With so many books out there, it can be challenging to identify truly original ideas in fiction. What may seem fresh to one person might be a labored repeat to someone else. Before I had read extensively in the suspense genre, I was pretty easily impressed. As a more seasoned reader now, I have grown weary of double crosses, reappearances by the presumed dead, and unreliable journal entries. The same is true when you broaden the discussion to other genres. Another coming-of-age story about a fateful summer? I’ll pass. Another enemies-to-lovers rom-com? I’m good.
Discovering new plot points is one of the pleasures of reading. Whether original or just original to me, here are three I enjoyed.
1.
In this beautifully written short novel, Frannie is a writing teacher in Manhattan who is researching a book on street slang. In the basement of a bar, she sees a playing card tattoo on the hand of a man engaging in a sex act with a woman with blue hair. Shortly thereafter, a young woman is murdered who resembles the woman Frannie saw.
What develops from there is a peculiar story of suspicion and desire. I would argue that the whole thing is original, but what I saw for the first time is a first-person narrator dying in the last line. It is jarring and somehow apt.
2.
A psychological thriller set in a Minnesota river town, college professor Linda Hammond is horrified when her daughter is kidnapped by a man who lives in a boarding house. After the girl is rescued, she is still in danger after Linda pursues the available legal options but is frustrated by the process.
Linda goes to the boarding house and breaks into the man’s unit. She then pulls out a gun and kills him. Even having read a lot in this genre, I had never seen that kind of vigilante move before. After the surprise, I expected the inevitable outcome of such an act. Instead there is another twist that is more satisfying.
3.
Gabriel Noone hosts a late night radio show, telling stories to an anonymous audience. He is going through the loss of his longtime companion, Jess, who was expected to die but survived with a desire to move on.
When a teenage boy calls in, Gabriel develops a relationship with him and his adoptive mother, Donna. Pete is terminally ill. Their mutual loneliness helps Gabriel and Pete develop a bond. Soon Gabriel is wrapped up in their connection, thinking of the boy as his own.
This was the first time I saw catfishing featured in a novel. As doubts about Pete’s condition rise, the tension increases until the final, shattering reveal. I loved it.
Books Smitten 