The #1 Thriller Trope According to My Reader Poll (And the Shocking One That Came in Dead Last)

I recently polled my email newsletter list of thousands of thriller readers to learn what are currently the most and least popular tropes in the genre. The results both did and did not surprise me, and I'll get into why.

First, a bit about tropes. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it describes elements in a genre that constantly reappear in different shapes throughout stories. A common romance trope is "Enemies to Lovers" and we've seen this played out in thousands of books and movies. A common horror trope is "Haunted House." Sci-fi has "Time Travel;" fantasy has "The Quest." These are single examples, but each genre has hundreds of tropes. Too many to list!

As readers, we gravitate toward our favorite tropes whether or not we realize it, and as a reader myself, I know I'm always hoping to experience that trope in a new, fresh way. Delivering a new angle to a certain trope is one of my goals as a thriller author, too.

The results are in

Your favorite thriller tropes didn't really surprise me because we see these in most of the top thrillers. First place went to Everyone Has a Secret (think: Lisa Jewell, Lucy Foley, Alice Feeney, etc.). Small Town With a Dark Secret (think: Gillian Flynn, Megan Miranda, Shari Lapena) came in a close second. Missing/Kidnapped Person was up there as well, and this is a very common thriller trope we see in books like Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris, Ask for Andrea by Noelle W. Ihli, and Never Lie by Freida McFadden.

My books feature these tropes as well. Don't Ask Why revolves around Everyone Has a Secret. Last One Out and The Final Scene are Missing Person and Kidnapping novels, respectively. And the book I'm working on right now will feature Small Town With a Dark Secret prominently.

Now for the tropes you all don't love as much. This one surprised me: Toxic Marriage/Domestic Suspense. What?! You guys need to explain this to me. Some of you did leave comments about how you feel it's overplayed. Maybe you're just ready for a break. Nevertheless, the numbers don't lie!

Some of you used the comments to share your favorites or least favorites that weren't in my poll and I so appreciated that! Here are some of your favorites I didn't include: Cults, Snow Storms (which by the way, my book Make No Mistake features both of these tropes!), Serial Killer, and some of you even said you love books where you're in the POV of a killer. I think that's a controversial one, so please feel free to enlighten me in the comments! I'm so curious. (I too love these stories.)

The full list

Here's every trope I included in my poll, in order of favorites to least favorites. Feel free to use the comments to rank them for yourself!

1. Everyone has a secret

2. Small town with a dark secret

3. Missing person/Kidnapping

4. Isolated setting/no escape

5. Cold case/unsolved mystery

6. Vacation gone wrong

7. Stalking

8. Unreliable narrator

9. Cat and mouse

10. Toxic marriage/domestic suspense

Thank you to everyone who participated in my poll! If you'd like to be included in the next one I do, sign up for my newsletter. You can unsubscribe if you change your mind after a few emails. I know our inboxes are all so cluttered.

XO,

Steph