Psychological Fiction | SuperSummary

Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Magical Realism, Health, Asian History, Gender & Feminism, Parenting, Asian Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Asian Literature

Translated from the Korean by Chi-young Kim, Please Look After Mom (2008) by Kyung-sook Shin is an international work of best-selling fiction. When 69-year-old So-nyo Park goes missing one Saturday outside Seoul Station, her disappearance sets in motion a desperate search not only for where So-nyo might be but for who So-nyo was to her shocked and confused family members. One by one, So-nyo’s family comes to terms with the fact that they didn’t know... Read Please Look After Mom Summary

Rabbit, Run

by John Updike

Publication year 1960

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Loyalty & Betrayal

Tags American Literature, Classic Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Love & Sexuality

John Updike’s novel Rabbit, Run (1960) is the first installment in his acclaimed Rabbit tetralogy, which chronicles the life of its protagonist, Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. The series follows Rabbit from his restless youth into his middle age through the subsequent novels Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit Is Rich (1981), and Rabbit at Rest (1990), the latter two both winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Set in 1959, the literary fiction novel introduces Rabbit as a 26-year-old... Read Rabbit, Run Summary

Reckless Girls

by Rachel Hawkins

Publication year 2022

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Trust & Doubt, Loyalty & Betrayal, Grief, Gender Identity, Friendship, Social Class, Equality, Justice, Revenge

Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Psychological Fiction

... Read Reckless Girls Summary

Red Dragon

by Thomas Harris

Publication year 1981

Genre Novel, Fiction

Tags Horror & Suspense, Classic Fiction, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Psychological Fiction

Red Dragon is a 1986 crime novel by Thomas Harris. The story follows the psychological profiler Will Graham, who comes out of retirement to track down a serial killer. The novel is famous for introducing the character of Hannibal Lecter, who would play an expanded role in the novel’s sequels. Red Dragon has been adapted for film and television.This guide is written using the eBook version of the 2000 Penguin edition of the novel.Content Warning:... Read Red Dragon Summary

Requiem for a Dream

by Hubert Selby Jr.

Publication year 1978

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Friendship, Loneliness, Social Class

Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Dramatic Literature, Psychological Fiction, Addiction & Substance Abuse, American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Classic Fiction

... Read Requiem for a Dream Summary

Revolutionary Road

by Richard Yates

Publication year 1961

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Marriage, Loyalty & Betrayal, Masculinity, Social Class

Tags Historical Fiction, Psychological Fiction, American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, World History, Classic Fiction

IntroductionRichard Yates’s novel Revolutionary Road was published in 1961 and was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1962, along with Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer, which won the award. The book was Yates’s first novel, though he had worked as a journalist and ghostwriter, writing some of John F. Kennedy’s speeches following his service in the US Army during World War II. In a 1976 interview for the literary journal... Read Revolutionary Road Summary

Room

by Emma Donoghue

Publication year 2010

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Mothers, Daughters & Sons, Grandparents, Childhood & Youth, Fear, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Conflict, Nostalgia, Memory, Love, Loneliness, Joy, Literature, Good & Evil, Fame, Justice, Truth & Lies, Trust & Doubt, Safety & Danger, Religion & Spirituality, Order & Chaos, Appearance & Reality, Animals, Environment, Plants, Food, Place

Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Trauma & Abuse, Crime & Law, Modern Classic Fiction, Dramatic Literature

IntroductionEmma Donoghue’s Room is a 2010 novel about a boy named Jack who lives in a single room with his mother, Ma. Room is a crime thriller novel that explores themes of trauma, innocence, and adaptability through the eyes of five-year-old narrator, Jack. Room has received many awards, including the ALA Alex Award, the Indies Choice Book Award for Fiction, and The New York Times Book Review Best Book of the Year award. Room was... Read Room Summary

Science and Human Behavior

by B. F. Skinner

Publication year 1953

Genre Reference/Text Book, Nonfiction

Themes Community, Order & Chaos, Power & Greed, Science & Technology

Tags Psychological Fiction, Science, Science & Nature, Philosophy, Sociology

... Read Science and Human Behavior Summary

Simple Recipes

by Madeleine Thien

Publication year 2001

Genre Short Story Collection, Fiction

Themes Family, Memory, Immigration

Tags Psychological Fiction, Coming of Age, Dramatic Literature, Trauma & Abuse, Addiction & Substance Abuse, Immigration & Refugeeism, Food, Asian Literature

Madeleine Thien is a Canadian writer whose work explores the trans-cultural world of Asian art, politics, and family life within Canada’s diasporic Asian Communities. She was born in 1974 to a Malaysian Chinese father and a Hong Kong Chinese mother. Thien studied contemporary dance but switched to creative writing as an undergraduate in college. She earned her MFA in writing from the University of British Columbia.Thien’s collection of short stories, Simple Recipes (2001, Little Brown... Read Simple Recipes Summary

Slave on the Block

by Langston Hughes

Publication year 1933

Genre Short Story, Fiction

Themes Shame & Pride, Race, Justice

Tags Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Race & Racism, Black Lives Matter, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, Social Justice, African American Literature

“Slave on the Block” is a short story by Langston Hughes that originally appeared in the September 1933 issue of Scribner's Magazine. The story was later published in The Ways of White Folks, a 1934 collection of Hughes’s short stories.This study guide, based on the 1990 Vintage Classics print edition, quotes and obscures the author’s use of the n-word.Anne and Michael Carraway are affluent white bohemians who live in Greenwich Village—and often visit Harlem—during the... Read Slave on the Block Summary

Solaris

by Stanislaw Lem

Publication year 1961

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Science & Technology, Self Discovery, Memory, Fear, Guilt, Love, Trust & Doubt, Safety & Danger

Tags Science Fiction, Philosophy, Fantasy, Psychological Fiction, Science & Nature, Philosophy, Classic Fiction

Stanisław Lem, a prominent Polish philosopher, essayist, and literary critic who achieved notoriety in the mid-20th century, is best known for his science fiction novels. Among these books, Solaris is regarded by most reviewers and critics as Lem’s masterpiece. Published in Polish in 1961, the English version was translated from the French version in 1970—which Lem allegedly referred to as “poor” (Flood, Alison. “First Ever Direct English Translation of Solaris Published.” The Guardian, 15 June... Read Solaris Summary

Someone We Know

by Shari Lapena

Publication year 2019

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Friendship, Loyalty & Betrayal, Trust & Doubt, Good & Evil, Marriage, Mothers, Conflict, Revenge, Masculinity, Sexual Identity, Family, Justice

Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Parenting, Trauma & Abuse, Modern Classic Fiction

... Read Someone We Know Summary

Sometimes I Lie

by Alice Feeney

Publication year 2017

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Mental Health, Truth & Lies, Marriage

Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Southern Gothic, Relationships, Modern Classic Fiction

Sometimes I Lie is a 2017 murder thriller by veteran BBC journalist-turned-novelist Alice Feeney that challenges the reader to piece together an elaborate puzzle, complicated by the unfolding realization that the narrator may be a compulsive liar. The novel, with its decidedly ironic use of stock elements of murder mysteries (a torrid affair, an unexpected pregnancy, a demented stalker turned rapist, dark family secrets, a bad case of amnesia, a tragic house fire, incriminating diaries... Read Sometimes I Lie Summary

Sons and Lovers

by D. H. Lawrence

Publication year 1913

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Mothers, Daughters & Sons, Social Class, Loyalty & Betrayal

Tags Classic Fiction, Life-Inspired Fiction, Psychological Fiction, British Literature, World History, Romance

Sons and Lovers is a 1913 novel by English author D. H. Lawrence. The novel explores the relationship between Gertrude Morel and her son Paul, who live in a small mining town in North England at the turn of the 20th century. Though met with a lukewarm response on release, Sons and Lovers has since been critically reappraised as one of Lawrence’s most important works and has been adapted for film and television.Other works by... Read Sons and Lovers Summary

Stella Maris

by Cormac McCarthy

Publication year 2022

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Family, Grief, Music, Space, Loneliness, Death

Tags Historical Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Mental Illness, Philosophy, Mystery & Crime Fiction, American Literature, Psychology, Psychology, Philosophy

... Read Stella Maris Summary