A ‘thrilling’ trend

Thriller genres have a peculiar quality of drawing the interest of even the least interested readers. Thrillers have always been special for curious and fun-seeking souls and detective minds. The fun of breaking down behaviour patterns, analyzing crime scenes, and rushing through the pages while struggling to keep up with innumerable twists and turns is not found in any other genre.

The central plot or secret is what makes it even more interesting because you get to know it only in the climax. The ‘thrilling’ experience cannot be experienced twice. That is why, thrillers are special. The roller coaster ride through never-ending suspenses keeps you glued to the book. How can a book full of secrets, twists and turns, and suspense not fascinate any book lover?

Although the craze for thrillers has been well-prevalent over the years, the recent trends are ‘thrilling’ to notice. Despite being a least discussed genre, have you ever cared to notice how ‘thriller’ manages stay on top of popularity charts in every entertainment medium? From Netflix and Amazon ‘most watched’ series and movies to New York Times ‘best seller’ books, ‘Thriller fiction’ is the king.

For a hardcore thriller fan, nothing beats the excitement of finishing a good thriller. What might be the reason behind this obsession with cold-blooded murders, serial killers, and the detectives who venture on a journey to find the real culprit?

Thriller is a pretty broad term. Psychological thriller, political drama-cum-thrillers, espionage, and crime fictions are all a part of thrillers. Do you see how thrillers entertain everyone? Thriller fiction is an inclusive genre. Are you a romance fiction lover? Well, how can you not like romantic thrillers?

Thriller, as a genre, started gaining popularity around early 1900s’. The narration style, story plot, and themes have entirely changed during this timespan. Political dramas, espionage, and romantic thrillers were not a thing back then. Recent thrillers are more ‘thrilling’ with a new twist in each page, lives at stake, fast-paced story plot and narration, and high action sequences (which was literally absent in the 20^th century thriller genre literature).

Recent times and the evolution of thriller genre has broadened the term. A thriller today could be anything, psychological, crime, murder mystery, or romantic.

Do you remember the psychological thriller, Gone Girl, selling 2 million copies and sitting atop New York Best sellers for eight whole weeks? Since then, the insatiable hunger for thrillers has only gone up.

Another interesting trend in the thriller genre is the gender. Sounds confusing? Well, have you noticed how majority of the thrillers cast female as their protagonists? Is it a coincidence? Beginning from the titles like ‘A girl on the train,’ Gone girl,’ ‘Then she was gone,’ and ‘The Maid,’ isn’t it interesting to witness so many feminine references and even faces on the covers of these books?

Yet another interesting trend to notice is the story plot. Although thriller is an all-inclusive genre, the major or central plot mostly revolves around relationships, hidden secrets between families, spouses, lovers, and friends, make it more interesting.

Looking at it separately may not make any sense. Sometimes, some stories even appear lame but readers are connecting to these conflicts. These are regular stories, nothing special, with people just like you and us. But with extraordinary secrets, these stories are successfully drawing your attention.  

Do you love thrillers?

Thriller genre lovers are generally joyous and playful. Although some hesitate to admit their preferences, contrary to some studies that thriller genre lovers are inclined to crimes, they are more empathetic towards the situations surrounding them.

Humans are by nature morbidly fascinated to know what lies behind a violence, a murder, or a calamity. As we are used to peaceful patterns of living, disturbance in this patterns not only upsets but takes us on an adrenaline ride to find the truth.

It seems that human brains works actively while watching or reading a thriller story. You automatically tend to align or attach yourself to one side of the story and invariable try to find answers to all the loose ends. You feel empathetic with the victim. You may also empathize with the criminal, after all the narrator decides how you connect to the story and the characters.

The fascinating turn of events stimulates an inactive part of human brains and releases a set of chemicals causing feelings of euphoria and obsession. It can be addictive. That’s why, thrillers are non-put-downable. The journey of discovering intriguing situations under uncontrolled circumstances (since you are obsessively drawn into the story of the book) is energetic till the end.

Examining the attitudes of the characters is interesting to humans. Discovering the dark side of calm and composed people is spine-chilling. May be that’s one reason behind our obsession with thrillers. Thrillers are going to stay here, today, tomorrow, and until the human curiosity is alive.

By Navya D.