As I am starting to receive the first few advance copies of books scheduled for 2027, I thought it a good time to reflect on the trends I noticed in 2026:
Of the 30 books I’ve reviewed for this year so far (technically 29 as This is not a Test is a re-release from a few years ago), four had aquatic themes, two of which and a further one were set on an island. That might not sound like many, but if we count the one set on an island as aquatically themed that would make it 1 in 6.
Obviously my sample size alone is really not enough to be scientific, but it seems to tie in with a bigger trend about eco-horror. Real life fears about the effect of climate change translated onto the page with the aid of the unexplored vastness of the sea. Plenty of people are scared of the ocean already anyways (Thalassophobia), so it lends itself as an easy nature setting for horror and makes a change from the usual dark and creepy woods that often appear in horror and thriller literature (usually surrounding a lone cabin somewhere far away from help).
Another two subgenres that appear to be growing are technological horror and our social norms acting as a prison. I actually believe there to be bit of an overlap between those two, as technology seems to be what is pushing people into smaller and smaller boxes. Molka for example deals with hidden cameras and digital voyourism in a society with strict gender norms and expectations, and with the tradwife movement taking over social media in the real world, it inspires books like the aptly named Trad Wife.
Goodnight Monsters seems to be set in a Stepford Wives kind of world where the mothers practically stepped out of an instagram post, the modern Hänsel und Gretel evil stepmother is an influencer, Loveshots is about a strictly heteronormative dating show (set on an island with a surprise aquatic twist), Our Sister’s Keeper is all about how women have to be perfect housewives and carry the emotional burden for men while also looking at how racism plays its role in restricting people.
So where are trends moving to in the future? At a guess I would say once the water has been done too many times, a different aspect of nature will have to do. Will the current circumstances inspire a slew of fire and heat themed horror? Or perhaps it’s time for fungi? They’re creepy already, if you really think about it and Mexican Gothic was very popular, so might have inspired some authors already.
As for the digital and societal themes, I am surprised we haven’t already had more AI focused horror, the movies have been there for a while now. And as for the tradwife movement, I guess that depends on what will be trending on social media, which could be anything and everything and change at the drop of a hat.
I was surprised to read that according to bookriot, it is getting more and more difficult to publish LGBT+ books. At a quick count, 5 of my 30 reviews so far we’re heavily LGBT+ focused and another two had one or more queer supporting characters. But most of those books were from the same small publisher, so that probably swayed my data. Either the changes in law in America will further push queer literature out of the market, or the obvious censorship will cause a grassroots movement to oppose it.
Leave a Reply