For me, historical fiction has been a hit-or-miss genre. You can see more details on my relationship with the genre at the following posts: My Relationship with Historical Fiction (Part 1) and My Relationship with Historical Fiction (Part 2).
Historical fiction can be a hard genre to define, and it can change slightly for different people. In my opinion, setting and plot are the most important factors to a historical fiction book.
Other than the setting and plot, a historical fiction novel is free range for the author. It's "free range" for the author because the story doesn't need to be completely accurate to actual history.
Please note that there is nothing wrong with an author wanting to be accurate with the historical fiction book they're writing. However, historical fiction is fiction for a reason. If an author wants to be completely accurate to the history they're writing, they should just write a history nonfiction book. (This is something that will its own post in February, so that's all I'll say.)
Even if it's under the historical fiction genre on Goodreads, I have a few requirements for me to consider a book historical fiction. I mentioned setting and plot earlier. My personal preference is that the setting and plot needs to be saturated in historical vibes. I need things like language, clothing, and mood that show me the time period the author is trying to encapsulate. I think that language, mood, and clothing are important to represent in historical fiction. They're not the same as modern day language, mood, and clothing. The time period can't just be hinted at or stated in the book's synopsis.
No comments:
Post a Comment