Thursday, April 9, 2015

Name That Genre #34

TITLE: MG
GENRE: SECRET

The dreams, visions really, started the night Maggie and Henry’s father disappeared. Till then, life had been almost boring in the small town of Mayhew, Virginia.

It began at the carnival that had come to town when school let out for summer vacation. An overcast sky made it darker than usual but the lights from the rides and booths lit the night.

Henry followed his twin sister out of the arcade. “But if you give me some of your quarters I can demolish the Death Star.”

Maggie didn’t turn her head. “Dad would be so mad if he knew you blew your money on more stupid video games. Come on, let’s ride the Ferris wheel before we have to meet Mom and Dad.”

Henry stopped. “You know I hate heights.”

She turned towards him, hands on hips. “But you’ll ride the roller coaster?”

“That’s different. It’s living a video game.”

36 comments:

  1. Mystery

    Sounds like maybe a hint of fantasy. The kids have visions. There could be a Sci Fi element as the boys response sounds like a hint that maybe they will end up living in a video game (Tron style).

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  2. Fantasy
    The combination of visions that began after visiting a carnival read like fantasy to me.

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  3. Fantasy/supernatural

    'dreams/visions' in the first line makes me think the disappearance is more than just "going out for cigarettes" and never coming back.

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  4. Fantasy.

    The mention of visions made me think Fantasy, but otherwise I probably would have guessed mystery.

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  5. Urban Fantasy.

    Set in a real world setting but opens with "visions".

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  6. Paranormal.

    Use of the word "visions" makes me think there's going to be some type of magic/paranormal thing going on.

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  7. Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal
    The visions tell us that something unusual is going down in a real-world setting.

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  8. Paranormal

    The mention of visions in the first sentence suggests paranormal.

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  9. I agree with S.D. King: Fantasy with elements of Sci-Fi. The visions imply Fantasy, but the mention of destroying the death star hints at some sci-fi action to come.

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  10. Fantasy

    The carnival made me think so

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  11. Paranormal Mystery (is there such a hybrid?)

    Father's disappearance implies mystery. The hints of paranormal come with the dreams/ visions, fear of heights, living a video game.

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  12. Not sure

    The first sentence and the imagery seems to be trying to be portent-laden, but I'm not sure for what. Mostly I was just confused about the switch from a speaker not Maggie or Henry to a scene with apparently just those two characters...???

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  13. Contemporary, feel a mystery coming on.

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    Replies
    1. Mystery because of the "was boring until" aspect and the darkness

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  15. Fantasy. Because of the visions, and I always associate twins with fantasy.

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  16. Paranormal due to visions and a contemporary setting.

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  17. Paranormal due to visions and a contemporary setting.

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  18. Horror

    Dreams and visions and a carnival = something goes seriously pear-shaped.

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  19. Paranormal, sci-fi or fantasy, I think. Visions settled me on one of these. Something happens at the carnival that changes the lives of these twins.

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  20. Paranormal, sci-fi or fantasy, I think. Visions settled me on one of these. Something happens at the carnival that changes the lives of these twins.

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  21. Fantasy, because of the reference to visions.

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  22. Magical realism. I don't think the twins are fey or shape-shifters or anything.

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  23. Not certain.

    Could be fantasy (the visions); could also be sci fi (the video games hint at technology).

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  24. MAGICAL REALISM.

    The story is going to be about visions.

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  25. Paranormal
    Everything is normal...except those visions. And the disappearance of dad.

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  26. Paranormal based on dreams and visions.

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  27. Paranormal.

    Because, based on my research, paranormal usually deals with visions, psychics, prophecy/foretelling type dreams, ghosts, hauntings, etc., if which "dreams" and "visions" start the story. Supernatural usually deals with demons, witches, angels, spells, gods, etc. Speculative Fiction can include both paranormal and Supernatural as well as Aliens, etc.

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  28. I can't tell.

    It almost seems historical because they're talking about the early Star Wars movie and video games. But then the beginning talked about visions--so I can't tell if it is spec fic or not.

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  29. MG Fantasy

    I have a feeling there's more to this carnival than meets the eye, so to speak. The mention of the Death Star is either a foreshadowing or just a video game. We'll see.

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  30. Contemporary Fantasy

    Visions are referenced in the first sentence, which tells me it's either fantasy or paranormal. A carnival that precedes it gives me the same feeling. Contemporary because of references to school and video games.

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  31. Contemporary Fantasy/Scifi. Visions, father's disappearance, lots of video game references. I'm thinking one of the carnival rides was a real space ship?

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  32. Fantasy. It sounds like the visions portend something happening...maybe even at the carnival that very night. Maybe one of the rides transports them into another world...

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  33. No idea, but you went from telling us a story, to telling us backstory. Huge whiplash for me.

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  34. My Genre was Sci-fi. But if I had to name it myself I would call it a mix of Sci-Fi/Paranormal Fantasy as it is a book about twins who find out they have ESP and use it to find their physicist father who is studying zero point energy.

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  35. My Genre was Sci-fi. But if I had to name it myself I would call it a mix of Sci-Fi/Paranormal Fantasy as it is a book about twins who find out they have ESP and use it to find their physicist father who is studying zero point energy.

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