September ScaredyKit- Is It All In Your Head?

This month is about the unreliable narrator. Whether they're insisting that they're the center of a killer's plan or a paranormal occurrence, the reader or the other characters question whether the events are really happening or if it's all in the character's head. Can they be trusted?

Here are some suggestions. Let us know what you're reading.

Paranormal

Elizabeth
The Turn of the Screw
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
Horrorstor
Twelve Nights at Rotter House
The Exorcist
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Help for the Haunted
Rosemary's Baby
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
The Shining

Crime

In A Lonely Place
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Rebecca
Before the Fact

OR

Read a non-fiction about someone who was gaslighting people, such as:

The Stranger Beside Me
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Murder by Milkshake
The Devil in the White City

OR

Read a non-fiction about personality disorders, like The Sociopath Next Door.

What's your pleasure?

Great topic! I think I might go with The Talented Mr. Ripley that has been on my shelf for sometime.

That's one of my options too, as I've intended to read it for a few years.

I am planning to read The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James for September's challenge.

I have so many options, but I don't know how to pick!

Leaning toward the first one:
- Never Saw it Coming / Linwood Barclay
- Pretty Little Wife / Darby Kane
- His & Hers / Alice Feeney
- The Family Upstairs / Lisa Jewell
- The Lying Game /Ruth Ware

This gives me a good excuse to get The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires off the stack...

It's a good one!

I'm not sure it's a perfect fit, but Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge is on a list of five 'unreliable narrator' books that Tor put out a while ago (along with two books listed here that I've already read--We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Turn of the Screw, which I love). I loved the last book I read by Hardinge, so I think this will be my pick unless I stumble upon something else accidentally!

I'm picking another Grady Hendrix, We Sold Our Souls.

I completed Little Voices by Vanessa Lillie. Twas the tale of post-partum depression (probably) with voices in the young mother's head. It was also coming to terms with sexual abuse as a child. I really can't recommend it. It should have been exciting and spell-binding, but it wasn't.

I have a book on hold at the library that I hope will fit this theme: The Patient by Jasper DeWitt. Hopefully, it comes in before September is over!

I hope to read Women Talking by Miriam Toews. The topic is so distasteful that I've rejected this book several times already even though I've enjoyed other books by the author. The reason I picked it was because it has been tagged "unreliable narrator".

If Women Talking doesn't appeal, I'll try another unreliable narrator in Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson.

I've read We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hedrix. It's the story of a woman who had been the guitarist in a popular rock band in the late 80's-early 90's. Once the band broke up her life spiraled while the singer became an icon, though she becomes convinced that he did something really sinister to have become so successful. Just about every character in the book has a period where the reader can't trust them.

I've read 1922 by Stephen King. The narrator, a man who killed his wife and put her down a well on the farm, goes in and out of instability, sometimes perfectly lucid and other times haunted by his crime enough that the reader questions what is real.

At about the 25% point I realized Women Talking was not for me. As I mentioned in >12 VivienneR: although I like Miriam Toews' writing, and admire her for writing this one, it was my last attempt to read it.

On to Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson.

October's thread is up and can be found here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/344164

The book I just finished fits here The Herring Seller's Apprentice by L.C. Tyler.
This was funny, quirky and filled with wonderful characters reminiscent of Wodehouse. Ethelred (aka Red) Tressider is an author with three pseudonyms, each writing different genres. One writes mysteries, that garnered his agent's nickname of the "red herring seller". The agent, Elsie Thirkettle, is an eccentric who takes no nonsense from anyone and sets her own rules. With Elsie as the apprentice they investigate the murder of Ethelred's former wife. Although they divorced some years previously, he is under suspicion because her body was found near where he lives. This humorous novel is the first in a series, of which I am fortunate to own the second - and the surprise ending ensures it will be read soon.

I read The Haunting of Maddy Clare for this month's challenge and although I loved the book, I don't think it quite fit this challenge. The main character starts off as a non-believer in ghosts but it only takes one visit to change her mind. If I am able, I will try to fit in another book during the month that has more of an unreliable narrator than this one did.

I read The Wise Friend by Ramsey Campbell for this challenge. The other characters believe he is making things up and do not believe him when he makes claims about the new person in their lives.

I read Goosebumps Most Wanted: The Haunter. Besides being the most intense Goosebumps I've read, the narrator, a young boy, is regularly assaulted by a classmate and has appearances of mental instability. The other characters are wary of him.

I read Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge for this month, and it was a fantastically dark read that fit perfectly. Without meaning to, I also picked up another that ended up fitting perfectly: Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall.

Full reviews written for both. Theoretically, Cuckoo Song is middle grade, but it is long and DARK. I loved it, but had to take some breaks when it got to be too much. I didn't enjoy Rules for Vanishing quite as much--it was more plot driven than character-driven and a bit messy in the end--but a lot of folks in my book club loved it, and I did enjoy the read. It was super-fast if you're looking for a YA Horror escape.

Pretty Little Wife / Darby Kane
4 stars

Both Aaron and Lila had awful childhoods, losing both their parents in terrible ways. After being (emotionally, mentally) abused and controlled by her husband, Aaron, for years, Lila discovers a secret Aaron has carried. She finds a video. This pushes her over the top and she comes up with a plan to make him disappear. But on the day she tries, although things seem to work according to plan, initially, something goes very very wrong… Adam has disappeared, but not in the way Lila had intended.

I thought this was really good. It pulled me in quickly and I wanted to know what was going on. Of course, there are a few twists and turns along the way. And I constantly wondered what to believe of Lila. She’s very cold, not very likable. Parts of the story are also from the point of view of Ginny, the lead investigator into Aaron’s disappearance. The two women are both very smart and tough.