Book picks similar to
A Prisoner Within by J.M. Northup


psychological-thriller
need
young-adult
child-abuse

Now You See Me


Emma Haughton - 2014
    Not knowing if he's alive or dead, their world is shrouded in shadows, secrets and suspicions.This is the story of what happens when hope comes back to haunt you. When your desperation is used against you. When you search for the truth – but are too scared to accept the reality staring you in the face...A mesmerizing psychological thriller with the most incredible twist you'll read all year.

Breathe My Name


R.A. Nelson - 2007
    Please come right away.We have to finish."Frances Robinson is in high school now. She lives a quiet, suburban life, far from her horrifying past. When she was a child, her birthmother smothered her three sisters. Through pure luck, Frances survived. Now her mother has just been released from prison . . . and she wants to see Frances.A new boy at school called Nix charms Frances. Together, Nix and Frances embark on a clandestine journey to visit Frances' mother: to confront the monster in its lair. This trip will help Frances at last find peace or die trying. But no matter what, Frances will discover just what it means to finish.

Tomorrow is Today


Julie Cross - 2011
    The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, throws lots of parties, is interested in a girl he can’t have, and oh yeah, he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.

The Bodies We Won't Bury: Love is Dangerous


Daniel Norrish - 2017
     HE'S STEALING MOBILE PHONES AND USING THE DEVICES TO LURE INNOCENT LOVERS INTO VIOLENT PUBLIC SNARES AROUND THE TOURIST HAUNTS OF SYDNEY. Detective Inspector Stephanie Saxon is getting closer to finding him, and even the media can see that she'll be the one to break down his door. The stalker Saxon is desperately chasing knows where she lives, and whom she's sleeping with, and where he can find her family, but he does not know that she carries an unlicensed firearm on her ankle, and she's closer than he thinks. Will Stephanie Saxon send him to an ice cold slab in the morgue, or the blistering, chained yard of the slammer for leaving behind all of these BODIES WE WON'T BURY?

Vestige


Deb Hanrahan - 2012
    His mother tried to prepare him for the Apocalypse, but she disappeared without telling him about the family legacy, his legacy. And as civilization slips into chaos and the line between dreams and reality blurs, Micah must uncover his mother’s secret before the souls of humanity are lost forever.The Vestige Series is a two-book Horror/Apocalyptic series.

Finding Fish


Antwone Quenton Fisher - 2001
    "A striking and original story of the journey from troubled childhood to self-aware adult."Soon to be a major motion picture starring and directed by Denzel Washington, Finding Fish is the memoir of Antwone Fisher's miraculous journey from abandonment and abuse to liberation, manhood, and extraordinary success--a modern-day Oliver Twist.Baby Boy Fisher--as he was documented in his child welfare caseworkers' reports--was raised in institutions from the moment of his birth in prison to a single mother. After beginning his life in an orphanage, Antwone was placed in a temporary foster home until, around age two, he was transferred to a second foster home. It was there, over the next thirteen years, that he endured emotional abandonment and physical abuse. Removed from this foster home not long before his sixteenth birthday, Antwone found fleeting refuge in a boys' reform school but was soon thrust into the nightmare of homelessness.Though convinced he was unwanted and unworthy, Fish, as he came to be known, refused to allow his spirit to be broken. Instead, he became determined to raise himself, to listen to social workers and teachers who intervened on his behalf, and to nurture a romantic heart along with a scathing sense of humor and a wondrous imagination--all of which sustained him with big dreams of a better day. Fatefully, just as Antwone's life on the streets hit rock bottom, he enlisted in the United States Navy, where he remained for the next eleven years. During that time, Fish became a man of the world, raised by the Navy family he created for himself.Finding Fish shows how, out of this unlikely mix of deprivation and hope, an artist was born--first as the child who painted the feelings his words dared not speak, then as a poet and storyteller who would eventually become one of Hollywood's most well-paid, sought-after screenwriters. But before he ascends those lofty steps, Antwone's story takes us from the Navy to his jobs as a federal correctional officer and then a security guard at Sony Pictures in Hollywood. In its climactic conclusion, the mystery of his identity is finally unraveled as Antwone returns to Cleveland to locate his mother's and father's surviving family members.A tumultuous and ultimately gratifying tale of self-discovery written in Fisher's gritty yet melodic literary voice, Finding Fish is an unforgettable reading experience.

Chasing Memories


Tia Silverthorne Bach - 2013
    The others are coming. I can’t let them have you…Seventeen-year-old Reagan has a problem: She can’t remember what happened the night her brother was taken. Now, the dreams haunting her from the incident are becoming more intense by the day. All the while, the lines between what’s real and what’s a product of her paranormal-obsessed mind are becoming blurred.Is she losing her mind or has she just stepped into a world she thought only existed in books?Caught in a web of worried parents, competing boys, Wiccan relatives, protective amulets, and psychiatrist babble, Reagan must determine the truth before it’s too late.

Darklandia


T.S. Welti - 2012
    Those who disagree or forget this principle, as Sera's father did, are detained and “purified”. Through the use of the Darklandia virtual reality and mandatory water rations, the Department of Felicity has transformed metropolises all over the country into happy, obedient communities.Inspired by her great-grandmother's last words, Sera stops drinking the water rations and is soon recruited by Nyx into a rebel organization in the midst of planning a full-scale attack on Darklandia. When Nyx attempts to override the Darklandia system, he stumbles upon shocking information about Sera and her family. After years of living in a haze of virtual reality and drugs, Sera finds herself running from a powerful surge of raw emotions and a government agency intent on keeping reality a secret.

Betrayed


Ednah Walters - 2011
    But trouble looms in the Guardian enclave. Bran is pulling away from her and her best human friend is in trouble, and it's all Lil's fault

Purity


Jackson Pearce - 2012
    Those Promises become harder to keep when Shelby's father joins the planning committee for the Princess Ball, an annual dance that ends with a ceremonial vow to live pure lives -- in other words, no "bad behavior," no breaking the rules, and definitely no sex.Torn between Promises One and Three, Shelby makes a decision -- to exploit a loophole and lose her virginity before taking the vow. But somewhere between failed hookup attempts and helping her dad plan the ball, Shelby starts to understand what her mother really meant, what her father really needs, and who really has the right to her purity.

The Abducted: Odessa - A Small Town Abduction - Book 0


Roger Hayden - 2016
     Detectives investigating the case are baffled by a note left at the scene of the latest kidnapping, promising more. Cautious neighborhoods are on lockdown as the search for the missing girls spreads far and wide. Miriam Sandoval, a former-detective, known for solving a high-profile kidnapping a year prior, is soon enlisted to lend her expertise. But solving the case won’t be easy. Danger awaits with the discovery of every potential clue, and a madman is watching, confident in the outcome of his diabolical games. Can Miriam help rescue the girls before it’s too late, or will they never be seen again?

Carolina Booty


T. Lynn Ocean - 2014
    She loves everything about the big city including her power-packed days and party-filled nights. But life as she knows it comes to a screetching halt when the boss puts her in charge of the firm’s annual pro bono project, which is to revitalize a small town. Unfortunately, Rumton, South Carolina doesn’t have a mall or nightclub, much less a nail salon. For that matter, there’s no hotel, either. Jaxie ends up rooming with an old man in an even older house that he shares with a dog and a thieving raccoon. Just when Jaxie thinks that she’s landed in a dreadfully uneventful place, things heat up pretty fast -- there's much more to Rumton than meets the eye. Sexy men. A sinister plot to steal from the town. A raging wind storm. Quirky townspeople. And loads of astonishing pirate history. It all adds up to some major Carolina booty! “Ocean’s latest is delightful and entertaining.” –Romantic Times BOOKreviews

Dancing Days


V.J. Chambers - 2012
    He’s been there through years of miserable foster homes and snobby mean girls, always whispering to her that she doesn’t belong here. Telling her that this is the mundane world, and someday, he’ll get them back to Helicon, the world of the muses. The world where they belong.But Nora’s fifteen years old, and she isn’t sure she quite believes it anymore. When he begs her to try another ritual to open the dimensions, she agrees mostly to humor him. Owen’s rituals never work.But this one does, and Nora is flung into the whimsical, bohemian land of Helicon, where she’s expected to do nothing more than create and inspire. With the help of her new muse friends, Nora sets out to discover who is creating holes in the fabric of Helicon and draining away the muses’ energy.Everything would be perfect, if only Owen’s protectiveness wasn’t starting to seem so...obsessive.

Good Me, Bad Me


Ali Land - 2017
    Though Milly loves her mother, the only way to make her stop is to turn her in to the police. Milly is given a fresh start: a new identity, a home with an affluent foster family, and a spot at an exclusive private school. But Milly has secrets, and life at her new home becomes complicated. As her mother's trial looms, with Milly as the star witness, Milly starts to wonder how much of her is nature, how much of her is nurture, and whether she is doomed to turn out like her mother after all. When tensions rise and Milly feels trapped by her shiny new life, she has to decide: Will she be good? Or is she bad? She is, after all, her mother's daughter.

Dark Horses


Susan Mihalic - 2021
    Both, for as long as she can remember, have been ruled by her father, who demands strict obedience in all areas of her life. The warped power dynamic of coach and rider extends far beyond the stables, and Roan's relationship with her father has long been inappropriate. She has been able to compartmentalize that dark aspect of her life, ruthlessly focusing on her ambitions as a rider heading for the Olympics, just as her father had done. However, her developing relationship with Will Howard, a boy her own age, broadens the scope of her vision. At the intersection of a commercial page-turner and urgent survivor story, Dark Horses takes the searing themes of abuse and resilience in Gabriel Tallent’s My Absolute Darling and applies the compelling exploration of female strength in Room by Emma Donoghue. In much the same way that V.C. Andrews’s Flowers in the Attic transfixed a generation of readers, Susan Mihalic’s debut is set to a steady beat that will keep you turning the pages.