what book had you so gripped...

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. I'm reading it at the moment and cannot wait to get vto bed so that I can continue!
here

I shall watch this thread for ideas.

The Kevin book had me gripped too. Another one that kept me up most of the night was The Handmaid's Tale, really had to find out what happened, read it in one sitting, great book.

Lots of horror novels have had the same effect. I liked the girl who loved tom gordon, cujo and geralds game (read all of these in one sitting), although I enjoy Stephen King anyway. Probably lots more but can't recall any others that really gripped me.

There was one by Whitley Streiber and someone else, called I think, Natures End. I loved that book, it was futuristic (dystopian) kind of in a running man vein.

Saw the thread title and thought of One Day too. Read it on holiday last week and LOVED it and couldn't pit it down. Is a 'light' easy read but nowt wrong with that.

A Madness of Angels and it's sequel, The Midnight Mayor - wonderful, evocative, scifi - if you liked NeverWhere you'll love it.

Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger - couldn't put it down

Michel Faber - The Crimson Petal and The White.
One of those books that you think about all the time, even when not reading and weeks after finished, expect to bump into characters on the street. Beautiful!

Also 'We Need To Talk About Kevin'.... disturbing, engrossing, fabulously written novel. Not much these days keeps me awake until 4am. That one did.

Oooh, I LOVED I'm not scared. I was bloody scared, I can tell you. Also the Italian film of the same name is quite good too.

I loved loved loved the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson but you need to be a bit of a geek plus also love a bit of history to enjoy them - on the other hand, if you love that sort of thing then you've got 900 pages of joy ahead and then you can also have Cryptonomicon for afters!

Also recently enjoyed Q by Luther Blissert (the authors' name is actually a psedonym for a group of italian anti-establismentarians) - all about the reformation and power within the Catholic church throughout Europe - fascinating, really well written and multi-faceted.

And I have just finished Toast by Nigel Slater. I've always loved his recipe books but I think I actually want to be his mum now. His childhood was so sad and he writes so poignantly, that I was really blown away.
I even snuck it into the loo at work to keep reading!

Oh I'm intrigued, off to google

Well if your local library has a copy of Cinammon Wharf, brilliant historical love story with some twists

notasize I didn't see it coming either-don't want to give too much away to PBM though...but I was so glad I was reading that bit at home and not on the train as I was in pieces

Can second One Day, didn't see the ending coming at all and was completely floored by it. Definitely one that stays with you.

CatIsSleepy thank you I will look out for it, sounds exactly what I was looking for

Neverwhere.
By Neil Gaiman.

I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti, great page-turner.

The Passage

PlumBumMum re gripping love story, have you read One Day by David Nicholls? I thought it was brilliant, great characters, cleverly done, very funny as well as very gripping and it made me sob like a baby

Recently read 'Betrayal' by Helen Dunmore-it's a sequel to 'The Siege'

DCs and DH were completely ignored that weekend.

Oops! Just realised its Julian Fellowes, not Julian Barnes!

All the Shardlake books by CJ Sansom. They are Tudor crime stories about lawyer/detective Shardlake..by god you really think you are in them. I couldn't put them down. Actually I think there is a new one recently out

Ooh yes I enjoyed Snobs too! I read that on holiday a couple of years back.

The Straw Men by Michael Marshall. It was the first of an excellent trilogy and had me riveted.

I'm stringing out the third one too, although have found I'm not as gripped as the first 2

Belligerent it took me ages to get into girl with a drogon tattoo but I stuck with it and loved it, 2nd book is better IMO.

Although on the look out for a gripping love story now

Cinammon Wharf is a firm favourite of mine, and I don't know where my copy is

An American Wife. Its huge but I whizzed through it.

Murder Mysteries by Agatha Christie or Dorothy L Sayers, because I always want to know 'whodunnit'.

Getting through Her Fearful Symmetry fairly quickly at present.

Snobs by Julian Barnes- not sure why but found myself sneaking upstairs to read bits of it during the day.

Anything by Kate Atkinson

What Was Lost- can't remeber author- but my God it was gripping,I couldn't put it down.

Was disappointed by The Road, I wanted more from it.

The Road.

Intensity - Dean Koontz.

This had me totally gripped and it is quite long but it is so involved and just grabs you at the start and drags you uncomfortably right to the end. Horrible story but really scary and gripping.

The Stand is amazing but was too long to not be able to put down but still totally amazing and involved story.

Angels and Demons - the book was great but the film just didn't do it justice. I liked it much better than Da Vinci and I sooooooo didn't want to like these books!

I always wanted to like classics and more intellectual novels but I can't stop reading stuff like The Stand either....