“I used to take the subway to work, and the only time I missed my stop because of reading it was this book. And it wasn't even the first time I'd read it.”

“Read this recently, expecting to read it off and on for like a month, and devoured it in two days. My copy (maybe all copies??) had the maps and some photos in the middle, which I didn’t expect to love as much as I did, lol.”

About the book: This is the personal account of a real disastrous event. It details Krakauer's experience in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which eight climbers were killed and several others were stranded by a storm.

“Only read it last year, but devoured it in two days.”

“I called in sick just to finish 11/22/63, zero regrets about it.”

"Just finished the audiobook. 50+ hours and I had my earbuds in my ears for almost a week straight."

About the book: This epic historical fiction novel follows Jake Epping, an English teacher who discovers a portal that allows him to travel back to 1958. Deciding to saty in the late '50s, Jake attempts to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, but history (and time travel) works in mysterious ways...

"This book reminds me of Black Mirror. It's uncomfortable but you can't put it down. I thought the concept was absolutely fascinating."

About the book: This dystopian horror novel depicts a world where a deadly virus makes all animal meat poisonous. The result of this elimination of the option to consume animals, society thus decides to legalise and normalise the breeding, butchering, and consumption of humans.

"It is such a good pick. Once it gets going, it’s ridiculously hard to put down."

About the book: This nonfiction thriller is all about the origins and incidents involving viral hemorrhagic fevers, particularly ebolaviruses and marburgviruses. It's unsettling, fascinating, and a truly terrifying true story. 

"I couldn't put it down for the last two hundred pages. Incredible book. I'm not one to get emotional for books, but there were at least a couple times I was tearing up."

"That’s the kind of book where finishing it feels less like reaching the end and more like saying goodbye to people you actually knew. Lonesome Dove earned every one of those pages."

About the book: This epic Western novel follows former Texas Rangers Augustus "Gus" McCrae and Woodrow Call, who leave their dusty border town of Lonesome Dove, Texas, to drive a herd of cattle all the way to the wild Montana Territory.

“When I started a one-hour commute for work a few years ago, I thought I'd use the opportunity to listen to some audiobooks. The first book I chose was The Count of Monte Cristo. It was a bad choice because I enjoyed it so much that nothing else ever lived up to it afterwards! I would pull up after work and stay in the car until the current chapter finished, but wished I could hear the next chapter.”

“You look at a 1,200-page brick of a book and think it's going to be a slog, then you look at the clock and realise it's 3am. and you just blew through 300 pages without moving. It has no right being that fast-paced for something written in the 1840s.”

About the book: We follow Edmond Dantes, who is incarcerated for a crime he has not committed. While imprisoned, he learns of untold riches and hoards of treasure stowed away on the Isle of Monte Cristo, and thus endeavours to escape, locate the treasure, and use it to plot the demise of the men who wrongfully locked him away. 

“I started it one night and basically refused to sleep until I finished. The twists just keep pulling you.”

About the book: This psychological thriller novel centres around a toxic marriage and the mysterious disappearance of a woman named Amy Dunne on her fifth wedding anniversary. Her husband, Nick, is a prime suspect as we (and the police) begin to discover secrets about his life, but twists and turns keep us guessing throughout. 

“I skipped a week of classes at university for these books. I woke up and would read until I passed out. Repeat until both were done.”

About the book: This historical fiction novel is set in England during the Middle Ages, where a monk attempts to build the greatest Gothic cathedral ever seen. Every character, no matter their status, becomes entwined in this story of romance and intrigue.

"Just when you think it can't get any weirder, it doubles down. Then it doubles down on that, and continues to do so until the end. I couldn't put it down.”

About the book: This fantasy novel is set in New Crobuzon, home to Isaac, a gifted and eccentric scientist who has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. When a half-bird, half-human creature known as the Garuda comes to him, Isaac is faced with problems he has never before encountered. Though the Garuda's request is scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity to accept. 

"Absolutely absorbed by the story and its many mysteries. Barcelona is my absolute favourite holiday destination I have visited, and so that made the story even better. Just couldn't put it down!”

About the book: Barcelona in 1945, Daniel, the grieving son of an antiquarian bookseller, discovers a mysterious novel by the obscure author Julian Carax, titled Shadow of the Wind, and becomes determined to find the author's other works. His search leads him into a dark mystery when he learns that someone is destroying every single copy of Carax’s books, drawing Daniel into a scandalous tale of murder, madness, and love.

“I tore through this book in just a couple of days. I was so interested to find out what the hell was going on, and the setting was so captivating. I have Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell on my shelf for next year. I can't wait.”

About the book: This speculative fiction follows our narrator, who lives in a house like no other. It's endless chambers, corridors, and great halls, lined with limitless unique statues are continuously submerged by the great ocean that also exists within the boundless house. Piranesi has been methodically exploring this wondrous home in almost complete isolation; but as he begins interacting more with the house' one other occupant, he begins to understand an unsettling truth. 

"It hooked me so hard right off the hop. I had to put it down for a while in the middle of book four, but once I picked it back up again it was full steam ahead until the series was done. Just finished a week ago.

About the book: Humans have expanded beyond earth, and there exist divided areas where humans inhabit, with the three biggest 'powers' being Earth, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt. We follow a ragtag crew who are trying to make sense of a series of disasters, after a peculiar substance is found that threatens life everywhere. Political tension is ripe, and we watch as the internal divisions between people of Earth, Mars, and the Belt grow alongside a threat that looms over all. 

"Once I was able to get into this book, it consumed my life. I was also on a temp leave from work and had nothing but time so I was completely absorbed."

"Nobody told me how fun this book was to read. It gets rightly talked about as a psychological thriller, but it’s also a whimsical metacognitive puzzle. Loved it!"

About the book: This unique genre-bending horror/thriller is about a young family who move into a small house on Ash Tree Lane. They soon discover the nightmarish reality that their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, and the endless abys behind a closet door that begins to derail their lives.

"I read it in one day, two sittings. It was almost two years ago and I still think about it often."

"Whenever my brain is free to do what it wants, it puts me back in this story. I don't think I'll ever stop thinking about this one."

About the book: Soren Johansson, a lifelong Mormon believed that when he died he'd be reunited with his loved ones in an eternal afterlife, he was wrong. Instead, when he passes away, he is cast to a Hell he'd never imagined that takes the shape of a vast, expansive library, with only one way to escape.

Additional thumbnail credits: Miramax Films