Let’s Talk Bookish – Do Genres Change Over Time?

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March 31: Do Genres Change Over Time? (Davida Chazan @ The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog)

Prompts: Is there a genre you think is done better or worse today than it was in the past? How is it better today or how is it it worse than it was before? What differences do you see that make them better or worse? Do you think that the quality of genres follow certain trends over time?

Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH! As I missed last week, I have transposed last week’s topic to today. It’s certainly an interesting question that I’ve literally never thought of before, so that’s certainly interesting. I’ll be sure to check what everyone else had to say about this last week!

I genuinely think that thrillers and murder mysteries are really well done these day, or at least they can be. While the old Agatha Christies certainly have their charm and some of them really made way for truly novel ideas, I really like that new books can play on all those old tropes to create new surprises on top of old expectations. Perhaps one can argue that it isn’t better, but I like that it can grow over time and continue to be exciting no matter how many different storylines are explored or written.

Expanding on that a little bit more, I certainly like playing with all the old expectations like “it was the butler!” or the “jealous ex-lover.” There are always classic clues that lead you to believe that someone is suspicious or not, and the new books really play with it and turn it around on you in many novel ways. Or even if not, you can’t help but fight all the expectations that you have in your head. The best authors will always use that to their advantage, and I have seen many different ways of bringing thrillers or mysteries to life.

I feel like with technology, and more development of the creative arts, fantasies and sci-fi books are also improving over time. The more we have in our world, the more people can dream up of fantastical utopias/dystopias for our novels, and I think that’s something I’ve been seeing as well. The incorporation of more technology and modern day things into these kinds of books have also made it a bit better (more “relatable”?) in my opinion. I’m trying to think if there are any genres that are worse, but I don’t think there is. I think generally the quality of such productions will improve over time, and that is exactly what we have seen. But books will always be hit or miss depending on the reader anyway. So yes, I do think there will be trends for genres over time, and I think the quality will generally go up! Or at least I certainly hope that will be the case.

What do you all think about general book quality over time? Do you also think it’s generally increasing? Or are there certain genres that are above and beyond the rest? Let me know in the comments below!