Good morning or afternoon, my fellow Owl book Coven! Today, I’m coming at you with awesome thriller tropes. I have tried to include almost all of the thriller tropes in the list. At least it includes a lot of the most popular tropes, whether it’s tropes that are popular among readers or tropes popular among authors.
With that being said, what exactly is a trope, let alone a thriller trope? It is a literary device that is used through books to create tension and suspense in the story.
If it weren’t for tropes, then stories wouldn’t be all that great. Who exactly wouldn’t want to read a book that didn’t have a little bit of tension in it? If it didn’t have these tropes, then the story would be very, very boring, and most of us would probably put it down.
List of tropes
A lot of these are the most popular thriller tropes. I know you have probably heard many of these. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of all of these. There are a couple of these I had never heard of, or at least I didn’t realize it was considered a trope. Now that I’m going through them, though, I’m starting to realize how many of them I’ve read over the years.
But here is a list of those tropes. Let me know in the comments which ones you have read and haven’t read!
- Broken down vehicle
- Isolated local
- Mysterious stranger
- Stalker or unhinged ex
- Toxic friendship and cults
- Powerful protagonist
- Fearful protagonist
- Victium gets revenge
- Intelligent psychopath
- Unreliable narrators
- Blackmail
- Kidnapping
- Framed
- Unassuming villain
Top ten psychological thriller tropes
These are some of the best psychological thriller tropes, and I have to admit that I’ve read quite a few stories with some of these, and I have to say that usually I really enjoy them. If I had to pick a favorite, I’m not sure I could. But I do know that I really enjoy the unreliable narrator, creepy small town, isolation, cult, and dark family secret.
I’m not really picky, though. When it comes to thriller tropes and horror tropes, I like almost all of them as long as the book is really well done.
- The unreliable narrator
- Amnesia
- Creepy small town
- the doppleganger
- Isolation
- Cat and mouse
- The manipulator
- the cult
- dark family secret
- Paranormal twist
Psychological thrillers are some of my favorites, though. I love books that kind of play with my head and keep me guessing the entire time. I don’t like being able to figure out how a book is going to end way before I even get there.
Conclusion to thriller tropes
What are some of your favorite thriller tropes? I know you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t like thrillers at least a little bit. Did I miss any of the tropes that are your favorite? I know I probably missed a few tropes that some of you guys enjoy.
With that being said, there are quite a few thriller tropes out there. In my opinion, there’s something out there for just about everyone. If you enjoy thrillers, there has to be! If you enjoyed this post, then you might like my post on haunted house movies worth watching.