Be Gone Already!

Navigating The Onslaught Of A Genre

Girls, sisters, wives and women…oh my! Gone Girl, Girl On The Train, Luckiest Girl Alive, What My Sister Knew, My Favourite Sister, The Night Sister, The Wife Between Us, The Wife, The Innocent Wife, The Woman In The Window, The Woman In Cabin 10, The Woman Left Behind.

You can’t browse through your local bookstore and not be surrounded by evidence of the relentless deluge of mystery thrillers, populated by girls, sisters, wives and woman. The phenomenal success of Gone Girl and Girl On The Train hurled us into a trend, (sometimes referred to as domestic thrillers, a regrettable label in my opinion), that is still holding strong. Or is it? How many of the slew of books that have come after are actually good?  Like any other trend, literary or otherwise, it’s a mix.  What is obvious is the marketing ploy, a mad grasp by publishers far and wide to hitch up to a star making technique. The banal titles and soft-focus cover art, (that often reminds me of a 70’s kotex ad, seriously, if I see one with a dandelion blowin’ in the breeze, I’m out!), can do a disservice to the quality of the story within.  At the core of the better of them, the central characters of these books are of the female persuasion, facing varied levels of peril. Unlike the boring simplicity the title might imply, they are often times trying to liberate themselves from what society expects of women.

Let me be clear here, what I want gone is this notion as a formula for getting a spot on a bestseller list.  Formula in writing of any kind has its place, but it can limit the creativity many of us are looking for, and frankly demanding, in the books we pick to read.  It’s far too much like colouring inside the lines.  Gone Girl is a triumphant example of the best this genre has to offer.  To be able to achieve this level of success with absolutely no likeable characters is staggering. Seriously they are horrible people!  This story has a deliciously flawed “girl” and is rife with twists and turns that had millions sitting up and taking notice.  In addition, the author fooled the reader a few times over, no easy feat. Girl On The Train was another well written showcase of girls behaving badly.  That, after all, is where all the fun is.

Gillian Flynn herself has commented “Isn’t it time to acknowledge the ugly side? I’ve grown quite weary of the spunky heroines, brave victims and soul-searching fashionistas that stock so many books. I particularly mourn the lack of female villains – good, potent female villains.  Not ill-tempered women who scheme about landing a good man and better shoes (as if we had nothing more interesting to war over), not chilly WASP mothers (emotionally distant is not necessarily evil), not soapy vixens (merely bitchy doesn’t qualify either).  I’m talking violent, wicked women.  Scary women. Don’t tell me you don’t know some.”

As I plow through as many books as I can get my hands on, this is just a snippet of what I might be looking for in a good read.

Where this genre is concerned I pledge to share the ones I find do the best job of tantalizing us with both the wicked and the wonderful. Let me share some of my most recent picks.

10 Wickedly Fun Thrillers

1.   I’ll Find You In The Dark – Nathan Ripley

2.   Women In The Window – AJ Finn

3.    Unravelling Oliver – Liz Nugent

4.    I Let You Go – Claire MacIntosh

5.    Always Watching – Chevy Stevens

6.    Pretty Girls – Karin Slaughter

7.    Lying Game – Ruth Ware

8.    Don’t Let Go – Harlan Coben

9.    Little Deaths – Emma Flint

10.    Behind Closed Doors – B.A. Paris