Top 5 Wednesday- Genre Benders

This week's Top 5 Wednesday topic is Genre Benders, so here are my favorite books that fit into multiple genres or are difficult to place in a genre. 

1. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

This book is first and foremost a romance, but it has a lot of science fiction elements- one of the main characters is a time traveler. His ability to time travel doesn't come from a machine, but from a genetic disorder called Chrono-Displacement. He works with a geneticist to figure out how to stop his random displacements into other times and places. 

2. Different Seasons by Stephen King

This is a book of four novellas- Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption; Apt Pupil; The Body; and  The Breathing Method. Three of these novellas have been made into movies- Shawshank Redemption starring Morgan Freeman, Apt Pupil starring Ian McKellen, and Stand By Me starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, and Kiefer Sutherland. It's no big deal, really. Unlike most of Stephen King's books, this one doesn't focus so heavily on the supernatural. But it does contain horror, the narrative of an escape from prison, and one of the most amazing coming-of-age stories ever. 

3. Derby Girl by Shauna Cross

Holy crap, guys. I'm telling you, this book was made specifically for 15-year-old me. It's legitimately the sassiest book I've ever read, and it's a very believable coming-of-age story wrapped up in a sort of ~alternative~ sports novel about a girl who finds herself by playing roller derby. 

4. The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

There are people out there who will judge me for this, but I literally could not care less. This book is another coming-of-age story (weird how all of my favorite books are coming-of-age stories when I just recently came of age. Huh.) but it's also an epistolary novel, which means that it's narrated through letters, kind of like those Dear America books that literally every girl except for me read in elementary school. And it's awesome.

5. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

I feel like this series just belongs on every list because it is so amazing and versatile. Harry Potter is, of course, primarily a YA Fantasy but it is also a coming-of-age story and it has elements of horror (I seriously scream every time I watch #6 and the Inferi attack in the cave...) and of course there's romance because no teen novel is complete without drama driven by hormones.