Who doesn’t love a good twist? The moment that makes you gasp, literally. The sentence that changes everything you thought you knew. The reveal that characters you thought were trustworthy were actually the bad guys the whole time! As a voracious reader, I often pride myself on being able to predict plot twists, but there are some truly brilliant titles out there that have completely stunned me. I’ve gathered a list of some of these books for you to check out below!
WARNING: I do not give away the actual twists in any of these books, but obviously I am telling you every one of these books has a twist. If you consider the knowledge of a twist to be a spoiler, well. You’ve been warned. Read at your own risk.
And onto the books!
16 Books With Plot Twists You Have to Read to Believe
1. The Best Lies by Sarah Lyu
She was happy once. Remy had her boyfriend Jack, and Elise, her best friend—her soul mate—who understood her better than anyone else in the world. But now Jack is dead, shot through the chest… And it was Elise who pulled the trigger. As the police investigate, Remy does the same, sifting through her own memories, looking for a scrap of truth that could save the friendship that means everything to her. Told in alternating timelines, this twisted psychological thriller explores the dark side of obsessive friendship.
2. All Eyes on Us by Kit Frick
In this taut, tense thriller about two teens who find their lives intertwined when an anonymous texter threatens to spill their secret. Amanda Kelly is the daughter of small town social climbers, dating real estate heir Carter Shaw. Rosalie Bell is fighting to remain true to herself and her girlfriend against her Christian fundamentalist parents by carrying on a fake relationship with Carter on the side. Now, Amanda and Rosalie are roped into a bid to take Carter down and unmask their stalker, known as Private, before Private uproots their lives.
3. The Perfect Candidate by Peter Stone
When recent high school graduate Cameron Carter lands an internship with Congressman Billy Beck in Washington, DC, he thinks it is his ticket out of small town captivity. But when a fellow staffer turns up dead, Cameron’s low profile makes him the perfect candidate for an FBI investigation that he wants no part of. Before he knows it—and with his family’s future at stake—he discovers DC’s darkest secrets as he races to expose a deadly conspiracy. If it doesn’t get him killed first.
4. Here Lies Daniel Tate by Cristin Terrill
It seems too good to be true when Daniel Tate, missing since he was ten, turns up on a snowy street in Vancouver six years later. And it is. That boy isn’t Daniel Tate. But he wants to be. A young con artist, this impostor has stumbled onto the scam of a lifetime: every comfort and privilege with a family that loves him. Until he realizes that maybe Daniel isn’t missing at all. Maybe someone knows what really happened to the boy he’s pretending to be…and if he can’t uncover the truth—he could be next the next Daniel Tate to disappear.
5. The Sisterhood by A. J. Grainger
When Lil sees a girl lying in the road near her house she thinks for a heart-stopping moment that it’s her missing sister, Mella. The girl is injured and disorientated and Lil has no choice but to take her home, even though she knows something’s not right. The girl claims she’s from a peaceful community called The Sisterhood of the Light, but why then does she have strange marks down her arms, and what—or who—is she running from?
6. Dangerous Lies by Becca Fitzpatrick
Stella Gordon is forced to make a fresh start in Thunder Basin, Nebraska when she witnesses a violent crime and becomes part of the witness protection program. She can’t tell anyone who she truly is, not even Chet Falconer, the one boy who makes her want to reveal her true self. But danger is fast approaching, and Stella may have made the one mistake that could lead the cold-blooded men hunting for her right to her doorstep.
7. This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada
Seventeen-year-old Cat Agatta is a hacker — specifically a gene-hacker, living in a world where people are implemented with technology to recode their DNA, and the world is beset by a devastating plague. But it’s possible her father found a cure. The only problem is he’s dead — and he’s hidden it so only Cat can find it. Please trust me when I tell you this book has the single most buckwild plot twist in the history of plot twists. I screamed out loud!
8. Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten
The cops say June’s ex-best-friend Delia burned herself to death, a gruesome suicide. But June doesn’t believe it. Before the night a year ago that changed everything, June and Delia were closer than anything. June knows Delia didn’t kill herself. She was murdered. Now June just has to find out who did it — a truth that is more complicated than she can imagine, and will totally shock you.
9. See All the Stars by Kit Frick
Then, they were four — Bex, Jenni, Ellory, Ret. (Venus. Earth. Moon. Sun.) Electric, headstrong young women; Ellory’s whole solar system. Now Ellory is alone, her once inseparable group of friends torn apart by lies, deception and a shocking incident that changed their lives forever. Told in alternating timelines, this debut will have you turning the pages to figure out just what happened then to make Ellory so broken now.
10. The Place Between Breaths by An Na
Sixteen-year-old Grace’s mother struggled with schizophrenia for years until, one day, she just disappeared. Ever since, Grace and her father have been consumed with finding a cure. And one day, they make a breakthrough. Grace stumbles across a string of code that could be the key. But something inside Grace has started to unravel. Mesmerizing and disturbing, this book is unputdownable.
11. The Wicked Deep by Shea Earnshaw
Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow, where two centuries ago three sisters were sentenced to death for witchcraft and drowned in the waters surrounding the town. Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return — stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls and luring boy into the harbor to drown them. Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year something’s different — a boy named Bo Carter has arrived, unaware of the danger he’s stumbled into.
12. Scythe by Neal Shusterman
A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, and no misery: humanity has conquered all of those things. Humanity has conquered death. Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life — and are commanded to do so, in order to keep the population under control. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice the honorable Scythe Faraday, a role neither wants, and that will put them into the midst of a political battle that neither one is prepared for.
13. Bad Girls With Perfect Faces by Lynn Weingarten
When Sasha’s best friend Xavier gets back together with his cheating ex, Ivy, Sasha knows she needs to protect him. So she poses as a guy online to lure Ivy away. But Sasha’s plan for petty revenge goes sickeningly wrong. And she soon learns to be careful of who you pretend to be, because you might be surprised by who you become. Lynn Weingarten is the queen of twisty books, and her latest will leave you reeling.
14. I’ll Never Tell by Abigail Haas
Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends have jetted off to Aruba for Spring Break of their senior year. It’s meant to be fun, exciting, and debaucherous. But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, accused of the crime. But who really did it? After all, doesn’t everyone seem guilty if you look closely enough?
15. Identical by Ellen Hopkins
Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical down to the dimple. Daughters of a district-court judge father and a politician mother, they’re the perfect all-American family — on the surface. Beneath the façade, each sister has her own dark secrets. Secrets that aren’t meant to be kept. Pretty soon it’s obvious neither sister can handle it alone, and one of them must step up to save the other. The only question is — who?
16. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
When Clary heads out for a night of dancing at the Pandemonium club, she’s not expecting to witness a demon slaying. With that, Clary’s thrown into the world of the Shadowhunters, elite warriors who hunt the monsters of the world. When Clary’s mother is kidnapped, she must turn to the Shadowhunters to get to the bottom of it all. Another true shocking twist is at the end of this book — if you want to see my actual-real time reaction, check out my post about reading City of Bones for the first time here!