What Kind of Suspense Book Should You Read? I’m here to help you explore the main types of suspense novels. Will you want to try them all, or will you decide to pick a suspense fiction lane? Let’s find out!
What Kind of Suspense Book Should You Read?
Welcome! Maybe you ended up on this page after taking my What’s the Best Mystery Thriller Book for You quiz.
Or maybe you ended up here because you’re curious about the different types of suspense novels and which you would like best.
You might want to take the quiz and see if you’re a devoted suspense reader or might actually prefer a different kind of thrilling or mysterious book.
What is a “Suspense Novel?”
Let’s go over the Jen Ryland criteria for a suspense novel:
If a mystery is primarily driven by rules, clues, and the desire for order, and a thriller is timeline and pace-driven, I believe that a suspense book is all about the inner (psychological) and outer (atmospheric) world. (Again, these are just MY definitions. Please feel free to link and cite me, though!)
- A good suspense novel plays with the concept of reality. What is “real” and what is only an illusion?
- A suspense novel includes a (real or imagined) threat of danger
- I think a suspense novel typically includes psychological elements, like gaslighting, amnesia, or an unreliable narrator create an overall sense of unease and uncertainty
- To me, the world of a suspense book is often morally gray, with unlikeable characters
- The stakes of the book are typically more personal, involving relationships and a person’s sense of self and sanity
- There can be philosophical questions ranging from serious to campy, like “Can you ever really know someone?” to “could I be in love with a killer?”
- Flashbacks or memories; and/or epistolary elements like journal entries are often used.
- A suspense novel may have a somewhat unresolved ending
So first off, I have to say two things about “Suspense Novels”
- Many books have “suspense elements” while still primarily being other things. There are police procedurals with suspense elements. If there are police, a case, clues, and a resolution, I will still categorize a book as a mystery.
- Blending subgenres is okay and I believe we can live with the uncertainty of a mash-up. We are a society of cronuts and skorts and goldendoodles. When I categorize books, I sort by what category it most fits into. It’s not always completely cut-and-dried.
- While the different types of mysteries are quite stark (to me) these different types of suspense books are more similar than different.
I’m starting with Gothic Suspense Books because:
- It seems like the oldest of my categories (dating to the 1700s) and
- It also seems (to me) linked to Domestic Suspense.
I’m sure I could write a whole dissertation on Gothic Fiction, but let’s just go over some of the common preoccupations of Gothic fiction, according to me and confirmed by my research:
- hidden family secrets and buried memories
- a gloomy setting, like a castle or creepy old house
- a revenge plot
- supernatural elements
- madness (in the 1800s “madness” could mean a lot of things, including being the victim of gaslighting)
- a romance in which an ingenue and a brooding older man meet cute
In a typical Gothic plot, a young woman in dire straits and in need of protection (and money) enters the sphere of an older male love interest. She’s often a governess or a domestic servant.
Who’s the guy? He’s a Byronic hero who, according to Lord Macaulay in 1831, is “proud, moody, cynical, …yet capable of deep and strong affection.” In other words, a hot guy with a tragic past. Or a wife locked in the attic. He’s just terribly misunderstood…
Let’s explore Gothic Suspense, including my favorite Modern Gothic Suspense Books. I think you might be surprised at the books on the list!
In my opinion, you could argue that Domestic Suspense is a modernized version of Gothic Suspense. What happens when you marry Mr. Right? If you’re in a Domestic Suspense novel, you are constantly wondering if he is really Mr. VERY WRONG.
To me, Domestic suspense books are the dark twin of romance novels You got your “happily ever after.” But did you really? Better sleep with one eye open!
Okay, I feel like I need a list, so here is Jen’s definition of a Domestic Suspense Novel
- Domestic suspense takes place in the context of a marriage, domestic partnership, or committed relationship
- The main character is usually either unsure of her/his relationship OR
- The reader suspects that an unsuspecting main character is in danger
- There can be gaslighting, cheating (or suspected cheating), or even a murder plot
- There’s often a secondary character who seems threatening to the main character’s relationship or sense of sanity
- As with all suspense, there can be trickery of the reader (see above)
Ready to head out on a speed date with some Domestic Suspense Novels? Let’s go!
These have been so popular recently that I decided to make an entire category. A Family Secrets Suspense just has the added element of … you guessed it: Dark Family Secrets.
- A family secrets suspense novel typically involves a character returning to a hometown or family home
- Dark family secrets are being hidden and WILL be revealed
- Psychological elements, like gaslighting, amnesia, or an unreliable narrator create an overall sense of unease and uncertainty
- Flashbacks, memories, or epistolary elements like journal entries are often used.
- An ending with shocking reveals
Want to explore Suspense Books With Dark Family Secrets? Let’s go!
In psychological suspense, the focus is on the psychological manipulation of characters (and the reader!) through things like:
- unreliable narrators
- characters in psychological crisis
- characters who are not who they seem
- timeline manipulation
- misdirection
- creepy settings, like a psychiatric hospital
- gaslighting of the narrator AND the reader!
This kind of reader manipulation is not allowed in the rules of a traditional mystery, but readers of psychological thrillers LOVE experiencing these things vicariously through a book. Readers of psychological suspense are LOOKING for and expecting these elements. And they are tough readers who are hard to surprise.
Are you feeling brave enough to explore Psychological Suspense Books and Thrillers? Let’s do it!