Thrill Me
Essays on Fiction
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4.8 • 6 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Bold new essays on how to craft a thrilling read--in any genre--from the bestselling author of The Dead Lands
Anyone familiar with the meteoric rise of Benjamin Percy's career will surely have noticed a certain shift: After writing two short-story collections and a literary novel, he delivered the werewolf thriller Red Moon and the postapocalyptic epic The Dead Lands. Now, in his first book of nonfiction, Percy challenges the notion that literary and genre fiction are somehow mutually exclusive. The title essay is an ode to the kinds of books that make many readers fall in love with fiction: science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, horror, from J.R.R. Tolkien to Anne Rice, Ursula K. Le Guin to Stephen King. Percy's own academic experience banished many of these writers in the name of what is "literary" and what is "genre." Then he discovered Michael Chabon, Aimee Bender, Cormac McCarthy, Margaret Atwood, and others who employ techniques of genre fiction while remaining literary writers. In fifteen essays on the craft of fiction, Percy looks to disparate sources such as Jaws, Blood Meridian, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to discover how contemporary writers engage issues of plot, suspense, momentum, and the speculative, as well as character, setting, and dialogue. An urgent and entertaining missive on craft, Thrill Me brims with Percy's distinctive blend of anecdotes, advice, and close reading, all in the service of one dictum: Thrill the reader.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Percy (The Dead Lands) assembles 15 short essays on various topics related to the art and craft of fiction writing. Many of the selections began as lectures for writing workshops, and aspiring and established authors will get the most out of Percy's advice. Percy inevitably talks a lot about his own work, but he offers plenty of examples from other writers. Pushing back against the prejudice in literary circles against genre writing, he encourages writers to lean into something more thrilling than simple realism. The book covers topics such as creating urgency, avoiding backstory, and writing violence. On the basis that "work defines us," Percy advises that a character's job should shape how that person sees the world. He also frequently draws on filmmaking conventions, explaining how novelists and short story writers can learn lessons about structure and modulation from screenwriters. Percy's essays skillfully dissect the structure, mechanics, and concrete details of what makes good writing sparkle.
