14 Best Social Thrillers That Will Change the Way You See the World

My Heart is a Chainsaw is a slasher thriller thats about more than just the blood and gore. It’s also an exploration of the Native American experience and the negative effects of gentrification. The story follows Jade, a half-Native American girl who’s obsessed with slasher movies and is convinced a killer has come to her town of Proofrock to exact his revenge on the people there. When the rich and beautiful Letha moves to town, Jade is convinced she’s the final girl who will save the town and stop the killer. But will Jade be able to reach Letha and teach her everything she needs to know about slashers before it’s too late?

Razorblade Tears follows Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons who have little in common aside from the fact that they both have a criminal past. They’ve also both lost their sons, Isaiah and Derek, two men who were married to each other and were both murdered. Both men are set on getting revenge for the tragic deaths of their songs, and so they band together to find out what happened to them and to find justice. This novel is a brutal and beautifully written thriller than confronts toxic masculinity, homophobia, and racism.

Right before I read The Other Black Girl, I watched the movie Bad Hair on Hulu, and I felt like the two totally paired extremely well together. I don’t want to give anything away, but if you’ve seen/read these, you’ll know what I mean! And they’re both social thrillers. The Other Black Girl is a a thriller set against the starkly white backdrop of the New York City publishing industry. Nella is an editorial assistant who is initially thrilled when Hazel is hired at Wagner books because it means she’s no longer the only Black woman in the office. But soon Nella begins to wonder if Hazel truly an ally or if she’s trying to pull Nella down. When threatening notes start appearing, Nella can’t help but wonder if Hazel is behind them.

This book looks at racial tensions by focusing on the stories of two families — one Korean American and one African American. Set in L.A., Your House Will Pay starts in the 1990s in the wake of the police shooting of a Black teenager. The fallout will affect these two families for years to come. And when another shocking crime hits the city in 2019, both families will collide in unexpected ways. What makes this story even more gripping is the fact that it’s based on a true story, the murder of Latasha Harlins in and the subsequent riots in 1992.

A government that is clamping down on people’s freedoms and creating new laws to control women’s bodies? Maybe this is too real to be considered a dystopia, but it’s certainly a social thriller. Set in the near-future, The Hush imagines a world where the British government has the authority to monitor all citizens. And young pregnant women are going missing. Midwife Emma is trying to be there for those who need her in a world that is becoming more and more frightening. But then her teen daughter Lainey becomes pregnant, and now the danger is at Emma’s doorstep.

Lakewood is a social thriller, sci-fi, and body horror all rolled into one, and it’s a terrifyingly real take-down of the way race and class divides our country, especially when it comes to science and healthcare. After Lena Johnson’s grandmother dies, she’s left to take care of her mother and pay back the family’s debts. Overwhelmed and unsure of what else to do, she drops out of college and take a job in the mysterious town of Lakewood, Michigan, where she will participate in mysterious scientific research. The pay seems good, and this job could solve all of her problems. But at what cost?

Notes on an Execution is a social thriller novel that was just released this month. This literary thriller deconstructs the story of a serial killer. Ansel Packer is on death row, and he’s scheduled to die in 12 hours. This is his story, told from the perspective of the women who are closest to him: his mother Lavender, his sister Hazel, and Saffy, the homicide detective who caught him. This is a fascinating story that interrogates the American justice system and our cultural obsession with true crime.

This final social thriller is another brand new one, and it’s one that breaks down issues of race, class, family, and more. Farrah Turner is the only Black girl at her country club that also has Black parents. The other Black girl is her best friend Cherish Whitman, but Cherish was adopted by white parents. Farrah calls her WGS (that stands for White Girl Spoiled). When Farrah’s family is hit with money problems, she sees this as her opportunity to get an inside look at how Cherish’s family lives. And so she goes to stay with the Whitmans. The longer she stays there, the more she becomes obsessed with their way of life. And despite her parents’ warnings that something is off about the Whitmans, Farrah feels compelled to stay with them as long as possible.