What genre is this book?
Excellent question.
“This book” that I’m referring to is my debut novel, On The Way To Chicago, coming out Tuesday June 16, 2026.
The short answer:
On The Way To Chicago is a contemporary fiction novel.
The long answer:
On The Way To Chicago blends a few sub-genres of contemporary fiction, namely new adult fiction, romance, women’s lit. It’s genre-fluid, genre-queer if you will.
The longer answer:
Writers, publishers, and the book world writ large live and die by industry rules. According to the good folks at Reedsy, there are around 50 different literary genres, depending on who you ask, and many more sub-genres. But for the sake of this discussion, let’s focus on the four genres mentioned above in “the long answer.” I’ve listed the definitions from Reedsy at the bottom of this post for reference.
On The Way To Chicago is a dual-point-of-view story about Rowan during her late-teens and early-twenties (New Adult Fiction) as she navigates finding her way in the world amidst grieving the loss of her father, and Krista, who is in her twenties and thirties (Contemporary Fiction) as she tries to reconnect with her estranged daughter Rowan (Women’s Fiction). During this story, Rowan deals with her problematic first love and then finds herself interested in a man who owns the tattoo shop she works at (Romance).
This book encapsulates the messy years where our frontal lobes aren’t fully formed and, even if we have good support systems and safety nets, we’re just trying to figure out what’s next. Rowan’s story is about trying to find her people, her community, her path in life. I would bet money that Rowan's journey in the book is representative of many people’s personal and career journeys. Start in one direction, go back, pivot, head another way, break, keep moving forward. Getting started in life is tricky and sometimes all we can do is put one foot in front of the other. Everyone is looking for their community, a place where they fit in and that’s not always the place where they were born.
Maybe most importantly, I wanted to write a story that redefined what a “happily ever after” could look like. I won’t say too much here as I don’t want to give away the ending, Rowan’s HEA looks different than a industry-standard romance.
I’m very excited for you all to read Rowan and Krista’s story. Only a couple more months!
What books have you read in these genres? Tell me about your favorites!
Contemporary fiction: This book genre is occasionally lumped in with others to indicate that the book takes place in the present day. But in its simplest form, contemporary fiction is better understood as the absence of a genre. A book doesn’t need tropes and trappings, monsters and mysteries, when its tension, drama, and conflict lies in the quirks and quandaries of your protagonist’s everyday life: work, politics, relationships, and the struggles of the modern era.
Romance: The romantic relationship must be the center point of the plot and typically has a happily ever after (HEA). If a novel has a romantic relationship at its heart and is perfectly at home in another genre, it probably falls into one of romance’s many subgenres.
Women’s fiction: Women’s fiction is an umbrella term for books written to target a female audience, generally reflecting on the shared experience of being a woman or the growth of a female protagonist. Because of this rather broad definition, authors will quite often write a romance novel or mystery, for example, that could also be labeled women’s fiction. Despite the connotations of one alternative name for this genre (“chick-lit”), many critically acclaimed bestsellers, including Jaqueline Woodson’s Red at The Bone, fall under its purview.
[Author note: I HATE the term Women’s fiction or worse yet “chick-lit”. It implies that these books are only for women and that they’re not for men, that they’re not serious, that the topics concerning women, cis or trans, don’t apply to the broader population, which is absolute bullshit. I’d argue that the world would be a better place if men read more books by and about women, femme, and trans folks. Furthermore, this genre classification implies that books in other genres don’t appeal to women as much as “women’s fiction” might. Alas, I digress.]
New adult: New adult is like young adult aged-up: coming-of-age stories after the messiness of adolescence. Its college-age protagonists are walked through the gauntlet of becoming fully-fledged grownups, ditching the stress of the SATs and senior prom for college exams, career transitions, and more mature first times.
