psychological suspense

Psychological suspense is a genre of fiction, film, or television that generates tension primarily through mental and emotional manipulation rather than action or violence.

The focus is on characters' inner states—their fears, obsessions, paranoia, and moral ambiguities—often featuring unreliable narrators or protagonists whose grip on reality seems tenuous.

The novel was a work of psychological suspense that kept readers guessing about the narrator's sanity.

Unlike thrillers that rely on external threats, psychological suspense builds dread through what characters think, perceive, or fail to understand about those around them.