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Stories about revenge have been around for centuries (you need only look to almost any classic text from any era for proof of that), and they are a part of every type of media we consume (hello, John Wick!).
What I’m saying is that revenge stories are popular for a reason.
Of course, revenge is wrong, but for many of us, reading revenge books is an act of self-care. There is something so healing and cathartic about terrible people getting their comeuppance.
I mean, I’m not a vengeful person, but reading a good revenge plot is just so satisfying!
And more often than not, the more gruesome, sinister and cold-hearted the revenger, the better. After all, revenge is a dish best served cold – and this definitely holds true for me when looking for the best books about revenge.
If, like me, you love a good revenge novel, then hopefully you’ll find a new favourite from this list. I’ve included some of the best revenge books across multiple genres, including horror, romance and even fantasy.
However, I have only included books where the revenge plot is not a spoiler. So while there are thrillers and murder mysteries on the list, revenge as a motive is stated upfront.
I hope you enjoy these revenge books as much as I do!
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The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (2020)
When they were younger, Lewis, Ricky, Gabe and Cass went hunting – and killed more than they needed.
As Blackfeet they know how important it is to never kill more than you need, and to use every part of the body. Yet on the final day of hunting season they went to a restricted area and they shot an elk they didn’t need.
Now, 10 years later, it seems some entity has returned to seek vengeance for the wrong committed that day. And it turns out they have more to pay for than the senseless killing of an elk.
As a revenge book, The Only Good Indians doesn’t hold back, with the terror unfolding through multiple perspectives, jumping back and forth in time.
While I enjoy horror, I’m not someone who gets particularly scared from books. However, the unrelenting creeping dread of this book haunted my dreams and all the shadowy corners of my house.
Although heavily rooted in Blackfeet culture and myth, if you love horror or books about revenge, this book can easily be enjoyed by anyone. And you just might learn something along the way.
Stephen Graham Jones has quickly become one of my go-to horror writers, and it’s weird to think this is the first full-length novel of his I ever read. It remains my favourite, but I’m also a big fan of his horror novellas.
Buy The Only Good Indians:
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Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (2021)
The nation of Huaxia has been under siege by the Hunduns for generations. War is all they know.
The only real defense they’ve found that works against the Hunduns are giant Chrysalis mechas made from the Hundun’s own husks. But in order to power these Chrysalises women almost always need to die.
The giant robot warriors are powered by a male pilot who wraps himself around a female concubine and drains her power. This normally results in her death, with few exceptions, which the government uses to coerce young women into battle.
Being a concubine, even a dead one, is seen as a great honour. And it’s one of the few ways for women to help the war efforts in Huaxia’s oppressively patriarchal society.
Several years ago Wu Zeitan’s sister was one of these concubines. Their parents sold her off knowing she would likely die, but expecting a payout for her death.
Although she died, the payout never came – because she wasn’t killed in battle. To avenge her sister’s death, Wu Zeitan has signed up as a concubine.
Zeitan’s journey is one of violence, vengence and feminist rage as she works to tear the system apart from within.
Iron Widow is inspired by Chinese historical figures and mythology. These details are beautifully woven into the story and make it one of the most fun and engaging dark fantasy books for young and older readers alike.
I know some people think this is too violent for young adults, but I wish I had feminist revenge books like this growing up, and I’m glad they exist now!
Buy Iron Widow:
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The Decagon House MUrders by Yukito Ayatsuji, translated by Ho-Ling Wong (1987)
Seven members of a university mystery club head out to a privately owned island for a week away. Some plan to do some writing, others are drawn by the macabre nature of the island – an island where a disturbing multiple murder spree took place six months previously.
They will be staying in the Decagon House, a ten-sided building designed and built by a man who died in the aforementioned murder spree.
But little do they know, someone is going to start killing them. Someone who claims to be the very man who died in the fire that destroyed the island’s mansion and built the Decagon House.. Someone who wants revenge.
Can the ghost of a dead maniac really be trying to kill them? And why?
Heavily influenced by Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None – to the point where it is directly referenced in the story – this work of honkaku fiction seeks to try and emulate mystery books from the “golden age of detective fiction” of the 1920s and 30s.
Fortunately, with honkaku literature, the aim is to place logical clues and evidence within the story that would lead readers who are able to piece things together to be able to make an informed prediction, rather than actively try to fool the reader, which is a trait that I am fully in favour of.
With a tight narrative and well-paced ticking clock, this 1987 debut novel from Japanese author Yukito Ayatsuji is just the sort of revitalisation that the isolated thriller genre needs.
This revenge book was originally translated into English in 2015, but went out of print. It was reprinted in English with the same translator in 2020. However, if you can get your hands on the 2015 edition, the translation is slightly clunkier, but it has a great introduction by Soji Shimada about mystery fiction in Japan and the honkaku genre!
As both a closed circle murder mystery and a revenge book, The Decagon House Murders is fantastic.
Buy The Decagon House Murders:
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They Never Learn by Layne Fargo (2020)
Scarlett is a well respected professor at Gorman University, a liberal arts school in Pennsylvania. She’s also a serial killer.
Scarlett sees it as her duty to avenge wronged women who never got the justice they deserved, and so she hunts down horrible men – men who assault and abuse women – and she kills them. She’s been doing this for 16 years, and she has it down to a science.
Of course she makes it look like suicide to avoid raising suspicions. But unfortunately her latest kill has done just that and now Scarlett finds herself wrapped up in a hunt for… herself.
Meanwhile, in alternating chapters we also follow Carly, a Gorman freshman, as she navigates living away from home for the first time and budding feelings for her roommate, Allison. Unfortunately, Carly is also about to find out just how cruel the real world can be to women who aren’t prepared to fight back.
As these two women’s stories collide, their desire for revenge only grows stronger!
I love my feminist revenge novels, and had such high hopes for They Never Learn due to all the other rave reviews. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work for me. I saw all the twists coming and I just didn’t care about either narrator.
But if you also love books about revenge with a devil-may-care protagonist, and this premise sounds good to you, give it a go because I am very firmly in the minority!
However, if you’ve read this one and were as unimpressed as I was, then you might want to try out the next series of revenge books on this list…
Buy They Never Learn:
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The Mindf*ck Series by S.T. Abby (2016)
They say never judge a book by its cover, and wow am I glad I decided to pick these romance books about revenge up despite the awful covers (#sorrynotsorry). Especially as I just don’t read romance often.
But something about this DARK romance series called to me, and it was EVERYTHING I wanted it to be.
This series of novellas is essentially an extended episode of Criminal Minds, but make it x-rated (violence wise, it’s not super steamy). And it was exactly what I wanted They Never Learn to be, vengeance-wise.
Ten years ago the town of Delaney Grove took everything from Lana Myers. And now she’s come to collect its debt to her.
She has a carefully curated kill list and she’s making her way through it, building an MO. Lana doesn’t necessarily want to get caught, but she does want the town to know she’s coming for them; that this isn’t the work of some random serial killer.
Then, by pure coincidence, she meets Logan Bennett, an FBI profiler who also happens to be investigating the murders on Lana’s kill list.
She doesn’t mean to fall in love with Logan – she didn’t even think she was capable of love anymore – but that’s exactly what’s happening. Is there any way to get both her happy endings, or was this romance doomed before it started?
Real talk: I didn’t love the writing, most of the dialogue is cheesy, the books just get increasingly unrealistic, and I did NOT care about the romance…
AND YET I still loved every second of this vengeful story. I never wanted to put the books down, and flew through them in a matter of days (which is impressive for me).
Also yes, the author’s pseudonym does [intentionally] spell out STABBY.
Buy The Mindf*ck Series:
Amazon
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby (2021)
As a Black man with a criminal record, Ike knows that a knock on the door from the police is never followed by good news. So when two police officers arrive asking about his son Isaiah, Ike knows his son is dead.
Both Isaiah and his husband, Derek, were brutally murdered, and the cops either don’t care, are too busy to care, or they’ve hit a dead end.
Either way, they’re not doing enough. And after a run-in with Derek’s dad, Buddy Lee, the two men decide to do their own investigating and exact revenge on their son’s killers.
Neither Ike or Buddy Lee was even close to being a good father when their sons were alive. Neither could accept their sons for being gay, and were ashamed of their “lifestyle.”
Now both fathers are determined to avenge their sons no matter the cost, and do better for them in death than they ever did when they were alive. To do so, they use their own criminal connections to hunt down the person – or people – responsible.
Along the way, both Ike and Buddy Lee confront their own bigotries and learn to be the allies they should have been when their sons were alive.
Razorblade Tears does not shy away from violence or difficult issues, and it does not let its protagonists off the hook for their past behaviour, while still allowing them to grow. It is also one of the most gory, unputdownable, fast paced revenge books I’ve ever read.
Buy Razorblade Tears:
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The Trap by Melanie Raabe, translated by Imogen Taylor (2015)
11 years ago Linda Conrads found her sister’s murdered body, and saw the man who did it fleeing the scene of the crime. She didn’t know who he was, but she’ll never forget that face.
Since that time, Linda has made a living as a bestselling novelist. For her fans, a lot of Linda’s allure comes from the fact that no one really knows who she is. Due to the agoraphobia that was triggered by her sister’s murder, she never grants interviews, doesn’t do book tours, and the use of a pseudonym keeps her identity extra shielded from the public.
But then she sees that face – his face – on her television, and she knows it’s time to grant her first interview.
Linda’s next book is a total departure from what she usually writes. Instead, this one is based on what happened to her sister all those years ago. She knows the killer will be unable to refuse an invitation to interview her once he has an advance copy of her story – his story.
Thus the trap is set, and Linda is ready to extract a confession and finally get her revenge. But is he really the right guy? Or is Linda’s memory playing tricks on her?
The Trap is a slow burn cat-and-mouse story about memory, grief, loneliness, love and revenge. With a healthy dose of unreliable narrator thrown in. This might not be the most revelatory book about revenge, but I had good fun reading it and it was nice to see a European setting.
Although I really enjoy this book, some people seem to struggle a bit with the writing (or at least the translation). I think that’s because it is often more telling than showing, which is something I actually prefer sometimes as an aphantasiac.
Buy The Trap:
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When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen (2021)
When Mira left her small, racist southern USA town she was glad to see it in her rear view mirror. Even if it meant leaving behind Jesse, the only boy she’d ever loved.
Now, more than a decade later and settled into her new life up North, Mira is surprised to receive an invitation to her oldest friend, Celine’s wedding. She’s even more unnerved to discover that it is being held at the town’s newly renovated plantation.
Although Celine is White, Mira thought maybe growing up with her and Jesse might have made Celine more aware of why a plantation wedding is so gross. And given the three’s own personal history with this particular plantation, Mira struggles to reconcile with the decision.
Nevertheless, she agrees to go, if only to see Jesse. But Mira soon realises that maybe the rumours of vengeful spirits on the plantation might have some truth to them. Or is something else going on over there?
When the Reckoning Comes is a slow burn revenge book that’s perfect for anyone who loves social horror books.
Buy When the Reckoning Comes:
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Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots (2020)
In a world where superheroes and supervillains rule the daily news, temp worker Anna spends her days picking up jobs for the bad guys. She doesn’t have any superpowers herself, but she can do admin, and she’s up for anything because she’s pretty much broke.
But while working in the field for a middle-ish level villain – just standing behind him during a menacing broadcast, nothing serious – she is badly injured as a result of the actions of one of the world’s most popular superheroes: Supercollider.
As she spends long months recovering, Anna comes to realise that these so-called do-gooders are not as squeaky clean as they’d like the public to believe.
With a fervour she’s not felt in a while, Anna furiously gathers dirt on the world’s “best and brightest”, and before long she has the attention of one of the most dangerous supervillains of all time. And he wants to give her a job.
Hench is an excellent remedy for anyone suffering from comic book superhero fatigue. Anna works well as a revenge book protagonist, as author Natalie Zina Walschots imbues her with earned sympathy, understandable motivations and relatability.
Buy Hench:
Amazon | Bookshop USA | Bookshop UK
Sadie by Courtney Summers (2018)
Sadie’s younger sister Mattie was her whole world. So after Mattie goes missing and then winds up dead, Sadie’s life is turned upside down.
She’s positive she knows who killed Mattie, though, and she has set out to get revenge. But now Sadie’s gone missing.
The book is told partly through flashbacks of Sadie as she tracks down Mattie’s killer, and partly through a podcast called The Girls hosted by West McCray.
Although initially in town to learn more about the town (he works on a podcast about forgotten towns in the US), West soon finds himself unable to forget about Sadie and begins investigating her disappearance.
Soon he has started his own podcast (The Girls), which is dedicated to finding Sadie before it’s too late. Throughout the book he interviews Sadie’s family and goes all over the country to retrace her steps.
Sadie is a heartbreaking book about love, loss and, of course, revenge. Sadie hasn’t had an easy life, and losing Mattie was the final straw. She is willing to risk everything to avenge her.
This is a YA book, but is definitely one that effortlessly transcends audiences. If you’re looking for books about revenge that will have you on the edge of your seat until the final page, Sadie is perfect for young adults and adults!
If you can, the audiobook is absolutely fantastic. It is well cast and feels like listening to an actual podcast for all the parts that are not Sadie’s POV.
Buy Sadie:
Amazon | Bookshop USA | Bookshop UK
Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian (2021)
All Chloe Sevre has dreamed about for years is getting revenge on Will Bachman. In fact, Chloe has dedicated her entire life to getting revenge on Will; she has every detail planned.
And fate seems to want her to get it, because she’s just been offered a full scholarship to his university where it will be MUCH easier to keep an eye on him and plot revenge.
The catch is that Chloe has been given this scholarship because she is a diagnosed psychopath, and must participate in The Program. As part of The Program, she must check in constantly about her moods and what she’s doing and wear a smartwatch at all times.
But this is a price Chloe is willing to pay in order to kill Will Bachman.
Although she knows there are seven other subjects in The Program, their identities are kept secret from everyone, including each other – except lead psychologist, Dr Leonard Wyman, and a few graduate students.
Of course, it doesn’t take long for Chloe to accidentally meet another one of the psychopaths. And before long a third participant winds up dead. Is it just a coincidence, or is someone targeting the participants, and why?
I really enjoyed this fun, fast paced dark academia thriller, even if it did get a bit outrageous and far fetched at times. The characters aren’t always likable, but if you love books about revenge, you might just find yourself rooting for a psychopath to enact some.
Buy Never Saw Me Coming:
Amazon | Bookshop USA | Bookshop UK
Confessions by Kanae Minato, translated by Stephen Snyder (2008)
Yuko Moriguchi’s four year old daughter, Manami died in a tragic accident last year. Except it wasn’t an accident; two of Moriguchi’s students were responsible for Manami’s death.
And Moriguchi knows it. And she’s going to get her revenge.
Confessions is split into six parts, each told from a different POV so that you get new information surrounding the murder with each chapter. However, as each story also follows a different character before and after the incident, as well, it never gets too repetitive.
If you are looking for tense, psychological revenge books, Confessions is the perfect choice. It is a bit of a slow burn, but the revenge is oh so sweet.
However, I must say that I really hated how a specific illness was initially used as a plot device in this narrative, and it nearly made me put the book down. I’m glad I kept going as it gets considerably better, but it definitely lowered my overall enjoyment of the book.
I have heard that Penance, Kanae Minato’s other work available in English, is also an excellent revenge book, and is told in a similar style. But unfortunately I have not yet had a chance to pick it up.
Buy Confessions:
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