Big Thrill

What doesn’t kill you makes you…a survivor. Joy Moore and Benny Abbott have been best friends for a very long time, although the relationship has had its ups and downs. Right now, it’s definitely up, though there are other worries. In Tiffany Crum’s This Story Might Save Your Life, the two have a hugely successful podcast of the same name.

By V.S. Lawrence Miranda Smith was raised on horror movies, and not just in a metaphorical sense. She spent her childhood in the lobby of her parents’ video rental store, surrounded by shelves of blood-splattered VHS covers and the steady hum of thrillers playing on repeat. Horror wasn’t just background noise. “My parents owned a video rental store,” she says. “Most school nights and summer days were spent watching movies in the store’s lobby or taking them home to binge-watch with my sisters.

By Jo Morey I started building the playlist for my literary suspense, Lime Juice Money not long after I began drafting. It set the mood for various scenes and characters, and it also kicked off my subconscious brain to do the emotional heavy lifting for me when I wasn’t at my desk. I subjected my husband and kids to it on car rides for two years, and they quickly fell in love with it, and started asking for it on every journey.