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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UWindsor chapter.

The ‘thriller’ genre is an umbrella term for fiction that usually includes some combination of crime, horror, and detective fiction. With guaranteed unexpected plot twists and continued suspense, it’s a genre I’ve quickly started to love, especially during the Halloween and fall season. Here are three books within this huge genre I consider must-reads to wrap up the Halloween season before the Christmas frenzy begins. 

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Technically classified as a ‘mystery thriller’, this series follows high school student Pip trying to uncover the truth behind the disappearance and murder of fellow student Andie Bell. Even if the series is three books long, they are ‘young adult fiction’ so the writing is simple and easy to follow; I finished the first two in just a couple of days. The plot is well fleshed-out with lots of unexpected twists that made the book impossible to put down. The TV-series adaptation made a lot of changes, so I recommend reading the books first to get the best of Jackson’s storytelling.

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

With just over 100,000 ratings on Goodreads, I consider this novel a hidden gem. In My Dreams I Hold a Knifeis about six friends reunited a decade after their college graduation, where they’re all forced to confront each other to unveil the secrets of their friend’s unsolved murder. It’s a classic ‘who-done-it’ situation in a moody dark academia atmosphere that can be best described as a psychological thriller. The elements of a psychological thriller that Winstead depicts best include unreliable and unstable narrators and lots of moral conflict. However, this book is not ‘young adult’ so themes and content are more complex and heavy.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Even if this book was published in 2015, I consider it to be a staple of the thriller genre, particularly the psychological thriller subgenre. The Girl on the Train takes place in modern grey and sullen Britain. Our main character Rachel takes the same train every day and idolizes the couple she sees sitting on a balcony near one of her stops, until she swears she sees something that she feels she must report. Hawkins does a great job of slowly revealing the true nature of Rachel’s personality and what led her to rely on daydreaming about the couple’s life. It’s another great example of an unreliable narrator and blurs the lines of judgement versus reality.

Long story short, each of these books have lots of unique plot twists and will be impossible to put down. They’re also a great introduction to the thriller genre that skim the surface of what the category has to offer. 

Alexandra Frasinel is the 2024-2025 Senior Editor for Her Campus at the University of Windsor. She has been editing for Windsor's Chapter since 2022. She also dedicates time as the Finance Lead for Windsor's Engineers Without Borders chapter. Alexandra is currently studying Environmental Engineering. In her free time, she loves reading and playing video games.