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5 Books to Read if You’re a Fan of Jordan Peele’s Us

by  | April 29

I’m not the biggest fan of horror movies. Not only am I the biggest chicken ever, and I shriek and flinch like I’m being tortured by the villain on the screen, but my scaredy-catness will linger for several days as I replay the nightmare over and over again in my mind. So, you might wonder why I subject myself to Jordan Peele films since I’m so jumpy that a complete stranger once offered to hold my hand during The Ring. I am willing to get over my fears in order to see groundbreaking films like Get Out and Us that explore race relations in America, feature hilarious dialogue, and present chilling scenes that make you want to talk back to the screen. Usually “Oh hell naw” is the only thing I can manage to mutter between my clenched teeth. Us was particularly disturbing to me because it was about psychotic doppelgängers who terrorize a family at their beach house. There is nothing scarier to me than being attacked by your bizarro self and bizarre loved ones! If you’re a fan of Us, narratives that explore the duality of self, and doppelgängers, then I’ve got a list of books for you!

The Outsider

The Outsider

by Stephen King

An eleven-year-old boy’s body is found brutally murdered in a park, and several eyewitnesses see beloved Little League coach, English teacher, and devoted father Terry Maitland leave the scene of the crime. No one wants to believe that he could be behind this heinous act, but his DNA and fingerprints are all over the body. What confuses everybody is that Terry has an airtight alibi and several witnesses—both colleagues and strangers—can verify that he was miles away when the boy was murdered. Not only is the book creepy AF, but it plays into one of my biggest fears, being accused of a crime I did not commit!

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The Need

The Need

by Helen Phillips

Molly is a stressed mother who is trying to do it all. She’s a paleobotanist who has uncovered some controversial artifacts at a fossil quarry, including a Bible with feminist leanings that has attracted media attention and crazed conspiracy theorists. At home, she’s simply a frazzled mom trying to take care of her four-year-old and one-year-old while her musician husband is away on tour. One night, while she is home alone with the children, she is dramatically confronted by an intruder wearing an eerie deer mask. The masked intruder seems to know everything about Molly and her family, and when the mask finally comes off, the results are haunting.

 Releasing July 2019

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Fight Club

Fight Club

by Chuck Palahniuk

Most likely you’ve seen the cult classic film with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, but have you read the novel Fight Club? Everyone knows that the book a film or TV series is based on is almost always far superior, so what better way to revisit the story of Tyler Durden and his after-hours boxing matches than with the actual novel? Will you be able to see the twist coming? Talk about the ultimate alter ego!

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Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go

by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go is such a haunting piece of dystopian fiction that it really feels like it could take place in the near, near future. It’s Black Mirror before there was a Black Mirror. I have read the story of Kathy H., a “carer” for organ donors, at least three times. Kathy reminisces about her life growing up in an idyllic English boarding school called Hailsham. The boarding school is secluded and the children are kept separate from the rest of society. It isn’t until the children become teenagers and graduate that they realize what their life purpose truly is. Never Let Me Go is so beautifully written, and the film it was based on doesn’t do it justice. Don’t even bother watching it (you can see I have strong opinions about this masterpiece) and go out and buy the book if you haven’t read it already.

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The Likeness

The Likeness

by Tana French

The Likeness is the sequel to Irish crime novelist Tana French’s detective novel In the Woods. The book is set six months later and Detective Cassie Maddox has asked to be transferred out of the Dublin Murder Squad to Domestic Violence. She thinks she is done with investigating murders, when a woman is found killed and looks just like Cassie herself. Even more surprising is that the woman had an ID with an alias that Cassie used to use when she was an undercover police officer. Cassie is suddenly thrust back into the world of homicide as she tries to find out who killed this girl and who she was?

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Photo Credit // ABC/Todd Wawrychuk

Categories // Movies

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