Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Crossing Over: Hard to Categorize Genre Fiction


It's time for this month's edition of Crossing Over. If you're not familiar with Crossing Over it's a feature where I recommend an adult book with crossover appeal based on a YA book that is similar. It's basically an if you liked, then try but for crossover books. I'm trying to make this a more regular thing where I pick the books based on that month's theme but this is my freebie month so instead I'm doing one that I have been trying to make work for months now and it hasn't because they're two different genres but similar books.


The Falconer by Elizabeth May  
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Despite being set in the 19th Century, The Falconer has a very futuristic appeal! It combines lots of different elements of things that I love including a strong and complex female protagonist, steampunk and SciFi-esque technology, and fantasy elements like pretty nasty fairy-like supernatural creatures that most people in the world don't even realize exist. And while our protagonist is pretty kickass she doesn't have to do it alone, she has help from a sympathetic fairy who knows what he's talking about. Unlike a lot of people I don't really ship this ship but it didn't spoil the book for me. Plus, this book is so action-packed that the romance doesn't pull focus. But be prepared it has a really mean cliffhanger ending that cuts off right at the climax.

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
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Despite being set in the future, The Bone Season has a very 19th Century feel! It combines lots of different elements of things that I love including a strong and complex female protagonist, science fantasy that includes technology but also a magical system that's superpoweresque, and fantasy elements like pretty nasty fairy-like supernatural creatures that most people in the world don't even realize exist. And while our protagonist is pretty kickass she doesn't have to do it alone, she has help from a sympathetic creature who knows what he's talking about. I also don't really ship this ship but it is growing on me. Plus, this book is so action-packed the romance doesn't pull focus. But be prepared it has a cliffhanger ending that cuts off right after the climax.

These are two really engaging and action-packed novels that are basically fantasy but are so hard to categorize. They not only have crossover feel in the way that they will appeal to fans of both YA and genre fiction but they also cross genres so they're good books if you are trying to explore a type of book you don't often read.

Have you read The Falconer and/or The Bone Season? What did you think? What historical fiction crossovers do you like? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!

4 comments:

  1. Yayyy! I actually recently got The Falconer so I'm excited because I LOVE The Bone Season!!

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    1. YAY! I hope you like it. It has the same kind of feel but it's much more historical. So if you also like historical fiction you'll probably also like The Falconer.

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  2. This is such a fun feature. Unfortunately fantasy isn't really appealing to me right now. I'm not sure why. I'm just much more drawn to contemporary stuff these days.

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    1. Thanks Kate! I like doing it once a month because I think there is a tendency to overlook either YA of adult books despite their similarities and crossover appeal. And that's okay. We all go through those phases. I tend to get a little burnt out with fantasy if I read too much of it. It usually feels very similar. But if you are looking for something down the line, these two are good picks.

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