I’ve done my due diligence by browsing this sub for other threads requesting similar suggestions, but I’m disappointed to find that most posts requesting “high-concept” books just get comments which are little more than shortlists of titles and authors.
That is super unhelpful. The entire point of a “high-concept” story is that it’s, as Wikipedia describes; an *”artistic work that can be easily pitched with a succinctly stated premise.”*
For example, a high-concept thriller *movie* might be **It Follows**, it’s about a shapeshifting monster that is at all times slowly following the last person to contract it’s curse to kill them, and the curse is spread like an STD.
A high-concept thriller *book* which I just finished, **Gallant** by V.E. Schwab, is about a mute orphan who secretly sees dead people and is mysteriously contacted by her estranged family to come to an old mansion, which her mother went mad in and warned her never to visit.
Short punchy hooks like that go *a long way* to entice people to read or watch something new. If any of you have suggestions, please tell me the concept, there are a lot of cool ideas out there and I wanna hear ’em.
by Omnizoa
1 Comment
I think most novels could be summarized like that, but I’ll recommend one I just recommended in another thread: **Circadian Algorithms**, a medical procedure to reduce sleep has unintended side effects that unravel a couple’s lives and draw them into an international conspiracy.