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From Time Travel To Tech Startups: Five Cross-genre Book Trends We're Noticing

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As life’s rich pageant of books passes through Goodreads World Headquarters, we often take note of certain thematic and topical trends that suddenly feel like they're everywhere. These aren’t genre trends, exactly. In fact, what makes them interesting is that they often manifest across multiple genres.

 

We like to catalog these strange little pulses while they’re still in circulation, so we've gathered below a selection of new (published since 2022) and upcoming books sorted into five cross-genre trends we're currently spotting. Some are familiar and tend to come in waves over time—vampires are back, for instance—while others feel like distinctly 21st-century concerns. What's with all the books that are set in 2040, anyhow?

 

We’ve added some quick introductions and synopses. Click on the book cover images for more information about each book. Have fun, and if you want to add books or compare notes on other cross-genre trends you're noticing in books these days, feel free to continue the discussion in the comments section!

 


Vampires Never Get Old

Vampire stories have come and gone through book culture since at least 1897, but after being decidedly gone for a decade due to post-Twilight paranormal fatigue, blood-sucking vamps are most definitely back with a vengeance and biting into more genres than ever before.












Vampires, sneaky little revenants that they are, have a long history of wandering into other genres. Bride is the first paranormal romance from superstar author Ali Hazelwood, who made her name in the genre with STEM love stories. It’s a major switching-of-the-gears, and it looks like a lot of fun. The novel introduces aristocratic vampyre Misery Lark, betrothed in an arranged marriage to alpha werewolf Lowe Moreland. Sexy!



Genre: Romance

 














Mixing vampires with a mystery premise and a kind of campy Texas horror vibe, Bless Your Heart introduces the women of the Evans family funeral parlor. For several generations, Evans women have been tending to the deceased of Southeast Texas and dispatching the occasional vampire infestation. But now it seems that someone has deliberately woken up the Strigol, lord of the undead. The Evans family motto: What rises up must go back down. It’s just good common sense, really.  



Genre: Mystery-horror

 














It’s tricky to pull off anything really new in the vampire genre, but Michigan author Lumen Reese may have managed it with her urban-fantasy-plus-horror adventure. It seems that a creative surgeon and his band of rogue medics have found a way to tame vampires. Using a kind of catch-and-release system, they outfit vamps with a “pacemaker” device complete with spring-loaded toothpick. If the device monitor finds human blood in the vampire’s system, it’s death by toothpick…



Genre: Horror

 














If you’re in the market for a sexy queer riff on the vampire vibe, may we suggest An Education in Malice, the latest in dark academia from S.T. Gibson (A Dowry of Blood). Innocent young Laura Sheridan has just started her first term at Saint Perpetua's College, where the classwork is ferocious and the competition quite literally bloodthirsty. Fans of 19th-century horror will be pleased to hear that Laura’s love interest is named Carmilla—a rather famous name in sapphic vampire lore.  



Genre: Dark academia

 














Taking the vampire story into new territory can be a tricky maneuver. But author Lauren Blackwood pulls it off with The Dangerous Ones, which imagines an alternate U.S. Civil War pitting vampire slavers against the Union Army’s regiment of superpowered soldiers. Young Jerusalem, formerly enslaved herself, uses her enhanced strength and reflexes to free her people—and maybe get a little sweet revenge.



Genre: Young adult/historical fantasy

 








Time Keeps on Slipping

Time travel has long been the purview of science fiction, but stories of chronological slips and skips are now finding their way to the romance, mystery/thriller, and literary fiction shelves as well.












The theme of time travel is definitely surging of late, we’ve noticed. Author Kaliane Bradley’s buzzy debut, dropping in May, concerns a government worker assigned to help historical figures ripped out of their timelines and plopped into the 21st century. The question soon presents itself: Is it possible for a modern woman to fall in love with a Victorian-era Arctic explorer from the doomed Franklin expedition? Let’s find out!



Genre: Science fiction

 














Author Ashley Poston’s time-twist love story, nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award for Romance in 2023, presents a strange dilemma. Stubbornly optimistic Clementine has just moved into her late aunt’s apartment, which happens to be a soft spot in the time-space continuum. She’s delighted to find a man there she can love! She’s discouraged to discover that he exists seven years in the past. She’s committed to making it work. It’s all about the timing with these things.



Genre: Romance

 














This acclaimed debut novel from author Scott Alexander Howard is literary speculative fiction built around an interesting premise: Sixteen-year-old Odile lives in a unique small town. In the valley to the west, the town is 20 years behind in time. To the east, it’s 20 years in the future. The three towns repeat an endless sequence—forever together, forever apart. Atop this foundation, author Howard spins a heartfelt and otherwise realistic story about time, love, and loss.



Genre: Science fiction

 














When you agree to work on a top-secret particle accelerator, you run certain risks. Neuroscientist Mariana Pineda has just discovered this the hard way, and now she’s trapped in a four-day time loop with the mysterious but kind Carter Cho. Living together four days at a time, Carter and Mariana must find a way to escape, or the relationship will be stuck in the mother of all ruts. Author Mike Chen puts a time-curling twist on the traditional romance novel.  



Genre: Science fiction/Romance

 














New York City is a great setting for time-travel stories, and Tia Williams spins a clever one with A Love Song for Ricki Wilde. The artistic oddball of her wealthy Atlanta family, Ricki decamps for Gotham and a small rental in an old Harlem brownstone. What happens from here is best left for the reader to discover, but it’s safe to say that Ricki meets a man, has an adventure, and learns a lot about the Harlem Renaissance period of the 1920s and 1930s.



Genre: Romance

 














Celebrated U.K. author Gillian McAllister hit the mystery-thriller jackpot in 2022 with this inventive variation on the recursive time-slip story. When her teenage son commits a seemingly senseless murder, a mother is sent back in time to find the trigger for the terrible crime. Each morning, she wakes farther back into the past, desperate to change that one little thing that will make the difference. 



Genre: Mystery

 














The year 1995 is going great for Alex Dean. He's got a spot at Cambridge University lined up for next year and the love of a wonderful woman. The future is bright…that is, until the future arrives much too soon. After an encounter with a ghost from his past, Alex awakens in 2010 to discover his life has taken a turn for the worse. Every morning jumps him to a different point in his timeline: 2019, 1999, and so forth. Can Alex put the pieces together before it's too late?



Genre: Science fiction/mystery

 








Seed(y) Rounds

Ah, the 21st-century tech startup; is there any genre its far-reaching claws can't sink into? We're seeing fiction, romance, and horror writers venture into this particular sandbox right now. Turns out there really is an app for everything these days!

 










Kyla Zhao, author of The Fraud Squad, takes on the unsavory aspects of Silicon Valley culture in this story of a professional nightmare come true. When young fashion writer Zoe Zeng trades in her Manhattan career for a career opportunity in California, she quickly finds out that West Coast tech pros are not the generous visionaries they claim to be. It gets ugly. Can Kyla overcome coastal culture shock to save her career? Her conscience?



Genre: Fiction

 














The wellness industry seems to breed an inordinate amount of weirdness. Author Nathan Hill explores this modern truism with the tale of a couple who graduate from 1990s art-world success to a shared midlife crisis. Desperately chasing mass-media representations of health and happiness, Jack and Elizabeth are losing their way—and each other—amid all the mindfulness classes, detox diets, and polyamorous complications. They’ll have to do some real work to keep their family intact.



Genre: Fiction

 














Over in the horror-novel aisle, Natural Beauty tells the disturbing story of a young musician who falls in with the wrong crowd at an elite New York City beauty salon. At the trendy shop Holistik, it seems the beauty regimen treatments are really cutting edge. There’s quite a bit of pain involved. Also, suckerfish. Author Ling Ling Huang brings new twists to the conventional body horror tale by incorporating elements of race, queerness, and American consumerism in full psychosis.



Genre: Horror

 














Featuring dark magical realism in the treacherous world of Silicon Valley startups, Ripe details the grim downward spiral of one millennial worker who realizes that she’s in the wrong place. For hopeful and hardworking Cassie, the cutthroat corporate world is a land of cognitive dissonance. Most disturbing, Cassie’s growing despair is manifesting as a small but quite literal black hole in space-time. That’s going to be an issue. 



Genre: Fiction

 














Debt-ridden Jonathan Abernathy is offered a literal dream job in this surrealist workplace novel; he's tasked with entering the minds of middle-class workers while they sleep and removing the, erm, more unsavory aspects of their waking lives in order to make them more productive workers. If you're thinking this all sounds more late-capitalist nightmare than amazing new technology, you're probably definitely right.



Genre: Literary speculative fiction

 














Tech founder Sara Chae discovers the hard way that there's a flaw in her One Last Word app, which sends posthumous messages to your loved ones and/or enemies, when her prototype is triggered by the obituary of a different Sara Chae. Havoc ensues, especially when her investors assign her a mentor who's none other than her former crush (and recipient of one of her messages), venture capital wunderkind Harry Shim.



Genre: Romance

 














With its stylized typography and quietly disturbing cover art, author E.K. Sathue’s debut novel—coming in June—is one of those books that just tugs at your eyeballs. Sophia Bannion, 29-year-old copywriter, has just taken a job on the “Storytelling” team at HEBE, a skincare and wellness brand. Then she learns about the secret ingredient in HEBE’s fatty moisturizer. Then things get really bizarre.



Genre: Horror

 








Everyone Loves a Plucky Librarian

It is a truth universally acknowledged that people who love books also love books about books. The figure of the intrepid librarian has been a mainstay of a certain strand of historical fiction for a while, but now we're also spotting these keepers of knowledge in the contemporary and speculative fiction stacks.










A Goodreads Choice Award double nominee last year (for Best Fantasy and Best Debut) Ink Blood Sister Scribe furthers the grand tradition of heroic library defenders. Author Emma Törzs introduces estranged stepsisters Joanna and Esther Kalotay, tasked with protecting the family’s collection of ancient and powerful tomes. When their father dies while reading a mysterious new addition to the collection, the sisters must confront a terrible family legacy.



Genre: Fantasy

 














Patrick deWitt, author of Booker Prize short-lister The Sisters Brothers, delivers a beautiful character study with this sleeper hit from last year. Bob Comet, retired librarian, has spent his entire life around books. When he volunteers at a local senior center in Portland, Oregon, details from his extraordinary past finally come to light. Author deWitt specializes in this kind of compassionate portraiture, delivered with a poignant mix of humor and melancholy.



Genre: Fiction

 














From the historical fiction shelves, this inspiring World War II–era story profiles courageous three women who rally to the defense of their London neighborhood when German bombs destroy the local library. Setting up temporary lending stations in the underground shelters, they keep the lifeblood of books circulating in the city. U.K. author Jennifer Ryan (The Chilbury Ladies' Choir) stitches in three amazing life stories along the way.



Genre: Historical fiction

 














Slated to hit shelves in June, this entertaining summer read from author Kirsten Miller (The Change) proceeds from a delicious setup: Self-appointed community guardian Lula Dean is determined to rid her small-town library of inappropriate books. Offering a morally hygienic selection from her own front yard, Lula soon finds that someone is sneaking banned books into her wholesome dust jackets. Secrets are revealed. Petards are hoisted. Hijinks ensue.



Genre: Fiction

 














Pitched as The Birds meets The Princess Bride, complete with a book-within-a-book, this genre mashup from author Aimee Pokwatka (Self Portrait with Nothing) features a cozy hometown library…surrounded by murderous owls. Inconceivable! Intrepid Madeleine Purdy helps a group of trapped schoolchildren keep calm by reading aloud from her favorite childhood novel, The Silent Queen. Ah, the power of books to maintain order and hope when death is on the line.



Genre: Fantasy/horror

 








Then and Now and Later…and Much Later

Full disclosure: We've been noticing this trend of books set in the past, present, and future (sometimes far future) because they defy our typical genre classifications! Are they historical fiction? Literary speculative books? Sci-fi? All of the above? All we know is that they are suddenly everywhere and we never fully know which genre to assign them to!

 










This bold new novel from author Lisa Ko (The Leavers) follows three friends from their childhoods in the 1980s, through their contemporary adult lives, then forward into the unsure environs of New York City circa 2040. Ko’s innovative structure invites readers to think longitudinally about difficult questions concerning art, technology, ambition, and friendship. What matters? What lasts? In the end, we all get the exact same deal: We get a lifetime.



Genre: Fiction

 














Digging deep into Indian identity and history, acclaimed author Siddhartha Deb (The Point of Return) delivers a kaleidoscopic epic with multiple threaded storylines in the past, present, and future. An assassin hunts a whistleblower in 1984 Bhopal. British soldiers chase a rebel leader into the Himalayas in 1859. Nationalist violence explodes in a near-future scenario that may be just days away. Deb’s hugely ambitious work here has been compared to that of Pynchon, Butler, Márquez, and Lovecraft.



Genre: Fiction

 














This new release from Rachel Khong (Goodbye, Vitamin) follows members of a single family through generations. On the eve of Y2K, Lily meets the love of her life in New York City. In 2021, Lily's son Nick sets out from their home in the Pacific Northwest to learn more about his absent father. And oh right, there's a section that takes place in a futuristic San Francisco involving a mad scientist and her genetic experiments, too. You'll have to read the book to see how it all connects.



Genre: Fiction

 














A beautiful novel about the soft places in time-space, Sea of Tranquility finds the formidable Emily St. John Mandel returning once more to her sophisticated brand of speculative fiction. It’s a different kind of time-travel story, with stops in 1912 Vancouver, 2020 New York City, and the free city of Los Angeles circa 2203. We even get a farther-future scene in a lunar space station about 400 years from now. 



Genre: Science fiction

 














Slated for shelves on May 7, this intriguing debut novel from author Juli Min starts in the future—the year 2040—and works backward through the present and the past. The book documents the fate of the wealthy and cosmopolitan Yang family—mom, dad, and their two eldest daughters—with stops in China, Paris, and a certain prestigious university near Boston. Author Min explores complex themes of family, ambition, art, impending climate change, and the tyranny of time itself.



Genre: Fiction

 














Expanding on the whole past/present/future timeline theme, this debut novel from 2022 spans seven generations and two planets. Ranging from the Kansas plains in 1873 to a version of New Orleans devastated by storms in 2027 to 2073 when Earth is only a distant memory for the lone human inhabitant of Mars, the story both portrays a dystopian apocalypse but also dares to ask what comes next.



Genre: Science fiction

 








Are you noticing any new trends cropping up in multiple genres? Let's talk books in the comments!



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posted by Sharon on March, 24

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