Female thriller authors finally become important!

Are you also tired of the fact that female thriller authors are still undervalued in the literary world? So am I! But I have some good news for you. Female authors finally become important! It seems like those authors have a short history, because until recently it were only men who wrote literary thrillers. Well, I did some research because I was very curious about female thriller authors now I would really like to share my findings with you!

Since the 90s, female authors did some catching up. Before that time, the only thriller authors that existed were men. According to the media, female authors already occurred in the 70s and 80s. Most of them were born in halfway the 60s. In absolute terms female authors did occure during the 70s and 80s, but in percentage terms the ratio remained the same. So that is the main reason why we say that female authors only emerged during the 90s. Not really fair, but that’s just the way it is.

According to a survey from NIPO, more than half of the writers who write just for fun are woman. A very striking fact is that sex is the common theme in literary works of many female authors. The modern society we live in allows writers and other creators of art to be free in what they create. Maybe that is the reason why female authors are doing so well at the moment.  Another fact is that female thriller authors especially reach out to women. According to the CPNB the reason is that female thriller authors write about the everyday life, family and relationships. Those themes are very easy for women to identify themselves with. The question now is whether female thriller authors will continue to have success or if they will disappear as soon as society will change.

The first female thriller author that I would like to introduce to you (in case you did not know her already) is Karin Slaughter. This amazing thriller author has already written lots of books which were bestsellers in The Netherlands. Her latest books are ‘Busted’ and ‘Unseen’, that also belong to her Georgia-series. I think Slaughter is a really great writer, because her books always seem to get a hold on my attention until the very last page. Also, her style of writing is very easy to read, which makes it possible to identify yourself with the characters.

The second female thriller author that I would like to reveal is the Dutch Saskia Noort. She has already written ten thrillers

and her books are bestsellers too. Some of them are even filmed. In 2013 she published her latest book ‘Debet’. The fact that Saskia Noort is capable of writing different books that are all very exciting and fun to read at the same time, makes me think that she is a really good author. Besides, Saskia Noort has won a price for making such a great contribution to the popularity of the Dutch thriller. With this contribution she also paved the way for a whole new generation of female thriller authors.

So, whatever you might think about thrillers or their authors, I think that it is wonderful that female authors have entered the literary world. Their stories are always written slightly different than the stories of male authors, so they definitely contribute something to the literary world. As the CPNB already said, female thriller authors write about the everyday life and other themes where women can easily identify themselves with. That means that they absolutely add something to the literary world. And if you ask me, I think female authors are even better than male authors! But that is just my opinion and, as you can guess, I am a woman too so I don’t know whether you can completely rely on me in this case.       (643 words)

By: Donna Luisa Huijzendveld