As it’s getting close to the 3rd anniversary of the website, I’ve been looking at how I can update the main pages and improve any long-standing issues with some of the sub-genres.
FANTASY
This is something I’ve been looking forward to adding for a while. In addition to the existing sub-genres of ‘Higher Fantasy’, ‘Lower Fantasy’, and ‘Crossover Fantasy’ a new section has been created:
- Dark Fantasy – stories either told from the perspective of an anti-hero or that feature strong horror elements.
THRILLER
Previously this page was very messy with two of its three sub-genres heavily overlapping with other pages in the Lair. The newly renamed HORROR/THRILLER page has been completely revamped to create more focused sections:
- Suspense – stories that use suspense to build tension.
- The Unexplained – stories with strong elements of the mysterious/unexplained phenomena.
- Hauntings – stories that features hauntings, ghosts or the paranormal.
DRAMA
The page in the biggest need of help was the ‘Drama’ page. Due to being such as large genre, a lot of reviews ended up on this page simply because I needed an secondary category to place then under. As a result three of the five sub-categories were actually just duplications of other pages.
Although ‘Mystery/Crime’, ‘Historical/Period’, and ‘Romance’ are recognised drama sub-genres, these sections have now been completely removed from the ‘Drama’ page. All of the reviews previously in these sections still appear on their own main pages of ‘Crime’, ‘Historical’ and ‘Romance’.
The ‘High Octane’ sub-category had similar issues and heavily overlapped with areas of the ‘Action’ and ‘Thriller’ pages. This section has now been reworked and transformed into two sections:
- High Stakes Drama – stories that involve high-risk or serious situations that the protagonist must navigate/resolve.
- Family Drama – stories with strong themes of family bonds and conflict.
(Special mention to the ‘Teen Drama’ sub-genre for being the only section to survive the revamp of this page!)
ACTION/ADVENTURE
As well as overlapping issues already discussed, the previous sub-genres of ‘Action’, ‘Adventure’ and ‘Action & Adventure’ were quite bland. Therefore the ‘Action/Adventure’ page has been changed to feature four brand new sub-genres:
- High Energy Action Thriller – stories that feature prominent action sequences and high speed chases/events.
- Quest – stories where the protagonist willingly undertakes an important mission with a clear goal.
- An Unexpected Journey – stories where an unprepared protagonist must complete an unexpected mission/journey.
- Pulse Racing – stories that feature elements of both the action and adventure genres with ‘edge of your seat’ moments and plotlines.
Lair of Reviews 