Thrilling Books to Read on a Plane

Are you due for a long flight? Watching movie after movie can get boring! For some, it’s nearly impossible to sleep 40,000 feet in the air in a cramped seat. Stuck in one place without wifi, there's no better place to pick up a good book from your reading list. Allow me to recommend some exciting thrillers for you to read to pass the time.

1. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of my all-time favourite writers, and Mexican Gothic is a masterpiece that will give you goosebumps. Set in 1950's Mexico, Noemí Taboada travels to her sister Catalina's small-town home after receiving a frightening message about Catalina's husband, Virgil Doyle, whom Catalina believes is trying to poison her. As Catalina is in a strange state, Noemí snoops around the creepy estate to learn more about the Doyle family—and what she discovers is disturbing. And after having bizarre visions, Noemí must plan her escape. You are sure to fall in love with Moreno-Garcia's writing after this.

2. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

If you want to feel your heart racing, this book has danger lurking on each page. This is not just an addictive murder mystery set in an old manor—the main character is also trapped in a time loop. Having no memory of his past life, Aiden Bishop wakes up in a forest calling the name Anna. He soon finds himself waking up in a different body each day, and that he must solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle before time runs out, or before someone or something kills him in one of his bodies first. It is fast-paced and highly addictive, with plot twists lurking in unexpected corners. And do not forget—beware the footman!

3. Bunny by Mona Awad

What would this list be without a dark academia novel? Cult meets writing workshop in Bunny. Set on a college campus, Samantha Heather Mackey is studying to get her MFA in fiction at Warren University. In her small cohort, she despises a peculiar group of four women in her thesis class that she calls, "The Bunnies," as the women call each other "Bunny." Samantha is isolated and lonely, struggling with writers block. And one day, when "The Bunnies" send Samantha an invite to a party, Samantha decides to attend on a whim. Samantha is slowly sucked into a the group, and starting to feel like she is finally a part of something. But "The Bunnies" also have a dark secret to inspire their creative juices—one that gets quite messy.

4. Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Vicious is a thrilling storey of relentless determination and revenge. Victor Vale and Eli Cardale are insanely smart and academically competitive college roommates. But they take one experiment for a class project too far as they test and discover that near-death effects can cause superhuman abilities. Victor gets arrested after trying to self-induce his own powers, and plots revenge on Eli, who uses his gained superhuman abilities to go off on his religious mission of murdering others with powers. V.E. Schwab writes with such exhilarating clever prose that it is nearly impossible to put this book down.

5. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Necromancers competing in an abandoned castle in space! This book crosses many genres and is a treasure on my shelf. Set in a star-system of nine planets, each planet sends a necromancer and their cavalier to a faraway planet to complete trials for the chance to become Lyctors, or immortal necromancers. Gideon Nav, a snarky and charming eighteen year-old, is trying to escape the Ninth House when Harrow coerces her to be her cavalier in the trials. Each of the many characters in this book are full of mystery and intrigue. The castle is seemingly haunted with danger at each corner, and one day a dead body is found. The weird keeps getting weirder, and I admit I had to sleep with the light on after binge-reading this work of art. The best part—it is a series!