Welcome back to my latest Top Ten Tuesday post! This week we’re looking at the top ten things on our reading wishlist! Examples given are “tropes, a time period, a specific type of character, an issue tackled, a certain plot“.
I’ve had to think hard about it this week, but I think I’ve managed to come up with some really good ones, for me, anyway!
More historical fiction with mysteries
I really love historical fiction when its plot is a little mysterious but I don’t think there are enough out there! Not enough that fit my reading type anyway. The Miniaturist (4 stars) and The Wonder (5 stars) are two historical fiction novels with some mystery in them that I love!
More game show dystopians
OK, so this one is really specific but after reading The Last One (5 stars), I’ve had this huge itch to read another game show dystopian novel… If you know of any, please comment what they are!!
More from Sarah Lotz
Ever since reading The White Road (5 stars) I’ve been eager to get my hands on more of Lotz’s work, but she only has a couple of other books! I want more!
More widowed men with mysterious wives
There are so many thrillers out there where the husband dies and then the wife starts finding out dodgy stuff about him that she didn’t know while he was alive. I wish there were more books that changed the roles up, that it was the wife who was dead and was hiding stuff during her lifetime.
I also find widowed male characters to be more endearing for some reason, so maybe that’s another reason I’d like to see this kind of book.
More creepy / murderous children
This can sooo easily get cheesy and terrible but when it’s done right, having a creepy child in a book is so fear inducing. How can such a little human be so far removed from innocence? I love it! The Bad Seed and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (3 stars) are just a couple of examples of creepy children books!
More mysteries set on islands
Again, I guess this is kind of specific, but I like the idea of mystery thrillers set on small islands. I suppose this is kind of like that close-knit community thing that’s super popular, but I want mine on a little island, rather than in a village on a big island lol.
More creepy but mundane thrillers
This sounds like it’s really boring lol but what I mean by this one is that I want more thrillers that aren’t trying to be the most outlandish things in the world. I get that domestic thrillers don’t always tend to do this, but I want non-domestic thrillers that are based around mundane things.
My example for this is A Pleasure and a Calling (5 stars) where the thriller and mystery aspect is based around an estate agent that keeps the keys to your house after he sells them to you and then lets himself into your house when you’re out and mooches around your house. That is basically it, and I loved it! I want more books like this pls.
More overbearing women
I actually talked about this earlier in my Listicle Tag post, but I love Annie Wilkes from Misery (5 stars) and I want to see more intimidating women like her in novels.
Even in books like PsychoAnalysis (3 stars) where the killer is a woman, they are always weak in some way and it bugs me that not enough authors write about hardcore women.
More “the husband didn’t do it” endings
To be fair, there are a lot of these kinds of thrillers, but still not enough! I’m sick of the husband being the bad guy all the time, give the male gender a break, authors!
More religious-true-crime non-fiction
I love books about religion and true crime. Under the Banner of Heaven (4 stars) was all about how some Mormons use their belief in their faith to excuse their murderous and other illegal acts, and I loved it! It was a really fascinating read.
I’d like to read more about this kind of thing… Where people are so delusional they really believe their God is telling them to kill other people.
Those are 10 things on my reading wishlist! I think I completed this list with the right idea? I was a little bit confused when I first saw the topic for this week!
If you know of any books that I’m looking for more of, please tell me in the comments!
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BookBum 
Yes to historical fiction with mysteries and more Sarah Lotz!
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Yes, we need more of her books! I’m going to try to get round to The Three and Day Four soon 😀
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They’re both great but I thought Day Four was just brilliant! Looking forward to seeing what you think.
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Great list! For historical fiction with mysteries, a few that come to mind: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Silent Children by Amna K. Boheim, Perfume by Patrick Suskind.
As for mysterious wives, Rebecca by du Maurier is a must-read if you haven’t already!
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Thank you so much for all your suggestions! I have Perfume & Rebecca on my TBR but I haven’t heard of the others so I will add them!! 😋
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More historical crime fiction! Have you read Corpus by Rory Clements set in 1930s Britain? It’s really good.
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Oo I haven’t! I will have to look it up n add to my TBR! Thanks for the suggestion 💖
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I love game show dystopian and yesss strong women!!! I loved Gone Girl because I felt like it played off of the “women are weak” trope and mocked it while still being a great thriller.
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Yes! Gone Girl definitely had a great strong female lead! I hated her and admired her all at the same time
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I hate creepy books, but omg creepy children sound the best. Even though I’d probably get scared out of my mind. XD
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Haha, I love creepy books! They’re my fave 😛
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Under the Banner of Heaven was a CRAZY read. It was really good, but holy crap. (No pun intended.) I seriously couldn’t believe some of the things I read in that book. I kept having to stop to tell whoever was in the room at the time what I’d just read. lol
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Sorry, this ALSO went into my spam, so I’ve only just seen it too! but omg same! I was telling everyone about what I read in that book. It’s beyond belief that these people could be so naive and messed up!
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My book club just read The Wonder, and we all loved it. I also liked Under the Banner of Heaven, but then again, I really like Jon Krakauer.
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Glad to hear you liked both books. I need to read more Jon Krakauer, his writing style is fab!
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Ooh, glad to see you loved The Last One! I’ve had it on my TBR FOREVER, which is actually ridiculous. XD
I love evil women, and would definitely like to see more of them! I also LOVE creepy kids, and would recommend The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne if you’re looking for more of it! I’ve actually never seen a book where a widowed man has a mysterious wife, so that’d be interesting!
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It’s sooo good! Definitely try and get your hands on it, I loved, loved, loved it! Oo, I have The Ice Twins on my shelf at home! I’ll have to get round to it soon then, if it’s got creepy kids 😏
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I haven’t heard of any of those except Misery.
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You should check some of them out! 🙂
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I’m totally on board with the mysteries on islands and the historical fiction mysteries! The creepy children one I would pass on though – I’m a chicken ha-ha!
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Haha, creepy children is certainly a bit of a niche subject! 😀
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It just creeps me out SO badly ha-ha!
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