Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Top Ten Tuesday with Author Brent Hartinger


I contacted various authors this month who wrote LGBT+ fiction and whose latest book was fit for the month of Halloween. Two of them chose the Top Ten Tuesday Halloween Freebie for next week, so I figured I'd post one today and the other next Tuesday. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Ten Twist Endings
by Brent Hartinger

I'm a huge fan of twist endings in books (at least when they're done fairly, and the author doesn't cheat). Here are a few of my favorites:

Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge: Just in time for Halloween, a horror novel that will make you never look at pumpkins the same way again.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: How reliable is this narrator exactly? The most interesting way to read this classic is as a story of a woman who has some serious projection issues when it comes to sex.

Follow You Home by Mark Edwards: This is a case of a book where I don't think the author plays entirely fair, withholding information that the narrator knows but doesn't reveal to the reader until the very end. But I still couldn't put it down.

Shattering Glass by Gail Giles: A kid is bullied. By the end of the book, someone gets shattered, but it's not necessarily who you think!

The Good Neighbor by A.J. Banner: A smart, cleanly-written domestic thriller set near Seattle (where I live).

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: I'm one of those who hated the ending of this book, because it requires characters to act in crazy, unbelievable ways. But the mid-book twist where the alternating narrators are both revealed to be extremely unreliable is hands-down brilliant.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card: Unfortunately, the author is a raging bigot, so I would discourage you from buying this sci-fi book (get it from a library instead). Regardless, the ending will blow your mind.

The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne: One twin dies, and the parents take the surviving child to live on an isolated island. Creepy things ensue. Is the ending far-fetched? Perhaps, but it still worked for me.

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk: Yeah, yeah, everyone knows the twist ending by now. But it's still a good one.

Grand and Humble by Brent Hartinger: I hate to include one of my own books, but [ahem] I'm especially proud of this twist, which (as far as I know) has never been done before, in any book or movie. And no one -- and I mean NO ONE -- has ever guessed it correctly.

THREE TRUTHS AND A LIE by Brent Hartinger

Brent Hartinger's latest book is Three Truths and a Lie, a psychological thriller with, yes, a twist ending! And also gay teens. Visit Brent at www.brenthartinger.com. Check out the book trailer for Three Truths and a Lie here

6 comments:

Kit @ Metaphors and Moonlight said...

I love a good twist! But of course I agree only if they're done fairly. But they're oh-so-fun when they are! Great list, I'll have to check some of these books, and Brent's :-)

Verushka said...

The recs are awesome -- more books to check out!

Angel Erin's Book Obsession said...

The Turn of the Screw and Gone Girl are great! Ender's Game is pretty good too and I especially love the twist ending for that one. I love a great twist. I'm such a sucker for them! 😊

Lisa Mandina said...

Ender's Game is the only one of those books that I've read, but yeah, it did have a major twist at the end. One that I really liked was Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Fun post!

Kate @Midnight Book Girl said...

I love Gail Giles, her books usually have a great twist but she's not a super widely known author so it's wonderful to see her here!

I need to re-read Fight Club though, because I really want to read Fight Club 2.

Lola said...

Good twist are so much fun, especially when you didn't see the twists coming or sometimes even when you did manage to predict it. I haven't read any of the books on your list but they all sound good.