Bored of your usual romances? Yawning over overdone fantasy plots? Sick of reading the same dystopian story over and over again? Trends come and go, but sometimes, trends can go so far beyond the norm that they stay under wraps. If you’re bored of the usual trendy genres, maybe try looking for these ones instead.

1. Bildungsroman

To be fair, this may not be a weird genre after all. Bildungsroman is the term for what is better known as the coming-of-age genre. Novels in this genre explore a certain character’s growth within a certain period. Examples include Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.




2. Microfiction

The popularity of this genre may stem from the popularity of social media, but it’s much older than that. Microfiction involves the use of as few words as possible when creating an entire story. Microfiction may often be found on websites such as Tumblr and Twitter. One of the most popular examples of the genre is the following story often attributed to Ernest Hemingway: “For sale: baby shoes never worn.”




3. Bizzaro Fiction

As the name suggests, bizarro fiction deals with stories that are bizarre for the sake of being such. This subgenre combines elements of surrealism, the grotesque, and absurdism. The main aim of works from this genre is to entertain. One of the earliest examples is David Wong’s John Dies at the End.




4. Matron Literature

This subgenre falls under “chick lit” and involves older female protagonists. Often, these novels are romantic. Matron literature became in demand when many baby boomers started aging and started looking for more novels with main characters they can identify with. Matron literature also often includes feminist themes. An example is Joan Medlicott’s Ladies of Covington.




5. Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk combines major technological advances with a breakdown in social order. The subgenre started in the ’60s and ’70s, during the New Wave science fiction movement. Novels in the genre explore drug culture, sexual revolution, punk subculture, and early hacker culture. A popular example is Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One.




6. Climate Fiction

Climate fiction, or cli-fi, is a science fiction subgenre which focuses on concepts such as climate change, carbon emissions, fossil fuel consumption, and global warming. Although the genre was coined for its intent in the 2000s, very early novels such as Jules Verne’s The Purchase of the North Pole technically fall under this category. A popular example is Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake.




7. Techno-thriller

Techno-thrillers combine science fiction, spy fiction, action, war novels, and thrillers in one volume. What makes a novel techno-thriller is a certain attention to detail when it comes to the technical elements of the story. Although most sci-fi does this, techno-thrillers often turn the plot in order to explore the details. An example is Michael Crichton’s State of Fear.




8. Mathematical Fiction

As the name implies, this subgenre is composed of fictional work which is heavily influenced by mathematics and mathematicians. The subgenre could have existed since the ancient times, but it’s only recently that it’s being noticed as a literary genre. One of the earliest and most popular works of the genre is Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott.




9. Subterranean Fiction

A science fiction subgenre, subterranean fiction involves stories which take place below the earth’s surface. Most of the genre relies on and has influenced much of the Hollow Earth theory. Common story themes include an underground world which is either much more or much less technologically advanced or the existence of underground humanlike species. A popular example is Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth.




10. Ero Guro Nansensu

This Japanese subgenre can be translated into erotic, grotesque, and nonsense, which is exactly what this genre is. The genre was popularized around the 1920s–’30s, and works of this genre contain sexual obscenity and graphic violence. An example is Edogawa Rampo’s The Human Chair, which is about a man who hides in an armchair because he enjoys women sitting on him.

Sources:

1.  Weird Book Genres
2.  10 Bizarre Literary Movements And Genres