Psychological Thriller
The Bane and Boon of an Unreliable Narrator
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There has long been a discussion of whether or not a reliable narrator in fiction is something that truly exists. Since humans are prone to biases and judgment, a purely reliable narrator just isn’t possible. Rather, degrees of reliability in literature might be a more realistic conversation. Literature, especially thrillers, often dabble in the many…
Parties Gone Wrong: A Beloved Trope in Crime Fiction
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Parties are terrible at the best of times. So much hope and anticipation is heaped onto them, they can never live up to the pressure, collapsing into tears and piles of vomit. Not only the teenage ones, either… The preparation is the best part, when hope still springs eternal as the canapés come warm from…
Books In Which Rich People (Think They Can) Get Away With Murder
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Having money offers many privileges. Beautiful clothes, houses, and spouses. Glossy lives, glossy hair, and the odd glossy-coated pony. Better healthcare and a better diet full of perfectly balanced macro and micronutrients. The rich may live longer, but they are not immortals. They are not untouchable. The Other Half, my debut novel, features a love-to-loathe…
Brave Women in Mysterious Circumstances: A Reading List
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When I was 12 or 13, I read a book called The Other Side of Dark by Joan Lowery Nixon. There wasn’t a ton of YA in those days (this was before cell phones and streaming music, back when we had to look up information in encyclopedias and dinosaurs roamed the earth) so whenever a…
Five Books With Righteous Female Rage
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I didn’t intend to write a book about an angry woman. After all, furious, embittered characters—despite much progress—often remained the province of men. To write an angry woman was to risk her becoming Unlikeable, a nebulous state of being still somehow able to deliver the killing blow to reader enjoyment. This character, however, emerged with…
An Argument for the Unintentional Villain
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A good villain is essential to a good mystery. He or she is the author of the crime, the driver of the plot, and the key to solving the ensuing investigation. Often, the more cunning and deceitful the villain, the more satisfying their unmasking and capture. This is one reason for the public fascination with…
The Dead Girl and the Survivor Trope
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When I first picked up crime thrillers as a teenager, I remember being fascinated by how many plots begin with the discovery of a dead girl. What was it exactly that I found so intriguing about these novels, considering I was often in the same age demographic as many of their victims, not to mention…
How Unlikeable Characters Freed Me From Perfectionism
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I’m hardly the first author to call herself a perfectionist. In fact, I’m sure many of us were once described as “a pleasure to have in class”—which, for me, meant straight As, crippling social anxiety, and a paralyzing fear of getting in trouble. My literary role models were Nancy Drew, Matilda, and Ella (of Enchanted…
From Broadway Musicals to Thrilling Mysteries: A Writing Life in Two Acts
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I’ve always been a tremendous fan of thrillers, especially of the psychological variety. Whether on the page or on the screen, they rank amongst my favorite thing ever. (I can practically recite the entirety of Rear Window verbatim, with a convincing Grace Kelly, Jimmy Stewart or Thelma Ritter impersonation, depending on the delivery.) I adore…