Speculative is like A Handmaid's Tale. Basically it speculates on a scenario that might happen based on a historical past but a fantastical near future or present. But it doesn't have the SciFi or fantasy elements to slot it on those particular shelves. I don't think it's used much anymore. The 9000 other genres have obviated it in the last few decades.
I know what you mean very well. In history circles, this used to be called the "What If? scenario". It's a fun parlor game: for instance, what if the famous "miraculous fog" hadn't hidden Washington's departure across the East River and into Manhattan, after the battle of Long Island? Answer: in all probability, Washington would've had to surrender, and that would've been the end of the Revolutionary War. America (and Canada) would remain British, which means that now, perhaps, America would've had a British style of governance, with Houses of Commons and Lords answering (in theory) to King Charles III. Also, America and Canada would be best buddies, regardless of who the American Prime Minister is. Another example: what if the Viking explorers and the Canadian natives didn't fall out, back around 1,000 AD? Answer: this is difficult, but probably they would have found common ground and maybe decided to ally. Between 1,000 AD and 1,492 AD (see Columbus), they might have decided to explore North America would have come into contact with some of the American tribes. Norse expertise with boats and iron smithing means that the American tribes would've been introduced to at least chain-mail and iron weapons, and 500 years or so is a long time to master steel. Thus, when the Spanish/French/British/etc. arrive, they find a very different America. To be honest, if this is what Speculative Fiction is, it sounds like Harry Turtledove, etc.
Not a genre, but came across these in angent wishlists as tropes they are interested in: "Final girl"..... the last girl alive/standing trope "Lover girl"..... the girl only exists to be someones love interest. No other purpose or characterization
Sounds like it, yeah. I was initially thinking of that famous and incredibly outdated trope -- the woman who stands on a table and screams while the man deals with the mouse/spider/whatever -- but you've put your finger on it. More to the point, why would any agent actually want something like this ... much less put it in their wishlist? It sounds like making yourself an immediate target for reader scorn.
I'm starting to see "Horromance" more and more these days.... Horromance = "What qualifies a book as horromance is an emphasis on fright. Readers should be experiencing life-or-death tension at the same time as romantic tension" this is different from Dark Romance/Romantasy which are meant "to let readers indulge in dark fantasies, but they aren’t necessarily meant to evoke fear" (i still dont understand it because one of the book i've read before is on that list of examples, and that book isnt horror or even has elements that "evoke fear" ... at least to me. but I have a pretty high threshhold for scary)
Hmm, of that's the definition for dark romance, then I probably want to choose another label. Maybe Thrilleromance
Isn't that how the whole "Dracula and his undead brides" thing got started? (Incidentally, here's a fun-and-useless bit of trivia about the Dracula stories: Bram Stoker was heavily influenced by earlier vampire fiction, particularly John Polidori's "The Vampyre" (1819). It was initially attributed to Lord Byron, but Byron had nothing to do with it - except that Polidori "borrowed" much of the vampire's appearance from that of Lord Byron, in order to cash in on the then-current 'Byromania' that was sweeping Europe. Think about it: doesn't go out in daylight; very pale; always wears black, especially evening dress; is fawned over by lots and lots of women -- gee, I wonder who Polidori could've been writing about?)
There's actually no evidence that Stoker was influenced by Polidori's novel. If anything, he's more likely to have been influenced by Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmila, given that he actually worked for a paper owned by Le Fanu.
True. I'm simply quoting from Greg Jenner's "You're Dead To Me" podcasts about Dracula and Lord Byron ... and yes, he also mentioned Carmila, too. And yes, I know I shouldn't accept all podcasts as 100% true. (Nothing is 100% true). But given that Mr. Jenner is a professional historian, and wrote several books about the history of celebrity ... he's probably a safe bet. Yes, it's difficult to be definitive about whether Stoker was influenced directly by Polidori. But "The Vampyre" played a significant role in shaping the archetype of the modern vampire, and the character of Lord Ruthven specifically is echoed in Dracula. Another fun-but-useless fact: when W. S. Gilbert came to parodying the vampire-lit craze in his play "Ruddigore" (with music by Arthur Sullivan), the main character ... who is expected to be evil, and turns out to be not-so-evil ... is also named Lord Ruthven. (Coincidence?)
