A quick question regarding Genre

[Slapdaddy]

Newbie here so hope this is posted in the right place.
Anyway,
If a story revolves around a fake fantasy element (for example, a group of kids pulling a complex hoax and convincing classmates they are werewolves/possessed/whatever), but nothing actually fantastical going on...same old world and same old people... is it considered fantasy? And if not, what?
Thanx in advance,
Eddie

[Sebastian]

Is the story funny? Scary? Dramatic? Is it an obvious fakery? Are they doing it to conceal a crime?
Is there romance?

[Slapdaddy]

The story has an action / adventure feel with heavy fantasy / mythological overtones. there might be some humor and there will be a romance line but that is definitely secondary in the story. I foresee it being kind of dark. (actually, now that I think about it there will be at least 2 scenes that will have fairly nasty deaths)
To the reader it is an obvious fakery but not to the characters who are being lied to.

[Starbeam]

Sounds possibly more along the lines of YA than genre.

[Kali]

It's YA if the kids are elevated above the adults (i.e., the adults are incompetent and/or clueless while the kids are smart and knowledgeable), and the plotline is kept relatively simple, and if the story is focused on the kids as main characters.

For example, The Crucible is about kids pulling off a hoax and the adults are incompetent and gullible (for various reasons) but the focus is on the trial, the consequences, and the outcomes.  If you did a re-imagining of the story which followed the girls through planning sessions and talking about how they were going to get away with it and about how it was getting out of control and one girl broke free from the pack to try and stop things, then it'd be YA.

[Slapdaddy]

 I never even considered YA. Interesting.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Sounds possibly more along the lines of YA than genre.

YA is a genre.

[Starbeam]

YA is a genre.

Yeah; I just tend to differentiate because YA encompasses everything and isn't broken down into different genres of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, fiction, thriller, etc, like adult fiction tends to be.  Although that does tend to vary from store to store.

[Kris_W]

Genre could easily be called 'Audience' or 'Sales Target'. It is really more important to marketing, rather than writing. As your story is about Young Adults you might be aiming at the YA audience. However, oddly enough, authors of almost all of the best selling YA novels do not claim to be writing for that group.

Bottom line - Write the book you need to write and don't worry about genre until you have the book finished, polished and ready to send to an agent. 

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Bottom line - Write the book you need to write and don't worry about genre until you have the book finished, polished and ready to send to an agent. 

..sort of.

To the extent that, well, if you are thinking it might be nice to sell to younger age groups at all, it's probably worth not having explicit sex or too much of a downer ending in there.

[Slapdaddy]

Bottom line - Write the book you need to write and don't worry about genre until you have the book finished, polished and ready to send to an agent. 

Sound advice...thanks all

[Sebastian]

The story has an action / adventure feel with heavy fantasy / mythological overtones. there might be some humor and there will be a romance line but that is definitely secondary in the story. I foresee it being kind of dark. (actually, now that I think about it there will be at least 2 scenes that will have fairly nasty deaths)
To the reader it is an obvious fakery but not to the characters who are being lied to.

Then probably horror, since that's the main bit.