For the past year, I've been reading more thrillers and fantasy/sci-fi rather than YA books. When it comes to thrillers, I gravitate more toward psychological thrillers, where the suspense occurs in characters' minds more so than in physical acts of violence. While you don't need an unreliable narrator for a good psychological thriller, the plot often hinges on lies or omissions of truth. One of the most popular books in the genre, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, does a superb job of this. (I won't say more about the lies for fear of spoiling the story.)
The problem with some of the recent thrillers I've read is that I find characters lying or keeping a secret for no good rational reason other than that there would be no plot if they told the truth. In one book, the logical course of action for the protagonist was to tell the truth because that would benefit herself and everyone around her, but she inexplicably chose to lie, and the only reason I can think of is that there would be no story if she didn't. One of my pet peeves is when characters act in ways that don't make sense in order to advance the story. This is something I'm cognizant of when I write my stories. Are my characters making rational decisions? Do they do things that a person would realistically do in their situation?
I understand that lies are part of the thriller genre, but as Gone Girl and other great thrillers have shown, there are ways for characters to lie and still be believable. This won't make me read fewer thrillers, but I am more likely to look unfavorably upon those where the characters lie only for the sake of advancing the plot.
