5 Genre-Bending Books and What They Can Teach Us
When I was younger I had a very distinct genre of books that I enjoyed reading (fantasy) and I would read anything and everything I could get my hands on in that genre.
Thankfully as I’ve got older I’ve branched out into a much broader plateau of literary genres, and some of the books I’ve enjoyed the most have been the ones I struggle to place within a specific genre. These are often referred to as ‘genre-bending’ titles and there are a few things these literary affairs can teach us, as readers and as writers.
What Do We Mean By Genre-Bending?
As you’ve probably guessed by now, genre-bending is any book, or movie for that matter, that doesn’t fit neatly into one single genre. It might be a fantasy narrative with a strong romance thread to it (for some reason Twilight is the only example that springs to mind here, please don’t judge me) or it might be a memoir that threads in pieces of storytelling and poetry. Han Kang’s The White Book is an exquisite example of the latter.
Genre-bending books offer us something unique that sits outside the norm. It’s because they don’t conform that they tend to grab our attention in ways books that stoically stick to one genre sometimes don’t.
5 Genre-Bending Books Worth Reading
If you’re feeling stuck in a rut with your own reading lists, or perhaps your writing practice is in need of an injection of inspiration and motivation, a genre-bending book could be exactly what’s needed. These six titles are worth taking a look at:
The White Book by Han Kang
Unlike her first two novels, The White Book was not designed with a structured narrative. There is no beginning, middle or end. It is a melting pot of autobiographical meditations, observations, dream-like prose, and pondered experience. Intimately weaving together themes of grief, place, history, memory, and mother-daughter relationships, the book is segmented into brief pages of prose, each titled with the name of a white object. Some are immediately identifiable (sugar, linen, paper) and some require further exploration (breath-cloud, silence, laughing whitely).
I’ve seen the book described as a piece of art, ‘something to be experienced‘, and pretentious though that may sound, I find it extremely difficult to argue with the idea. Placing this into one genre is nigh impossible.
All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kauffman
This quirky short novella will spin you on your heel and leave you wondering where it came from! Tom’s friends really are all superheroes, he even married one, dubbed The Perfectionist. Unfortunately for Tom, The Perfectionists’ ex-boyfriend, Hypno, is none too happy about their betrothal and he hypnotizes her on their wedding day to forget Tom’s existence. In a race against time, Tom must convince The Perfectionist he exists before she disappears from his life altogether. To do so, Tom will have to tap into the most universal superpower of all.
Perfectly blending comedy with a sci-fi twist and the most adorable hint of romance, Kauffman manages to cover more than a few genres in these short, 140 pages.
4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster
4 3 2 1 follows the life of Archibald Ferguson, or rather it follows the lives of Archibald Ferguson. Spanning four parallel lives of the same character, Auster explores the roads taken, not taken, taken by someone else, and even roads that never existed in the first place.
Bending together literary fiction, with a tiny smudge of sci-fi-esque narrative, Auster has created a complex novel that will challenge any reader to contort and stretch their thinking as they attempt to keep track of four distinctly different narratives of the same character.
We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson
Jackson’s gothic family mystery is a much-loved favorite from Penguin Classics. Sisters Merricat and Constance, along with their Uncle Julian, live together at Blackwood House, a manor that has fallen into disarray. They are the sole survivors of a mass family murder for which Constance was arrested and subsequently acquitted. When an estranged cousin arrives to claim the house, the full history of the family and identity of the murderer is slowly revealed via Uncle Julian’s ramblings.
A juicy whodunnit murder mystery, with elements of family, comedy, and Jackson’s quintessential gothic vibe, it’s easy to see why this is genre-bending bookshelf favorite.
Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood
The long-awaited release from Atwood did not disappoint, not least for its compelling retelling of a Shakespearean favorite: The Tempest. We follow Felix, Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival as he’s staging a Tempest like no other, one to win him wide acclaim. That is until an act of unforeseen treachery leaves Felix living in exile and brewing revenge. After twelve years, revenge finally arrives in the shape of a theatre course at a nearby prison. Here, Felix intends to bring his Tempest back to life and snare the traitors who destroyed him.
Atwood’s take on Shakespeare’s play of revenge and second chances provides the opportunity to bring two juggernauts of genres together, literary fiction and literary classic, with delightful results.
What These Books Can Teach Us
There’s More Freedom In Writing Than We Might Realise
One of the greatest lessons genre-bending books have to share is how much freedom there is within writing. The examples I’ve listed above barely begin to scratch the surface of the full extent of works available that cross-over and flip entire genres on their heads.
As writers, it can be easy to get stuck in thoughts of conformity and thinking about how or where to pitch a piece or story as we write it. Sometimes this can result in us placing our writing into restrained boxes. Genre-bending books are wonderful reminders that we don’t need to do this.
Don’t Limit Your Imagination
Sometimes I get ideas for stories and I shy away from writing them because I can’t find any traction in anything I’ve read that matches my idea (or so I think). I talk myself out of writing my slightly weird or wonderful tale because I can’t see how it fits into a genre.
I feel pretty confident in assuming that authors of books who blend genres, don’t give this a second thought. I’m thinking of Robbie Arnott’s Flames here, that merged mystical fantasy with literary realism and the right dash of romance. These books encourage us to throw caution to the wind and let our imagination run a little wild.
There’s A Reader For Everything
Much like 14 year old me, there are always going to be readers who are die-hard fans of one specific genre. Which is great - we need readers like this.
But for every die-hard genre fan, there’s at least a reader or two who want to be challenged, surprised, awed and delighted by the different ways writers tell stories. Whether it’s entirely new narratives or a rewriting of an old tale in an innovative way.
The success of genre-bending books reassures us that for whatever type of tale we might want to write, however, we want to write it, there will always be a reader.
About Elaine Mead
Elaine is a freelance writer and editor from London, currently residing in Tasmania. She is passionately interested in the ways in which we can learn from our experiences to become more authentic versions of ourselves, and believes in the power of words to connect. She's also obsessed with showing you photos of her Dachshund puppy. You can find her on Instagram @cestelaine
