Sunday, April 13, 2025

Book Discussion: Subgenres I Did Not Know About


 

Just when I thought I'd seen everything as far as book subgenres go, I find two I'd never heard of until recently:

Solarpunk

Hopepunk

How many of you have heard those? I won't be surprised if not many of you have, since I just barely learned of them myself.  In looking at the lists from Goodreads, I was surprised to see how many books in each I'd read, not knowing the said subgenres actually existed. There are even more books in the hopepunk list that I have read that in the solarpunk one. To me, they just seemed like fantasy or in some instances climate fiction (cli-fi), a subgenre that was new-to-me several years ago. 

Every year, I get the reading category, "Genre you don't often read" (or some variation on that idea). I immediately think of self-help or westerns when I see this. Those have never been big reads for me. But do subgenres count, even if I have read the main genres? Solarpunk and hopepunk are just subgenres of fantasy. A western romance is just another romance. I won't even get started on romantasy!

I now wonder what other subgenres people will come up with. Are there any others you've found that seemed new and unusual to you?

4 comments:

Mary Kirkland said...

I didn't know about those either. I mostly read Paranormal romance and I think a lot fits into that category.

Live and Learn said...

I guess one can kept subdividing with subgenres to cover almost anything no matter how specific.

My name is Erika. said...

I agree. They make words for every genre. I suppose it's helpful, but like you, there's a lot that are new to me.

Vicki said...

I've never heard of either one until I read this post.