10 Forgotten Books That Are Page-Turners From Start to Finish
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If you want a rundown of the best books ever written, you can go elsewhere. Well, maybe a few of these are possible contenders for such a title, but they're here more because they're underappreciated and less well-remembered than they deserve. If something’s really good, never boring, and at least somewhat niche, then it has a chance of turning up here.
The topic is the title. It’s a bunch of kind of forgotten books that are perfect throughout. What more do you want? How much more of an introduction can be written? Do the wheels have to keep on spinning until approximately 150 words are reached? This is in keeping with the way some stories used to be published, people getting paid by the word. On and on. Serialized stories. Led to some good stuff. But not really any of the stuff here. Anyway…
10 'The Wanderers' (1974)
The Wanderers is the first book worth mentioning here as one where the movie adaptation ultimately overshadowed the source material. Here, though, the movie of the same name (released in 1979) is also a bit underrated, which is something you can say about almost every Philip Kaufman movie, honestly. Okay, it’s something I’m saying about almost every Philip Kaufman movie. The dude’s about as underappreciated as great American filmmakers get.
Sorry, sorry… the book, The Wanderers. It’s also great. And it stands out against the movie, since it’s admittedly hard to compare to the movie, beyond the characters kind of being the same. The Wanderers (1974) is incredibly confronting, as a coming-of-age book, in ways the movie only really flirted with (if that). That does make it a somewhat challenging read, but if your stomach’s strong enough, it’s definitely not boring, and the fairly slim page count overall helps, too.
9 'Cycle of the Werewolf' (1983)
Stephen King established himself as a horror writer in the 1970s, and arguably did a little more than just that, even in that first decade of his, since The Long Walk and The Dead Zone shook things up a bit genre-wise (being dystopian and a sci-fi/thriller book, respectively). Whatever the case, though, his output from the 1970s is either legendary or infamous (really, the only non-classic from the bunch is Rage, and people know about that one because of its controversial aspects).
So, you have to venture into the 1980s before you can find King books that are a bit underappreciated, and on that note, here’s Cycle of the Werewolf. This one’s admittedly slight, and perhaps even more of a novella than a full-on novel, yet it does really deliver as an engaging and compact horror story, not to mention having worth for being Stephen King’s take on the werewolf sub-genre. And if you don’t like it, for whatever reason, then hey, at least you’ve probably only “wasted” an hour or two on it, thanks to that aforementioned brief length.
8 'Running Dog' (1978)
Don DeLillo has written some of the best and most paranoia-heavy books of all time, with some being fairly short (and thereby comparatively breezy), and others being Underworld. Underworld is like 800+ pages, but it’s also arguably his most famous work? It’s the one that comes up again and again as far as his books that might be “the Great American Novel” are concerned, even if Libra and White Noise might be better.
Anyway, that’s the golden trio, and if you venture deeper into DeLillo’s body of work, you inevitably turn up more obscure books… okay, maybe not Cosmopolis, owing to that one getting a film adaptation in 2012, albeit one that not many people remember all that fondly. That’s all rambling. Sorry. Running Dog is the underrated book. It’s not been described here, but it’s also hard to describe. It’s best to go into it knowing as little as possible, because the ride it provides is, at least at times, about as thrilling as what you'll find in DeLillo’s better-known novels.
7 'Midnight Express' (1977)
Whoops, here’s another example where people know the movie, but not so much the source material. Here, it should change, since Midnight Express (the book) doesn’t stumble in quite as many ways as Midnight Express (the movie) does. Both are about a man named Billy Hayes trying to survive inside an unfamiliar Turkish prison after being made an example of, after being charged for drug smuggling offenses.
Hayes co-wrote the book upon which the movie was based, and the book’s paced well, too, all without resorting to quite as many cheap attempts at heightened drama as the 1978 movie. It’s more balanced and nuanced, honestly, yet not in a way that sacrifices readability or pacing. As far as crime-related non-fiction books go, it’s one of the best, and really stands out as one of those “the book was actually better than the movie” instances.
6 'The Wolf's Hour' (1989)
The Wolf's Hour is almost part of a series, but maybe not quite, since it only has one sequel, 2011’s The Hunter from the Woods… and that’s more disconnected than The Wolf’s Hour, and sort of a short story collection. If you're talking Robert McCammon, though, he is the author behind the Matthew Corbett series, and that is longer, not to mention a little more well-known.
There’s also Swan Song and Boy’s Life, which are arguable cult classics. The Wolf’s Hour deserves at least that kind of status, too, and maybe even a little more. It takes place during World War II, and is about a spy going behind enemy lines. Familiar? Maybe. It also involves werewolves, a lot. So, it’s a weird war/thriller/action/adventure/horror novel, all in one, with maybe a few other genres thrown in there, too. It’s a bit silly, but it’s also undeniably a ton of fun for its entire duration (and The Wolf’s Hour isn't exactly a short novel, either).
5 'Against the Day' (2006)
Part of Against the Day concerns a conflict between families that involves revenge, but that is a remarkably small piece of the overall chaos found here. There are probably too many characters here, and even considering the pages here amount to more than 1000, there are still an overwhelming number to keep track of. You sort of just have to go with the flow.
There are probably too many characters here, and even considering the pages here amount to more than 1000, there are still an overwhelming number to keep track of.
Going with the flow here, though, is probably easier than going with the flow for something like Gravity’s Rainbow, which is the more well-known Thomas Pynchon novel. It’s a little shorter, sure, but probably less approachable, with one character who’s sort of the protagonist, but also not really. At least there are quite a few memorable recurring characters throughout Against the Day, and genuine closure for some of them, too (a relief, admittedly, when the narrative spans a quarter of a century and encompasses so much).
4 'The Big Nowhere' (1988)
With James Ellroy, there are a handful of books he’s written that are better than The Big Nowhere, and they're also probably more famous. He’s best known for The Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential, with American Tabloid (perhaps because it hasn’t gotten any kind of adaptation yet) being slightly less famous, though ultimately his best novel. Hot take? Maybe. Maybe not. Deal with it.
Anyway, between The Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential, there was The Big Nowhere, with those three books making up the best of what the L.A. Quartet has to offer (the fourth and final book, White Jazz… eh). The Big Nowhere has a similar structure and style to L.A. Confidential, but it’s also bleaker and even less predictable, which is saying quite a lot. It’s a downbeat but very compelling read, if you dig noir fiction and all.
3 'Lucifer's Hammer' (1977)
There’s no excuse to not read Lucifer’s Hammer if you're a fan of books about the end of the world. It was written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, and is the best of their collaborations. As far as Niven’s work goes, Lucifer’s Hammer isn't quite as famous or influential as Ringworld, yet it is probably a more engaging read. “Entertaining” isn't the perfect word to use… hmm, it makes some sense, though.
Like, Lucifer’s Hammer is about people reacting to news of a massive comet approaching the planet, and then things get wilder and wilder the more things go along and fall apart. It’s more the “how” and “why” that’s interesting, rather than the “what,” but if you do want to be unspoiled, things are being kept vague here anyway. It’s good form to do that, right? Like, if a book’s underrated or forgotten, there’s a good chance most people haven’t read it and stuff.
2 'The Eyes of the Dragon' (1984)
As mentioned before, there are definitely underrated Stephen King books from the 1980s, with Cycle of the Werewolf being one, and The Eyes of the Dragon being another. Well, it’s underrated to a greater extent. People just don’t seem to talk about this one all that often, maybe because it’s so unabashedly a work of fantasy, and not even really dark fantasy (or fantasy tinged with horror) the way you get with some other Stephen King books.
The Eyes of the Dragon isn't 100% essential to read, if you want to understand The Dark Tower or the overall Stephen King multiverse, but it does help, to some extent. Yet even if you're not particularly interested in all that stuff, it’s still a pretty great – and easy to read – story about an eerily familiar evil magician plotting to overthrow a royal family in a fantasy realm.
1 'Wiseguy' (1985)
The last book worth mentioning, of those that have been overshadowed by adaptations and are kind of underrated as a result, is Wiseguy. You might know this story as Goodfellas, which is about as legendary as gangster movies have ever gotten, but Wiseguy was what that 1990 film was based on, and in so many ways, it’s about as great as that Martin Scorsese movie.
Both grab you pretty much straight away, and though it takes longer to get through Wiseguy, it’s still executed in a way that never runs the risk of getting boring, feeling like a well-handled “extended version/cut” of Goodfellas. That’s perhaps the best way to describe it. It’s kind of "more Goodfellas," and so if you're one of the people who counts that movie among their all-time favorites, reading Wiseguy is more or less a no-brainer.
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