Need Suggestions - MST Novels With Manipulation/Gaslighting

djunamod

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Hi All,
I'm looking to up my reading of psychological suspense/thriller novels that specifically revolve around a main character who is not what he/she seems to be and who are manipulating everyone around them for their own gain. I think the clinical term for this kind of thing is gaslighting also.

A classic example of what I'm looking for is Ben Ames Williams "Leave Her To Heaven". The main character Ellen constantly manipulates the situation, showing herself to be one person but pulling the strings of everyone around her to get what she wants. Her character and her actions entirely control the story and the other characters, like a puppet master standing hidden above the stage and moving the puppets to his will.

I'm looking for both classic and contemporary suggestions.

Tam
 

djunamod

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Thanks, Mark :). I've heard of Gillian Flynn and of course the novel you mention, but never read her work. I'll definitely have to check that out.

Djuna
 

Wilde_at_heart

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John Fowles The Magus has a sort of 'puppet master', but he's only manipulating the MC from what I can remember.
 

airship wreck

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I second Gone Girl. It's an amazing example of what you're looking for, although you have to get through a good portion of the book before you see the pieces start to fall into place. Gillian Flynn's other work also fits the bill to some extent. Sharp Objects is my favorite novel of hers. I had a lot of fun figuring out which character was pulling the puppet strings.

Misery by Stephen King is well worth picking up too -- if by some chance you haven't heard of it, it's about how a manipulative woman is able to keep a man prisoner against his will. Part of this is explained away by extenuating circumstances (isolation, injury), but the gaslighting element hits both the reader and the protagonist pretty hard.

This might be irrelevant to your interests, but if you're open to reading YA novels about abusive relationships, I have a few suggestions that portray the basics of gaslighting well. Fault Line by Janet Tashjian and Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn are wonderfully realistic and do a good job of explaining what leads a person to gaslight, and what leads someone to fall for it. Dreamland by Sarah Dessen is decent too, if a little idealistic.