Lisa
asked:
Would you really consider this book historical fiction? To me it seems more to belong to dystopian or post-apocalyptic fiction. They live in a wild west world, but yet it's really not the same world as the one in our history. (Surviving the "big flu" and everyone worshipping the Baby Jesus) It feels intentionally misleading to say it's historical fiction.
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Josh Rhodes
"Alternate historical fiction" seems as good an answer as any.
I don't think speculative fiction entirely fits...it has no fantastical or science fictional type elements. Someone more obsessed with the hallmarks of "genre" than me could perhaps set us straight on whether that's actually a requirement of speculative fiction, but, besides the part where it massively diverges from what really happened, it feels pretty realist.
Post-apocalyptic, dystopian...these are decent descriptors too. Another day, another alternate historical postapocalyptic feminist Western. (Ahem: ha ha.)
I don't think speculative fiction entirely fits...it has no fantastical or science fictional type elements. Someone more obsessed with the hallmarks of "genre" than me could perhaps set us straight on whether that's actually a requirement of speculative fiction, but, besides the part where it massively diverges from what really happened, it feels pretty realist.
Post-apocalyptic, dystopian...these are decent descriptors too. Another day, another alternate historical postapocalyptic feminist Western. (Ahem: ha ha.)
Patricia
I would call it an alternate history.
Jane
I would not consider it either one. Definitely not historical fiction, but dystopian doesn’t seem like the right description either. Dystopian seems like futuristic science fiction. I think it was just a creative, out-of-the-box, well-written statement on the treatment of barren women in the 19th century.
Mary
I would not. It is in no way historical. More appropriately placed in dystopian fiction.
Caton
Agree this isn't historical fiction--but lately I've found that label given pretty liberally to a lot of works of fiction that had little or nothing to do with history.
Paula Martinac
I'm not sure what to call this. It's not historical, it's not dystopian, but I don't think alternate history completely fits either. Alternate is more about "what if," as I understand it — what if Charles Lindbergh beat FDR and became president? (The Plot Against America) I know I've seen others in this particular genre, though, especially set in an American West that kind of looks like the past but isn't.
Leah
Agree with the answers. Pissed me off spending my hard earned money on a historical fiction book when it so clearly is not.
Julie
I considered this novel to be an alternative history and a cautionary tale.
Laura
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