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Categories:
1. Bildungsroman
A bildungsroman is a traditional novel genre in which a main character develops on a personal and social level during the story. Often, these stories deal with young adults in coming-of-age situations. Besides telling an interesting story, a bildungsroman author may attempt to convey a lesson to readers in similar situations to the character.
2. Children’s literature
Children’s literature targets an audience of young children, often elementary school-age or younger. The stories commonly use simple language that young children can understand. Children’s literature often includes moral lessons readers can gain as they finish the novel.
3. Contemporary realism
Stories implementing the contemporary realism style take place in the modern world in a realistic representation of society. Characters in contemporary realism stories are often average people. The relatability of characters dealing with real-world issues may be a primary commercial appeal for a contemporary realist novel.
4. Detective
A detective story features an investigator attempting to solve a crime, often as the main character. This may take place in both modern and historical settings. Often, detective characters serve in an informal investigator position, which can provide complicated details for the plot of the story.
5. Eldritch
The eldritch genre takes inspiration from the work of author H.P. Lovecraft. It features horrific monsters that often defy description. Preventing these creatures from taking over the world is a common goal for characters in eldritch stories.
6. Epic
An epic novel tells a story of grandiose proportions. They may feature the main characters completing heroic acts beyond the capabilities of normal humans. An epic may also feature normal people who find themselves in a larger struggle.
7. Fantasy
Fantasy novels take place in a world that is often similar to the real world in the present or in the past but adds fantasy elements such as magic, non-human characters, and fantastical creatures. Low fantasy novels are those that feature fantasy elements in a real-world setting. In high fantasy novels, the world itself is a fictional realm different from that of the reader.
8. Gothic
Gothic storytelling is a 20th-century writing style closely associated with monster stories and the grotesque. Gothic settings are often gloomy and unsettling, creating the mood for stories with darker plots. They commonly include supernatural elements or monsters with which the characters interact.
9. Ghost story
Ghost stories feature ghostly characters, often as a primary antagonist, but also potentially as a protagonist or side character. Ghost stories are commonly horror tales or tragedies. An author may also use ghostly elements in combination with other genres such as comedy or romance to further entice the reader.
10. Humor
A humor novel uses comedy to entertain readers. This may include traditionally structured jokes or satire that make light of real-world people, organizations, or structures through comedic exaggeration. Humor may be a secondary genre for a novel, infusing a traditionally non-humorous genre with some comedic lines, or it may be the main genre, where comedy is the primary purpose of the story and appeals to potential readers.
11. Horror
Horror novels attempt to scare the reader, using the tension this can provide to produce interest. The horror may be physical, such as a story dealing with a monster that attacks people. Horror may also be psychological, focusing on the mental effects a situation has on a narrator or a main character.
12. Magical realism
Magical realism novels are stories that primarily exist in a realistic world but include elements of magic or fantasy. The author does not overly explain these elements and why they exist. They treat the magical elements as commonly understood parts of society that do not require justification, just as you would not justify common elements from the real world like technology.
13. Meta
A meta novel is a story that provides a contextual commentary besides the surface-level plot of the novel. A meta-commentary may include acknowledgments about the novel itself or the genres and tropes referenced by the author in the story. This may allow an author to comment on the state of the publishing industry or a subset of the industry.
14. Monster
Monster stories revolve around a single monster or type of monster and their interactions with society. Frequently, the monsters in a monster story represent a real-world issue. An author may use a traditional style of monster or create their own for their story.
15. Parable
A parable is a story that uses allegorical writing to provide commentary or teach a lesson about a topic without directly discussing it. An author creates stand-in characters and themes that correlate to the real-world message they intend to send. This allows an author to tell an important lesson in a method they feel is more approachable for a general audience.
16. Political
A political novel tells a story with political intrigue as a primary plot focus. Characters in political stories often hold powerful positions, with the main plot featuring an issue of national or international significance. A political novel may be based on an actual event, be fully fictionalized, or be a semi-fictional story addressing an alternate way that a historical event may have occurred, such as what may have happened if a different country won a specific war.
17. Post-apocalyptic
Post-apocalyptic stories take place in a world following a global catastrophe that resulted in near extinction for humanity. The main character in the story may be alone or maybe a participant in the new societies that arose after the end of modern civilization. Post-apocalyptic stories are commonly allegorical, with the story offering a perspective on a risk the author feels has not received proper attention in society.
18. Proletarian
A proletarian novel focuses on the lives of working-class individuals, usually written by authors with experience or connections in a working-class industry. Novels in this genre often contain stories comprising characters living their normal lives without fantastical elements. The challenges of proletarian novels are commonly societal in nature. A proletarian novel may include a moral or social commentary, focusing on an area where the author feels society is failing to meet the needs of the working class.
19. Psychological
A psychological novel is one that places a significant focus on the internal thinking of one or more characters. Often, the primary conflict in a story includes psychological tension. Writers commonly combine the psychological genre with the thriller genre to create stories of internal conflict in which a character faces challenging circumstances and struggles with the mental impact they create.
20. Romance
A romance novel tells the story of a main character falling in love. Many romance stories involve significant impediments to the main character ending up with their chosen partner, which they must work together to overcome if they wish to be together. The novel tells how these difficulties cause complications for the main character and how they solve them to attain their true love.
21. Science fiction
Science fiction novels take place in a fantasy setting with enhanced technological capabilities. These stories may involve aliens or space travel, life-changing cybernetic technologies or other fantasy and science elements. Science fiction may also serve as a broad genre for another type of story, such as an epic science fiction or a humorous science fiction story.
22. Serial
Serialized novels tell stories that follow the same characters over many distinct plots. Although characters may grow and develop over the course of the stories, each individual novel may also serve as a standalone book in most cases. It’s easy for a new reader to pick a serial up and enjoy the book for its own merits, while fans of the series enjoy the latest installment with their favorite characters.
23. Spy
A spy novel takes place with main characters who are a part of secret organizations, are carrying out secret missions for organizations, or are regular people who become entangled in the affairs of those types of individuals. Spy novels may feature stakes on a global level, such as thwarting a plan for world domination. A spy novel may follow the exploits of an entire agency or an individual spy.
24. Survival
Survival novels tell the story of people placed in life-or-death situations. These novels recount how the endangered individuals respond and the challenges they face. Many survival novels take place after tragic accidents that place the main characters in precarious situations removed from modern amenities.
25. Superhero
Superhero novels tell the stories of individuals or groups who possess superhuman powers. This may result from being extraterrestrial, experiencing a life-changing event, or a having genetic mutation. Superhero novels frequently take the form of graphic novels, which use both text and pictures to tell a story.
26. Thriller
Thrillers are suspenseful novels, often dealing with the protagonist trying to stop a secret plot or dealing with a menacing threat. Thriller novels use high tension to maintain interest in the reader. Writers often combine the thriller genre with other genres that include horror, political, and technological elements.
27. War
War novels take place within war zones. Often, war stories follow main characters enlisted as soldiers in a war. They may also follow citizens living their lives during a war. War novels commonly take place in historical wars, but you may also create a fully fictionalized war for your novel.
28. Western
The Western genre commonly features stories taking place in the American Old West. Many successful Western novels feature battles between outlaws and officers of the law. A unique combination genre for Westerns is the space Western, which applies traditional Western tropes to stories set in a science fiction environment.
29. Young adult
Young adult fiction caters to an audience of preteens and teenagers as a primary demographic. Novels in this genre may feature themes that people in this age range find relatable, such as friendship and young love. Many popular young adult novels are set in a series of books that follow the same characters for multiple installments, allowing readers to age and develop along with the characters in the series.
