Has the recent Netflix adaptation of Sarah Pinborough’s addictive novel got you on the hunt for more thrilling books like Behind Her Eyes? It isn’t surprising, however, the many plot twists in the novels on this list are!
Narrated by two women — Louise, a single mum and PA to therapist David Ferguson and Adele, the sleek stay-at-home wife of the aforementioned David. Louise unwittingly gets drawn into a bizarre love triangle as she battles with her romantic feelings for David at work and is befriended by Adele bonding over exercise, fashion and coffee.
It is almost like she is having an affair with them both little realising it is her that is being manipulated. Fantastically creepy, this mile-a-minute novel explores the lengths people will go to keep their secrets, it is a story of obsession, jealousy, the dark side of love perfectly blended with elements of fantasy.
Books like Behind Her Eyes will grip you from the beginning as you try to figure out who is telling the truth and I guarantee you will not see the endings coming! A word of advice before entering this list, trust no one.
Table of Contents
9 Books like Behind Her Eyes
The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides
Our first book also explores the intricacies of marriage and what lies beneath a seemingly perfect exterior, it is Alex Michaelides 2019 novel The Silent Patient.
To the outsider, Alicia Berenson’s life must be perfect, but when she shoots her famous fashion photographer husband five times in the face no one can quite believe or understand it. After the incident, Alicia refuses to speak a word to anyone leaving the reasons behind her seemingly senseless act of violence down to the public’s very vivid imagination.
Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist adamant that he will be able to get Alicia to talk and get to the bottom of why she shot her husband, a determination that takes him down a path he never expected, forcing him to examine his own motives behind wanting to solve the mystery so much.
A psychological thriller with a shocking twist, The Silent Patient sure does pack a punch, ticking all the boxes that readers of books like Behind Her Eyes want in their next read!
Have you already read this novel? Check out our list of books like The Silent Patient!
The Shining, by Stephen King
If you liked Behind her Eyes for the fantastical elements so expertly bound to the real defying the very nature of reality then I am sure you will enjoy The Shining, too.
Jack Torrence, recently appointed caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, is looking forward to a fresh start, to spend more time with his family and on his writing.
At first, the position offers him and his family the fresh start they need but, as the harsh winter sets in and the hotel is cut off from local amenities, strange forces appear to be at work.
Danny, Jack’s five-year-old son seems to be the only one who can notice these strange goings-on, old Mr Hallorann, the hotel cook, warns Danny that the hotel is a dangerous place for someone like him, a “shiner” who glows with psychic voltage. A claim which appears to be true as we follow Danny on his trippy stay at the Overlook trying to determine what is real, what isn’t and what is going on.
Exploring themes of isolations, insanity, violence, family and the paranormal, The Shining is Stephen King at his finest – a terrifyingly brilliant read.
Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
Gillian Flynn’s 2012 thriller Gone Girl took the world by storm and it is no wonder with such a fast-paced page-turning plot, once you start you will not want to stop with this book.
Nick and Amy Dunne are seemingly happy. They met in college, married and moved back to Missouri to help out with Nick’s sick mother. They are about to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary when Amy disappears.
All the Police have to go on is Amy’s diary entries and Nick acting suspiciously, certainly not the way you’d expect the bereaved, worried husband of a missing wife to behave which unwittingly makes him a prime suspect.
Told from both Nick and Amy’s alternating perspectives we find out the truth about their relationship and what really happened to Amy with an ending you just won’t believe (or see coming).
If you like Behind her Eyes for the opposing dual narratives that manipulate the reader and the destructive side to love then Gone Girl will be the perfect next read for you.
Have you already read this novel? Check out our list of books like Gone Girl!
Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
Since publication in 1937, Rebecca has been shocking readers with her dark, Gothic, psychological plot, it is a novel I enjoy returning to time and again even though I know what is coming.
Recently married to the handsome, wealthy, charming widower Mr Maxim de Winter, our narrator is completely swept off her feet and moves into Manderley, his glorious Cornish estate with him. Unfortunately, their honeymoon period doesn’t last long as she quickly finds herself living in the shadow of Rebecca, his first wife who died under suspicious circumstances.
With reminders of Rebecca everywhere and the devilish housekeeper Mrs Danvers stoking the fires of her self doubt, our narrator begins to despair. She tries to find out what she can about Rebecca, her death and her seemingly perfect marriage to Maxim but what she discovers neither she (or we) are expecting…
Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca is an enduring read, perfect for anyone looking for their next thrilling novel like Behind Her Eyes.
Have you already read this novel? Check out our list of books like Rebecca!
The Guest List, by Lucy Foley
We are transported to Ireland for the wedding of the century in our next book The Guest List by Lucy Foley.
It is the wedding of Will Slater, a rising television star, and Jules Keegan an ambitious magazine publisher. Everything is perfect, the location, the dream dress, the lavish cake, the guest list, the wedding is planned to perfection.
Of course, there are the usual snags the same as on any other big day; drunk groomsmen, a ruined bridesmaid dress, petty jealousies oh, and a dead body turns up before the cake is even cut!
Stuck on this remote island with terrible phone signal, we try and find out not only whodunnit but whytheydunnit — who didn’t wish the happy couple well?
The Guest List is the perfect escape, it is a gripping twisty-turney modern take on a classic murder mystery, one that readers of books similar to Behind Her Eyes will enjoy getting to the bottom of.
Have you already read this novel? Check out our list of books like The Guest List!
Trust No One, by Paul Cleave
The protagonist of our next novel starts questioning his own fiction as his mind starts to slip, it is the satisfyingly suspenseful Trust No One by Paul Cleave.
Jerry Grey is a famous crime writer, known by readers under his pseudonym Henry Cutter and for the brutally murderous content of his novels. Sadly, his successful writing career, which spanned more than a decade, comes to an end when he is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease at the untimely age of 49.
With his diagnosis, Jerry starts to question his reality as the lines between fiction and fact start to blur, he shockingly admits to all the crimes he wrote about, a confession which friends and family put down to the disease leaving readers to question, like Jerry, what actually happened?
As advised before starting down this shocking list of books like Behind Her Eyes, it is best to trust no one because even our narrators aren’t as reliable as they seem as expertly portrayed by Cleave in his aptly titled novel Trust No One.
Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk
Now a popular film of the same name starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, our next novel has an ending that will shatter all perceptions, it is Chuck Palahniuk’s mind-bending Fight Club.
The novel’s protagonist is an insomniac. Tired from not being able to sleep and his monotonous life, he finds some relief by attending support groups for the terminally ill. That is until he meets Tyler Durden, a charismatic soap salesman with an infectious zest for life and making trouble.
Together they create Fight Club an underground, bare-knuckle fighting club, where similarly disenfranchised men come each weekend and fight for as long as they have to in a bid to escape the prison of their mundane lives.
But when Tyler and our narrator fall for the same girl their friendship is put to the test to cataclysmic effect which will leave you, like the narrator questioning what — and who — is real.
Told in disjointed flashbacks Palahniuk keeps you guessing until the very end in his infamous Fight Club, the perfect read for anyone after a book similar to Behind Her Eyes.
Have you already read this novel? Check out our list of books like Fight Club!
And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie
Crime fiction and mystery novels are expert at nailing the plot twist, (it is always the person you least expect)!
For me Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime, and in particular her novel And Then There Were None has one of the best plot twists revealing the murderer and motive behind the killings of ten total strangers stranded on an island. All ten are seemingly unknown to one another but they have one thing in common — they are all guarding dark secrets.
When the guests start dropping dead one by one under suspicious, unexpected “accidental” circumstances the remaining guests start to fear for their lives, but with no way off the island can they get to the bottom of who is doing this to them before they or someone else dies…?
And Then There Were None lures you in just as easily as all the guests were lured on to the island, fans of novels like Behind Her Eyes will enjoy finding out the truth and learning about all the dark and dastardly secrets each character harbours.
Have you already read this novel? Check out our list of books like And Then There Were None!
Shutter Island, by Dennis Lehane
Another book like Behind Her Eyes which has been made into a successful film, it is Dennis Lehane’s gripping 2003 novel, Shutter Island.
Marshal Teddy Daniels and his colleague Chuck Ale find themselves on Shutter Island investigating a mysterious case at the creepy Ashecliffe Hospital, home to the criminally insane. They are investigating the disappearance of Rachel Solando. Imprisoned for drowning her three children, she is kept under lock, key and constant supervision therefore her disappearance is suspicious to say the least.
With a hurricane battering the island hindering their investigation, it appears that not everything is as it seems at the Ashecliffe as we follow Teddy and Chuck on their search for Rachel and, as it is gradually revealed, the man Teddy believes to have killed his own wife too.
Set in 1954 with the absence of mobile phones and today’s technological advancements, Shutter Island has all the ingredients of the perfect gripping, gothic novel-a great way to finish this list of shocking books.
Have you already read this novel? Check out our list of books like Shutter Island!
It is not surprising that books like Behind Her Eyes are so popular, they are impulsive to read hooking you in from the start until you find out what the hell is going on!
Are you looking for more books like Behind Her Eyes? Have any recommendations that didn’t make the list? Let us know in the comments!
