What's genre got to do with it? Pt 3

Genre, format, audience, trope, trend and trigger, oh my!

Hi Stackers,

I know, I know, we’ve talked about this before. More than once and fairly recently. Around the time I wrote Pt 2, Goodreads posted “17 New Cross-Genre Trends We’re Spotting in 2025” and, as you may have guessed if you know me or you’ve been reading these posts, I’m fascinated by this list, the trends they highlighted and the semantics of “17 new cross-genre trends.” I’ll explain.

So one of the things that I’ve mentioned before in the two previous "What’s Genre Got to Do With It?” posts is that many, many, many people use “genre” when they mean other things. Even me. Even this Goodreads list.

Most commonly, in my experience at least, folks will refer to audience or age range as genre. For instance: YA (young adult) or new adult. In the early 2000s, it was “Chick Lit” (gag me) or “Women’s Fiction.” Those are not genres, they refer instead to intended audience or age range. YA, new adult and women’s fiction all contain multiple genres within them, though they’re likely to be shelved altogether.

Format is hard cover, paperback, audiobook, large print, electronic, graphic (as in illustrated). There is a big push in publishing right now to re-publish popular novels/nonfiction titles as in graphic formats, particularly in the juvenile age range (the “I Survived…” series and the Magic Tree House series are two examples), but this is also happening with manga classics on the YA level and on the adult level with classics like Kindred by Octavia Butler, but also new books like Kiersten White’s Hide (novel) and Hide (graphic novel), which I actually read first, before I realized it was a novel first. [Fun fact, the blurb on the novel cover is from Karen M. McManus, who writes a popular YA series, even though Hide in both formats are aimed for adult audiences. The characters are all young (new) adults, as well.] When books are available in different formats, it usually adds to the accessibility for different readers. Paperbacks are usually cheaper. Audiobooks and electronic books help folks with disabilities like vision issues or arthritis, ADHD or dyslexia. Graphic novels/nonfiction can introduce new audiences who prefer that medium to classics or books that are adapted into that format. The cover for the fiction version of Hide is interesting, especially once you’ve read the story, but the cover for the graphic novel is way more attention-grabbing, so not only did I discover the novel by reading the graphic novel first, I discovered a new author whose work I love.

Going back to the Goodreads list, since “cross-genre” is in the title, I was looking forward to a list of books that are “romantasy” or “cozy fantasy” or “horror comedy” (which is more of a new film subgenre, but could be applied to books).

None of the categories in the Goodreads list are actually cross-genre or even genre-related. The closest to a genre we get in the list of 17 and is “speculative,” which is a subgenre or cross-genre and not so much of an actual genre (i.e. you find a section of it at a bookstore or a library).

What this list most reminds me of is creative displays, which collect a group of books together because they have something in common. For instance, in my BHM Part 1 post earlier this month, I shared a photo of a small YA display I did this month for Women’s History Month. The theme is “fighting together is greater than fighting each other” and it features books where girls are literally in competition with each other or working together.

Here’s the list of 17:

1. “Appalachian Speculation” - location / genre (ish)

2. Water world - common element, maybe even a trigger

3. Golems - common element

4. Mommy dearest - common element, maybe even a trigger

5. MLMs - common element

6. One-track minds - location / common element

7. Heist-geist - trope/common element

8. Pregnant protagonists (in Peril!) - common element, maybe even a trigger

9. Strange appetites - common element / cover design

10. Sympathy for the devil - common element, maybe even a trigger

11. Stranger than fiction - common element

12. Space race - location / common element

13. Entangled reincarnations - common element

14. Novels from short story writers - common element / author detail

15. Short story collections from novelists - common element / author detail

16. Paint drips on covers - cover design

17. Old-timey animals on book covers - cover design

Whew. All this is to say, this list is great and all of these categories would make really great displays. It’s difficult to categorize books! It takes a lot of instinct and knowledge, of both the book and the reader. It’s strange to think that knowledge of the reader (or an ideal if not an individual) would help to categorize books, but what are sections other than opportunities to recommend books to readers? If someone likes mysteries and they browse the mystery section, the inclusion of a book in that section is a recommendation that they might like it.

In the 17 categories on the list, “location” turns up a few times. Sometimes a location is more commonly featured in different genres - like space is often a location in Science Fiction (or space operas, a subgenre). Trains are often a location for mysteries. Why? Because they operate as a “locked room” that’s in motion and “locked room” is a subgenre or trope in the mystery genre. But also, books are sometimes categorized and organized into “local” sections. But “local” is a location that changes based not just on where you are, but also whether you’re focusing on local authors or local settings. There are a lot of books that are set in New Orleans, for instance, but are they considered local if the author doesn’t live or has never lived in New Orleans?

Annnnnnyyyyyways, I’m getting into the weeds again. I find all of this fascinating. Hopefully you do, too.

I can see how “cross-genre” works for this list because each category includes books from multiple genres. The two I’ve read so far are Sophie Wan’s Women of Good Fortune (Heist-Giest) and Brynne Weaver’s Butcher and Blackbird (Sympathy for the devil), and I hope to have read many more later this year, as many are on my TBR list.

What do you think of this list? Have you read any of the books already, or are there any you’re interested in reading? Would love to know your thoughts!