Claire Fuller Recommends Rumaan Alam, Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Others
This article was first published in Lithub on June 9, 2023
Dystopian mysteries or mysterious dystopian novels are mash-ups of two of my favorite genres – especially if you add a dash of literary. And there are surprisingly few around. In September 2019 I thought it would be a good idea to write a dystopian novel about five clinical drug trial volunteers—strangers to each other—stuck inside a London clinic while a deadly pandemic sweeps the world.
In January, February and March 2020, I wasn’t so sure it had been such a good idea, but by then I was some 30,000 words into the novel, and after a short hiatus I continued writing. When I’d finished the first draft, two years or so later, I realized what I’d written was really a locked room mystery rather than a pandemic novel, although I’m okay with readers slotting it into the latter genre.
For me, reading (and writing) pandemic fiction is a safe way of catastrophizing. What’s the absolute worst that can happen? When I know that, then whatever I’m facing is usually not so bad.
And for me, writing novels with a mystery element is what happens during the drafting process, in fact usually I set out thinking, This time, don’t write a mystery! but then it appears once again. My favorite mysteries are ones which don’t provide all the answers but have the reader do some of the work to fill in the gaps, making me have to consider what happens to the characters after I have closed the last page.
So, here is a list of this seemingly limited genre: Mysterian? Dystopery? If you can think of a better title or any more novels that fit the criteria, please let me know.
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