The best psychological thriller books that will turn your head inside out

This book is a masterpiece of psychological fiction. It's brilliantly written and stunning. The weirdness of it is *chef's kiss* perfect and adds to the depth of the madness within. 

It is a bit strange, and the way it's written threw me for a loop. Especially when I came to Olivia, the cat. I had so many questions but stick with it and you will see the light in the end. This author does a perfect job of twisting small details you may or may not catch into questions that you the reader will be asking, even turning back to see if you read it right. (Weren't those Russian dolls broken? How are they whole again?) I was left thinking that maybe the timeline wasn't linear, and it left me guessing as to just what was going on. 

There is no gasp-worthy shock in this (save one) it's just like a slow unraveling where you think you can guess what is happening but, in the end, you find that you were wrong.

It's twisted, strange, dark, tragic, and heartbreaking in the best ways. It goes far, far down the rabbit hole and you will come up for air, in the end, thinking differently when it's all over. 

Trigger warning in this one, murder, abuse, and mental illness. 

This book is so original. We follow an old man, a retired serial killer, on his journey to read his own newly published true crime story. He stumbles on the book while doing his security rounds and can't resist picking it up, and over the next week finds himself more and more obsessed with reading it, growing fears that he will be discovered after twenty years, and with the author, his only surviving victim- who was a child at the time and is now an adult twenty years later. 

I enjoyed this book, it's original in the sense that the killer is an ordinary, cranky old bastard that no one likes. He's just a guy, who doesn't stand out, hasn't been good at anything all his life, a mediocre man that falls into the crowd. The only thing he's ever been able to succeed at was being The Nothing Man, which he's really too old for now. I really enjoyed this, his descent into obsession, watching his world come apart as he reads the book. How it ends, and the impact it has on the world around him. Really, really good. True-to-life characters. I liked how the author was able to write a novel within a novel, some amazing work here. 

There are three things that I thought of while reading this book. 

1. Ok it can't be that simple, but did he really do it? 

2. I can't wait to find out where this is leading. I wonder if I've got it figured out.

3. Ok, I didn't have it figured out, what? Just What? 

Insert an audible gasp when that twist happened, I absolutely did not see that coming. This is the kind of book that inspires me to dig deeper into myself when writing my own books, and I love it. The development in this book is superb. You think you know, but you don't. Trust me, you won't figure it out. Then you will go back and realize what the author did, so simple yet so brilliant. 

Our main character is in a coma, and the things she hears while in that coma, the memories she struggles with, and the comatose nightmares all while trying to remember what happened to her and who put her in the hospital. It's a brilliantly woven stand-out thriller, this author is in my top five now. 

This is the first book that I grabbed after seeing a BookTok recommendation for it. The premise was intriguing and what the reviewer said about it left me searching to see if there was an audiobook version. 

The only thing that stopped me from listening to this book in one sitting was life. Talk about a book that will leave you aching with the character, angry, and desperate for answers. Holy hot damn! I was in tears, I was gasping, I was listening with my mouth hanging open, grimacing in horror and I loved every bit of it. 

Trigger warnings throughout this book. I won't lie, this book is dark and horrible (in a good way) but it also left me feeling down. It's haunting and the narrative pulls you so far in you feel like you are there with her, held captive right by her side. Not to mention the ending. This one does have a twisted end, and it didn't leave me shocked but I for sure wasn't expecting it if that makes sense. However, I'm a little hard to shock with twisted endings, if you've read my most recent book you will understand why.

If you're a fan of dark, twisted, Stephen King, you need to read this book. I'll be adding this author to my favorites list. This book was simply stunning, and so very haunting. It really is jaw-dropping. I highly, highly recommend it. 

This is my first Colleen Hoover book and I hesitated for a while before picking this up. But eventually (it was inevitable) I succumbed to the pressures of dark thriller booktok and picked it up. I'm not sorry I did, now I will be reading everything, Colleen Hoover.

This book really reminds me of Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. Not the movie, since there are some marked differences between them. I really wonder if the author intended it or if it was accidental. Super curious about that. There are so many parallels between them, I'm surprised I haven't seen more mentions of this in book reviews. We have the parallels between Rebecca and Verity, Maxim and Jeremy, and the unnamed young wife in Rebecca and Lowen. The buildup is outstanding, I was not able to put it down, and it’s just a magnificent, psycho thriller at its best. 

This book is dark and has trigger warnings for child abuse (graphic and dark). One abuse scene did bother me enough that I hit the fast forward 30 seconds button to bypass it, I just couldn't do it. (I tried and failed) but this book is excellent, the characters are a thing of beauty, and the entire thing is brilliant. 

It's not going to be for everyone, but it's just outstanding psychological thriller work.