This is going to sound absurd, but East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I went into that thinking I’d get through maybe a chapter before getting bored of it. It introduced me immediately to two brothers, one jealously tries to kill the other with a hatchet. Then the other goes on to marry a woman who is literally demented and murders and manipulates everyone she’s ever met (including burning her parents in a house fire). It was soooo exciting and surprising to read! Definitely not what I was expecting. And later on while she’s pregnant with twins she shoots her husband for trying to help her through labour! It was wild.