Jane Eyre is an orphaned governess who develops romantic feelings for her employer, Mr. Rochester, a man ensconced in tragedy. Sent away to an orphanage as a child by her cruel aunt, Jane’s attachments in life have been few. At Lowood, she gains a friend whose perspectives enable Jane to reign in her anger and…
Category: Psychological Fiction
The Child by Fiona Barton
Emma is an at-home book editor, riddled with anxiety, cowed by her domineering mother, Jude and her unusual upbringing. She wishes she knew who her father was, and struggles to forgive her mother for kicking her out of the house as a young teenager. Jude never got over the subsequent loss of her charismatic boyfriend,…
The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley
A very astute Catholic boy loves to play soldiers and other adventure games with his mute brother Hanny. But the young boys’ wanderings along dangerous coastal tides and discovery of a rifle will lead to such monstrosities (especially in the surrounding woods one night), that Hanny will suppress the memories as an adult, leaving only…
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Once every ten years, a village girl of seventeen is selected by the wizard in the tower known as the Dragon. Everyone believes the beautiful Kasia will be chosen, not her best friend, the plain Agnieszka whose only talent is finding things like blackberries near the dangerous, corrupted Wood. But when Anieska is able to…
The Night Sister
Beside an empty motel in New England stands the “Tower of London” in Vermont, built by the motel owner for his wife. A little girl named Amy grew up in a house beside her grandfather’s ruined dream, raised by her grandmother, who kept the many secrets their family was cursed with. Jason, a neighbor boy…
Don’t Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon
Don’t Breathe a Word is an equally exciting and terrifying tale for anyone who’s ever believed in a fairy world, or the dark shadow man who lurks behind doors and at the corners of our vision.
In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
In a Dark, Dark Wood is a large house with glass walls, host to a “hen party” weekend that ends with Leonora Shaw in a hospital room. Narrated from her hospital room, Nora tries to piece together her memories and heal from the injuries of the last violent night in the isolated cabin. Nora hadn’t…
River Road by Carol Goodman
Nan Lewis is a creative writing professor at Acheron College in upstate New York. Tormented by the tragic death of their young daughter on the dangerous bend of River Road, her husband Evan left Nan to crawl inside a bottle every night. In the evenings after teaching, Nan still hides there from her writing, which…
Insomnia by Stephen King
Insomnia by Stephen King is very different from his other horror novels: less gruesome, gory, and terrifying, more supernatural and speculative. It will challenge any preconceived notions or beliefs you have about fate and chance, life and death, and everyone’s purpose and even powers in this world. A sleep-deprived elderly man named Ralph is susceptible…
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
“Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again…” Rebecca is the greatest and most haunting Gothic novel, the one to which all others written since have been compared. Set in the English countryside in the 1920’s, in a mansion by the sea, Maxim de Winter lives with his much younger new bride, whose name…