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My approach to reading can be summed up with one of my favorite lines from a commercial turned meme/GIF: porque no los dos? Historical fiction or mystery? Why not both? Horror or sci-fi? Why not both? Books that combine two (or more) genres are a great way to get into genres you’re interested in trying for the first time, or to get more of what you already know and love in one convenient reading package. They are how I discovered I’m not as much of a weenie for horror as I thought I was, and how much I enjoy historical mysteries.
I’m recommending nine of my favorite genre-blending books today, books you can pick up to satisfy task #16 of the 2025 Read Harder Challenge: Read a genre-blending book. Danika recently rounded up a list of recent genre-blending releases, so I decided to go with backlist picks for my selections. They feature everything from an SF/F + mystery blend set in an alternate Cairo to a sci-fi/mystery blend with a gender-flipped Sherlock and Watson—in space!
Go forth and blend!
 A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark (Dead Djinn Universe)genre blend: sci-fi + fantasy + mystery This steampunk fantasy is set in 1912 in an alternative Cairo where Egypt has not been colonized and magic exists alongside the mundane. That last part is thanks to a Sudanese mystic named al-Jahiz who drilled a hole in the veil that separates the two and then vanished into thin air. When an entire brotherhood dedicated to al-Jahiz is murdered and the killer claims to be al-Jahiz himself, it’s up to Fatma el-Sha-arawi, the youngest woman at the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, to track the killer down. You get a compelling mystery with feminist, anti-colonial themes, plus a queer romance and creatures like Djinn and angels mixed in among the humans. This made me immediately turn around and read the novellas in the series. |
 Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machadogenre blend: horror + sci-fi + literary fiction I like to think that when Carmen Maria Machado sits down to write, she puts Miley Cyrus’ “Can’t Be Tamed” on and cranks up the volume. This is the collection that made me a fangirl, a haunting, speculative, queer fever dream of a masterpiece that couldn’t be put into any kind of genre box if you tried. She had me from jump with the story of the woman whose husband won’t stop asking her to take off the green ribbon around her neck (real ones know), and then she had the nerve to include a novella, aptly titled “Especially Heinous,” reimagining every episode of Law & Order SVU. I feel a little bit smarter and a lot more haunted whenever I read her work. |
