What SF subgenre is Margaret Peterson Haddix?

I've been a big fan of Haddix since I read her Shadow Children series, but what impressed me most about her were the titles Escape from Memory, Double Identity, andTurnabout. They were unlike any kind of SF I'd ever read before. It wasn't about the science fiction. It read like contemporary fiction with one or two SF elements. The SF aspect set a simple challenge for the character, and then the character's job was to figure out their lives based on this challenge.

Ever since then, I've struggled to identify what niche these books occupied. It drives me crazy. Is it character-driven SF? Soft SF? Contemporary SF? Is there even such a genre, or am I making it all up?

What I've noticed is that this effect can be achieved outside of science fiction. It happens a lot in YA, like in Shiver, If I Stay, or I Heart You, You Haunt Me. The story focuses on the character's lives, and one of the conditions of their life is a SF or paranormal element.

I'm asking because this tends to be the kind of fiction I write, and the SF label tends to turn people off, even though once the read my work they like it and even comment it wasn't an average SF read.

There's got to be a good label for this.

-Feathers

You guys aren't helping

I used to go with slipstream, but that seems to have a horror overtone, so I started using soft SF. But that just sounds like any kind of SF not set in space...

I thought speculative meant it was a merge between SF and fantasy? But I think you have something there, about going broader. Especially since the 'niche' seems to happen in other genres outside SF.

Polenth said:

Speculative is an umbrella term for anything in the science fiction and fantasy genres (and any of the strange mixed genres inbetween). You're not really stating it's a particular sort of story when you call it speculative, other than having an element of the unreal. That unreal could be technology, magic or something else.

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The definition sounds right, but I've heard many definitions for speculative. I'll keep it in mind though. It's the closest thing so far. Thank you for your help

in YA
it's all okay.
Yay!

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Lol, then maybe I'm good? I write YA. People do seem a little less obsessed about getting the exact genre right if it's already YA.

AceTachyon said:

Make up your own genre.

Then come join The Genre Manglers.

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I have (contemporary SF ) And I so will!