Ways to use this list
- Reading challenge: spin a genre each month and read one book from it. With Remove the winner on, a whole year of reading never repeats a genre.
- Library lesson: spin a genre, then pupils find a book on the shelves that fits and explain the clues on its cover and blurb.
- Book club: shortlist a few genres, spin, and give everyone two weeks to suggest a title in it before the vote.
- Creative writing: write the opening paragraph of a story in the genre you spin. Try it with one you never read, like a Western or space opera.
- Mash-up stories: set Winners to 2 and blend the pair, such as a cosy mystery set in space or a fairy tale told as a thriller.
Press Spin the wheel, tap the game or press the Space bar. Change the list in the box as you
like: add your own, delete what doesn't suit you, or write *2 after an entry to give it double the
chance. The game buttons switch the same list to a duck race, hat, claw machine and more.
The full list (52 entries)
- Fantasy
- Science fiction
- Mystery
- Cosy mystery
- Detective fiction
- Thriller
- Spy fiction
- Horror
- Ghost story
- Romance
- Historical fiction
- Adventure
- Contemporary fiction
- Literary fiction
- Dystopian
- Post-apocalyptic
- Magical realism
- Steampunk
- Cyberpunk
- Space opera
- Time travel
- Gothic
- Western
- Humour
- Satire
- Coming of age
- Survival story
- Sports fiction
- Epistolary novel
- Short stories
- Fairy tales
- Fables
- Myths and legends
- Animal stories
- Picture books
- Graphic novels
- School stories
- Gamebooks
- Middle grade
- Young adult
- Biography
- Autobiography
- Memoir
- History
- Popular science
- Nature writing
- Travel writing
- Essays
- Cookbooks
- Art and photography
- Poetry
- Plays
Questions people ask
What are the main literary genres?
The four big ones are poetry, drama, prose fiction and non-fiction. Within fiction, the best-known genres are fantasy, science fiction, mystery, thriller, horror, romance and historical fiction.
Is young adult a genre?
Not quite. Young adult (YA) and middle grade describe the age of the readers, roughly 12 to 18 and 8 to 12. A YA book still has a genre of its own, such as fantasy or mystery.
What is the difference between fiction and non-fiction?
Fiction is invented: the characters and events come from the author's imagination, even when the story is set in a real place. Non-fiction is about real people, facts and events, like biographies, history and science books.
What is speculative fiction?
It is an umbrella term for stories about things that do not or cannot exist yet. Fantasy, science fiction, dystopian and time travel stories all count, and they share the Speculative fiction button above the picker.
What is a cozy mystery?
A gentle crime story in which an amateur sleuth, often a baker, librarian or shopkeeper, solves a puzzle in a small, friendly community. Any violence happens off the page, and the pleasure lies in the clues, the quirky neighbours and a neat reveal at the end.