Books About the Dark Side of Small Town Life

This installment of Riot Recommendation is sponsored by Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick. It is the summer of 1948 when a handsome, charismatic stranger, Charlie Beale, recently back from the war in Europe, shows up in the town of Brownsburg, a sleepy village nestled in the Valley of Virginia. All he has with him are two suitcases: one contains his few possessions, including a fine set of butcher knives; the other is full of money. A lot of money. Heading Out to Wonderful is a haunting, heart-stopping novel of love gone terribly wrong in a place where once upon a time such things could happen. _________________________ Last week, we asked for your favorite books that expose the dark side of supposedly idyllic small town life. Here’s the round-up of your suggestions from Facebook, Twitter, and the comments. anything by Donald Ray Pollock almost every single Stephen King book American Gods by Neil Gaiman Bleeding Kansas by Sara Paretsky Dark Places by Gillian Flynn So Much Pretty by Cara Hoffman Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson Peyton Place by Grace Metalious Your House is On Fire, Your Children Are Gone by Stefan Kiesbye The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson Little Wolves by Thomas Maltman Across the Universe by Beth Revis Hemlock Grove by Brian McGreevy Volt by Alan Heathcock Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury Methland by Nick Reding Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy Saul and Patsy by Charles Baxter To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The Lottery by Shirley Jackson most Flannery O’Connor books Small Things by Bruce Diamond The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne What would you add?