2008 · Aravind Adiga · 321 pages · Literary Fiction
A vicious, funny, morally uncomfortable novel about an Indian driver who murders his way out of poverty and feels no remorse about it, told with the relentless energy of a man who has figured out the game and decided to win by cheating.
2024 · Liz Moore · 480 pages · Mystery
A sprawling, meticulously constructed literary mystery set across two timelines in the Adirondack Mountains, where the disappearance of a wealthy family's daughter unravels decades of secrets about class, privilege, and the lies families tell to protect themselves.
1861 · Charles Dickens · 544 pages · Literary Fiction
Great Expectations is Dickens at his most controlled. The sprawl that characterizes his longer novels is reined in here, replaced by a tightly structured story about how ambition warps a decent person and what it takes to find your way back. Pip is not always likeable, and that's the point. Miss Havisham and Magwitch are unforgettable. The prose has all of Dickens's characteristic energy without the excess. If you've bounced off Dickens before, this is the one to try. If you already love him, you probably already know that.
1925 · F. Scott Fitzgerald · 208 pages · Literary Fiction
A hundred years after publication, The Great Gatsby still starts arguments. Its prose remains stunning, the symbolism rewards every reread, and its portrait of ambition rotting behind a beautiful facade hasn't lost a step. Characters are hollow on purpose and the plot is thin by design, but that doesn't change the fact that some readers will bounce right off both. It's a book that asks you to care about people who don't deserve it, set against a version of America that hasn't really gone away. That tension is exactly why it endures.
2019 · Kiley Reid · 310 pages · Contemporary Fiction
A sharp, entertaining debut about race, privilege, and performative allyship that lands its social observations with precision even as its plot mechanics occasionally feel contrived.
2017 · Celeste Ng · 338 pages · Contemporary Fiction
Celeste Ng's second novel uses a custody battle in the planned community of Shaker Heights, Ohio, to explore questions about motherhood, privilege, and the illusion of order that wealth provides. The novel is sharp, well-plotted, and populated with characters who feel real enough to argue about. It occasionally leans too hard on its thematic architecture, but the central conflicts are compelling and the writing is controlled and precise.
2018 · Sally Rooney · 266 pages · Literary Fiction
Sally Rooney's second novel tracks two people from the same small Irish town through four years of university, orbiting each other in a pattern of connection and missed connection that feels painfully accurate. The psychological depth is remarkable, the dialogue sharp, and Rooney's handling of class dynamics, mental illness, and the gap between what people feel and what they say is consistently intelligent. The lack of quotation marks and the characters' refusal to communicate clearly frustrate some readers, and the ending divides opinion, but this is contemporary literary fiction operating at a high level of craft and emotional honesty.
2023 · Emerald Fennell · 131 min · Drama / Thriller
Saltburn is a visually stunning provocation that divides audiences almost perfectly down the middle. Barry Keoghan delivers a magnetic performance, and Emerald Fennell's direction creates an atmosphere of decadent unease that's impossible to look away from. The film's shock moments have become cultural talking points, but underneath the provocation lies a somewhat thinner story than its style suggests. It's a movie that values impact over coherence, and your mileage will depend entirely on how much that trade-off bothers you.