24 Must-Read Books For October Book Club

Top October Book Club Picks for Heated Discussions in 2025
Looking for the perfect October book club picks that will really get your group talking? You’re going to love these picks. I’ve rounded up 24 of the best book club reads for this October. These books are guaranteed to spark debates, strong opinions, and plenty of laughter along the way. Whether your group loves cozy mysteries, dark fantasy books, moving historical fiction or even a few cozy fall romance, these selections will keep the conversation going long after the last page. Some of these might even be the most underrated book club books you’ll read this year.

To make your book club even more entertaining, check out some helpful book club guides on the blog.

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33 Book Club Snacks As Good As the Plot: Good snack recommendations for book clubs
15 Fall-Themed Snacks That Bring All the Autumn Vibes to Book Club : Best fall-themed book club snacks you will love.
The Best Horror Books of the Last 10 Years to Read This October : Top-rated horror books to read

Best October Book Club Books 2025

You will love this list of best book club suggestion for Fall book club.

The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed

The Butcher of the Forest is a mix of dark fantasy and horror. At the edge of a tyrant’s land lies the Elmever, a cursed forest where no one who enters ever returns. Veris Thorn, the only person to rescue a child from its traps, is forced back inside to save the tyrant’s missing children. If she fails, the tyrant will kill her; if she stays too long, she’ll be trapped forever. This is perfect for book clubs who love dark fairy-tale novels and high-stakes quests.

A world-weary woman races against the clock to rescue the children of a wrathful tyrant from a dangerous, otherworldly forest.

At the northern edge of a land ruled by a monstrous, foreign tyrant lies the wild forest known as the Elmever. The villagers know better than to let their children go near—once someone goes in, they never come back out.

No one knows the strange and terrifying traps of the Elmever better than Veris Thorn, the only person to ever rescue a child from the forest many years ago. When the Tyrant’s two young children go missing, Veris is commanded to enter the forest once more and bring them home safe. If Veris fails, the Tyrant will kill her; if she remains in the forest for longer than a day, she will be trapped forevermore.

So Veris will travel deep into the Elmever to face traps, riddles, and monsters at the behest of another monster. One misstep will cost everything

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If It Makes You Happy by Julie Olivia

If It Makes You Happy is the perfect cozy romance for October book club. After her divorce, the main character takes over her mother’s dream bed and breakfast in Copper Run, Vermont. Enter Cliff—her next-door neighbor. He’s a single dad, the small-town golden boy, and, unfortunately, very hard to ignore. His flannel shirts and baking skills only make matters worse. She wants to stay focused on her career goals and avoid romance, especially since she’s leaving in three months. But resisting Cliff and his daughters proves difficult. This is also perfect book for the fans of Gilmore Girls.

My new next-door neighbor seems to have everything figured out. Small town golden boy? Check. Single dad extraordinaire? Check. Hot baker forearms? I didn’t notice them, I swear.

I, on the other hand, don’t–at all–have anything figured out.

Trust me, I didn’t think taking over my mom’s dream bed and breakfast in Copper Run Vermont was going to be easy. It should be a good place to heal after my divorce. But apparently my scones belong in the garbage with my small talk skills. As pointed out by none other than Cliff.

Cliff is inescapable. He knows exactly what people need–always. His charm, the way he wears flannel, and even his pastries, make not wanting to be friends with Cliff and his daughters pretty hard.

Friends? I can make friends. That’s safe.

Except I’m leaving in three months to pass the inn off to my little sister and get the promotion in Seattle I’ve been working towards.

So ask me why I’m thinking about kissing my hot neighbor.

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The Spook in the Stacks by Eva Gates

The Spook in the Stacks follows librarian Lucy Richardson as she prepares for a special donation at her lighthouse library. Wealthy businessman Jay Ruddle plans to leave his valuable collection of historical documents to the library, but competition is fierce. During a ghostly legends lecture, Jay is found dead in the rare books section. Now Lucy and her fellow librarians must solve the case while strange hauntings—moving ship models, flickering lights, and ghostly horses—make things even creepier.

Halloween in North Carolina’s Outer Banks becomes seriously tricky when librarian Lucy Richardson stumbles across something extra unusual in the rare books section: a dead body.

Wealthy businessman Jay Ruddle is considering donating his extensive collection of North Carolina historical documents to the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, but the competition for the collection is fierce. Unfortunately, while the library is hosting a lecture on ghostly legends, Jay becomes one of the dearly departed in the rare books section. Now, it’s up to Lucy Richardson and her fellow librarians to bone up on their detective skills and discover who is responsible for this wicked Halloween homicide.

Meanwhile, very strange things are happening at the library—haunted horses are materializing in the marsh, the lights seem to have an eerie life of their own, and the tiny crew of a model ship appears to move around when no one is watching. Is Lucy at her wit’s end? Or can it be that the Bodie Island Lighthouse really is haunted?

With The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on everyone’s minds and ghoulish gossip on everyone’s lips, Lucy will need to separate the clues from the boos if she wants to crack this case without losing her head.

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When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy

When the Wolf Comes Home is a modern horror story about Jess, a struggling actress, who finds a five-year-old runaway hiding near her apartment. After a violent confrontation with the boy’s father, Jess and the child flee. But horrifying murders and grisly scenes follow wherever they go. At first Jess thinks she understands the danger, but the truth is much darker than she imagined. If you are looking for most popular horror books for your book club, this is a fabulous choice.

One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy’s father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives.

As they attempt to evade the boy’s increasingly desperate father, horrifying incidents of butchery follow them. At first, Jess thinks she understands what they’re up against, but she’s about to learn there’s more to these surreal and grisly events than she could’ve ever imagined.

And that when the wolf finally comes home, none will be spared.

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Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

Home Before Dark is a suspenseful thriller by Riley Sager. Twenty-five years ago, Maggie Holt’s family fled Baneberry Hall after three terrifying weeks. Her father wrote a bestselling book about the haunting, but Maggie never believed a word of it. Now, after inheriting the Victorian estate, she returns to renovate it, only to find chilling events straight out of her father’s story. As she digs into the house’s dark history, Maggie begins to question what’s real and what’s fiction.

What was it like? Living in that house.

Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.

In the latest thriller from New York Times bestseller Riley Sager, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound—and dangerous—secrets hidden within its walls?

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The Ghost Woods by C.J. Cooke

The Ghost Woods is set in 1965 and follows Pearl Gorham, one of several young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth in secrecy. Surrounded by eerie woods and whispers of ghosts, witches, and a child who was “not quite a child,” Pearl quickly realizes something is deeply wrong. With the help of a mysterious mother and young boy living on the grounds, she tries to find the truth about the hall’s past.

In the midst of the woods stands a house called Lichen Hall.

This place is shrouded in folklore—old stories of ghosts, of witches, of a child who was not quite a child.

Now the woods are creeping closer, and something has been unleashed.

Pearl Gorham arrives in 1965, one of a string of young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth. And she soon suspects the proprietors are hiding something.

Then she meets the mysterious mother and young boy who live in the grounds—and together they begin to unpick the secrets of this place.

As the truth comes to the surface and the darkness moves in, Pearl must rethink everything she knew—and risk what she holds most dear.

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One by One by Ruth Ware

We have Snow, isolation, and murder collide in One by One by Ruth Ware. A corporate retreat in the French Alps turns dark after an avalanche traps eight coworkers inside a mountain chalet. What should have been a weekend of team-building becomes a fight for survival when members of the group start dying one after another. This book is an atmospheric locked-room style thriller will keep book club members guessing until the final page.

Getting snowed in at a beautiful, rustic mountain chalet doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world, especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a cozy fire, and company to keep you warm. But what happens when that company is eight of your coworkers…and you can’t trust any of them?

When an off-site company retreat meant to promote mindfulness and collaboration goes utterly wrong when an avalanche hits, the corporate food chain becomes irrelevant and survival trumps togetherness. Come Monday morning, how many members short will the team be?

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Turn of the Key and In a Dark Dark Wood returns with another suspenseful thriller set on a snow-covered mountain.

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The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi

The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre is about Rose DuBois who is not your average final girl, he’s in her late seventies, living at a retirement home. At first, she chalks up her friends’ sudden deaths to accidents or age. But as the bodies keep piling up, Rose and her best friend Miller begin to investigate. What they uncover is much darker and deadlier than they imagined. This charming cozy mystery is funny, violent, and full of shocking twists. This is a perfect for choice for reading groups who love slashers with fresh perspectives and a touch of humor.

Brimming with dark humor, violence, and mystery, The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre is a blood-soaked slasher sure to keep readers cringing, laughing, and guessing until the very last page.

Rose DuBois is not your average final girl.

Rose is in her late 70s, living out her golden years at the Autumn Springs Retirement Home.

When one of her friends dies alone in her apartment, Rose isn’t too concerned. Accidents happen, especially at this age!

Then another resident drops dead. And another. With bodies stacking up, Rose can’t help but wonder: are these accidents? Old age? Or something far more sinister?

Together with her best friend Miller, Rose begins to investigate. The further she digs, the more convinced she becomes: there’s a killer on the loose at Autumn Springs, and if she isn’t careful, Rose may be their next victim.

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Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred is a groundbreaking blend of historical fiction and speculative storytelling.
The novel follows Dana, a young Black woman living in 1976 California. On her 26th birthday, she is suddenly pulled back in time to a Maryland plantation in the early 1800s. There, she saves Rufus, the white son of a slaveholder, from drowning an act that inexplicably ties their fates together. Dana continues to be drawn back to Rufus throughout his life, witnessing his growth from a frightened child into a man capable of cruelty. Through Dana’s harrowing experiences, Butler explores how racism, sexism, and the legacy of white supremacy shape both the past and the present.

The first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American literature.

This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life.

During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given

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The Bermondsey Bookshop by Mary Gibson

The Bermondsey Bookshop is a moving tale set in 1920s London, following a young woman’s fight to escape poverty. Kate Goss has endured more than her share of hardship. Her mother died in a fall, her father has mysteriously disappeared, and she is left to the cruelty of her aunt and cousins But everything changes when she stumbles into a job at the Bermondsey Bookshop, a remarkable place where working-class Londoners can learn to read and buy books for just a few pence. Based on the real Bermondsey Bookshop, this is a story of resilience, dreams, and the power of books to change lives.

Set in 1920s London, this is the inspiring story of Kate Goss’s struggle against poverty, hunger, and cruel family secrets. Her mother died in a fall, her father has vanished without a trace, and now her aunt and cousins treat her viciously.

In a freezing, vermin-infested Garrett, factory girl Kate has only her own brave spirit and dreams of finding her father to keep her going. She has barely enough money to feed herself, or to pay the rent. The factory where she works begins to lay off people and it isn’t long before she has fallen into the hands of the violent local money-lender.

That is until an unexpected opportunity comes her way – a job cleaning a most unusual bookshop, where anyone, from factory workers to dockers, can learn to read and then buy books cheaply.

A new world opens up, but with it come new dangers, too. Based on the true story of the Bermondsey Bookshop, this is the most inspiring and gripping novel Mary Gibson has yet written.

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The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

The Dutch House is a sweeping family saga about siblings bound together by love, loss, and the shadows of the past. After World War II, Cyril Conroy builds a real estate empire and surprises his family with the Dutch House, a lavish estate outside Philadelphia. But the house, meant as a symbol of success, soon becomes the family’s undoing. When Cyril’s children, Danny and Maeve, are cast out by their stepmother, they lose not only their home but the future their father envisioned for them. Over the course of five decades, the siblings cling fiercely to each other, their bond both saving and limiting them as they grapple with inheritance, forgiveness, and the long reach of memory.

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakeable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.

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The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

The Keeper Of Los t Things is a tender, whimsical story about grief, second chances.For decades, Anthony Peardew has collected lost items. Things such as trinkets and treasures dropped or forgotten by strangers as penance for misplacing a memento from his late fiancée. When he dies, he leaves his sprawling home and his unusual mission to his assistant, Laura, a woman still reeling from a painful divorce. Inheriting not only a house full of “lost things” but also Anthony’s final wish, Laura finds herself unexpectedly drawn into a journey of reconnection and healing. The Keeper of Lost Things celebrates love, memory, and the ways we find meaning in what others leave behind.

Anthony Peardew is the keeper of lost things. Forty years ago, he carelessly lost a keepsake from his beloved fiancée, Therese. That very same day, she died unexpectedly. Brokenhearted, Anthony sought consolation in rescuing lost objects—the things others have dropped, misplaced, or accidentally left behind—and writing stories about them. Now, in the twilight of his life, Anthony worries that he has not fully discharged his duty to reconcile all the lost things with their owners.

As the end nears, he bequeaths his secret life’s mission to his unsuspecting assistant, Laura, leaving her his house and all its lost treasures, including an irritable ghost. Recovering from a bad divorce, Laura, in some ways, is one of Anthony’s lost things. But when the lonely woman moves into his mansion, her life begins to change. She finds a new friend in the neighbor’s quirky daughter, Sunshine, and a welcome distraction in Freddy, the rugged gardener. As the dark cloud engulfing her lifts, Laura, accompanied by her new companions, sets out to realize Anthony’s last wish: reuniting his cherished lost objects with their owners.

Long ago, Eunice found a trinket on the London pavement and kept it through the years. Now, with her own end drawing near, she has lost something precious—a tragic twist of fate that forces her to break a promise she once made. As the Keeper of Lost Objects, Laura holds the key to Anthony and Eunice’s redemption. But can she unlock the past and make the connections that will lay their spirits to rest.

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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus is a lush enchanting novel about magic set against the backdrop of a circus that defies the ordinary. The Circus of Dreams appears without warning, a traveling wonderland of black-and-white striped tents Visitors lose themselves in illusions, marvels, and performances unlike anything they’ve ever seen. But the circus is actually the stage for a lifelong duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been bound to this contest since childhood. If you are looking for perfect October book club pick with enchantment and imagination, this books is for you.

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas, tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements.

It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.

Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which the only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

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The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale is a sweeping World War II novel that brings the women’s war to the forefront. In 1939, Vianne Mauriac watches her husband leave for the front, believing her small village will remain untouched by Nazi occupation. But soon German soldiers march in, and a captain takes over her home. With her young daughter to protect, Vianne is forced into impossible choices compromises that test her morals, her safety, and her will to endure. Read this post for full list of Kristin Hannah books in order.

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent.

When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive. Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life and again to save others.

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James by Percival Everett

James is a daring and powerful reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, retold from the perspective of Jim, the enslaved man who journeys down the Mississippi with Huck. The novel begins when Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a trader in New Orleans, a move that would tear him away from his wife and daughter forever. Desperate to avoid this fate, he escapes, determined to find a way to protect his family. At the same time, Huck has staged his own death to break free from his abusive father. Their lives intersect on the river, where they set out on the iconic raft journey toward the Free States and the uncertain promise of freedom. Check out book club questions for James.

A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and ferociously funny—told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim’s agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

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The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden

The Boyfriend The Boyfriend is a twisty psychological thriller about Sydney Shaw who has had her fair share of dating disasters in New York liars, cheapskates, and men who can’t stop talking about their mothers. So when she meets a charming doctor who seems flawless, she believes her luck has finally changed. He’s handsome, attentive, and everything she ever wanted in a partner.
But at the same time, police are tracking a brutal killer who lures women into relationships before murdering them. As the body count rises along the coast, Sydney starts to wonder if her dream man is hiding something sinister. If you love gripping psychological thriller books, this fall this is for you.

She’s looking for the perfect man. He’s looking for the perfect victim.

Sydney Shaw, like every single woman in New York, has terrible luck with dating. She’s seen it men who lie in their dating profile, men who stick her with the dinner bill, and worst of all, men who can’t shut up about their mothers. But finally, she hits the jackpot.

Her new boyfriend is utterly perfect. He’s charming, handsome, and works as a doctor at a local hospital. Sydney is swept off her feet.

Then the brutal murder of a young woman―the latest in a string of deaths across the coast―confounds police. The primary suspect? A mystery man who dates his victims before he kills them.

Sydney should feel safe. After all, she is dating the guy of her dreams. But she can’t shake her own suspicions that the perfect man may not be as perfect as he seems. Because someone is watching her every move, and if she doesn’t get to the truth, she’ll be the killer’s next victim.

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The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

The Last Mrs. Parrish is about Amber Patterson, who is tired of being invisible. She wants wealth, power, and glamour and she’s willing to take it from someone else. So she chooses, Daphne Parrish, the golden socialite of Bishops Harbor. Amber worms her way into Daphne’s family, but her dark past threatens to unravel everything. Also check out book club questions for The Last Mrs Parrish.

Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted.

To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne—a socialite and philanthropist—and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale.

Amber’s envy could eat her alive . . . if she didn’t have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.

With shocking turns and dark secrets that will keep you guessing until the very end, The Last Mrs. Parrish is a fresh, juicy, and utterly addictive thriller from a diabolically imaginative talent.

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Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

Listen for t he Lie follows Lucy. Years ago, Lucy was found wandering the streets, drenched in her best friend Savvy’s blood. She doesn’t remember what happened, but everyone else is convinced she killed her. Now a hit true-crime podcast is reopening the case, forcing Lucy back to her Texas hometown. As the investigation heats up, she must face her past and the terrifying question of whether she’s guilty after all.

What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn’t matter?

Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all and, if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. But after Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer.

It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life. But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast Listen for the Lie and its too-good looking host, Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one who did it.

The truth is out there, if we just listen.

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The Family Experiment by John Marrs

The Family Experiment is a sci-fi thriller set in a world where people raise virtual babies instead. In an overpopulated future, real children are out of reach for most families. The solution? Virtual Children, created in the metaverse. Ten couples compete on a reality show to raise a virtual child in a condensed nine-month experiment. The prize: the chance to trade their digital baby for a real oneor lose everything. A dark speculative thriller about technology, family, and greed. Here are 51 book club questions for The Family Experiment.

From the acclaimed author of The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and brilliant speculative thriller about families: real and virtual.

Some families are virtually perfect…

The world’s population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them.

But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show called The Substitute. It will follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child, or risk it all for the chance of a real baby…

Set in the same universe as John Marrs’s bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted thriller about the ultimate Tamagotchi—a virtual baby.

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The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry

The Perfect Child is about Christopher and Hannah who are desperate for a child, so when abandoned six-year-old Janie enters their lives, she seems like a dream come true. But Janie’s dark behavior quickly unravels their perfect home. Obsessed with Christopher and hostile toward Hannah, Janie’s manipulations test the limits of family. This is one of the disturbing thriller book club choice for October. Also check out book club guide for The Perfect Child.

A page-turning debut of suspense about a young couple desperate to have a child of their own—and the unsettling consequences of getting what they always wanted.

Christopher and Hannah are a happily married surgeon and nurse with picture-perfect lives. All that’s missing is a child. When Janie, an abandoned six-year-old, turns up at their hospital, Christopher forms an instant connection with her, and he convinces Hannah they should take her home as their own.

But Janie is no ordinary child, and her damaged psyche proves to be more than her new parents were expecting. Janie is fiercely devoted to Christopher, but she acts out in increasingly disturbing ways, directing all her rage at Hannah. Unable to bond with Janie, Hannah is drowning under the pressure, and Christopher refuses to see Janie’s true nature.

Hannah knows that Janie is manipulating Christopher and isolating him from her, despite Hannah’s attempts to bring them all together. But as Janie’s behavior threatens to tear Christopher and Hannah apart, the truth behind Janie’s past may be enough to push them all over the edge.

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The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

The Housem aid starts with Millie, a recent parolee who takes a job as a live-in housemaid but nothing is what it seems. Every day she cleans their mansion, cooks their meals, and cares for their daughter, while Nina Winchester grows stranger and crueller by the day. Andrew, Nina’s husband, seems kind but broken, and the narrator can’t help but imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. But the Winchesters aren’t what they seem and neither is she. When she discovers her locked attic room and the truth behind the family’s façade, it becomes clear someone is going to lose control. Here are best discussion questions for The Housemaid.

Welcome to the family, Nina Winchester says as I shake her elegant, manicured hand. I smile politely, gazing around the marble hallway. Working here is my last chance to start fresh. I can pretend to be whoever I like. But I’ll soon learn that the Winchesters’ secrets are far more dangerous than my own…

Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of…

An unbelievably twisty read that will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put this down!

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Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

In Intermezzo we follow Peter, a successful Dublin lawyer, polished on the outside but unraveling after his father’s death. He’s torn between the comfort of his first love, Sylvia, and the excitement of Naomi, a younger woman who doesn’t take life seriously.
His younger brother, Ivan, is a socially awkward chess player who has always lived in Peter’s shadow. In his own grief, he meets Margaret, an older woman with a complicated past, and their bond quickly deepens.
Through these two brothers and the people they love, Rooney explores desire, despair, and the fragile possibilities that come with loss and new connections.

An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

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The Wedding People by Alison Espach

If you enjoy quirky, character-driven book club books , The Wedding People is a great pick. Phoebe Stone arrives in Newport alone, hoping for one last indulgent trip after hitting rock bottom. Everyone mistakes her for a guest of the big event, and she ends up connecting with the bride in unexpected ways.
Both funny and heartfelt, Alison Espach’s novel explores chance encounters, fresh starts, and the surprising ways people can help us find new direction when life doesn’t go as planned.
It was one of the best books of 2024 . Also check out best book club questions for The Wedding People.

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe’s plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

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Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Demon Copperhead is set in southern Appalachia, and tells story of a boy born to a teen mom in a single-wide trailer. He has little to his name except his father’s looks, a sharp wit, and a will to survive. Told in his own raw voice, the novel follows him through foster care, child labor, bad schools, sports, addiction, love, and loss. Inspired by David Copperfield, Barbara Kingsolver reimagines Dickens’ themes for modern America. The book gives voice to kids growing up in poverty, showing both the hardships and the resilience of those in forgotten places. This is one of the best discussion-worthy book club choices for October.

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.

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