The Power of the Microgenres

How drilling down into microgenres can help you enrich your reading life

Reading Rainbow Forever <3

One of the most enjoyable processes for me as a reader is choosing my next book to read or the next to add to my To Be Read pile. I know I’m not alone in that! :)

It’s why we browse our favorite bookstores and our local library. It’s why we subscribe to bookish newsletters or listen to bookish podcasts. It’s why we follow bookish accounts or influencers on social media. We want to know what great books are out there!

However, nothing can be more frustrating than when we pick up one of those books and then it doesn’t give us the kind of story we were looking for. Maybe we were in a rom-com mood so we picked up the newest book with the bright cartoon cover that we saw people talking about online, but this book has a pro sports guy hero and we really don’t like all the sporty scenes. Or the heroine is a Ms. Positivity Sunshine type and we just cannot even right now with all that bubbly personality. (Note: there’s nothing wrong with sporty romances or sunshine heroines, I’m just using them as examples.)

One thing I’ve learned as a reader and as an author is that not every book is for every reader. AND sometimes even if a book would be right for us sometimes, it’s not right for us all the time, particularly if we’re mood readers.

So choosing books can sometimes be a frustrating process. What can help, though, is doing a little self-reflection and some close studying of our reading tastes to help refine our ability to pick the right books for ourselves.

This will never be a 100%-satisfaction-guaranteed process—and it shouldn’t be. We need to try things we’re not sure about to see if we like it and to expand our reading worlds. But we can definitely decrease our number of misses by knowing our reading selves better. But how?

The power of microgenres

One way to do this is to embrace the concept of microgenres. A microgenre is what it sounds like. It’s the niche we can drill down into under the bigger heading of genre and subgenre. For instance, Romance is the genre, Romantic Comedy is the subgenre, Sports Romance could be a subgenre of that, and then a microgenre could be Baseball Romances or, even more drilled down, Sporty Romances with an Athlete Heroine.

Think of it like those listings Netflix used to have. I find their categories have gotten more generic as of late, but there used to be groupings like “Slasher Horror Set in the 90s” or “Heartwarming Mother/Daughter Stories”. At times, it was a little freaky how well Netflix knew me (hey there, creepy algorithms) but it also helped me figure out my tastes in a more specific way.

We can do the same with our reading. Start paying attention to what microgenres are consistently successful for you. And I don’t just mean tropes in romance like enemies-to-lovers or fake marriage. You want to dig down a little deeper because those tropes are still pretty broad.

How do you discover your favorite microgenres?

1. Read a lot and keep track of what you read and how you feel about it.

   You can track your reading online with something like Goodreads or StoryGraph or you can do it privately. I use the DayOne app (see below) to keep track of what I read privately (which allows me to say whatever I want in my review, lol) and I also keep a paper reading journal.

   

2. When you love something (or hate it), analyze what about it you liked or didn’t.

   Do you hate books with untidy endings? (like if a horror novel leaves you wondering if the whole thing was real or supernatural) Do you love books that have a dog as a character? Do you like suspense novels with rich people behaving badly? Do you love slow-burn character-driven mysteries instead of super twisty, high-speed, plot-driven ones? Get specific.

3. Keep a list of what you like and do some fun bookish research

   Yes, this can be fun! There are endless resources out there for bookish recommendations. Do an internet search using your microgenre terms or by using a book as a comparison “books like FAVORITE BOOK TITLE.” So many sites do great bookish lists. I just found a new one this week when I was searching for horror novels called The Lineup that has a Books page with lists titled things like “Horror Books with Unexpected Takes on Demonic Presences” and “8 Captivating Horror Books About TV & Film.” Book Riot is also good for a microgenre list like Novels that Use the 1990s as a Historical Setting (historical, the 90s, pardon me while I pause to weep a little.)

4. Podcasts are also great for research if you can find the right ones for you.

   The key to bookish podcasts is to find the hosts whose tastes align with yours at least on some genres/subgenres/microgenres. This takes a little time and a good bit of listening to find the right fit, but it can still be fun hearing about books that aren’t necessarily your jam.

   I’m a big fan and Patreon member of both Sarah’s Bookshelves Live (she even does episodes about favorite microgenres) and Currently Reading. I line up with the hosts on some genres and not for others. I like Books in the Freezer for horror. Fated Mates is fun for romance. I like What Should I Read Next for all kinds of genres because, though my taste doesn’t always align with Anne’s (the host), she has different reader guests each week and so lots of different tastes are represented.

5. Look for patterns - Don’t rule out a microgenre based on one book or declare it a favorite based on one book

   We’re looking for a pattern. Sometimes a particular book wasn’t for us. That doesn’t necessarily mean that microgenre is a no-go. It might’ve just been poorly written or there was some other element that turned you off. But if you try another in that microgenre and get the same result, then maybe you can rule that one out. Same goes for if it was a great book. For instance, many people LOVE Stephen King’s 11/22/63 (great book, btw), but they can’t declare they love Stephen King books because that book was not horror and was very different from his other books.

There are other ways to explore what microgenres are for you, but those are some of the easiest ways to start. I think what’s most helpful in this process of curation is that it gives us more richness in our reading life, more personalized goodness.

We don’t have to just be fed the “big books of whatever season it is” and hope for the best. We don’t just have to pick up the bestsellers that make it into Target because that’s what’s in our face or what everyone is talking about. (Though, I’m not knocking those books. Target, call me whenever you like! ;) )

Some big bestsellers may be perfect for us. The God of the Woods was my favorite book this summer, and it was definitely one of the big bestsellers. However, when we drill down more into our individual tastes, we can also find the undiscovered treasure, the books that don’t have 3-month wait times at the library. We can find backlist books that others have forgotten about or new releases that didn’t get big promo budgets from the publishers or indie books that aren’t on the bookstore shelves. Most of all, we can find more books that fit our personal reading tastes.

So, if you find yourself striking out on the books you’re picking up, consider doing a little reading life research and discover what microgenres push your bookish buttons.

Here are some microgenres I’ve discovered over the years that I love: romances that have heroes or heroines with tragic backstories (I write those too!), foodie memoirs but (oddly) not foodie romances, suspense/mystery novels with a podcast element, horror with heroes or heroines that love horror movies/novels, the Groundhog Day trope in any genre, time travel romances, character-driven horror particularly that follows of tight group of friends, college/campus novels that follow a group of friends, non-fiction books about TV shows and movies.

The list goes on, but I’ll stop there. I’m always adding to it as well so that my reading life doesn’t get stale. Finding what your taste is can be great, but it’s also important to try new things and be open-minded. I wasn’t a romance reader growing up, but I’m very glad I tried it in adulthood or who knows what career I’d have right now. :)

So, I’m curious. Have you given this any thought? Do you know what microgenres push your bookish buttons? Have you suffered from “reading the book that everyone else is talking/raving about but hating it” syndrome? Let me know in the comments!

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