Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted with Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Book Nook Bits has hosted since April 2022.
When I initially saw this prompt, I didn’t think I’d have much to say, but as I thought about it, well, different ideas started to form. I’m not always the best at keeping up with ‘trends’, but there are definitely things I’ve noticed.
Let’s Talk Bookish January 24th:
Bookish Trends of 2024
Prompts: Looking back on the past year, what bookish trends have you noticed? Are there certain tropes that have become more popular? New types of blogging and book-related content being posted? Do you have favorite trends? Least favorites? Do you notice trends shifting dramatically from previous years?
I feel like the trends we’re seeing now have been brewing for a few years. I always find it interesting when people point to trends and immediately try to pinpoint the film or TV show that ‘started’ it – the majority of the time, the ‘trend’ – whatever it is – has been around for a while in books. Usually, it starts in the indie spaces (imho). You’ll notice a large increase in self- and indie-published books, and after a while the ‘trend’ hits traditional publishing, and you start to see an almost (but not quite) oversaturation of the trend at hand.
Once the indie and traditional have been mixed up a bit, what usually follows is an increase in older books being picked up for adaptation (even often the books the ‘trend’ initially started with!) with possibly newer books being roped in, and maybe something else that follows – an original idea or a remake or an extra ‘twist’ on something etc – and the references start bleeding through into less genre (aka not specifically Romance, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror shows, whichever it is the ‘trend’ fits better into!) related media – so sitcoms, long running dramas, procedurals, and so on. It might be a character is reading a by now famous series, or characters dress up for Halloween as (insert whatever trend we’re dealing with here).
One example that always comes to mind: zombies! When self-publishing became accessible with the introduction of ebooks, a lot of authors wrote zombie books. There was already a slight uptick in zombie media, but what followed was enough for people to start feeling a little tired of zombies. What’s interesting with these trend cycles is how they circle back around – they start in more indie spaces, but once they’ve had their moment in the sun in the mainstream, you’ll still find quite a few writers working with those trends, likely because they’ve had success with it, and I think people will still follow authors they like even after a specific trend has died down.
I do think trends cycle, and are heavily influenced by the current climate they appear in. I also think it can take a while for the whole trend’s lifecycle to take place, and there’s usually quieter rumblings and outliers that appear before the trend fully takes hold, usually the kind of shows that slip under the radar a little and build up a bit of a cult following before others latch onto them. Most recently, I think we’ve seen this with vampires. Vampires are a kind of mainstay in all forms of fiction, and there was definitely a boom following Twilight which saw older works grabbed for the spotlight (The Vampire Diaries and True Blood). Vampires are never far away, but more recently we’ve seen a bit of an increase within indie and self-publishing fiction, followed by more vampire books coming out via the traditional route. What We Do in the Shadows has been on our screens for a good few years, and with the second season of Interview with the Vampire we’ve seen vampires really hit the mainstream. So, thankfully for me – a long-time lover of all things vampires – I think we’ve got a fair while until this particular trend runs out of steam (again).
‘Romantasy’ in various forms has been bubbling under the surface for a while – there’s definitely a sense that this might be fading a little, but I think it’ll be around for a fair while, especially as romantasy that involves creatures other than the fae start to emerge more. I think a lot of people are moving away from ‘fae’ now, but we still haven’t really seen Romantasy films or TV shows hit the screens, so that feels ‘soon to come’. I think Fantasy Romance is simply having a moment now, but I’m not sure where romance will go after this – there’s definitely roots to this trend, too, in the rise of paranormal romance in the mid-00s (linked to the vampires above) and even the switch to more erotic books with 50 Shades – Romantasy, previously known as Fantasy Romance, is simply following in these footsteps.
I feel like I’m seeing more space opera emerge at the moment, too. And retellings are as strong as ever, though in this area I think we’re almost at a crossroads moment – we’ve had a lot of Greek Mythology and Beauty and the Beast retellings over the last few years, but what I’m seeing more and more are retellings that move away from these, and with more variety in the authors writing.
For favourites and least favourites, vampires are always high up there for me. I love them, and the more vampires we get, the more different they are from each other, while often acknowledging the previous iterations. IWTV is one of my favourite books, and I love seeing vampires as the central character, but they’re excellent as horror villains or paranormal romance love interests, too. So I’m with this wave until the end. Re ‘Romantasy’, I’m not averse to reading it, but as irrational as it is, I’m not a fan of the term when it’s simply Fantasy Romance or even Paranormal Romance packaged up a little different. I do want to read more Fantasy Romance, and I love anything that tackles the fae, though the books I’ve loved that feature them (Folk of the Air trilogy, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Half a Soul) aren’t ‘Fantasy Romance’, or at least don’t have the fae as the love interests. However, I usually find I’m not the biggest fan of whatever sits on top of the pile – I have no interest in ACOTAR or other hugely popular books in the genre – but I won’t discount the (sub)genre as a whole. It’s more that the impression I have of these books means I won’t particularly enjoy them, but I’m always willing to give new books a shot, and have a few debut ‘Romantasy’ books on my TBR.
I don’t think these are dramatic shifts from previous years – as mentioned, vampires often fall in and out of style, but what tends to happen is vampires and zombies form almost opposing trends that switch places. With the success of Last of Us (TV series) and 28 Years Later coming out in the summer – both of which own their franchise power to media during the last zombie trend – don’t be surprised if things shift slightly towards zombies through 2025. As for ‘Romantasy’, with the banning of TikTok in the US, that takes away some of the ‘power’ this genre has managed to hold onto, so the landscape could shift massively depending on which social media platform becomes the platform for the bookish community.
I haven’t touched on blogging content because I tend to dip in and out of reading blogs, and enjoy browsing older blog posts, etc, so I’m not always super aware of blogging trends, but from I usually see I don’t think this tends to shift all that much, but I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on other social media platforms and if there are particular trends in other places.
And of course let me know about different trends you’ve spotted – I love hearing about trends and noticing what might be gaining steam or becoming more popular, so I’d love to hear about your experiences with them too.
Unwrapping Words 