I'm a big believer that, to be a better writer, one should read more. As a corollary, reading in the genre that one intends to write is even better. For the last few months, I've been working on a thriller, which I'm in the midst of editing, so I've been reading more thrillers recently.
Thriller is a broad genre. According to Wikipedia, it encompasses stories that elicit feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation, and anxiety. For me, when I think of thrillers, I think of authors like Lee Child and Lisa Gardner. I also think of psychological thrillers like Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.
In my personal reading, I've seen the balance shift from YA to thrillers. This year alone, I've read five books in the YA category but eight thrillers so far. I expect that trend to continue because I'm finding that I really like the books I've read. Thrillers have been my second favorite genre for a long time (and hence the reason why I decided to write one myself), but the more I read, the more hooked I'm getting. This is especially true for psychological thrillers, although I don't think I'm ready to write one of those yet. I haven't been able to come up with some of the neat twists (e.g., Gone Girl) that I've read, but maybe someday I will.
This could be the first year since I started tracking my reading activity on Goodreads that I read more books in a genre other than YA, but I'm enjoying it so far. Who knows, this might signal the beginning of a transformation from my being a YA author to a thriller author!
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