5. Final Girls- Riley Sager
Nope, nope, just nope. This book had so much potential that I don’t believe it was met. Questions weren’t answered, and the plot wasn’t really good at all. I think the writing style was good but nothing really special to me. At the end of the novel, none of the questions were really answered for me. But to be honest, this novel felt really dragged out. Not like the authors fingers were flowing through the keys as she wrote it. I wouldn’t recommend this book at all.

4. The Maidens- Alex Michaelides
This novel had so much potential that it just didn’t meet in the end. The idea of this book was a girl coming to a college because other girls keep getting killed, she’s a psychologist trying to figure it out. There’s other details to the story but that’s the simplified version. This book gave you so many questions that at the end, they weren’t actually answered. I liked the build up of this book and of course the author’s writing, but this book sort of disappointed me. I feel good about reading it because now I know where the author started before publishing his next book “The Silent Patient” which became bestelling. All in all, I wouldn’t really recommend this novel unless you’re committed to the author like I was.

3. The House Across The Lake- Riley Sager
This book had SO MANY plot twists, making it almost confusing unless you were really paying attention to the plotting and dynamic between the characters. This book’s setting really had a lot of detail and care in the book. But the thing that really hooked me was the main character. She went through extreme amounts of trauma and had developed a drinking problem. She decided to go to the lake house to face other traumas and also take a break from the world she was living in. The plot twists in this novel just kept coming, never stopping until the very end, making this book a little overwhelming. The plot twists on the other hand kept me reading this book all day. I specifically liked this book for the plotting and writing style. It won’t make the top two for many other reasons throughout the book, but you have to read it yourself to understand.

2. The Inmate- Frieda McFadden
This book starts with a BANG of information, and then you start to question and want things in this book to happen with the characters. There’s many different dynamics to this book, but it originally caught my eye because of the introduction to the storyline with the main setting being a psych-ward. An ex-boyfriend who tried to kill his used-to-be high school sweetheart who is now his nurse.
The writing in this story was very good but definitely didn’t turn out to be my favorite. I loved the way she plotted the entire book giving us hints throughout the chapters. The ending was confusing in some parts but if you just continue through the read you would start to understand better what was happening. All the questions were somewhat answered, with a big plot twist at the end making my mouth drop in shock. The book was quite entertaining with all the things to keep me reading it and finishing it in one day. I would recommend this to anyone trying to lean more into thriller but still getting hints of romantic drama.

1. The Silent Patient- Alex Michaelides
The book is nothing that anyones ever seems to think it is. With great character plots and mysteries and, of course, secrets. But this book took first place in my top 5 for its amazing ending to the story. I read this book in one whole day and never took it out of my hands. I was constantly met with questions and those questions became even more questions. But once I sadly reached the end of the story I was starting to never want it to end. I was met with answers I had never even thought of while reading. All of my questions had ended at the end of this book learning who was responsible and who was not. The author’s creativity and plotting in this book amazed me, but I was also deeply fascinated with his writing style that only ever seemed to get better. This book made me not only read his first published book “The Maidens”, but also pre-order his new upcoming book “The Fury”. He became my new favorite author and my first step to becoming obsessed with the genre of psychological thrillers. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in Greek mythology mixed with murder and psychological trauma.