page-turner

plural page-turners · alternative pageturner

1. idiomaticA highly interesting or suspenseful written work that one is compelled to read very rapidly.

   Her debut novel is such a page-turner that it's one of those books that you can't put down.

   1 more example

   This is a very fat novel. The first thing you want to do with it is send it to a hospital for one of those crisis diets. Cut out 300 pages and maybe you've got a page-turner that could stand off "The Firm."

   1993 January 31, Sidney Zion, “He Died With His Pants Down”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2025

2. entertainmentA person who is responsible for turning the pages of another musician’s (especially a pianist or organist’s) sheet music during a performance.

   She's a famous soloist today, but she did her time as a page-turner, just as many others have done.

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see page, turner.