Here are 100 books that You Don't Belong Here fans have personally recommended if you like
You Don't Belong Here.
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I am a writer of psychological thrillers. I have a keen interest in psychology and how events and experiences in our childhood shape who we become. When I work on a new book, I always build a detailed profile of my characters’ childhoods – and as I write thrillers, these are often challenging ones with issues like narcissistic parents or siblings, coping with grief, mental illness, or bullying. My plot will always be at least partly driven by the secrets my characters form in their childhood or early life, and so I also really value this depth in the psychological thrillers I read.
The first thing that drew me into this book is the feeling of “I could see that happening… what would I do if it were me?” The second really enticing element comes when McAllister introduces a future timeline where the three siblings have had a falling out and their cover-up plan seems to have not worked. There is then a constant question of how did they get from here to there? The book is further enriched by the interesting relationships between the two sisters and brother. They each have their role in the family dynamic, largely set by a traumatic event in their childhood, and these have a significant impact on how they respond – individually and collectively – to this new highly stressful event.
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING RICHARD & JUDY SUMMER PICK AND THIS SUMMER'S MOST COMPULSIVE NOVEL
'Incredibly tense and gripping' ADELE PARKS 'Kept me guessing and kept me fooled. Clever, pacy and so gripping that my heart raced' C.L. TAYOR 'This absolutely blew me away. Properly unputdownable' 5***** READER REVIEW 'Another unputdownable what-would-you-do thriller, rich with McAllister's trademark twists and emotional depth' ERIN KELLY ________
What would you do to protect your family?
ANYTHING.
During a family holiday in Italy, you get an urgent call from your sister.
There's been an accident: she hit a man with her car and he's…
I worked as long-haul cabin crew for many years and I love travelling. I’ve really missed being able to travel (as many have too) and I dream of the places I’ll be able to visit again soon. The Ex-Husband was the book I wrote in lockdown so I loved being able to ‘escape’ to the sunny Caribbean. I had fond memories of a trip to Barbados, so the book is mostly set there. I also travelled a lot as a child and one of my first memories is of being on a plane.
InHe Started Ita group of siblings embarks on a road trip from hell in a warped trek down memory lane. The thought of being trapped in a car with unlikeable people or with those keeping dark secrets feels claustrophobic and full of tension. To me, travelling is supposed to be fun or an adventure. Not in this case! I raced through this tightly plotted thriller, unable to put it down.
SOMEONE ALWAYS TAKES THINGS TOO FAR . . . The gripping Sunday Times bestselling psychological thriller from the No. 1 bestselling author of My Lovely Wife
'So addictive it should come with a warning' Alice Feeney ________
No-one knows you better than your family.
They know the little things that make you smile.
They know your darkest secrets.
Sure, you haven't always been best friends. But if it seemed as though someone was after you, that you might be in danger, then you'd be on each other's side . . .
I have been reading mysteries and trying to solve them before it was revealed since before I can remember. From episodes of Scooby Doo to The Bailey School Kids, I loved any mystery that I could find, and the older I’ve gotten, the more complex and darker I like the mysteries. Eventually, I started writing my own, combining it with my love of horror, detectives, and pretty much every other genre to create the kind of mysteries I was always hunting for. I hope this list helps you find a few new favorites, and maybe you’ll be up reading The Long Halloween all night, just like I was!
Who doesn’t love a high-concept twist? This type of story is so intricately plotted that every single clue within the book offers a massive payoff, down to the last detail. There is nothing I love more than a book that gives me all the clues I need to figure out its mystery but still manages to shock me in the end.
From the detectives that the story follows to the claustrophobic island setting, it made me think of the classic “whodunnit” stories. This time, the mystery is far more complex, and the answer is far more haunting.
The basis for the blockbuster motion picture directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Shutter Island by New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane is a gripping and atmospheric psychological thriller where nothing is quite what it seems. The New York Times calls Shutter Island, “Startlingly original.” The Washington Post raves, “Brilliantly conceived and executed.” A masterwork of suspense and surprise from the author of Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone, Shutter Island carries the reader into a nightmare world of madness, mind control, and CIA Cold War paranoia andis unlike anything you’ve ever read before.
I am a long-time lover of mysteries. Whether it be books, TV, or movies, I love when there is an unknown element to puzzle out. I remember staying up long past my bedtime as a child, reading because I just had to know what happened. I write across a number of genres for different age groups, but at the heart of every story I take on is a mystery that I want to figure out for myself. I love it when readers and audiences come along for the ride, joining me for the plot twists and turns.
The opening of this book had me hooked. It was late at night, I’d just finished another novel, and I opened this book, intending to read just a few pages. I quickly realized it was going to be a late night. I loved the tension and mystery created in the writing, and the dynamics between the characters had me cringing for them.
The descriptions of the teen girls had me flashing back to dance classes. Most of the action takes place on an airplane, and I loved the way the author set up a sense of claustrophobia. The characters not being able to escape each other as pressures rose really added to the tension. I highly recommend it as a fast-paced, tense read.
A long-haul flight. Two ambitious dance mums. A child in danger. Bridget and Simone aren't friends, but their daughters are in the same dance troupe: Expressions. They're flying to Los Angeles together so the girls can perform at Disneyland. Simone's daughter, Zahra, is the leader of the troupe, while Bridget's daughter, Becky, is a talent on the rise. An unexpected upgrade sees Bridget moved to business class and seated with Simone and her husband, Glen. Despite feeling out of her depth, Bridget is pleased to find that she and Simone share a lot in common, and the flight goes smoothly.…
I’m the author of 17 twisty psychological thrillers, many of which are Amazon bestsellers. Most of them are set in southern England where I live. My life was tipped upside down in 2015 when I was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare bone cancer. Although I have a masters in writing and was traditionally published for non-fiction, I hadn’t been brave enough to put my fiction out in the world. Cancer changed that. I’m now a full-time author, writing about scary things that happen to ordinary people. I’m also an avid reader of thrillers and enjoy nothing more than reading a book with an ending that makes me gasp!
Shalini Boland is one of the authors who got me hooked on psychological thrillers and when she releases a new book, it’s an automatic buy for me. The Couple Upstairs is set in Bournemouth (on the south coast) and features Nina and Zac who move into a new apartment. They quickly befriend their neighbours and soon all sorts of things start to go wrong. There’s a wonderfully claustrophobic feel to this book, plenty of twists and turns and a shocker twist at the end.
I should never have become friends with the couple upstairs…
The first time I step inside this cosy apartment with its sash windows, just minutes from the sea, I think it would be the perfect place for me and my partner Zac to start again. A chance to leave our troubled past behind.
Chris and Vanessa, the couple upstairs, are so welcoming: smiles, flowers, a home-baked cake. It’s strange how he does all the talking, and she seems so shy, but I’m just thrilled to have new friends nearby.
But everything starts to go wrong… my business begins to crumble,…
I am a sociologist with a longstanding interest in the social aspects of medicine and public health. I started with research on HIV/AIDS. Since then, I have written many books and conducted a multitude of studies on how people understand and experience health and illness and how they seek help when they are sick or feel at risk from disease. When COVID-19 hit the world in early 2020, it was not long before I started to think about what my research training and expertise could offer to understanding the social impacts of this new pandemic. I started to write about COVID and research on people’s everyday experiences.
One of the first novels set in COVID times, The Fell, by British author Sarah Moss, is presented from the perspective of four neighbours living in an English village over the timespan of a single night in the winter of 2020. The narrative charts their experiences and reflections on life as they struggle with boredom, loss of employment, having to work and learn from home, and feelings of isolation and claustrophobia. One of the characters simply can’t take it anymore and leaves her home during a period of mandated quarantine. These people care about and watch over each other as best they can, but the feelings of being under surveillance are strong. A dark but compelling read, masterfully written.
“A slim, tense page-turner . . . I gulped The Fell down in one sitting.” —Emma Donoghue, author of The Pull of the Stars
From the award-winning author of Ghost Wall and Summerwater, Sarah Moss's The Fell is a riveting novel of mutual responsibility, personal freedom, and the ever-nearness of disaster.
At dusk on a November evening, a woman slips through her garden gate and turns up the hill. Kate is in the middle of a two-week mandatory quarantine period, a true lockdown, but she can’t take it anymore—the closeness of the air in her small house, the confinement. And…
I love writing about the dark side of human nature, and the devastating secrets and resentments that can simmer beneath the surface between friends before reaching boiling point in the most dramatic and sinister way. It’s a theme pivotal to my latest thriller, which sees friends reuniting in a beautiful yet isolated location for the seemingly perfect celebration, but where things go horribly wrong. I enjoy exploring this topic through multiple characters, all with their own dubious backstories that stir suspicion in readers’ minds and keeps them guessing, while the settings I use play a key role in enhancing that sense of unease and tension conducive to the classic whodunnit.
This addictive page-turner revolves around an extravagant hen party where bride-to-be Jen rents a luxury getaway on a private island.
The fact that the helicopter which brought the guests to the island won't be back for 72 hours ramps up the sense of impending doom and claustrophobia, this further enhanced when the wifi is cut off. I devoured the varied and well-rounded cast of characters, each with their own complex backstories, secrets, and agendas giving them a motive to kill.
When one of the guests disappears, they receive a message telling them that unless someone confesses her terrible secret to the others, their missing friend will be killed. This was such a clever idea and had me itching to know who in the group the message was aimed at.
I enjoy stories that bring together diverse themes, such as family life, myths and legends, quests, and cutting-edge science, in an uncomplicated way. I love hidden communities, where accepted rules do not apply, allowing the development of original storylines. The suggestion that there is something on the edge of the supernatural, yet grounded in reality, the weirdest of events retaining a rational explanation. My writing has been inspired by the films of David Lynch. I admire his ability to evoke a sense of menace and a fear that things are not as they seem, leaving much to the reader’s imagination.
One of the most daring and original voices I have read in recent years.
I admire Kirsty Logan’s boldness in imagining and describing personal viewpoints and her unique interpretation of possible alternate realities. She shows the courage to commit to ideas and storylines that are original, innovative, and beyond the imagination of most people.
The two darkest stories are "Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by", a menacing tale of abuse, kidnapping, and violence, and "Half Sick of Shadows". The latter is profoundly moving and disturbing and almost unbelievable in its callousness.
A writer whose progress I will follow with interest.
'Gripping . . . You won't put it down' Sunday Telegraph
A shocking collection of dark stories, ranging from chilling contemporary fairytales to disturbing supernatural fiction.
Alone in a remote house in Iceland a woman is unnerved by her isolation; another can only find respite from the clinging ghost that follows her by submerging herself in an overgrown pool. Couples wrestle with a lack of connection to their children; a schoolgirl becomes obsessed with the female anatomical models in a museum; and a cheery account of child's day out is undercut by chilling footnotes.
I've often lived around the fringes of nature, from late-night cross-country road trips through forested backwoods, to living off-grid in New Mexico's high desert. As much as I've lived in the shadow of mountains and extreme environments, I've never dared to venture up into them – and I'm endlessly fascinated by the people who do. What is it that drives people toward extreme sports and outdoor challenges, even understanding the risks? Why do people risk life and limb to venture into places where man isn't meant to be? It's a question I don't think I'll ever stop finding fascinating.
A meticulously researched retelling of the Donner Party tragedy, Katsu's book is a slow-spooled tragedy and creeping horror of intense claustrophobia and distrust.
And that's before the supernatural elements take hold! This book is meaty, with a lot to chew on and a ton of character drama packed into its relatively brief word count, but you'll leave it thinking quite differently about the forces that shaped our American frontier...
"Deeply, deeply disturbing, hard to put down, not recommended reading after dark." - Stephen King
After having travelled west for weeks, the party of pioneers comes to a crossroads. It is time for their leader, George Donner, to make a choice. They face two diverging paths which lead to the same destination. One is well-documented - the other untested, but rumoured to be shorter.
Donner's decision will shape the lives of everyone travelling with him. The searing heat of the desert gives way to biting winds and a bitter cold that freezes the cattle where they stand. Driven to the…
I love exploring old homes. Whether I’m on a historic house tour, an estate sale, or a real estate open house, I love seeing the glimpses of the people who once occupied the home. When my mom passed away, I hired an estate sale organizer to help me clear out her house and became fascinated with the estate sale business. What a great way to peek into other people’s houses and lives and perhaps discover their darkest secrets! That’s how I started writing my Palmyrton Estate Sale Mystery Series.
A once-elegant Victorian mansion in London has been chopped up into individual “bed-sit” apartments occupied by a quirky assortment of tenants, each with his or her own secrets. The enjoyment of this book lies in the claustrophobic atmosphere of the house and the unbearable tension of wondering how each tenant will escape the killer in their midst.
No. 23 has a secret. In this bedsit-riddled south London wreck, lorded over by a lecherous landlord, something waits to be discovered. Yet all six residents have something to hide. Collette and Cher are on the run; Thomas is a reluctant loner; while a gorgeous Iranian asylum seeker and a 'quiet man' nobody sees try to stay hidden. And watching over them all is Vesta - or so she thinks. In the dead of night, a terrible accident pushes the neighbours into an uneasy alliance. But one of them is a killer, expertly hiding their pastime, all the while closing…
