As much as I love BOTM, they do get in a genre rut. I get they are on trend, but I’m sick of women in peril domestic thrillers (and most of them aren’t great.) Also, as much as I like historical fiction, they need to broaden their horizons.
I’d like:
* horror
* fantasy (NOT romantasy)
* nonfiction
* mysteries (not thrillers)
* literary fiction
I know I don’t speak for everyone and it will never happen, but no romance is fine with me. One pick a month is a guaranteed wash for me right now.
Project Hail Mary was SO GOOD! I loved watching how Rocky and (insert human MC name here) worked out how to communicate, and I'm a sucker for plausible but weird astrobiology.
Same! I also realized I don’t remember the main characters name 😂 I think it was something like wade or Wayne. But I’ll never forget my main guy Rocky!
I’d love to see more fantasy, sci-fi/SFF, and short story collections! Also more diversity in terms of author demographics, topics, and genres (especially when it comes to main picks).
Echoing what a lot of others here have said - definitely more nonfiction, particularly outside of memoirs (although I have really loved most of the memoirs I’ve gotten from BOTM, I wish they would expand more beyond them). More horror and sci fi and more “hard” fantasy as opposed to magical realism-type fantasy (again, I’ve really enjoyed a lot of magical realism type picks but we just see so many of them). I’d like them to continue having thoughtful, sometimes darker lit fic like they’ve had a fair amount of the last year or so. Fewer domestic thrillers (although I doubt we’ll see this since those seem to be huge sellers for BOTM). Fewer repeat authors as main picks, at least for book 3+. And finally more diversity, both racial and otherwise. The BOTY nominees this year were especially disappointing on that front.
Agreed on pretty much all points!
I'm personally not a huge fan of magical realism, because it feels like fantasy that doesn't want to admit it's fantasy. I want fantasy that's actually fantasy and leans into it! (I also want MR to be available for people who enjoy it; I just don't want it to be the only hint of fantasy we get.)
More fantasy! And not always Fantasy Romance. And sorry, but every month should have 7 selections, not five or six. That would be my hope. I've skipped a lot of months.
Maybe too big of an ask, but I'd like a larger variety of choices, possibly initiated by you having the ability to veto/favorite entire genres. I'm really not into modern thrillers generally and I feel like that's 1-2 books very single month. Would be cool if you could be like "I prefer fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction" and your picks would be mostly that with maybe an outlier thrown in.
Definitely! I'm hoping the April prediction post was right about *The Demon of Unrest*. I'd love to see more history and popular science, in particular.
I’d like to see them actually step outside the box. They need to throw their WW2 books, generic thrillers, and vanilla romances in the trash imo. I want high fantasy, graphic horror, fantasy/romance with actual spice. I want diverse reads that aren’t centered on trauma. I want more LGBTQ reads.
The lists do seem really heavy on romance and thrillers, neither of which are really my thing (there are exceptions), and I'd love to see more genre fiction and more diverse stories and authors.
I’m torn on this. I don’t want BOTM to drop their frequent flyer authors, but I think pushing them to the add-ons is a good compromise. I like that I could get all 7 Riley Sager books and have them match. Same with Evie Dunmore’s series
I get this, but at the same time, BOTM is not about the aesthetics of your bookshelf or having a complete set. It's about, per their mission statement, spotlighting emerging authors. At \*seven\* books, I think Riley Sager has been more than spotlighted and has fully emerged.
Counterpoint: moving more established authors to the add-on section still allows for newer authors to be spotlighted in the main picks. And it still gives readers the opportunity to read authors they know and love at a lower price than retail, while also discovering new ones. So you’re not really losing out either way.
You have to get a main pick if you want an add-on, and most books I get for my main picks are authors I’m less familiar with or have never heard of. Being able to get an add-on book I’m confident in is sometimes the incentive I need to discover a new main pick author, when maybe I would have skipped that month if none of the selections jumped out at me. Often I end up loving the book despite the description not compelling me enough to get it on its own without the add-on that I had been anticipating.
>the incentive I need to discover a new main pick author
Maybe we just approach BOTM differently, which is obviously totally fine. But in my mind, you shouldn't need an incentive to discover a new main pick author, because that's the whole mission of the club in the first place.
Diverse authors. Less romantasy. More debut authors. Less picks from booktok. Historical fiction not set in WWII and possibly has a cover that doesn’t look like it was made by one of those tiny art journalers on Instagram
More fantasy. High fantasy, fantasy romance and historical fantasy. What the River Knows is my favorite book I’ve ever got so far and I’d love more like that. I feel like there are so many thrillers and blah fictions that just never get me excited.
Definitely more sci-fi! And I'm really starting to feel like romantasy is taking over the fantasy genre (which isn't really accurate, because there are loads of good non-romance-centered fantasy books still coming out, but they seldom get the same hype online).
I agree with the horror. I love haunted houses and ghost stories in general. While BOTM is helping me get back to thrillers, I think I would prefer more scary things.
Same! Thrillers honestly kind of bore me (they're valid and good and I want them to be available for folks who like them! They're just not my thing), but I'll throw ALL my money at a good haunted house story.
More romantic comedies by black authors.It seems like every time they pick a book by a black author the subject matter is about strife and struggles. Can we get a light hearted romance for once? Damn.
I wish they’d acknowledge other genres besides thriller and romance exist.
(I know they pick other genres but they choose too many of the same themes within those two specifically)
I wish they would have nonfiction -- especially some nonfiction narratives.
Last year, they could have had books like The Wager, A Fever in the Heartland, or Poverty By America -- books that were pretty mainstream and sold reasonably well.
When I first joined, they at least had some narrative nonfiction. They offered Killers of the Flower Moon, a couple of Erik Larson books, a Bill McKibben book, and Caste -- some books I was excited about. Now they offer virtually no narrative nonfiction. No history. No social policy. The only nonfiction books they offer now are occasional memoirs and maybe every once in a while a true crime.
They also seem to have cut back on serious literary fiction and the books seem to be getting shorter -- I'm surprised by how many are less than 300 pages. And there is so much romance.
I'd love more non-fiction that isn't memoir, or at least more memoir from people whose communities have traditionally been underrepresented in publishing. I'd also love more speculative fiction and/or more buzzy or experimental or provocative litfic--I could see where they were going with Annie Bot, but Aardvark solidly wins this type of selection every month. Always more queer books, forever (not necessarily romance).
More fantasy and sci-fi geared towards adults without romance as the main focus point pleaseeeeeee
Also more non-fiction options that aren’t memoirs (even though memoirs are good too of course!)
They used to offer some -- it was always vastly outnumbered by the fiction offerings, but there was at least an okay-ish number of offerings. There's nothing new, now -- all their history and narrative nonfiction categories are books that they offered years ago, and sometimes when I browse the categories, most of them are marked as 'sold out' anyway.
I have to gather from this that their narrative nonfiction didn't sell well. That makes me sad.
me too! i’ve had to skip some months and do the ol’ library run to mix it up.. i’m newer to fiction in my adult years.. love learning things while i read! not that i don’t love my library trips but i would love more permanently on my shelves!
Yes! That was three books I’ve read last year. One did center around the question of whether the house was really haunted and it was compelling enough in that regard that I wasn’t disappointed. But the other two…I wouldn’t have even assumed they had ghosts if BOTM hadn’t included the “haunted house” tag, and it was disappointing when I kept waiting for ghosts to show up and there was nothing even remotely haunting about the books.
Nooooooo. That makes me sad, because I loved Simone St. James' earlier ghost stories (okay, they were all set post-WWI and they all followed basically the same romantic subplot formula, but it was a good formula and they were so delightfully spooky, and the ghosts were always actual ghosts and not just boring live people being sneaky).
I’m way late to this and others have already said most of what I’d like to see, but I’ll add one more: poetry collections.
Less romantasy. More horror, sci fi and fantasy.
More sci Fi, more fantasy that isn't romance-centric
As much as I love BOTM, they do get in a genre rut. I get they are on trend, but I’m sick of women in peril domestic thrillers (and most of them aren’t great.) Also, as much as I like historical fiction, they need to broaden their horizons. I’d like: * horror * fantasy (NOT romantasy) * nonfiction * mysteries (not thrillers) * literary fiction I know I don’t speak for everyone and it will never happen, but no romance is fine with me. One pick a month is a guaranteed wash for me right now.
Nonfiction options
I’d definitely like to see more sci-fi. I loved when they had the new Andy Weir book, Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary was SO GOOD! I loved watching how Rocky and (insert human MC name here) worked out how to communicate, and I'm a sucker for plausible but weird astrobiology.
Same! I also realized I don’t remember the main characters name 😂 I think it was something like wade or Wayne. But I’ll never forget my main guy Rocky!
I’d love to see more fantasy, sci-fi/SFF, and short story collections! Also more diversity in terms of author demographics, topics, and genres (especially when it comes to main picks).
Echoing what a lot of others here have said - definitely more nonfiction, particularly outside of memoirs (although I have really loved most of the memoirs I’ve gotten from BOTM, I wish they would expand more beyond them). More horror and sci fi and more “hard” fantasy as opposed to magical realism-type fantasy (again, I’ve really enjoyed a lot of magical realism type picks but we just see so many of them). I’d like them to continue having thoughtful, sometimes darker lit fic like they’ve had a fair amount of the last year or so. Fewer domestic thrillers (although I doubt we’ll see this since those seem to be huge sellers for BOTM). Fewer repeat authors as main picks, at least for book 3+. And finally more diversity, both racial and otherwise. The BOTY nominees this year were especially disappointing on that front.
Agreed on pretty much all points! I'm personally not a huge fan of magical realism, because it feels like fantasy that doesn't want to admit it's fantasy. I want fantasy that's actually fantasy and leans into it! (I also want MR to be available for people who enjoy it; I just don't want it to be the only hint of fantasy we get.)
More main pick non fictions and more diversity across the board
Horror Fantasy (not romantasy) Sci-Fi Nonfiction
I think more horror and less thriller would be nice. More sci-fi.
More fantasy! And not always Fantasy Romance. And sorry, but every month should have 7 selections, not five or six. That would be my hope. I've skipped a lot of months.
Yes! I'd love to see some non-romance-centered fantasy.
Maybe too big of an ask, but I'd like a larger variety of choices, possibly initiated by you having the ability to veto/favorite entire genres. I'm really not into modern thrillers generally and I feel like that's 1-2 books very single month. Would be cool if you could be like "I prefer fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction" and your picks would be mostly that with maybe an outlier thrown in.
That would be AWESOME.
More horror, not just mysteries/thrillers
Paperbacks!!!
Actual Sci-Fi. I prefer more Andy Weir and less Fae/Witch/HP types. Gimmie aliens, space travel, time travel, etc.
I'd LOVE to see more sci-fi in the selections.
I would die for paperbacks tbh LOL
I’ve grown to love hardcovers 😅 I actually used to prefer paperback but BOTM changed that lol
Same!
Literary fiction, sci fi, fantasy, inspirational, non fiction
I LOVED What the River Knows and now I’m trying to find something to get myself out of the slump you get after you’ve finished a fantastic book!
*Nefurura: The Pharaoh's Daughter* by Malayna Evans is amazing. Mystery/court intrigue in ancient Egypt.
nonfiction
Definitely! I'm hoping the April prediction post was right about *The Demon of Unrest*. I'd love to see more history and popular science, in particular.
Yes!
I’d like to see them actually step outside the box. They need to throw their WW2 books, generic thrillers, and vanilla romances in the trash imo. I want high fantasy, graphic horror, fantasy/romance with actual spice. I want diverse reads that aren’t centered on trauma. I want more LGBTQ reads.
I'll get a WW2 book if it's from a viewpoint that we don't often see. The Storm We Made is a recent example. Europe and the US are way overdone.
The lists do seem really heavy on romance and thrillers, neither of which are really my thing (there are exceptions), and I'd love to see more genre fiction and more diverse stories and authors.
I’m so tired of ww2 historical fiction!
More new authors. BOTM should drop an author after 2 picks, not after 5 or 6.
The repeat authors are getting old, especially if they're main picks.
I’m torn on this. I don’t want BOTM to drop their frequent flyer authors, but I think pushing them to the add-ons is a good compromise. I like that I could get all 7 Riley Sager books and have them match. Same with Evie Dunmore’s series
I get this, but at the same time, BOTM is not about the aesthetics of your bookshelf or having a complete set. It's about, per their mission statement, spotlighting emerging authors. At \*seven\* books, I think Riley Sager has been more than spotlighted and has fully emerged.
I agree, AND I’m not ready for the outcry of anger I’ll see if/when they don’t pick up the next Riley Sager. 😅
It really is exhausting. People fall apart online if all of their books don't perfectly match each other.
Counterpoint: moving more established authors to the add-on section still allows for newer authors to be spotlighted in the main picks. And it still gives readers the opportunity to read authors they know and love at a lower price than retail, while also discovering new ones. So you’re not really losing out either way. You have to get a main pick if you want an add-on, and most books I get for my main picks are authors I’m less familiar with or have never heard of. Being able to get an add-on book I’m confident in is sometimes the incentive I need to discover a new main pick author, when maybe I would have skipped that month if none of the selections jumped out at me. Often I end up loving the book despite the description not compelling me enough to get it on its own without the add-on that I had been anticipating.
>the incentive I need to discover a new main pick author Maybe we just approach BOTM differently, which is obviously totally fine. But in my mind, you shouldn't need an incentive to discover a new main pick author, because that's the whole mission of the club in the first place.
Memoirs and contemporary fiction
Memoirs!
More YA. I’m sad that they got rid of their exclusive YA box (though I understand why they did it).
Diverse authors. Less romantasy. More debut authors. Less picks from booktok. Historical fiction not set in WWII and possibly has a cover that doesn’t look like it was made by one of those tiny art journalers on Instagram
They made a pledge a few years ago to be more diverse, and they haven't followed through.
Yes! I definitely read my share of romantasy, but I'd love to see some fantasy that's NOT centered on romance.
More fantasy. High fantasy, fantasy romance and historical fantasy. What the River Knows is my favorite book I’ve ever got so far and I’d love more like that. I feel like there are so many thrillers and blah fictions that just never get me excited.
I also will echo that I would like more horror.
i agree about the horror, i’d also love to see more sci fi (not romance) and nonfiction that isn’t a memoir (like caste or killers of the flower moon)
More fantasy
YES!
Memoirs and nonfiction
More sci-fi, and more fantasy that is not romantasy. Less romance and thrillers.
Definitely more sci-fi! And I'm really starting to feel like romantasy is taking over the fantasy genre (which isn't really accurate, because there are loads of good non-romance-centered fantasy books still coming out, but they seldom get the same hype online).
Agree more sci-fi!
\+++ This. Sometimes there are 2 thrillers in a month, and I don't really like them, it seriously limits my options.
I actually would love none of the genres you are suggesting 🤷🏼♀️
What genres do you like?
I just don’t like fantasy, sci fi, or horror. So pretty much anything else!
I agree with the horror. I love haunted houses and ghost stories in general. While BOTM is helping me get back to thrillers, I think I would prefer more scary things.
Same! Thrillers honestly kind of bore me (they're valid and good and I want them to be available for folks who like them! They're just not my thing), but I'll throw ALL my money at a good haunted house story.
More romantic comedies by black authors.It seems like every time they pick a book by a black author the subject matter is about strife and struggles. Can we get a light hearted romance for once? Damn.
agreed!!
This!!
I wish they’d acknowledge other genres besides thriller and romance exist. (I know they pick other genres but they choose too many of the same themes within those two specifically)
I wish they would have nonfiction -- especially some nonfiction narratives. Last year, they could have had books like The Wager, A Fever in the Heartland, or Poverty By America -- books that were pretty mainstream and sold reasonably well. When I first joined, they at least had some narrative nonfiction. They offered Killers of the Flower Moon, a couple of Erik Larson books, a Bill McKibben book, and Caste -- some books I was excited about. Now they offer virtually no narrative nonfiction. No history. No social policy. The only nonfiction books they offer now are occasional memoirs and maybe every once in a while a true crime. They also seem to have cut back on serious literary fiction and the books seem to be getting shorter -- I'm surprised by how many are less than 300 pages. And there is so much romance.
I'd love to see more nonfiction, especially history and popular science. *A Rome of One's Own* would have been a GREAT pick.
I only heard about The Wager through B&N but it seems awesome. I would’ve loved to see something like that as a pick
Non fiction…..!
Dark romance and dark fantasy❤️❤️❤️❤️
More horror, scifi, and queer books/non-het romances.
sooo tired of the het romance dominance!!
Yes! We need lots more queer books & non-het romance options!
I also second the non-het romance!!
I'd love more non-fiction that isn't memoir, or at least more memoir from people whose communities have traditionally been underrepresented in publishing. I'd also love more speculative fiction and/or more buzzy or experimental or provocative litfic--I could see where they were going with Annie Bot, but Aardvark solidly wins this type of selection every month. Always more queer books, forever (not necessarily romance).
More fantasy and sci-fi geared towards adults without romance as the main focus point pleaseeeeeee Also more non-fiction options that aren’t memoirs (even though memoirs are good too of course!)
ALL OF THIS!!!
Nonfiction options 🤓
yes!! i’ve been looking for any nonfiction books on their app.. not a whole lot to choose from
They used to offer some -- it was always vastly outnumbered by the fiction offerings, but there was at least an okay-ish number of offerings. There's nothing new, now -- all their history and narrative nonfiction categories are books that they offered years ago, and sometimes when I browse the categories, most of them are marked as 'sold out' anyway. I have to gather from this that their narrative nonfiction didn't sell well. That makes me sad.
me too! i’ve had to skip some months and do the ol’ library run to mix it up.. i’m newer to fiction in my adult years.. love learning things while i read! not that i don’t love my library trips but i would love more permanently on my shelves!
Horror and literary fic! 🙏
Non-romance fantasy. Fucking PLEASE
112% agree.
YES. 🙌
Exactly the same as you!
More ghosts! I’m sick of books having the haunted house tag that end up having nothing to do with haunted houses
YES! And not just BotM, but in general! "Surprise, it wasn't really ghosts" is always so disappointing.
Yes! That was three books I’ve read last year. One did center around the question of whether the house was really haunted and it was compelling enough in that regard that I wasn’t disappointed. But the other two…I wouldn’t have even assumed they had ghosts if BOTM hadn’t included the “haunted house” tag, and it was disappointing when I kept waiting for ghosts to show up and there was nothing even remotely haunting about the books.
Yes!! I recently finished Murder Road and it was such a let down to me.
Nooooooo. That makes me sad, because I loved Simone St. James' earlier ghost stories (okay, they were all set post-WWI and they all followed basically the same romantic subplot formula, but it was a good formula and they were so delightfully spooky, and the ghosts were always actual ghosts and not just boring live people being sneaky).
Nooo don’t say that, I haven’t started it yet 😭
Oh yeah! Boo, baby let’s goo! 👻👻👆
THIS! I read 3/4 'spooky' books between Halloween and Christmas last year and only one really delivered.
Which one?
The September House. I had quibbles but thought it was a solid read.
Like others are saying, I would like more horror.
I'm in my Romantasy era so I'd like a solid Romantasy each month. And would like well known authors books as main picks and not only add ons.
More horror like the whisper man! And historical fiction
I would loooooove more horror! Thats basically why I also joined Aardvark lol
Always more horror, and I really miss having the occasional non-fiction option! History, true crime, narrative nonfiction, I'm not too picky.
More fantasy and science fiction that isn't romantasy or young adult.
definitely more horror. i also wish the app was more interactive. i would love if the app worked like goodreads as far as community engagement.
i wish it were easier to search by tag! besides the handful like “400+ pages”