Best book you've ever read, that you absolutely couldn't put down?

[PollyPocketLucyLocket]

I'm looking for suggestions. Inspired by another thread about getting love of reading back.

I would rather like something that made you feel some emotion. I'd love one that is so chilling, it keeps you stuck to your chair over fear

Sad ones would be good too. Just to balance it out, which books have made you laugh, or feel positive?

The Siege by Helen Dunmore. Harrowing in parts but couldn't put it down.

@longhaulstress You are the first person I've seen to suggest "These is My Words" It truly is an amazing book but nobody has ever heard of it.
If you want sad OP I'd also put "A Song for Issy Bradley" by Carys Bray on the list. Couldn't put it down.

Larry McMurthy 'Lonesome Dove'
Marcel Pagnol 'Jean de Florette'
Donna Tartt 'The Goldfinch'

Dark Valley (Joe Donnolly)

Started reading in the bath. 4 hours later I was still in there, still reading. Hadn’t even added more hot water I was so engrossed. Also, one of the only books that has brought me to tears.

Duncton Wood (no body has ever heard of last one but it's a bit like watership down)I I have. In fact I had a clear out in the house recently and just forced myself to.send it and "The Stoner Eagles" to the charity shop😀

The Stand
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Anno Dracula Kim Gordon - I loved the concept.
Watcher Dean Koontz (Actually a lot of DKs books are more clever and insightful than people would think while they are dismissing the genre)
Servant of the Bones Anne Rice.
Diary of a Nobody is very funny (and a bit sad too.)
Brave New World Aldous Huxley
1984 George Orwell
Watership Down

Misery by Stephen King was the book I couldn't put down.

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller was one of the funniest, but I do have a warped sense of humour!

Flowers in the attic trilogy
Women who think to much
Delirium

The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith I couldn’t put down and I didn’t want it to end.

Another vote for Middlesex
The Magic Cottage is terrifying. I was scared to go to sleep
On the Origins of Findo Gask made me laugh like a drain.
The Night Circus is another favourite

The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye was a book I wasn't able to put down.

Intensity by Dean Koontz. It's not the "best" book I've ever read, but the story is very chilling. It's one of those you can stop reading because you HAVE to see what happens next. It's no literary masterpiece to be sure, but it's a great read. Very much like a movie playing in your mind and very freaky.

Very scary book.

Dracula!

Kite runner. I couldn't go to sleep.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn - a fantastic thriller that I couldn’t put down.

My tip is Headhunters by Jo Nesbo. Thriller with some dark humour thrown in.

The Yellow Wallpaper - C Perkins Gilman
The Woman in Black - Susan Hill
The Stand - Stephen King
Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
Wolf Hall/Bring up the Bodies - Mantel
Burial Rites - Hannah Kent
Notes on a Scandal - Zoe Heller

All a bit spooky and gothic, all favourites, all rereads.

Nearly anything by Anthony Trollope sucked me in but I especially loved The Last Chronicle of Barset, Can you Forgive Her? and The American Senator. He writes lovely heroines/anti-heroines.

Many of Stephen Kings are unputdownable (and I came to him very late - thought I wouldn't like him). The Shining, The Dead Zone, and Misery particularly. I listened to Misery on tape and I screamed out loud in the car at one point.

I read Pride and Prejudice straight through when I read it first. My uncle in his 60s was given a copy of Jane Eyre and stayed up all night to finish it - he called me saying "why didn't you tell me the classics were like this?"

I never wanted A God in Ruins to end. I loved Gilead and there is an american writer, Cheryl Mandelson who has written a trilogy set in NYC which is lovely lovely lovely.

Just listened to Home Fire after reading this and thought it was excellent.

I also loved Susan Howatch The Starbridge Chronicles. - 6 in the series

Yes! I loved these. And the St Benet ones too. Really really engrossing.

Dorothy Dunnett, Lymond chronicles - series of six books, starts with The Game Of Kings. Brilliant historical novels, very emotionally intense particularly the last book.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.
It’s Jane Eyre from the mad wife’s point of view and is the most striking and beautifully written book I’ve ever read.

I've enjoyed a lot of the books mentioned here but my best ever was Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's science fiction but the author states that it didn't have to be set in space. His original concept was an entirely different setting. I read it in 2 days and still love it 30 years later.

Educated by Tara Westover
Women in the White Kimono

Loved both and couldn't put them down.

Pride and prejudice
Bonfire of the vanities
Girl on a train
The secret history

All very different and yet enthralling in their own ways

Precious Bane by Mary Webb - it is beautifully written (once you get a rhythm for the Shropshire dialect,) pulls at the heartstrings with pity and hope for Prue Sarn and has a happy ending.