AIBU to have had a gut full of "psychological thrillers"

[Notradespeopleareavailable]

Having just read yet another one with a totally ridiculous and implausible ending, I don't think I can take any more. One of my favourite authors has a kindle book at £0.00 on offer at Amazon and I don't think I can even be bothered to download it.

I think "psychological thrillers" is just another name for chick-lit, and it does amuse me to read all the redacted reviews (back-slapping and puff pieces) from other authors of the same genre eg:

"The most gripping read of 2021"
" I could not put this book down!" fast enough
" Twisty and keeps you guessing through to the end".

I can't believe these other authors really have the time and inclination to read all this similar stuff being churned out in droves. About 15 years ago, this type of book was a novelty and tightly plotted and well-written. But since then, what has happened, why is the world suddenly being taken over with this genre of books?

@BrozTito possible in America because random stores are selected each week which are "sampled" and the bestseller list compiled from extrapolating those. Not possible to get a Sunday times position from the same because we have Total Consumer Market, which is all sales in all stores and it's checked.

One self published author gamed their way onto the hardbacks once by buying a thousand of his own hardbacks and giving them away 🙄 but it got revoked. Not possible with the paperback sunday times bestsellers are the numbers are too high and they come from many places - mostly supermarkets, but also then amazon (print) and Waterstones.

I read two of the genre last year and it’s put me off for life.

One was about a couple in a house where the woman was being watched and the landlord insisted they kept the house tidy or they will be evicted. The second about a woman who lands a job in a funny house with an office in the basement and something about her father. Huge plot holes, nothing makes sense, ridiculous twists.

Honestly, such drivel and it seems all that’s published is along the same lines.

I've got into a time travel kick.

I've read this series, very readable, say something about life and there are lots of them.

I used to enjoy Sophie Hannah but she went slowly downhill and when I read A Game for all the Family, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Another thriller writer bites the dust for me.

I loved A Game for All the Family!! Thought that was her best one - also liked Did you see Melody? (Or something like that), and Haven’t they Grown, and Little Face was ok and the new Poirot boooks Sophie Hannah has written also ok but haven’t enjoyed her others that much weirdly.

I do enjoy these psychological domestic noir thriller kind of books to be honest but I agree they can get a bit same-y so they need to be well plotted and written - my favourite authors in this vein are Louise Candlish, Ruth Ware, Rachel Abbott, Cass Green, JP Delaney, and Tammy/Tamar Cohen.

Oh! I totally agree about the ones where they go off to a cottage in the country and start up a tea room or a cake shop or whatever thereby suddenly solving all their financial and romantic problems with one stroke. So dull! And so unbelievable!

Yes I've really enjoyed Ruth ware too.
Agree with a pp about Sophie hannah. Her first few books were novel and different. Now it feels like she's trying to out-Sophie hannah herself and they're getting more and more silly.

@StealthPolarBear

Rosamund Lupton was brilliant And I love everything by tana french

Agree.

@BrozTito

Whats that e reader thing, stealth? Could do with that as a fan of Russian classics

I use an e reader app on my ipad rather than a kindle. I assume the kindle can do even more.

Last year I went through so many of these that I started having nightmares/intrusive thoughts. I got some great recommendations on here for alternatives.

I do occasionally have them on the go from kindle unlimited but yeah not loving most of them.

Love this thread. Me and DD have bookshop bingo - spotting the generic formulaic pulp turned out at the moment. It is all you see, and feel so sorry for the good writers trying to get a look in. It could be that there are some good ones but wading through the trash is so wearing. Our bingo items are:

The three word Thriller:
Short three word titles- such as He Came Back and You And Me. Extra point for a yellow title on a dark background. Usually a picture of a woman's back. They all have the most amazing twist I'll never see coming.

Cozy Coffee Shop in Cornwall - pastel cover picture, curly font title. How many coffee shops, tea shops, chocolate shops, bakeries does a tiny Cornish fishing village need?

Dick lit - manly books about SAS captains (mostly)

Brave wartime nurses - self-explanatory (Call the Midwife has a lot to answer for- brilliant books and series, but has given rise to a huge amount of crap wannabes)

Misery lit about child abuse and shockingly bad childhoods with titles like Please Daddy. I am really uncomfortable about the speed these are turned out so there is obviously a market for books like these, who reads this type of stuff?

Female Relation of a Profession- started with The Time Travellers Wife , now we have things like "The Butcher's sister in law and The Policeman's Wife"

I particularly object to someone in the marketing department of a publishers telling me that I MUST read something.
I steer clear of the overhyped books, reading Normal People because it was supposed to be AMAZING is time I will never get back. Crawdads was an exception, but I only read it recently.

Best books I've read recently are
Pachinko (Korean family saga)
The Alice Network (Woman working in the French Resistance)
The Great Alone (Family in Alaska)

Was disappointed with a gratuitous sexual violence scene, and crappy follow up, in a recent Lisa Jewell one.

Is it that popular ‘chick lit’ authors have been told to ‘pivot’ to this violent, implausible shite?

I agree Richard Osman’s novel read like a very basic first draft from a mediocre writer. The fact that it sold millions probably means more murder mysteries written by celebs will come our way.

I’ll be expecting “The Girl in the House by the Woman in White” by Bonnie Langford soon.

I've read and enjoyed some thrillers, but they can be formulaic. The characters always have stunning houses, with no IKEA in sight.

Is it that popular ‘chick lit’ authors have been told to ‘pivot’ to this violent, implausible shite?

As a popular chick lit author I can say it's my dream to write a domestic thriller and the market for them seems to be going strong.

I'm not sure if the authors I like are classed as the trash on this thread though? The last few I've read have been Tarryn Fisher's and honestly I loved them.

But I also love Love Island and Kdramas 😂

Lol at curly coffee shop in Cornwall, sums it up perfectly.
I am also (and that might just be at the moment) turned off by too much violence or misery. I like a mostly happy ending particularly if children are involved.
I see there are a couple of writers on this thread, huge apologies if we have slated your books!

@StealthPolarBear nobody could slate mine more than I do myself

I have a chapter written of a domestic thriller but everything I read on goodreads etc says it's been done to death and I thought... why bother? (OW moves in next door... honestly sorta semi-autobiographical so it'd be fun to write but probably not fresh enough - other than perhaps a Scottish voice).

But I am a little bit tempted to just write it now and see what happens. I feel like showing up AT ALL on a MN what we're reading thread would be a badge of honour... even if it's simply stating it's utter shiteee 😂.

Please do!
Actually that reminds me. I do like books that are set in cities I know or have visited. A little bit of reality when describing the place is excellent even if they make up certain shops or pubs or whatever.

In fact I managed a few years where the books I read on holiday were set where I was staying, Cornwall, Isle of Wight etc.

Just do it. Some of these terriblebauthors like cecilia aherne prove that there is a market for Not Very Good Books. The diffetence between most hesitant writers and cecilia aherne is that she knew that if her father coukd be taoiseach, albeit the worst one we ever had, then she could publish a shit book. And she has sold the rights to her shit books to hollywood to make shit films.

The makes it sound like i have an axe to grind with CA and I really dont. It's just amazing the difference mindset makes and she demonstrates this perfectly.

She sat down and wrote a book. Many books. No matter how dire the content was, she put in the hours and completed her deadlines and the publishers kept accepting.

I don"t think she thought "will anybody want this, it's so depressingly average, I wish I wrote like Tana French" no she thought "this is my destiny, to be successful, im a Taoiseach's daughter, of course I'm suuccessful"

@StealthPolarBear Edinburgh! Write what you know and all that... and since we can't travel that easily and I started it in lockdown it made sense 

And @PearlyRising you're totally correct (now I see it all typed out). I've sometimes thought this about certain authors in the chick-litty romance sphere I write. Don't get me wrong, most of the men are excellent and you'd probably never know they were men unless you knew them... but some of them are running on 99% confidence in their own I Deserve This Mindset and 1% talent (and being highly successful / making a killing doing it).

Less imposter more CA-BigDickEnergy 🤣

Sorry I feel like I've derailed the thread.

If anyone knows of Thriller writers similar to Tarryn Fisher I'd love some recs. I've read The Wives and I Can Be A Better You and (for me) it wasn't even the plots which weren't anything to write home about it was the voice / writing style? Being inside their heads was... an event. A bit like watching a car crash unfold in front of you and being unable to look away.

I've tried BA Paris, Liv Constantine, Kimberly Belle and a few others that popped up in the Also-Boughts but never really managed to find similar.

I feel like id know if a romance was written by a man!

A rugby commentator called george hook was allegedly shocked by the money wimmin were making writing for wimmin so he decided to write a chicklit book. He set it in poland during the 2nd world war though and the publishers said no thank you georgina cook but good luck in yr endeavours!

The thing which annoys me most about this genre of books are the series which started off good....and have deteriorated beyond belief. I'm looking at the Roy Grace books, the Ruth Galloway Books, The Lindisfarne series. All used to be good and now the authors are banging out turgid, formulaic rubbish.

Hey I'm honoured if any authors out there have responded to my post! Could I invite you to do an "I'm an author, AMA" thread on MN?

Also as an author what draws you to MN? Is it so that you can see what people are saying and discussing about books? Or is that the threads are potentially rich in subject fodder for novels as I think they would be, for sure.

@PearlyRising I thought that too until I met a bunch of them  it's honestly far more common than you'd think.

@Notradespeopleareavailable I totally would although I feel like the pp who was named on the thread might be more interesting since we know for sure people on here have read them? I guess I could make one and invite ANY authors to chip in with answers.

Also as an author what draws you to MN? Is it so that you can see what people are saying and discussing about books? Or is that the threads are potentially rich in subject fodder for novels as I think they would be, for sure.

Procrastination, mostly I found MN years ago as a teen mum feeling completely hounded to breastfeed, desperately googling at 2am how the actual f I make the baby drink the damn milk from the painful nipple.
Stayed for the AIBU and the relationships board (and more recently the long running K-drama thread). I mostly use it as my interests change just like anyone who isn't an author.

That said, the FMC in this thriller I'm going to write is based a little bit on 'MN Culture'. Or I guess she idolises MN Culture? Which is probably going to sound ridiculous (especially bc MN Culture isn't even a thing ) but there was a small part of me who, at twenty one and polar opposites from middle class, totally bought into idealistic life of dressing like a MNer thinks a French person dresses like and painting my house with Farrow and Ball I definitely could not afford haha. So I've tried to take the inverse of inverse snobbery (?) and sprinkle some steroids over it. She wants THAT life, with a man who's playing at that life too, I guess. Not worked out the details yet this is just 1st Chapter stuff...