is the complete opposite!
starting up is a bit slow, but when it gets going, it really gets going. This story dishes out plot twist after plot twist as it reveals more about each character’s past and present.
Each character harbors a wealth of baggage from their younger years that shapes who they are today. like in missing girl, it can be hard to tell who is in control at some points and who has the upper hand, keeping the reader on their toes at all times.
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that concludes my list of books like gillian flynn for fans of gillian flynn. Do you have any psychological thrillers to recommend? I am always looking for more!
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