If I’ve heard it once in the last six months, I’ve heard it eleventy-seven bloody times: ‘It’s all about grip-lit like Gone Girl and Girl On The Train’. ‘Grip-lit, the term coined by Marian Keyes to describe psychological thrillers’. ‘Women reading and writing grip-lit are what it’s all about in bookselling right now’.
No offence to the chick noir writers out there (despite the apparently derogatory gender stereotyping of the phrase, I prefer chick noir, probably because it was around first, and isn’t currently being done to death) but I have now reached the stage where I’m heartily sick of hearing about grip-lit.
I salute all the fine writers of it, particularly the ones I’m reading at the moment, but I’ve had enough of the lazy genre stereotyping, and could happily go the next six months without hearing the term grip-lit mentioned even once.
However, I know that’s impossible, so I’ve decided to attack from another angle: I’m going to suggest even more lazy genre stereotyping, in the hopes that it might dilute the deluge of grip-litting all over the bloody shop right now. Let’s treat all popular genres to a lazy moniker and call it contemporary and cool and like, totally right now happening, man. Who’s with me?
All you have to do is choose from the below list of 20 book genres, and just start shouting the bejeebus out of it all over the internet. WhatsApp it and Facebook it (they’re reading your phone anyway). Blog it. Pinterest it with a suitably lazily stereotyped book cover. Snapchat it in full knowledge that when it disappears, it’s actually recorded somewhere else and will go viral in no time. Instagram your choice painted in artichoke paste over a photo-shopped body part, I don’t care. Just get it out there.
20 New Book Genres Which Might Stop People Saying ‘Grip-Lit’
- Flit-Lit: à la Douglas Kennedy. Main character gets into trouble and tries to disappear, but their old life invariably catches up with them.
- Snip-Lit: Revenge plots with Lorena Bobbitt-loving heroines.
- Chip-Lit: Unreliable fat narrator loses weight, but never admits how they did it.
- Trip-Lit: Books about adorable Mary Sues who keep falling over all the time.
- Crick-Lit: Horror stories so atmospheric that they give readers neck pain from constantly checking behind them.
- Hick-Lit: Books set in isolated rural areas, written by urban city dwellers.
- Flip-Lit: Think Michael Douglas in Falling Down. Like Flit-Lit, only with the main character having a meltdown instead of an escape plan.
- Stick-Lit: I was going to make an EL James joke here, but you don’t want me to.
- Zip-Lit: Books you love, but can’t tell anyone you’re reading for fear of embarrassing yourself.
- Click-Lit: Only available in E-book format.
- Wick-Lit: Historical Fiction. You had to ask?
- Mick-Lit: books with Irish characters, written by authors who have never been to Ireland, or spoken to a real live Irish person.
- Whip-Lit: I’m sure it’s already been used for EL James, so let’s switch this one to highbrow political thrillers (obvious sexual connotations included).
- Hipst-Lit: I could tell you what this is, but by the time you find out, it’ll already be over.
- Bit-Lit or Quick-Lit: Smartphone-friendly novellas of 10,000 words or fewer.
- Lip-Lit: Get your minds out of the gutter! Audiobooks, right?
- Ship-Lit: All of Joseph Conrad. Or thrillers set by the sea, or on cruise liners (This is already a thing, because I even have an example, so there.)
- Nick-Lit: Epic heists in the grand old tradition. A bit of jewel thievery never hurt any plot.
- Drip-Lit: A return to the good old days of serialisation, à la Charles Dickens. Get one new chapter of a thriller auto-delivered to your smart device every day.
- Kip-Lit: Any book which makes you look intelligent, but never fails to send you to sleep.
You know, it’s amazing how many of these sound dirty when they first run through your head. Just sayin’.
Which one will you choose to champion?
Alternatively, have you any suggestions of your own? Because I discarded a good 15 of these before finalising this list, so I know you have it in you. Additions to the list in the comments please. And no grumbling. You don’t get nuttin’ for free round here.
What about Shit-lit? Cos there’s an awful lot of it out there.
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Oho! You’re on the ball this early morning, Ali Isaac 😀
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Haha! That doesn’t happen very often, let me tell you! 😁
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Damn, couldn’t you alphabetize this list—I had to keep re-reading it to find out if you had Quip-Lit, which is full of quotable quotes and Hip-Lit-like coolness, except it’s RIGHT NOW, and often has its own vocabulary, and therefore so banal and not. I love people who talk about “mindfulness” for example, as though it were a BRAND NEW CONCEPT. Example: “I keep my mindfulness high and my expectations low so that at the end of the day, I’m mindful of having done nothing, which is really a cool concept, when you think of it, but in a general sense, I try to be mindful and yet not so hyper-vigilant as to seem like a weirdo, which if I were, would be OK.”
Quip-Lit: Stay mindful.
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Well, I did have Hipst-Lit, TT. I couldn’t make the list alphabetical because I don’t believe in being nice! I love your mindful hipster. They wouldn’t last long in a pub in Ireland, anyway. Although they could be kept in a cage. For the entertainment, like. Great opportunities for mindfulness in a cage, I hear.
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Crick Lit is the one that grabs me.
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Grabs! Lovely! Can we call that a double engenre, Jean?!
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Excellent.
One for the pile..
Keep her Lit: Sub-genre for the Irish market. Boy meets girl. Boy tries to impress girl with fine set of alloy wheels and twin cam engine. The rest is his story…
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This may well turn out to be my favourite, Tenderlation. You are a treasure trove of contemporary cultural quips.
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‘Tis the way you set them up.
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What about Zip-Lit – where the hunky hero keeps getting his pecker out?
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That could be yet another explanation for Zip-Lit, Colin, that’s true, but I did make a heroic effort not to go for the salacious option in every case! Having said that, nobody’s congratulated me on that yet.
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Hick-lit! Finally something I can use! Time to edit my twitter profile.
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Now that’s what I call really getting the word out, Janet. You’re my hero 😀
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Hipst-Lit has to be my fav! How about Mis-Lit? Those dark and depressing novels that make you want to stick a fork in your eye and win all the major literary awards :(((((
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Oh, yes. Mis-lit. Definitely, Evie. And due a resurgence, too – any time there’s economic growth the populace heads straight for the misery lit, it’s a sad fact.
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What I don’t get is that every lit agent & publisher warns against jumping on any band-wagons, claiming that the trend will be over before you’ve had time to write your acknowledgements (cos they come first, right?) And yet there are a plethora of first-time authors still being published in this genre (not bitter) so I’m gonna jump on the bandwagon before it’s too late with my genre ‘straddling’ Girl On A Tractor. What she’s seen in that top field doesn’t bear thinking about!! Chick/Hick/Mick/Grip Lit 🙂 I think I’ve thought too much about this….
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Nobody ever thinks enough about genre, Evie, don’t say that! I suppose the debut authors coming out now would’ve been signed over a year ago. I have high hopes for your Girl On a Tractor. I had a screenplay I was trying to flog once that I described as Strictly Ballroom with tractors. Maybe I should dust it off 😜
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How about Bic-Lit for Americans who still write with cheap pens and no taste?
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Do they have to have no taste? I like the idea of a genre for cheap pens alone!
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Or who smoke heavily! Or, and I’m guilty of this, have their character light a cigarette anytime they need a pause in the dialogue.
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Hey, as long as they’re not a stereotypical villain, who’s counting?
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Ha. No, it’s usually a friend or love interest of the protagonist.
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As a writer of children’s fiction set in Ireland I was all set to proclaim myself king of micklet-lit until I saw the stipulation about not living in Ireland. Instead I’ll have to work on Plan B, working title Gong Girl With The Train Tattoo.
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Nothing stopping you calling it Micklet-Lit wherever you’re based, Nige. Micklet, after all, can be a genre all on its own. Or you could move. Whichever you think is easier. Best of luck with Plan B (although I think that time is over – my advice would be to look out for the next gravy train instead)
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Love Chip-Lit – nothing drives me madder than someone who has shed 10 stone and is suddenly everyone’s hero and expert in all things fitness and losing weight. Bury them under a patio someone pleaseeeee
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I’d sort you out, Lorna, only I’ve no patio, nor a garden to lay one in, sadly. I might know a guy, though. Leave it with me.
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Reblogged this on Jan Hawke INKorporated and commented:
Have builders around with a road drill today so am re-blogging until I can hear myself think of some additional howlers 😉
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I’m waiting, Jan. Just…………waiting………….. 😀
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So all this time I’ve been writing Nick-Lit! (The Goddaughter series) F-ing Brilliant, and I’m stealing it for sure
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There should have been a (sic) after that comment, but this program didn’t like the brackets I chose, dammit.
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It nicked your brackets! It’s like the most unexciting theft ever! Thank Blog the program isn’t writing heist fiction, Melodie, or we’d all be asleep.
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Very funny!
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Thanks jinlobify!
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There’s a great deal of titbitfitlit out there: chosen moments from the exhausting lives of those with ludicrously honed bodies (portrayed on SO many of the covers).
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Oh yes. Those. Ugh. They should be in the restricted section of the library. Restricted for the sort of people who never go to libraries.
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Obit-Lit: Stories narrated by a character who is already dead and is telling us how he/she got that way.
[sic]-Lit: Stories in dire need of proofreading. Alternatively, novels written using made-up languages (A Clockwork Orange), nonstandard punctuation (anything Cormac McCarthy), or other convention that, at first blush, makes it look like the story is full of errors.
Ham-Lit: Bad, obvious attempts to rewrite one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays in a modern setting.
Vick-Lit: Stories about dog fighting.
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You’re killing us, Andy. In the best way. I’m not going to ruin your ingenious comment with an unnecessary reply. Oops.
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Can we include Stig of the Dump in the corporation tip-lit genre?
I liked trip-lit, but I won’t say why. And crick-lit is something I aspire to,
I suppose novels with unreliable narrators might be git-lit, and those with annoying authors get-on-my-wick-lit.
And if I mention novels about bingo callers (a very very niche market), it has to be clickety-click-lit. I’ll go now, but this would make a great parlour game.
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This is most excellent. You, Chris, and Andy above you, and a few others, deserve to be lauded in the first line of this post. Unfortunately, I am a horrible person who won’t do such a thing. But you knew that already. Hate me at your leisure.
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I will, for a thousand years.
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Will plan on hating you between 3:20 and 3:35 p.m. Eastern DST, unless there’s something good on TV.
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Can’t argue with that logic, Andy.
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There are a lot of wonderful suggestions for alternative genres Tara. Bookstores should begin changing their signage immediately. Having said that, there were some uncomfortable moments. I crossed my legs involuntarily at number two and kept them that way to the very end of the post just to be on the safe side.
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I can rest, now, Bun. The moment I make a reader uncomfortable enough to hold body parts tightly together, I know my job is done. Bliss.
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Yep, scary stuff!
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Sick lit (which is pretty self explanatory). Grit lit, also known as Grim Lit (‘edgy’, devoid of adjectives and dialogue, written by self conscious and competitive usually male writers), Mad (as in ‘isn’t she effing mad altogether’) lit, smart (alecky) lit (because some of us can’t help ourselves) 😀
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I love Grim-Lit, Mary. Certainly takes the harm out of the genre. Inasmuch as calling something by another name can take the harm out of anything 😉
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I’ve never heard the term Grip-Lit. I live in a cave, Tara. Great list.
Bit-Lit is for the deluge of vampire and zombie books.
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Can I visit your cave then Diana?! And that’s the perfect explanation for Bit-Lit – if only we’d had it 5 years ago at the height of the madness!
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Dim-wit-lit / Nit-wit-lit: low brow reads with short words.
Hit-lit: for boxing fans
Lit-lit: literature literature, not that fake stuff.
Pit-lit: tearjerkers.
Sit-lit: for really loooong books.
Wit-lit: self-explanatory.
You know, though, I’ve wondered if you-know-what-lit was plagerized from these little gems: http://www.mikanet.com/museum/images/chiclets.jpg
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Brilliant. I love the idea of people having a smug conversation about Lit-Lit. “You know, Lit-Lit. It’s like, really important. Do you not know it? You mean you haven’t read Crankshaft in latin by C. Pompous Overbore?”
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Brick-lit:: for the construction trades.
Trick-lit: magicians
Prick-lit: books about employers, nosy neighbors, road ragers, internet trolls and certain presidential candidates.
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You knew the last one was going to be my favourite. Didn’t you.
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😉
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Some good genres there and hilarious how many people probably walked around trying to rhyme words as a result;) Have two posts written, one about how much I adore ‘grip lit’ (uh oh!) and how I hope it continues as a genre- I don’t mind calling it chick noir noir anything else, is just that I love how the thriller genre is becoming available to people who don’t necessarily want either the full horror experience nor something as intricate as Ruth Rendell or the like (I adore those types of books and was always proud of the amount of Inspector Wexford, Poirot, Morse I had read so it’s not against them, it’s just that these are easier to read, possibly due to the female voice, I don’t know). The other one is based on a book I read which was fluffy chick lit, based around the death of a sororities member in a creepy university in America. Was this chick lit or grip lit? It had the cover of grip lit, content of chick lit albeit with a murder investigation going on. Then there’s the question are they going to do the same as they did with chick lit ie call every thriller by a female grip lit? So Louise Philips? Angela Marsden(paranormal suspense writer)? I heard someone ask was Jodie Picoult a chick lit writer the other day.I mean come on!! I think this is the point of your post. Well done:)(Heads off to lie down).
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Absolutely. I’m with you. It’s not the genre I have a problem with, it’s the naming of it and the tendency to shoehorn everything into it in perpetuity afterwards. There are so many female authors in particular who get harmed by this. I know there’s no alternative to snappy nicknames, so we may as well have some fun with it.
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No one has mentioned piss lit – so many sub genres to this one:
Taking the Piss Lit – Jane Austen has this covered
Taking a Piss Lit – people read while powdering their euphemisms so…
Piece of Piss Lit – too easy
Pissed Lit – writing under the influence
Pissed Off Lit – a form of self-help
Pissing into the Wind Lit – where nobody reads what you write and nobody ever will
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Oooh, sub-genres! Ingenious. Perfect for Amazon, Kathy. Imagine being the #1 bestseller in Pissed Lit. There should be a plaque for that.
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I must be living in a cave as well (oh, apparently the missus thinks I do), because I hadn’t heard of grip-lit either. Now I’m aware of all the possibilities, I’ll still stick to Flick-Lit – because I want all my books to be made into films (that’s where the real money is).
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Oh yes. Flick-Lit is definite where the money is, Graeme. But what you really want is Crossover YA fiction made into a movie – quadruples your audience. Make your protagonist a criminal who falls in love, and you hit paydirt. I dunno what that’d be, though. Kid-crim-kiss-flick-lit maybe?
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Do you think sometimes you overthink things, Tara?
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No. Having given it some consideration, I don’t believe I do.
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Obviously not this time
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Drip-Lit. Defintely. (Download tomorrow for the next part of this comment…)
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Gold star, Solsdottir 😀
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Lorena Bobbitt! I’d forgotten about her! What about Dick-lit? Books centred on revenge, and in particular severing manhoods of cheating husbands/boyfriends?
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Absolutely. Although, I fear by calling it Dick-lit, you might attract an audience expecting an altogether different experience 😉
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Trip-lit – like it. Could it be that adorable Mary Sue has taken too many drugs?
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It would certainly make her a hell of a lot more interesting, Annabelle!
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Knit (a Mitt) Lit. “Knit Lit is the cosy mystery sub-genre that’ll have you in cross-stitches. Free sampler of this yarn on request.”
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Utterly puntastic, Mel. Although the Knitterati might object to the embroidered cross-cross-stitching reference 😉
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