Lia Anshar's Honest Pages

  Title: Confessions by Kanae Minato Genre: Psychological Thriller Published: August 19, 2014 Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5) Synopsis: Her pupils killed her daughter. Now, she will have her revenge. After calling off her engagement in wake of a tragic revelation, Yuko Moriguchi had nothing to live for except her only child, four-year-old Manami. Now, following an accident on the grounds of the middle school where she teaches, Yuko has given up and tendered her resignation. But first she has one last lecture to deliver. She tells a story that upends everything her students ever thought they knew about two of their peers, and sets in motion a maniacal plot for revenge. Narrated in alternating voices, with twists you'll never see coming, Confessions explores the limits of punishment, despair, and tragic love, culminating in a harrowing confrontation between teacher and student that will place the occupants of an entire school in danger. You'll never look at a classroom the same way aga...

  Genre: Psychological Thriller, Adult Fiction Published: August 18, 2026 Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5)  Thank you to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op and NetGalley for this gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review. This story is about Ivy, early 20s, who is dating Kai, a sweet guy whose big dream is making prosthetic arms for veterans. Ivy is super rich, and her father doesn't like their relationship; he already has someone else picked out for her. Kai’s family runs Lindholm Doors, and though the business is struggling, his father is there for him. Meanwhile, Ivy’s father's shadow haunts them. The book switches between Ivy and Kai’s POV. We watch them chase their goals, fight for their love, and actually get married. But then, things get real, and he suddenly changes. They hit a totally unexpected challenge that flips both their lives upside down, and suddenly their relationship isn’t just about disapproving parents anymore; it’s tangled up with mental health and messy circumstances ne...

  Genre: Horror, Thriller, YA Fiction Expected Publication: August 4, 2026 by Entangled Publishing  Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)  16-year-old Georgie is already annoyed enough when her influencer stepmother ships her and her brother Hamish off to some random wilderness reality show. Two weeks in the woods, no phones, constant cameras, and everyone there was basically forced to sign up, some for the money, some because their families didn’t know what else to do with their "troubled child". Then one morning the counselors are just gone. And something’s definitely out there in the dark, watching them, picking them off one by one. And the worst part? It’s not just hunting. It’s playing. This gives me a Hansel & Gretel meets Hunger Games vibe, set in the creepiest woods, and it works so well. It gets weird in the best way: supernatural spooky, tense, and you can tell how dangerous things are straight away. These kids are actually fighting to stay alive and figure out what is going ...

  Genre: Mystery, Thriller Published: March 30, 2026 by Ellery Kane Publishing Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5) In 1997, Sweetbriar High’s seniors buried a time capsule at graduation. That same night, their homecoming queen, Blair Lennox, vanished without a single trace. Fast forward to now, and Juniper Pickett is driving all the way from San Francisco straight back to that tiny town. She left her career as a psychologist and a whole mess of trouble behind her. The time capsule is getting dug up tomorrow, and if that happens, her worst secret is out for everyone to see, and she can't let that happen. I was hooked the second I read the premise: a time capsule reveal turns into unearthing a cold case; it sounded promising! I spent the whole book leaning forward like “what is she hiding? Did she actually do it??” I love the small town vibe here. Thrillers hit different when everyone knows everyone’s business, and also everyone’s hiding something. Kane captures the essence of a close-knit community ...

  Genre:  Mystery, Psychological Thriller Published:  July 21, 2026 Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5) "He never left my side. Not in jail. Not during my first chemo or surgery. Not during long nights when the pain felt endless."  At 4 AM, Nicole gets the news that her daughter Lacey was found barely alive in the woods, covered in blood, next to her friend’s husband who’d been stabbed 44 times. And ever since that night, Lacey hasn’t said a single word. Not to cops, not to her husband, not even to her own mother.  Now Lacey’s locked up, her three children are stuck with an unreliable father, but Nicole knows her daughter. She’s no killer. That silence isn’t guilt; it’s pure fear. Whatever went down in those woods scared her more than prison ever could. So Nicole starts digging and quickly learns some secrets that destroy everything. If you’re only here for a straight-up "whodunit", this might surprise you. The mystery bits are totally addictive, creepy, and page-turning,...

  Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5) "Feeling his words like something tightening around me, I take a deep breath. 'I haven’t killed her yet.'" What would you do if you couldn’t stop thinking about killing someone? That’s exactly what Jemma Stelling is dealing with in The Opposite of Murder. She’s so scared she might actually kill her stepmother, Marianne, that she does something totally unexpected: she walks into a police station and confesses, "before" she ever does anything. She plans that if her dark thoughts are officially on record, she’ll never go through with it because she’d get caught right away. But things get wild fast: while she’s still talking to the cops, Marianne is found dead, stabbed exactly the way Jemma described. Now Jemma has a perfect alibi, but she knows way too much about the crime. Is she an innocent woman trying to do the right thing, or a mastermind who planned every detail? It’s such a clever idea that immediately pulls you in, though this isn’t...

  Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5) "There is no possible way you could know the truth. There’s no way you could ever guess that the killer is actually Steve. Wait. Oh, crap." Alice's husband, Grant, is dead. She's literally standing at her husband’s funeral, watching his casket being lowered into the ground. So, why does she keep seeing his face everywhere she goes? What exactly was Grant hiding, and is he really as gone as everyone believes? This is the most absurd thriller I have ever read, and I loved every second of it! Freida McFadden doesn’t follow the usual thriller formula here. Yes, this book is packed with plot twists, but not the kind you expect from thriller books. Instead, the surprises come with a sharp, satirical edge. You’ll find yourself pausing and thinking, “Wait, is this actually happening?” It keeps you off-balance in the best way possible. And here’s the thing, I’ve heard of musicians writing songs for their haters, and I honestly feel like this author wrote...

  Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5) "‘It’s not true!’ I say again. It may not be completely true, but it is a little true." Just One Bite by Miranda Rijks is a story about celebrity chef Brittany Cole who seems to have the perfect life: fame, success, and a lovely family. But everything falls apart when a clip of her shouting at her four‑year‑old goes viral. Before long, more “proof” surfaces showing her mistreating her daughter, and #bitchmom is everywhere. Brittany knows those videos aren’t real at all. Then someone close to her gets murdered, she suddenly has to navigate tough questions from the police.  Even though I hadn't read Miranda Rijks' books before, I realized she's a famous thriller author, so I was excited when I got the ARC. Maybe I got my expectations too high, but this book didn't impress me.  First, I think the story is dragging on too much because of the deepfake videos. I think it would be much better if the author played with this more and made the reader...

  Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5) “'You see,' he went on, 'I have something to discuss with you – something that may seem… well, it may seem like fate.'" The Clock House Murder by Yukito Ayatsuji is set in the eerie, isolated Clock House, packed full of rare and valuable clocks from all over the globe. Locals say it’s haunted by the ghost of a young girl who died there, so a group of ghost hunters decides to visit it. But their investigation takes a deadly turn almost immediately when one of them is killed and they’re trapped inside with a murderer on the loose. As the body count rises one by one, it’s up to Detective Shimada Kiyoshi to untangle the secrets of the house before everyone meets the same fate. When the cover says "the classic Japanese locked room mystery", I thought it would just have the same theme or same vibe, but it turned out to be exactly that kind of story. I spent my childhood watching Detective Conan, and that was exactly how every episode was go...

  Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5) "I watched you pick live insects off their glassy walls, hold them in the palm of your hand, pull off their limbs, crush them between your fingers." If you love psychological thrillers that play with your mind and make you question every character’s motive, Roofboy by Jess Blatchley is definitely for you. This novel centers on Sasha Marsh, a mother living a quiet life in Cotswold village, who will do anything to make sure her seven-year-old son, Gabriel, grows up happy, safe, and healthy. To everyone around her, Sasha seems overly cautious, even overprotective. People think that her behavior comes from deep trauma: she spent years living with a man she describes as a psychopath, and even after they separated, he didn’t leave them alone. In a terrifying incident when Gabriel was still a baby, her ex-husband kidnapped him. Given that history, it’s easy to understand why Sasha is so guarded, or is it? Here’s the twist no one sees coming: Sasha isn’t just tr...

  "Then I took out my phone and checked my Instagram. The likes were coming in super fast. Thousands of likes. Still, it wasn't enough."  If you’re looking for a short YA thriller that feels intense, eerie, and uncomfortably relevant, Never Leave Me Alone by Crissa-Jean Chappell might be exactly what you’re in the mood for.  This novel pulls you in from the opening chapters and rarely lets go, blending grief, internet fame, and reckless adrenaline into a cautionary tale about how far people will go just to be seen.  Seventeen-year-old Birdie thrives on danger. Through urban exploration, like climbing abandoned hotels, unstable buildings, and forbidden spaces, she chases the perfect shot for social media. The higher the risk, the better the photo. The better the photo, the bigger the attention.  But everything shatters when Micah dies during a dangerous climb. Birdie is left drowning in guilt. And then things get darker. Micah had been involved in a mysterious o...