Gripping reads please!

[SaltResistantSlug]

I don't like slow-moving Booker nominee type stuff, but then again I don't like chick lit, so I'm looking for something in between.

I ADORED "You" by Joanna Briscoe and generally enjoy books about controversial or intense relationships. Have read her other book already.

Sorry to be vague - but intense domestic stuff is probably the best way I can describe it! Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

Into The Darkest Corner - Elizabeth Haynes. - very intense, shocking in parts but a real page turner.

Oh and maybe you'd like Notes on a Scandal - Zoe Heller, and Affinity - Sarah Waters - both involve intense female relationships.

Thanks Kurri - have read NOAS but will defo give the others a try!

Me Before You - Jojo Moyes, One Day - David Nicholls, The Paris Wife - Paula McLain, Still Missing - Beth Gutcheon

Tiger Hills is centred around an Indian family and is a good read. Have you seen What Should I Read Next?? It was recommended on a MN thread a bit ago and is great for finding new books .

Tenderness of Wolves. Quite gripped by the end.

Tiny Sunbirds far away by Christine Watson

Any Anne Tyler novels... The Accidental Tourist and Breathing Lessons are fabulous.

Or, Claire Morrall's Astonishing Splashes of Colour is also very good.

I didn't find any of them slow-moving, but they are all literary award winners.

I didn't like many of the ones mentioned here, so I may well be completely useless to you, sorry.

There's one called 'The Little House' iirc. It might be by Philippa Gregory. I thought it was pretty terrible tbh but it does contain a fairly intense relationship thing going on - between a woman and mil.

How about, 'A Handful Of Dust' by Evelyn Waugh? Brick Lane? Anita And Me? What's that other one that everybody liked and I hated - was it called, 'Revolutionary Road' or something like that?

Will go away now as I may be way off!

i'd second anne tyler and have you tried any maggie o'farrell after you'd gone is a gorgeous book.

Thw Wicked Girls by Alex (or Andrew maybe) Marwood. I downloaded it for the Kindle this week, and wasn't sure if I would like it or not so I got the sample first. It's not the sort of thing I usually read, but I was bored and it was cheap and it was so GOOD. I was glued to it.
It's a crime/murder mystery/thriller but also, the present day plot is all tied into the pasts of the people involved, and the past and present storylines sort of run beside and through each other as we find out a little bit more each time. Every time I thought I knew what was coming, I was wrong, it had some brilliant twists and turns.
It was quite "full on" not so much gory, as psychologically - without spoiling the plot, there's a child killing in it, as well as several other murders. It brought Jodie Picoult to mind, but it was so much better than her stuff - was just reminiscent in the way she gets inside her characters heads, so you really get what they're thinking iykwim.
The actual prose was great, you know when you read a sentence and it's just so right that you go back and read it again? I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone who likes thrillers or murder mysteries.

I LOVED The Little House (it is Philippa Gregory) - I think it's very well written, and the ending is fantastic. Just the kind of novel you describe in your OP, OP!

Another vote for Little House. Was recommended that one by a friend a few years ago and loved it.

Another vote for into the darkest corner. Finished it last night having started it in the morning. Couldn't put it down and totally creeped out!

Also, the snowman, Jo nesbo

Another vote here for The Little House, fantastic book. Also The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell, and another one of hers called After You'd Gone.

Ooh yes, both of those aswell.

Into the Drakest Corner is ace - not so her second book, which is garbage.

Darkest

Try Liz Jensen too. 'The Ninth Life Of Louis Drax' is the best but you may also like 'War Crimes For The Home' and 'The Rapture.'

Feenie - we'll have to agree to disagree re, 'The Little House.' I thought the ending was preposterous! :)

I loved that ending - was incredulous that ITV changed it (not that I watched it, not a fan of flim/TV adaptations generally).

I read it when ds was a baby, which might have affected my engagement - found the same with 'Room' which I read when ds was 5, adds a whole new dimension to your involvement!

Ooh, Room, OP - have you read it?

Also, Nicci Gerrard (one half of Nicci French) is very good at the kind of novel you are after - Things We Know Were True is the best.

Any Wally Lamb book is fantastic too - I Know This Much is True is my favourite.

And She's Come Undone.

Yes, I think the OP will like 'Room' too. I liked the first half (ie in the room) but really, really hated the second half. I didn't know they'd made a TV prog out of 'The Little House' and agree with you re it not being at all the sort of thing I'd want to watch.

You sound very hard to please, Remus

Have recently read 'Putting Alice Back Together' by Carol Marenelli, and enjoyed it so much that I looked for others. Unfortunately, this led to the discovery that she is primarily a Mills and Boon author, mostly 'Medical Romances' - ick!

Who the hell reads Medical Romances - and surely that's a fetish?