Word.ws English Dictionary

grip-lit

grip-lit noun: a subgenre of psychological thriller novels that combine elements of gripping suspense with elements of domestic or psychological drama.

Noun

grip-lit (uncountable)

  1. (uncommon) A subgenre of psychological thriller novels that combine elements of gripping suspense with elements of domestic or psychological drama.
    • Data shows that it might remain a popular activity in 2016 too, and that, like grip-lit, it might even be here to stay.2016 January 29, Sophie Hannah, “Grip-lit? Psychological thrillers were around long before Gone Girl”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 29 Apr 2024
    • The result is a ferociously addictive, troubling, seductive read whose title, Thus Bad Begins, fits right into the literary world’s latest trending category, Grip Lit.2016 February 21, Emma Townshend, “Javier Marías, Thus Bad Begins: 'In the grip of a secret vice', book review”, in The Independent, archived from the original on 29 Apr 2024

Origin of grip-lit

Coined by Irish author Marian Keyes in a now deleted tweet published on January 31, 2015.

Questions about grip-lit

What does grip-lit mean?
Grip-lit means a subgenre of psychological thriller novels that combine elements of gripping suspense with elements of domestic or psychological drama.
What part of speech is grip-lit?
Grip-lit is a noun.

Words near grip-lit in the dictionary

  1. grip waxes
  2. grip-and-grin
  3. grip-and-grins
  4. grip-car
  5. grip-cars
  6. grip-lit
  7. gripe
  8. gripe water
  9. gripe waters
  10. griped
  11. gripeful

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: grip-lit (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “grip-lit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grip-lit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.