Every Genre all at Once

by J.M. Donellan

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6 books

Genres can be a useful signpost to help point you to the kind of thing you’d like to read. They can let you know that the book in your hands will offer mystery, or romance, or zombies with bad credit history and a penchant for classic Hollywood memorabilia. But you’re a more sophisticated reader, aren’t you? You understand that some of the best stories obstinately refuse to fit into any one neat genre box. Here’s a selection of cross-genre delicacies for you to feast on, you clever little thing.

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No Gods, No Monsters

Cadwell Turnbull, 2021

No Gods, No Monsters is a gloriously chaotic literary cocktail of gothic horror, urban fantasy and science fiction. It explores the world’s reaction to ‘the Emergence’; the discovering that monsters of myth are real and live among us. This is a fun opening premise, but elevates the book from being just fun and entertaining to thought-provoking and enlightening is the way that Turnbull parallels the struggle of these supernatural beings to gain acceptance with the equivalent, intersectional struggle of other marginalised groups. The real horror of this book isn’t the various colourful villains, it’s oppressive hierarchy, capitalism, and systemic oppression.

City of Saints and Madmen

Jeff VanderMeer, 2014

There’s an ancient saying, recorded in ancient scrolls and secret glyphs in crumbling temples: “If the author’s name be Vandermeer? Things ‘bout to get weird all up in here.” This is a book about malevolent fungi and sinister squid. Written in the form of a mosaic novel, this is more of a collection of highly varied short stories and novellas than a single narrative. Vandermeer displays an obscenely well-stocked quiver of literary styles and skills, flicking between genres and formats, painting a complex, three-dimensional picture of the fictional city of Ambergris and its curious inhabitants.

Head Grenade

Troy Henderson, 2023

Head Grenade is a bit Fight Club, a bit X-men, and a little bit He Died With A Felafel in His Hand. There’s some biting humour, some twisted romance and some thrilling action scenes. If you like your urban scifi served with a distinctive streetwise humour, you’ll love this.

Build Your House Around My Body

Violet Kupersmith, 2021

I never knew I needed to read a magical realism style gothic horror story set in Vietnam until I found this book. A masterful blend of genres, written with a deft hand and populated with fascinating characters, Build Your House Around My Body is a staggering achievement both narratively and stylistically. The story spans over fifty years but somehow, despite the blend of styles of switching between timelines, allows feels cohesive, engaging and thrilling. An absolute cross-genre masterpiece.

Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves

Mark Z. Danielewski, Zampanò, 2000

If you’ve heard someone talk about this book before, it’s likely been in either an awed whisper or an enthused, evangelical rant. There simply isn’t another book like this in existence. It traverses territory between horror, gothic, metafiction, and comedy, all strung around a central love story. The writing is not only elegant and audacious, it also cavorts and careens across the page in a display of stylistic typography, poetry and illustration that feels as though it’s from another world. The plot hinges on a house that is somehow bigger on the inside than on the outside, and this indeed serves as an analogy for the book itself. This isn’t just a story, it’s a transcendental literary journey.

In the Dream House

Carmen Maria Machado, 2019

This memoir of surviving abuse in a same-sex relationship is powerful and poignant, and if it had been written in a straightforward and conventional fashion would undoubtably still have been an important piece of writing. However, Machado takes this harrowing and complex source material and filters it through her formidable literary skills, turning it into a kaleidoscopic literary experience. Each section is told with a distinct style and literary lens including Chekov’s Gun, Haunted House and…wait for it…Choose Your Own Adventure. This is a rare work of distinctive and unbridled creative genius.