Suggestions please?

Hi all,

I'm on sub right now with my domestic suspense and the main feedback from editors seems to be that the book is "too funny" for a thriller. I really had no idea I was this hilarious! I do admit that my favorite suspense stories are older suspense books by Patricia Highsmith, Ira Levin, Agatha Christie, etc. And Hitchcock movies. And I always appreciate some comedic relief in a suspense plot, but apparently this is throwing editors. Rather than try to rewrite it as ploddingly maudlin, I was thinking of when we go back out again, warning editors upfront what they're getting: a domestic suspense with flashes of humor. So to that end, I'm trying to find some recent comps. I find a lot of thrillers said to be funny (Carl Hiassen) but not so much domestic suspense (though personally I thought Gone Girl was hilarious).

Any titles I should check out - especially ones published within the past five years?

Thanks so much!!

Stytch said:

I'm not sure what the proper etiquette is, but I see it done, so ... maybe also consider movies? I am not a thriller fan in print or film, but I feel like there might be more "funny" thrillers on film. I don't mean the complete farces, like the Wayans stuff from several years back (and probably more recently, but I'm old and don't pay attention) but just some big mass market movies. I mean, even the superhero movies have gotten funnier the past couple of years when they realized it was doing better at the box office (Thanks, Deadpool!) so I wouldn't be surprised if there was some of that in other movie genres.

Click to expand...

Yes, I completely and totally agree with you, and I think flashes of sardonic humor in action/thriller movies is almost a prerequisite at this point. I may use that if all else fails. But I think if I can find at least one domestic suspense story that has a heroine who cracks the occasional joke, this would be best. Unfortunately, it seems to be pretty rare (or even non-existent) in the current domestic suspense arena, which is ploddingly serious. To me, it's a weakness of the genre, but that's me....

Fuchsia Groan said:

I haven’t read all that much in the genre, but I thought Luckiest Girl Alive had some funny or at least satirical bits in between the traumas. I thought GG was funny, too! Both those have super voicey humor, though; there’s sort of a chick lit/thriller overlap there. It’s a first-person, self-mocking kind of humor. Not at all like the more distanced irony of Highsmith.

Click to expand...

Thanks, LGA might be one I can use. Unfortunately they're not telling me exactly what is too humorous for them - but my MC and her roommate crack some jokes (when things are calm), and there are a couple of instances of her cracking dark jokes when things go awry. Unless I'm funnier than I imagined, I didn't think the thing was comical! But that's the feedback I'm getting, so.... <shrug>

CameronJohnston said:

Not sure about books to check out but I suspect they are finding the humour a tonal shift too far from the main plot of your book so those moments of lightness detract from the rising tension. If more than one are saying the same thing it's probably worth looking at again with a critical eye. I would have thought that dark/sarcastic humour would work pretty well in a thriller, and I don't like a relentless serious grind.

Click to expand...

Yes, I don't know. It's hard to tell because of course editors don't give huge amounts of feedback, but that comment has popped up enough times now to make me concerned. My agent doesn't seem concerned. I'd hate to knock out every joke, but I'm not going to stubbornly hold onto them and lose a deal. I can joke in my next book.

I'll regroup with my agent soon and ask if I should just take them all out. However, it could be a tonal thing that infuses the entire MS and that would be difficult if not impossible to correct without a complete rewrite.

Putputt said:

LGA does humor so well. I would read the hell out of a book that uses it as a comp!

Click to expand...

it just seems a bit odd that this isn't something that an editor wouldn't have wanted to work with, it could be toned down. So perhaps it is just an excuse (after all, they have to say something.) But I thought maybe going back out with a few comps could help, so they're not so taken off guard by a few jokes.

I admit I did try to read LGA a few years back and couldn't get through it. The relentless brand-name dropping was too much for me. But I've found a few others and am trying to get a sense of them. Humor is so subjective. I think my heroine has a more sarcastic sense of humor than what I'm finding so far....

Putputt said:

Yea...I’ve had my share of editor rejections that cited flaws which I thought were easily fixed, so I don’t know.

This isn’t domestic suspense, but have you read THE ROOK? It’s laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s also tense as hell, and the stakes remain sky high throughout the book. Might be worth checking out.

Click to expand...

No, I'll check it out. DS tends to be suuuuuper serious - part of the reason I don't often vibe with the newer titles - so I suspect it's a combo of being out of vibe with the current market as well as positioning my humor in places that is dampening the tension. It's just a bummer because I had so many reads on this, including professional ones and my agent, before it went out, and no one mentioned this as being a negative. And a couple of the offering agents mentioned it as being a plus. Soooo I dunno!