Book Lovers Series

Book Lovers: Episode 1

Episode 1: My Sister, the Serial Killer & Gone Girl

June 19, 2020


In this episode, Jess and Joseph discuss unreliable narration in psychological thrillers by focusing on two big titles from the last decade: Gone Girl, the smash bestseller by Gillian Flynn, which details the disappearance of a woman on her fifth anniversary, and My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, which is about exactly what it sounds like it’s about. Although these novels were written over six years apart, they share some big traits regarding narrative style and trust, how family helps define main characters and their motives, and control.




Titles discussed:

  • Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
  • My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
  • 50 Shades of Grey by EL James
  • Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda
  • The Social Network and Gone Girl, directed by David Fincher
  • “A Rape on Campus”, published in and retracted by Rolling Stone (Correction: Jess refers to this as taking place at Virginia Tech, but it was at UVA)
  • The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
  • Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky