Six of the most polarizing mystery & crime books

Jeffrey Davies is a professional introvert and writer with imposter syndrome whose work spans the worlds of pop culture, books, music, feminism, and mental health. His work has appeared on HuffPost, CBC Arts, Collider, Slant Magazine, PopMatters, and other places.

At Book Riot Davis tagged six of the most polarizing mystery and crime books ever written. One title on the list:

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Here’s a perfect example of a polarizing mystery book, in that it generated controversy among readers and governments alike. Without spoiling anything, Gone Girl is known for its one big, supposedly mind-blowing plot twist that continues to divide readers (a plot twist that resulted in me declaring my hatred against this book for life and rating it one star on Goodreads circa 2014). And when you tell your friends a book has a mind-blowing plot twist, they’re all going to want to read it. Gone Girl was also adapted into a feature film starring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck, for which Pike was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Outside the literary community, this book was also banned in at least two U.S. states. Objections included sexually explicit material, LGBTQ references, suicide, drugs, violence, and profanity, to name only a few. Reminder: book bans are bad, and the censorship news cycle takes no days off.

Read about another entry on the list.

Gone Girl made Taylor Hutton's list of five novels with tantalizing anti-heroes, Nadia Khomami's list of five top psychological thrillers by women, Kaley Rohlinger's list of fifteen of the best books with unreliable narrators, Katherine A. Olson's list of five books with righteous female rage, Azma Dar's list of five dark novels that explore the sinister side of marriage, Jonas Jonasson's top ten list of books about revenge, Suzanne Redfearn's list of six novels about women trying to outrun their past, Max Manning's top ten list of psychopathic crime & thriller characters, Steven L. Kent and Nicholas Kaufmann's list of six favorite literary human monsters, Elizabeth Macneal's list of five sympathetic fictional psychopaths, Jo Jakeman's top ten list of revenge novels, Amanda Craig's list of favorite books about modern married life, Sarah Pinborough's top ten list of unreliable narrators, C.A. Higgins's top five list of books with plot twists that flip your perception, Ruth Ware's top ten list of psychological thrillers, Jane Alexander's top ten list of treasure hunts in fiction, Fanny Blake's list of five top books about revenge, Monique Alice's list of six great fictional evil geniuses, Jeff Somers's lists of the top five best worst couples in literature, six books that’ll make you glad you’re single and five books with an outstanding standalone scene that can be read on its own, Lucie Whitehouse's ten top list of psychological suspense novels with marriages at their heart and Kathryn Williams's list of eight of fiction’s craziest unreliable narrators.

--Marshal Zeringue