General fiction is the catch all term for novels and other literature that don’t fit into a particular genre. Romance, western, mystery, science fiction and other genres each have a particular theme that is fitting to its classification. General works, on the other hand, don’t have enough elements of any one theme to be classified with a certain genre. The story and plot of general fiction is no less strong, and in many cases even stronger, than that of genre works.
General Fiction Subgenre Lists
Coming of Age Fiction
In the best coming of age books, you get to relive the most pivotal time of life as the main characters transform from childhood to adulthood. Let’s be honest, none of us want to relive those years again, but it can be fascinating to experience it through literature.
Fairy Tale, Folklore, Mythology Retellings
Who doesn’t love a good fairy tale? These retellings are super fun to read because they put a new twist on familiar tropes with unexpected settings, gender-swapped roles, or surprising plot changes. The result illuminates overlooked themes and interesting connections to our modern world. The stories are familiar, but the lessons we learn from retelling feel fresh.
Feel-Good Fiction
Uplifting, positive books feature across all genres, and so it is with this selection of stories that will leave you feeling inspired, cheered and perhaps even motivated to make a change in your own life.
Funny Fiction
They say laughter is the best medicine. When you are in a good mood, funny stories make your day even better. And when you are going through difficult times, they can distract you from what you are dealing with and give you a needed break…even if just for a little while.
Holiday Fiction
For some holidays are the most wonderful time of the year! What better way to get in the spirit than a festive story?!
Literary Fiction
These books are considered to have artistic qualities. They usually have a subtle theme and discuss the political/social/economic/personal issues of the day. The protagonist in literary fiction is only expected to complete a portion of the hero’s journey instead of the entire journey.
Movie & TV Adaptations
Movie and TV adaptations have given life to many stories. Many of the world’s best movies and TV shows started as ideas in talented authors’ minds.
Satiric Fiction
Satiric novels can be so many different things. They can be bitter and angry or gentle and warm. They can be cruel to their targets or fond of them, or somewhere in between. To be satire, a story has to use humor, irony, and exaggeration to critique something or someone, but that leaves a lot of room for tonal variety. And, of course, satiric stories can have so, so many different subjects. They can criticize politics, academia, a particular social class, or certain attitudes about race. They can critique widely known subcultures, such as sports, schools, political campaigns, or workplaces.
Short Stories
Short stories are more than just a quick fix for the time-strapped. When crafted well, short stories are like grenades which quickly explode in front of us. They let us dip our toe into strange minds and foreign worlds or conceal something which lurks behind the pages before sliding into view.
Time Travel
Racing from year to year at lightning speed is the alluring premise behind wildly successful books about time travel. First popularized by H.G. Wells, time-travelling novels have become guilty reading pleasures to escape modern life for the past or future. Stories about time travel either intentionally or inadvertently send main characters spiraling into parallel universes. Readers get sucked into riveting plots when even the slightest changes to history’s timeline can cause epic, disastrous effects.
Westerns
There’s something about a western that just gets the blood pumping. Maybe it’s the wide-open spaces, or the rugged individualism. Whatever the reason, there’s no denying that westerns are one of the most popular genres of all time. And when it comes to westerns, there are few things more iconic than the western novel. From classic tales of outlaws and lawmen to modern stories of love and loss, western books have captured the imaginations of readers for generations.
World Literature
World literature is any work that is widely read in countries other than the one that it originated in.