Thriller · Similar reads
Books like Dark Places
The best books like Dark Places are Gone Girl, Sharp Objects, and In the Woods. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn is about trauma and survival, false memory and testimony, poverty and desperation. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.
- Gone Girl
01
Gillian Flynn · Thriller
On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy Dunne disappears from her home in Missouri.
A kindred thriller read.
Read the summary → - Sharp Objects
02
Gillian Flynn · Thriller
Reporter Camille Preaker is sent back to Wind Gap, Missouri — the small town she escaped a decade earlier — to cover the murders of two young girls.
A kindred thriller read.
Read the summary → - In the Woods
03
Tana French · Mystery
Dublin detective Rob Ryan is called to investigate a child's murder at an archaeological dig in Knocknaree — the same woods where, twenty years earlier, two of his childhood friends vanished without a trace and Rob was found clinging to a tree, bloodied and with no memory of what happened.
A kindred thriller read.
Read the summary → - In Cold Blood
04
Truman Capote · Memoir
Truman Capote's account of the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas — and of the investigation, capture, trial, and execution of the killers Perry Smith and Richard Hickock — is the founding document of the true crime genre and one of the most admired works of American nonfiction of the twentieth century.
A kindred thriller read.
Read the summary → - Killers of the Flower Moon
05
David Grann · History
In the 1920s, members of the Osage Nation in northeastern Oklahoma were being murdered.
A kindred thriller read.
Read the summary → - The Surgeon
06
Tess Gerritsen · Thriller
The Surgeon is the first book in Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli & Isles series, though it begins primarily as a Jane Rizzoli solo novel.
Both dig into trauma and survival.
Read the summary → - The Alice Network
07
Kate Quinn · Historical fiction
The Alice Network alternates between two timelines and two women.
Both dig into trauma and survival.
Read the summary → - The Poppy War
08
R.F. Kuang · Fantasy
Rin is a war orphan from a poor southern province who claws her way into Sinegard, the empire's elite military academy, by acing an exam she was never supposed to pass.
Both dig into trauma and survival.
Read the summary → - The Sparrow
09
Mary Doria Russell · Literary fiction
The Sparrow opens with its ending: Father Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit priest and linguist, has returned to Earth as the sole survivor of humanity's first contact mission to the planet Rakhat, broken in body and will in ways the novel withholds until the final chapters.
Both dig into trauma and survival.
Read the summary → - A Time to Kill
10
John Grisham · Thriller
In Clanton, Mississippi, two white men rape and nearly kill ten-year-old Tonya Hailey.
A kindred thriller read.
Read the summary → - Along Came a Spider
11
James Patterson · Thriller
Along Came a Spider introduces Alex Cross, a Black homicide detective and forensic psychologist working in Washington D.C., in the case that made James Patterson a bestseller.
A kindred thriller read.
Read the summary → - Angels & Demons
12
Dan Brown · Thriller
Physicist Leonardo Vetra is found dead at CERN with a symbol burned into his chest: the Illuminati ambigram.
A kindred thriller read.
Read the summary →
Books like Dark Places: quick answers
What are the best books like Dark Places?
The best books like Dark Places by Gillian Flynn are Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, In the Woods by Tana French, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Dark Places, such as trauma and survival, false memory and testimony, poverty and desperation.
What should I read after Dark Places?
A natural next read after Dark Places is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. A kindred thriller read. Other strong choices are Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, In the Woods by Tana French, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.
What books are similar to Dark Places by Gillian Flynn?
Dark Places centers on trauma and survival, false memory and testimony, poverty and desperation. Books with a similar feel include Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, In the Woods by Tana French, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
