Polling the Masses: What to Read After Gone Girl

I've been noticing a trend over the last few months when perusing the search queries that led to our little blog.  Among things like "hot lesbians" (oh, the joys of sharing a blog with Gianna) and "cover of Old Yeller," there are a huge number of people out there in Book Land looking for books similar to Gillian Flynn's breakout psychological thriller Gone Girl.  We, of course, love Gillian Flynn and her books.  If you're looking for Gone Girl-esque reads, don't overlook Flynn's other novels, Sharp Objects and Dark Places.  I decided to ask our group of experts--some of the booksellers across our territories--for some other options.  I'm sure they've been fielding this question for months now, so we're going to steal their ideas and smear them all over the web (or at least to the web surfers looking for "Liesl Von Trapp" and "cute naked girls"...not necessarily together).  A friendly reminder: shopping at these bookstores keep these booksellers employed and keep the expert recommendations coming.  Say thank you by shopping at your local bookstore.  It makes a difference.

Ashanti (via fellow bookseller Stephanie), Boulder Book Store, Boulder, Colorado 

One of our booksellers, Ashanti, read and loved Gone Girl, and I asked her what she'd recommend to someone who enjoyed that book.  She said that she thinks she may love it for different reasons than most people, but she did say she was reading I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan at the same time as she read Gone Girl, and felt that the two books complimented each other nicely. She said she would also recommend Gillian Flynn's other books, or something by Stephen King - she feels The Shining has a similar tone.

Cathy, Tattered Cover, Denver, Colorado

How about Robert Goddard's Into the Blue or Borrowed Time? Page turners about missing/dead women with a sketchy anti-hero. Plot AND character driven.

McKenna, Murder By the Book, Houston, Texas

Megan Abbott -- The End of Everything and Dare Me

Tana French -- anything [Tana French pops up a lot when I've informally asked booksellers this question.  I've heard nothing but praise for her books.]

Danielle, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, Texas

I recommend John Fowles The Collector. It has a similar format and tone to Gone Girl - it's half told from the point of view of a kidnapper & half from entries in the kidnapped woman's diary. You hear the same story from two dramatically different points of view, and they're both fascinating to follow. It's Fowles' first novel that he wrote relatively young in the mid-sixties. Amazing writing - reads like a thriller but is obviously a literary novel. [I love this book.  It's the stuff of nightmares and refers back to Shakespeare's The Tempest.  Great read.]

Scott, BookPeople, Austin, Texas

The End Of Everything by Megan Abbott- Abbott takes noir to new areas with the story of a 13 year-old girl in 80's suburban Detroit looking into the disapearance of her friend and learning more secrets than she should. A strong, complex, beautifully disturbing look at people ruled by thier desires and emotions.

Valerie and the staff at Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Texas
I'd love to share but we can't think of anything like that hot mess. We'd love to know what other booksellers think!

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 7

Gianna:


Written on the Body

You want sexy, we’ll give you sexy. If there is one thing you know about me and Liz…we know sexy. [Actually, since I wrote about bestiality yesterday, I'm not claiming any expertise on this subject.] We also know lazy [now that is true], so for today’s romantic valentine we offer a previous snippet on a book we both love, Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson

If you are like me and the thought of reading a love story has always made you cringe a bit, give this a read. This one sneaks up on you. You don’t realize it until you’ve finished, but you’ve just read a very sexy, beautiful, simple, love story. It’s also heartbreaking, so gentlemen get your hankies out. [Is that what the boys are calling them these days?]

It is everything I love in a novel. It is intense, passionate, lyrical, fresh, and doesn’t have a sliver of cliché.
It is the book I go to when I just need a quick fix of something less ordinary. [Yep, we all know that last sentence is a euphemism, right?]

Written on the Body is the story of an affair between a married woman and an unnamed narrator. We don’t know if the narrator is male or female, but in the end it does not really matter. The book is a gorgeous and original meditation on love.

Liz:

You know how some books and movies take classic Shakespeare and riff on the plots, like Shakespeare in Love and Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead?  Let's talk about John Fowles and The Collector. This novel takes characters based on those in The Tempest, specifically Caliban and Miranda.  A deranged man goes from collecting butterflies to, well, collecting the woman of his dreams, his Miranda.  He is a Caliban--brutal, incapable of empathy, and monstrous.  He reduces his victim to the equivalent of a pin-up through horrifying psychological abuse.  The Collector is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read.  Naturally I loved it.

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 10

We're about at the point where we realize that we're only 1/3 of the way to the end and who's idea was this anyway?  What if I just picked the same book for every day for the rest of the challenge?  Character that most resembles me? Harold and the Purple Crayon.  Longest book I've ever read?  Harold and the Purple Crayon.  (I actually hate Harold and the Purple Crayon even though I love both crayons and the color purple.  I just hate Harold.)

Day 10: A Book That Changed Your Life

Gianna:

Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean

While my views did change on certain things as I got older and moved away from my small town in Illinois, the death penalty was difficult for me to let go. It wasn't until I read Dead Man Walking that I understood. The book is also about bravery and learning to do the right thing. You never really think about that, but you can learn to be brave.

Liz

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Just kidding.

Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier

I don't know that I have a particular book that changed my life, but I did have a class.  I'd always been a big reader and it was just sort of a given that I'd major in English when I got to college.  However, once there, I spent two years reading the works of masters that I should appreciate but which I didn't really enjoy.  I didn't care about Beowulf, and I actively loathed the 18th Century essayists.  I took the classes I was supposed to take in order to prepare for the comprehensive literature exam I'd have to pass in order to graduate with that major, but only in my junior year did I take a class that spoke to my love of a good story, engaging characters, and some dark and twisted atmosphere.  Contemporary Gothic Lit with Dr. Helene Meyers reminded me that reading can be both entertaining and a worthy scholarly pursuit, and Rebecca was the first book on the syllabus. Other books included The Collector by John Fowles, The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark, Dirty Weekend by Helen Zahavi, and American Appetites by Joyce Carol Oates.  It was a novel a week for a semester of darkness, disturbed people, and for me, a rediscovered love of reading.  That class is one of the reasons I was crazy enough to seek the book business after graduation.