Book genres - becoming very samey

[MrsMiniver1942]

Do you find that once a book comes out and is hailed as fantastic, there are others jumping on the bandwagon so to speak and originality is a bit stifled?

I've just read Northern Boy by Iqbal Hussain straight off the back of The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey. And Mix Tape (although I think that came first). I wonder how many other back in the day Northern towns will feature in upcoming books? I enjoyed all of these.

I noticed it with the 'cosy murder' books by Richard Osman, Richard Coles, and countless others. I haven't read any of these however, but they are really noticeable.

There was a fashion for gothic style books a few years ago. Laura Purcell, Stacey Halls, Bridget Collins ... all the books had very similar covers, gloriously embossed and extravagant and very similar storylines.

And the domestic noir with a twist became oversaturated. How many books were 'the new' Girl on the Train or Gone Girl?

Going back a bit further we had Dan Brown being copied, and I think chick lit really kicked it off in the very late 1990s.

Interested in thoughts and comments.

I get the weekly list of cheap books on kindle from Bookbub each week, and I notice how many are ‘person finds old letters, secrets,' mysteries. Think the authors all went to the same creative writing class.
and after Lord of the Rings, so many (mostly awful) fantasy books.

Agree - basically the publishing industry is not very imaginative and so if one book it successful they want a lot of similar books. See the many Richard Osman like books. They won't actually say this though - they will say they want original stuff.

At one point ghost stories were dead in the water, then someone must have taken a punt on that genre, had a successful ghost story and then lo and behold ghost stories came back in.

Agree. The stuff that is advertised on my Kindle all looks derivative and samey. Even the authors' names looked copied! Very unappealing

Yes it's very trend-fuelled but it has to be. People just aren't reading / buying books like they used to! If something feels like it's going to sell then of course publishers jump on if. If you like variety, head to the library, charity shops, second hand book shops and markets / car boots. I've read some absolute gems that no one's ever heard of by authors I'd no idea existed. There are so many books out there already - recently published works are a drop in the ocean.

Definitely agree, it's always been the case though

Cosy mysteries on the back of Richard Osman are definitely a big thing at the moment.
Celebrity writers - Richard Osman, Rob Rinder, David Walliams etc - it must drive actual writers struggling to get published insane.

Domestic psycho thrillers - short three word titles like "I see you" and "He came back", dark cover, yellow title - literally 100s of them.

Profession+female relations genre - The Baker's daughter, The Watchmakers Wife etc etc

Cosy cafes by the sea genre - pastel covers, curly font titles

I've noticed Bookshops are becoming a thing - Lost Bookshops, Bookshops by the Sea, The Cosy Bookshop etc etc etc.

My sister works in Children's publishing - she says if you are not in the style of Julia Donaldson it is very tough.

I find the 50Books thread on here great for recommendations you wouldn't normally come across

....and don't get me started on "the most jawdropping twist you will ever read" - which every paperback thriller claims - to the point it is meaningless

The publishing business is a commercial business like any other and when something starts selling they will make more of it, exactly the same as clothes or music or other fashions. They experiment a lot - hundreds of books are published every month and only a handful make money - these act as tastemaker and then spawn others - but to be able to afford to bring debut writers and untested formats to market they need to commercial money machine to keep working.

And this is nothing new - see also Dickens and Christie etc - they churned them out as commercial products.

I don't think it's anything new.
My mother used to read what we called "clogs and shawls" books. Catherine Cookson is a well known one but there are hundreds of similar. As with all genres some are well written and decent reads and some are atrocious.
Fantasy was big in the 1970s and 80s.
Something you see less of now is the spy genre. I used to love a good spy book in the 80s but the fall of the iron curtain put an end to those for a while.

... that's why I like authors who published in the 1950's - 1970's. (Try Octavia Butler, original and beautifully written!)
Although jumping on the bandwagon and cheap books have been a thing for a long time.

There is the odd modern author I like but have found a lot of subsequent books are samy and boring. (Looking at you Lucinda Riley and S.A Chakraborty, great authors with great concepts but lost the plot along the way.)

I hate to think what AI is going to do to literature in general.

Why bother reading stuff published today? Most of it is rubbish. I hardly ever read contemporary work. You have 3,000 years of literature at your fingertips! And you know it’s good because it has stood the test of time. I recently discovered Iris Murdoch, for example, and have spent six blissful months working through her novels. Don’t waste your time on Richard Osman. His detective novels will be totally forgotten in fifty years (but people will still be reading Sherlock Holmes).

Please share the gems 🙏

It's the readers too.

People read a book they like and then want something similar. They might read earlier books by the same author but then will look for more Victorian gothic, cozy murders, gritty northern life or whatever.
Publishers will look for similar offerings to a hit, and use the same style cover as a signal to the reader.

I find it particularly annoying when they are advertised in this way as part of the title on Amazon...

The watchmaker's wife, a moving thriller perfect for fans of the tattooist's aunt! Argh.

The rest is entertainment podcast talks about this kind of thing sometimes. Richard Osman is quite good on it, even though I really disliked his books! Marina Hyde is always great.

But yeah, alternate new and old books, and mostly ignore what Amazon and Audible suggest.

One of the trends I noticed is retelling of Greek myths and epics from a female point of view.

The first I read was the Song of Achilles which I loved. Then I came across Natalie Haynes and Pat Barker's trilogy. The first 2 are Classicists who can write. Pat Barker is an author I already loved.

But then some other writers jumped on the bandwagon and I've been disappointed by some really badly written books.

Edited to correct a typo.

Hmm yes I found the one about Medusa disappointing, can't remember who that was by. The trend overall is interesting.

I think I read Ariadne which was a let down. I've got a feeling that Medusa was the same writer.

Fantasy (well 'romantasy') is absolutely huge now too! But agree not a lot of spy stories. Maybe we will see geopolitical thrillers and spies come back given world events?

I'm sure it's extremely hard to predict. I remember The Hare with Amber Eyes. Great book and massive bestseller but it's a true family history told through a collection of netsuke, by someone best known as a ceramicist. Unpredictable!

Yes, familiar with all these 'samey' genres, for want of a better word.
Like a pp I read a mixture but revisit
Barbara pym
Iris Murdoch
PD James
Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine
Stephen King
Susan Hill
Want to read George Orwell again, after 30 years!
Recently read and enjoyed The Stepford Wives, The Triffids, Rosemary's Baby, i like Thrillers as you can tell

Yep.

"The Quirky Occupation's Female Relative" / "The Quirky Occupation of Exotic Location"
"The Whimsical Occupation of Aushwitz"
"Female Character is No Longer There"
"Greek Myth - But now with Girls!"
"The Cosy Schmaltzy Cafe/Bookshop"
"The XYZ Murders"
"Blood And Eagles" / "Fire and Castles" / "Swords and GoT Passing-Off"

Yes but there is always something different coming out of you keep an eye on the lists of new releases away from the bestsellers. I like to read older books that i missed when they came out too. Love libraries for the variety rather than bookshops.

Agree.

i think an author is a good go to.
I know a Stephen King will be inventive ideas, well thought though but spoilt by the lazy US narrative. I’ll read all his stuff love it and but also pained by it.
But…who else does what he does it better?

Agree.

i think an author is a good go to.
I know a Stephen King will be inventive ideas, well thought though but spoilt by the lazy US narrative. I’ll read all his stuff love it and but also pained by it.
But…who else does what he does it better?

A genre that has been too exploited is everything related to the 2nd ww. I can't stand a book that has anything to do with that period.

Scandinavian noir is utterly boring as well. Social realism but so formated. The prose is lacking as well.

Can not stand romance at all. Colleen Hoover and the other pastel girlie covers books. Even as a teen I would have cringed. And when I see an adult read them.. I judge. But then I'm way way too cynical to appreciate the romance genre.

Cosy fiction; I liked Richard Osman's murder serie. Mostly because it was elderly people which is rare and it was more comedy than mystery.

I would love to find another author who writes like Ruth Rendell. Her books are so seemingly effortlessly brillant. Barbara Vine and PD James are good as well. Tana French, Liz Nugent, Karin Slaughter, Belinda Bauer are other "safe cards" eg books I can safely purchase without being disappointed.

Anthony Horowitz is pretty good if you like a murder mystery.

Lucinda Riley won't be writing any more! We read the Seven Sisters for the book group, but I didn't finish any of them.

Personally, I'm getting back into reading recently, and much prefer a more modern, easy & quick read. When I am sometimes only finding 10-15 mins in a day I need something not too heavy that can be easily picked back up.