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Original poster

What was the last book that really gripped you?

85 replies

TittyGajillions · 01/05/2026 10:15

As in couldn't put it down, couldn't wait to find out what happens next?
I'm in a bit of a reading slump and haven't had that feeling of wanting to sit and just read for a while.
I have a long tbr but nothing is quite taking my fancy.

OP posts:
Cazziebo · 02/05/2026 10:23

The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

totally absorbed in both and sorry to reach the end.

Lifesd · 02/05/2026 10:18

Placemarking!

foxinasnowstorm · 02/05/2026 10:16

The lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. Just finished it-utterly amazing.

Gardenquestion22 · 02/05/2026 10:11

Still life, Sarah waters.

GreenHuia · 02/05/2026 09:52

Steve Cavanagh's Eddie Flynn series. I'm not reading them in order, started with 'Thirteen' and couldn't put it down.

WeirdyBeardyMarrowBabyLady · 01/05/2026 23:14

Huge recommend for All The Colours Of The Dark

fundamentallyauthentic · 01/05/2026 23:11

The most recent David Nicholls book, You Are Here.

Neolara · 01/05/2026 23:06

I've recently enjoyed All my mothers.

Just finished American Dirty which was interesting but an absolute catalogue of misery! I wouldn't say I enjoyed it.

Pinkissmart · 01/05/2026 23:00

Daisy Jones and the Six
Covenant of Water
Girl, Woman, Other
The Matt Haig, How to stop Time
Remarkably Bright Creatures

Original poster
TittyGajillions · 01/05/2026 21:12

Thanks everyone, I've read quite a few of these already but I'll check out the others.

OP posts:
ElliePhant28 · 01/05/2026 20:08

Also the Names by Florence Knapp. Our Book Group loved it.

ElliePhant28 · 01/05/2026 19:56

Gisele Pelicot’s book.

Framboisery · 01/05/2026 19:55

A Killer Question by Janice Hallett (this is very funny as well)

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

Reader19 · 01/05/2026 19:49

The Rose Field, and before that The Woman in White.

CatChant · 01/05/2026 18:06

I’ve been lucky recently. Since Christmas there’s been several reads of the dishes left unwashed, beds unmade, laundry pile towering and cats fed one-handed type.

In no particular order because I loved them all and found them well-nigh impossible to put down. Only sometimes paid work would insist on getting in the way.

Nonesuch by Francis Spufford,
Golden Hill by Francis Spufford,
Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford,
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers,
Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper,
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh,
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh.

heymammy · 01/05/2026 17:12

The Beartown series by Frederik Backman had me hugely invested and the whole bloody Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith Smile

Swallowdoubleandrunamile · 01/05/2026 17:01

Julia by Sandra Newman. It's Orwells 1984 seen from Julia's perspective.
It's definitely gripping. It's very tense and sometimes a stressful read. I'm loving it!!

AmberSpy · 01/05/2026 16:30

Mark Haddon's Leaving Home. It's an unusual structure, a series of vignettes from his life, illustrated mostly by him and his old family photos. I hadn't realised that he's a talented artist as well as an author. Really enjoyed it, quite a meditative sort of book.

Plump82 · 01/05/2026 16:28

I Who Have Never Known Men - I don't ever re-read books but I definitely will with this one at some point. I think about or regularly.
Another one called All My Mothers which was fantastic.
Both made me cry and were very emotional but I'm different ways.

stinkingbishop · 01/05/2026 15:45

Just finished the new John Lanchester, Look What You Made Me Do. Excellent. Other recent good reads have been The Correspondent, and Where D'You Go Bernadette.

flatsevenup · 01/05/2026 15:34

Just finished a far flung life by m. L. Sherman. Could not put it down!!

Triflingjelly · 01/05/2026 15:27

Have just finished Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient). I loved it. It's about loyalty, motherhood, love and a boy's lifelong yearning to understand the confusing disappearance of his parents.

Dappy777 · 01/05/2026 15:23

Jane Austen’s Emma. I had never read a word of Austen until recently, in spite of a degree in literature. I don’t know why. I just never got around to it. My god she is so good. Totally gripped me from page one. I now intend to read all her novels in chronological order.

PocketSand · 01/05/2026 14:51

Maybe my age or circumstance but the last books that really gripped me as in a miss your tube/bus stop were Crime and Punishment and one hundred years of solitude. Dostoyevsky and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Caterpillargirl23 · 01/05/2026 14:48

'The list of suspicious things' by Jennie Godfrey and another vote for Small Pleasures.