10 Great Books To Read if You Love 'Gone Girl'
Gillian Flynn‘s Gone Girl was one of the biggest thrillers of the 2010s, conquering the bestseller lists and receiving rave reviews. The David Fincher movie adaptation with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike brought it even more attention, delivering one of the all-time best female villains in cinema. The book hooked millions of readers with its intricate plot, unreliable narrators, and portrait of domestic darkness, inspiring a lot of authors to riff on the same recipe.
Those who enjoyed the book or movie version of Gone Girl may be looking for similar thrillers to scratch that itch. They’re in luck, as this particularly literary subgenre is, if anything, overstuffed. With this in mind, this list will discuss ten juicy, chilling books full of tension, twists, and dark relationships similar to Gone Girl. They feature some of the same intensity and subversive revelations that made Flynn’s masterpiece a generation-defining standout.
10
‘The Plot’ (2021)
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Image via Celadon Books</figure>
“You don’t steal a story and expect nothing to happen.” Jacob Finch Bonner, once a promising novelist, now teaches at a third-rate MFA program. After his talented student Evan dies, Jake steals the plot of one of Evan’s unpublished stories and writes it himself. The book becomes an instant success, but Jake soon receives death threats. He tries to make sense of the situation as the danger rapidly escalates.
This isn’t the first thriller about someone stealing another’s book, but it’s a very well-executed take on the concept. Author Jean Hanff Korelitz cleverly intersperses passages from the novel-within-a-novel, creating an interesting tension and blurring the line between fact and fiction. It also includes some thoughtful musings on originality, creativity, and the ownership of ideas. Sure, some of the plot developments are a little over-the-top, but that’s part of the fun. Overall, The Plot is an intricate, suspenseful tale, sure to please fans of this subgenre.
9
‘The Woman in Cabin 10’ (2016)
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Image via Simon & Schuster</figure>
“I knew what I had heard: the splash of a body hitting water.” Ruth Ware has penned several juicy bestsellers, the most notable being The Woman in Cabin 10. It’s about travel journalist Lo Blacklock, who secures a dream assignment aboard a luxury yacht. On the first night, she hears a scream and the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the water from the adjacent cabin. She reports the incident, only to be told that no passengers are missing and that the cabin next door was unoccupied.
The book thrives on expert pacing. The tension builds steadily, and the stakes climb with each passing page. The yacht setting adds some flavor, and also becomes incredibly claustrophobic as the tension reaches a fever pitch. The main character is possibly a little one-dimensional, but the plot is engaging enough to compensate.
8
‘The Guest List’ (2020)
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Image via Harper Collins/William Morrow</figure>
“The lights flicker; a moment later, they go out.” On a remote island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate the wedding of TV star Will Slater and magazine editor Jules Keegan. But as champagne flows, old secrets resurface. Each chapter offers a different perspective, revealing personal grudges, hidden agendas, and past traumas. A body is discovered after a storm, putting everyone on high alert.
The Guest List is a modern update of many Agatha Christie tropes, combining the “locked-room mystery” format with a ton of sharp celebrity gossip. The isolated setting amplifies the sense of dread, compounded further by the storm knocking out all telecommunications. Lucy Foley takes evident delight in tangling together these damaged characters with sordid pasts, turning their scandals and dramas into puzzles for the reader to solve. Her efforts earned her the Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery and Thrillers. Foley’s follow-up mystery, The Paris Apartment, is also worth checking out.
7
‘The Girl on the Train’ (2015)
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Image via Riverhead</figure>
“I have lost control over everything, even the places in my head.” This mega-bestseller turned film starring Emily Blunt centers on a woman named Rachel Watson, whose life is in shambles. Divorced, unemployed, and battling alcoholism, her daily routine revolves around a train commute that passes by her former neighborhood. She becomes fixated on a seemingly perfect couple she observes from the train window, dubbing them “Jess and Jason.” One day, she witnesses something shocking involving the woman she calls Jess.
From here, The Girl on the Train morphs into a thriller about obsession and the unreliability of perception, built on compelling protagonists and believable twists. It slowly reveals new facts, changing the way the reader views the characters. In addition, the plot revelations, even the shocking ones, tend to be fairly realistic and grounded (in contrast to many books in this genre that border on the fantastical). While the movie version is a mixed bag, the book hits hard.
6
‘Behind Closed Doors’ (2016)
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Image via St. Martin's Press</figure>
“The perfect marriage? Or the perfect lie?” To outsiders, Jack and Grace Angel are the epitome of a perfect couple. Jack is a successful lawyer known for his charm, while Grace is a devoted wife who never leaves his side. But, in truth, Grace is a prisoner, controlled and manipulated by Jack. As the narrative oscillates between past and present, the book reveals the extent of Jack’s psychological torment and Grace’s desperate attempts to escape.
While occasionally a bit cartoony, Behind Closed Doors unfolds at a breakneck pace, serving up a constant stream of drama and twisted details. The finale is especially gripping, and most readers will probably rip through the last few chapters in one sitting. The only downside is the somewhat limited way the book depicts Jack. He’s basically just a villain, more of a plot device than a three-dimensional person. We never really get a sense of how his dark psyche operates.
Four of the largest communities on the planet, and four completely
different reasons to belong to one. Here is yours, what it would give you, and the argument you
would be having within a week.
You belong to the fandom that is really about comfort. Hogwarts
works on people because it is a place rather than a plot, and the pull is not the wizard war
so much as the corridors, the food, the weather and the sense that somebody is expecting
you.
- You are drawn to belonging, which is why this fandom sorted itself into houses within
about five minutes and has never stopped. - This is the most social of the four, and the one most likely to know which type every
single person in your life would be. - The books are built to be reread rather than analysed, and rereading is exactly what you
do with things you love. - The new HBO series is bringing the whole thing back one book at a time, which means the
arguments are about to start all over again.
You belong to the deepest fandom on this list, the one where
somebody has always read further than you and is quietly delighted to say so. Middle-earth
rewards patience more than any other world in popular culture.
- You like the sense that the story you are reading is only the visible part of something
enormous, which is precisely how Tolkien built it. - This fandom takes adaptation seriously to a degree that other fandoms find slightly
alarming, and it has good reasons for that. - Your favourite thing about the books is probably the bit that is not action at all,
which is the walking, the songs and the long goodbyes. - Nobody here thinks heroism belongs to the powerful, and the whole story exists to make
that argument.
You belong to the loudest and largest tent of the four, the one
where three generations are all watching the same thing and none of them agree about any of
it. That disagreement is not a flaw in this fandom, it is the main activity.
- You want something you can share with absolutely everybody, from a six year old to a
grandparent, and this is the only one on the list that really does that. - Nobody argues like Star Wars fans argue, and the argument has been running since roughly
1980 with no sign of resolution. - The pull here is sensory before it is narrative, since it is the sound design, the score
and the look of a used and dented galaxy. - You would be first in the queue, in costume, with strong opinions and a genuinely good
time.
You belong to the thinking fandom, the one that turns up for the
argument rather than the explosion. Trek has always been a series of ethical problems in
space, and the people who love it love being asked what they would have done.
- You are an optimist in a way that is currently unfashionable, and this is the only major
franchise still willing to say the future might be better. - The best episodes are the ones where nobody fires anything, which is a sentence that
makes perfect sense to this fandom and to nobody else. - Starfleet Academy brought the franchise back to a classroom in 2026, which is
appropriate, because Trek has always been a bit of a seminar. - You would want the conversation afterwards more than the episode itself, and here you
will always find somebody willing to have it.
5
‘Sharp Objects’ (2006)
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Image via Broadway Books</figure>
“Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom.” Sharp Objects was Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn’s debut novel. While not as ambitious as some of her later works, it still packs a considerable punch. The main character is Camille Preaker, a journalist with a troubled past. Fresh out of a psychiatric hospital, she is sent back to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, to cover the murders of two young girls. As Camille investigates the crimes, she finds eerie similarities between the victims and her painful childhood.
The book conjures up an immersive Southern Gothic atmosphere. The town of Wind Gap is well-drawn and populated with a cast of unsettling characters. The writing is sharp, and the major figures are all psychologically realistic. Flynn’s depiction of family trauma and dysfunction is believable rather than overblown, which makes the tension and third-act reveals even more haunting. In 2018, the novel became an acclaimed HBO miniseries starring the ever-reliable Amy Adams.
4
‘Big Little Lies’ (2014)
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Image via Penguin Publishing</figure>
“Sometimes doing the wrong thing was also right.” Big Little Lies is another hit book that was made into a big-budget show starring A-listers like Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, and Nicole Kidman. The novel follows three women—Madeline, Celeste, and Jane—whose seemingly unrelated lives become deeply entangled. Madeline has a score to settle, Celeste harbors a terrifying secret, and Jane is haunted by a traumatic past. Their friendships deepen as tensions at the local elementary school escalate, leading up to a shocking event: a murder at a school fundraiser.
Abusive relationships are a big focus here, with the book examining vengeful ex-husbands and second wives, mother-daughter dynamics, schoolyard gossip, bitterness, and suppressed emotions. That said, it’s also very much popcorn entertainment, mining these issues for maximal drama. Author Liane Moriarty does a good job of balancing suspense and dark humor, concealing some biting social commentary within the thriller tropes.
3
‘The Good Samaritan’ (2017)
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Image via Thomas & Mercer</figure>
“Some people deserve to die. That’s all there is to it.” This excellent psychological thriller introduces readers to Laura, a volunteer at End of the Line, a suicide helpline. However, instead of saving lives, she subtly manipulates callers, convincing them that death is their best option. Laura thrives on control, playing god in the lives of total strangers. That is, until Ryan, a grieving husband, starts calling, with suspicions that Laura played a role in his wife’s death.
It’s a grim but fascinating premise, which John Marrs pulls off with considerable style. The Good Samaritan is very dark and boasts a truly wicked villain in Laura. She is calculating, persuasive, and chillingly ordinary. The cat-and-mouse game between her and Ryan becomes very compelling. Other than some outlandish story beats in the third act, The Good Samaritan is a solid thriller for readers in search of a bleak, twisted, and unpredictable tale.
2
‘Fates and Furies’ (2015)
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Image via Riverhead Books</figure>
“Marriage is made of lies and deceit, and from that, sometimes, love.” Probably the best-written book on this list, Fates and Furies is the third novel by Guggenheim fellow Lauren Groff, who has been nominated for the National Book Award several times. It’s a portrait of a marriage focusing on Lotto, a charismatic, struggling actor-turned-successful playwright, with Mathilde as his elegant, supportive wife. But as the novel progresses, it becomes clear that there are two sides to every relationship.
The first half of the book, “Fates,” is told from Lotto’s perspective, painting a romanticized version of their life together. The second half, “Furies,” shifts to Mathilde’s viewpoint, revealing a far darker and more calculating reality than Lotto ever knew. The prose is full of energy, and the storytelling is complex, examining the characters from multiple angles. The novel’s admirers include Barack Obama, who named it his favorite book of the year back in 2015.
1
‘The Silent Patient’ (2019)
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Image via Celadon Books</figure>
“We all have secrets. We all tell lies just to survive.” Claiming the top spot on this list is The Silent Patient, the debut work by screenwriter-turned-author Alex Michaelides. It’s narrated by Theo Faber, a criminal psychotherapist tasked with treating Alicia Berenson, a successful artist who becomes mute after abruptly murdering her husband. Theo becomes obsessed with the case, diving deep into Alicia’s past, though he might be biting off more than he can chew.
The book makes great use of its nonlinear structure, bouncing around in time, linking Alicia’s childhood and present, exposing new depths to both her and Theo. There’s also significant misdirection, with the reader being tricked into thinking certain events happened in one timeline when they actually occurred in another. Prose-wise, the book is clean and accessible, keeping the story in focus. Overall, The Silent Patient is a great slow burn, functioning as both a thriller and a character study.
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