Recommending Reading - Genre

Telling your friend a book is 'this' genre can do as much help in describing it as harm in dismissing it. Don't let your favourite read be snubbed by stereotypes!

As I’ve said before on this site, it’s a rare individual who wouldn’t enjoy learning that their recommendation was taken to heart by a friend or loved-one, so why not put some effort into it when next plugging a preferred author or title?

Consider the following scenario: You and your friend have met-up and fallen into idle conversation, the course of which has now turned toward books. You’ve recently acquired a newfound favourite and believe your friend will enjoy it as well. You have also managed to open the conversation with a grab-line more imaginative and enticing than ‘It’s really great’ and so your friend now appears genuinely interested.

Your foot’s in the door; what do you say next?

Genre and how to use it

For some, it’s a book’s cast of characters that truly grabs their interest, while others look first for a stimulating plotline or a unique theme. Given that it’s often unlikely you’ll know your audience well enough to understand which of these they’re perked by (we often don’t even notice such details about our own preferences) why not broadly define all three in one go?

A book’s genre sums up its general qualities in one or two words, though while this might seem the ultimate marketing tool, simply declaring your book a romance, mystery, fantasy or alternate-history will also pigeonhole it in record time.

The trick

Try to avoid actually stating the genre, and instead look to what the terms ‘horror’, ‘thriller’, etc. really entail. For example, if you’re recommending a fantasy, try leading off with ‘It’s set in an alternate world, where an imperial court has become dominated by a dark, foreign stranger intent on using its armies to destroy his native homeland, as revenge for his being exiled years ago.’ (PS – I actually have no idea what book this might refer to, but if it comes close to anything you’ve read, by all means clue me in to it).

Here, we’ve basically used more words than necessary to dub a fantasy a fantasy. Alternate history, armies on the move, courtiers, at least the suggestion of magic and/or high political intrigue – all of these smack of fantasy-fiction and will accomplish two things that simply using the term ‘fantasy’ would not have; the first of which being that they declare the book a fantasy for those familiar with the genre and tell about the book’s unique features, rather than just those of its literary grouping.

Secondly, an extended description allows you to present the book in an interesting fashion for those normally turned-off by fantasy (and who would have lost interest immediately, had you simply used the f-word). Note that the goal here isn’t to deceive or trick someone into reading a book they wouldn’t normally go for, but to get around the stigma that genre-association can cause. A terrifying psychological thriller may be classified as horror, despite a complete lack of blood and guts, and so those who enjoy being frightened, yet who are turned off by the gory slasher aspect usually associated with the word ‘horror’ will likely pass it by.

In the end, your friend may simply cut through your clever wording with a dismissive nod and apply the genre title anyway, though don’t feel you can’t argue in defense of your book simply because of the section you found it in. Does a book in an alternate reality, but without any magic to speak of, really qualify as fantasy in the stereotypical faeries-and-princesses sense that turns off most critics? Does a book that can make you jump and sweat without disemboweling half the dramatis personae really rank as horror? When describing your book, use the qualities of genre to get passed the genre itself, and save your story from being judged by its shelf cover.