After falling into a brutal reading slump, I turned to a Frieda McFadden thriller to reset my brain — and Dear Debbie absolutely delivered. This messy, unhinged revenge story follows an advice columnist whose life spirals completely out of control.

I picked up The Silent Patient expecting an addictive psychological thriller and for a minute there, it HAD me. The premise was strong, the setup pulled me in fast, and then one choice completely killed the entire experience.

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell wasn’t the twist-heavy thriller I expected, but that ending? Brutal. The slow burn tested my patience, the early reveals killed some suspense, and Laurel wasn’t the most compelling lead. But the final stretch was devastating enough to make the ride worth it.

Theo of Golden is the kind of book that settles somewhere deep and stays there. Thoughtful, tender, and beautifully written, it’s a story about kindness, connection, and the quiet ways people change one another.

That setup had me salivating. It has all the right ingredients: grief, buried secrets, eerie woods, and the kind of small-town atmosphere where everyone knows a lot more than they share.

The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer is a slow-burn horror novel that starts off frustrating and ends deeply unsettling. When Macy takes a remote caretaker job on the Oregon Coast, she finds herself trapped in a grotesque, claustrophobic nightmare that I couldn’t look away from.