Okay, so this is a little late as it is March already, but in my defence I wasn’t planning to write a book trends report at all this year. Just be glad I changed my mind, eh?
I’ve decided to add “YA” to the title this year, because those are the ones I follow most closely, though some of these trends carry over to adult fiction. Let’s get started.
Sort of Magic
This trend is one of my favourites, I must admit. It’s been growing with books like The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle as well as Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys series. These are the books that make you believe in the supernatural, and just as easily make you forget again. They contain things that aren’t quite right, memories that aren’t quite real, and people who aren’t quite there.
Ordinarily Extraordinary
The books that fall into this trend may not have magical elements, but even though they take place in our world in present day, there’s nothing boring about them. These are books like This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp and Radio Silence by Alice Oseman. Extraordinary things happen in real life all the time, and these books take our world and come up with could-bes that will have you hanging off of every word.
Royal Pains
People have always been a little fascinated by royalty. Why do you think Shakespeare wrote so many plays about royals? In history there’s no shortage of interesting stories following royals, from Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, to King Henry VIII of England, and when you add myths and fiction, you get quite a spectrum. There are a lot of books following this trend, like Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard and The Wrath and The Dawn by Renée Ahdieh, to mention a few. Spoiler: Apparently being royal isn’t always great.
Recycled Classics
This one’s pretty self-explanatory. Fairytales tend to be a bit outdated and lots of classic stories no longer surprise us, but lots of books nowadays are retelling them with a new spin. The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury for example, is a new take on Aladdin, and Heartless by Marissa Meyer is about the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland.
That’s it! Which trends are you most excited about? Are there any I missed? Let me know in the comments below!
Precarious Writer 