Tales of the ultrawealthy behaving badly span all genres of fiction. There’s a certain glamour to them — a vicarious thrill of peeking into a rarefied world that’s normally behind well-guarded doors. But when it comes to reading about the upper upper classes, I’m personally only interested if the story includes them facing consequences. Preferably big ones.
Thriller
Cherish Farrah
by Bethany C. Morrow
Cherish and Farrah are teenage best friends living in a wealthy, predominantly white neighborhood. Farrah is the daughter of Black professionals; Cherish, the adopted Black daughter of white parents. Cherish is a little bit sheltered. Farrah is a little bit unhinged. When Farrah’s family is faced with foreclosure, Cherish’s family happily takes her in. But their eagerness to help masks ulterior motives. What follows is a downward spiral of deception, power dynamics and white saviorism, culminating in a climax that made my jaw drop.
Horror
Model Home
by Rivers Solomon
As children, the Maxwell siblings moved into a model home in a wealthy Dallas neighborhood, becoming the only Black family in the gated community. But something in the house was never quite right. All three siblings have stayed away as adults, but the untimely deaths of their parents draw them back, restarting a cycle they thought they had left in the past.
The tone of this novel is unique and unsettling, keeping you on edge even before the horror ramps up. I love a haunted house book, and I was fascinated by the idea of a brand-new house being haunted — whether by supernatural forces, or by something far more horrifying. Read our review.
Thriller
Social Creature
by Tara Isabella Burton
Louise, a 20-something eking out a living in New York City, meets the superrich, superhot Lavinia when she’s hired to tutor Lavinia’s little sister. The two of them fall into a codependent friendship that, like most such relationships, sparks quickly and fizzles even quicker. This particular fizzling, however, involves embezzlement, identity theft and murder. The characters are deeply unlikable, but just as deeply compelling. I was repulsed by Lavinia, but as soon as I finished the book I found myself opening the RealReal to hunt for her looks. Read our review.
Fantasy
The Children
by Melissa Albert
When their mother writes a blockbuster children’s fantasy series, Guinevere and her older brother, Ennis, go from the progeny of starving artists to those of wealthy celebrities practically overnight. From the outside, their lives at their parents’ Vermont estate seem magical: no school, a constant stream of creative guests, vast woods to explore. In reality, they’re neglected by their mercurial mother and absent father, and aware that something in the farmhouse is very wrong.
The book is told in dual timelines, with child Guin navigating new money and old magic while present Guin contends with long-buried secrets and promotes a sanitized memoir. It’s a thought-provoking exploration of the ways money and power intersect with artistry, and an unsettling portrait of how (not) to balance motherhood with a creative life. Read our review.
Horror
House of Hunger
by Alexis Henderson
This historical horror novel is basically Elizabeth Báthory but make her Sapphic and even creepier. Marion, an orphan and scullery maid, escapes poverty by becoming a “bloodmaid” to the wealthy Countess Lisavet, willingly giving her blood in exchange for food and shelter (a scenario that seems less and less far-fetched these days). Lisavet takes a special interest in Marion. But when her fellow bloodmaids start disappearing, Marion has to figure out what’s happening before she’s next. Read our review.
Fantasy
Savage Blooms
by S.T. Gibson
“Savage Blooms” is an erotic Gothic fantasy in the tradition of Anne Rice. In a crumbling Scottish mansion, a noblewoman and her groundskeeper/lover are bound by a generational faerie curse. When two American tourists stumble upon the manor and get stranded by a storm, they are embroiled in a sexy, surreal game of cat-and-mouse. This book is an absolute banger (and the first in a planned trilogy). I can’t wait to see how Gibson continues interrogating the dynamics of attraction, power and the price humans will pay for glory.
Literary Fiction
The Secret History
by Donna Tartt
You can’t talk about rich people behaving badly without talking about dark academia, and you can’t talk about dark academia without talking about “The Secret History,” which set the standard for the genre. Richard arrives at Hampden College hoping to study classics. But enrollment in those classes is limited to a chosen few handpicked by a professor who favors the wealthy and eccentric. When Richard is finally accepted into the fold, he learns that those eccentricities have a dark side, with deadly consequences. Read our review.
Horror
It Rides a Pale Horse
by Andy Marino
Wealth, art and labor meet cosmic horror in Marino’s novel about a pair of artist siblings. Lark’s reclusive sister, Betsy, is kidnapped by superrich art collectors and held as collateral to force her brother to create a very specific sculpture, using instructions from a strange book, that will bring about the apocalypse. This book really makes you think about art as physical object, and how its collection is often more about power and status than enjoyment. A twisty and unsettling line of thought, but an important one.
Fantasy
Red City
by Marie Lu
In an alternate Los Angeles, crime syndicates of alchemists rule the streets, creating and selling a performance-enhancing drug called sand. Sam and Ari, a pair of childhood friends and alchemists, are adopted into rival outfits run by filthy rich mob bosses and brainwashed into doing their dirty work — gnarly business under a veneer of wealth and excess. There’s betrayal, magic, twists aplenty and romance(s) that had me climbing the walls.
Horror
Midnight Rooms
by Donyae Coles
This atmospheric, Gothic fever dream follows Orabella Mumthrope, an impoverished noblewoman in 1840s England who is married off to the wealthy Elias Blakersby to settle her family’s financial woes. At first, Elias seems like an ideal husband. But his house makes no sense, Orabella is dizzy all the time, and his family is … weird. Like, possibly inhuman weird. Reading this book felt like how I imagine eating a faerie feast: beautiful, dangerous and intoxicating.
Thriller
When No One Is Watching
by Alyssa Cole
Last but certainly not least, this contemporary thriller kept me up way past my bedtime. Sydney is a Brooklyn native whose neighborhood is rapidly changing, gentrified by wealthy white folks who are moving in and pricing out longtime residents. That’s a horror story in itself, but there’s something more sinister going on here. As Sydney delves deeper into the history of her neighborhood, dark patterns begin to show up, and she has to put the puzzle pieces together before she, too, is disappeared.
The post In These Novels, Rich People Behave Badly. Very Badly. appeared first on New York Times.
