Update your blog to include your genre research and reading.
Post on Blogger by Thursday, May 28.
Provide the following:
--An overview of your genre
--The appeals of your genre
--What you personally like about your genre
--Your review of the book you read and how it is an example of your genre-- evaluate it as such
--3 recommendations you would make to readers for books or authors in your genre.
This post should be multiple paragraphs, informative, and aesthetically pleasing.
My May Genre Reading
As you all know, my comfort zone has become more varied as I have read more and more and diversified my reading interests. However, I have always gravitated to the mystery/suspense/detective fiction genre. This genre has many sub-genres which appeal to a sense of suspense. As a couple of you mentioned during your genre projects, mystery often appeals to people who like to figure out puzzles and problem solve. I consistently find myself trying to figure out who committed a crime or how the investigators are going to apprehend the perpetrator. Mysteries keep readers on the edge of their chairs reading. There have been many nights when I have stayed up until all hours just to finish a mystery.
This past month I have read several books. The book that best fits in this mystery/suspense genre is The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. The books takes place in Salem and focuses upon Towner who has returned to the city after a long absence. The book blends suspense and mystery with romantic and paranormal elements. The book had me constantly thinking about how different memories and events related to one another. One of the supporting characters is a police man who is trying to figure out if a crime has happened. A better classification of the book might be psychological suspense because, in the end, the narrator's perspective is called into question. Towner previously suffered a nervous breakdown which caused her to be institutionalized and undergo electric shock treatments. After several plot twists, red herrings, and high stakes events, the mystery unravels and the solution becomes clear but not expected. The setting of Salem adds an exotic element as historical events and conflicts are paralleled by modern conflicts.
Viewing this book as a psychological thriller places it in the same realm as several popular recent bestsellers: Gone Girl, The Silent Patient, I am Thinking of Ending Things, The Girl on the Train, The Woman in the Window, and The Wife Between Us. Each of these books contains a mystery but the narrative point of view imposes many plot twists into the story-line. Writers play with unreliable narrators, the narrative structure and chronology.
