Science Fiction
This novel, written in the early 1990s, is set in the years 2024-2027: you know, the future. That helps define the book as science fiction. But really, there's not all that much in the book that's implausible. Countries do collapse, societies do fall apart, and hometowns do burn down. We hope none of that happens, of course, but it is possible. And as for how near 2024-2027 is to today's date, check out our discussion of near-future sci-fi in our "Setting" section.
Perhaps the one thing in the novel that's not something real is Lauren's hyperempathy syndrome. Sure, some people are more sensitive than others, and maybe that's a trait that a mother abusing drugs during pregnancy can pass on to her child. But we've never heard of anything as far out as Lauren's syndrome, which is so intense that she describes the pain and pleasure she feels from witnessing others' emotions as a delusion.
Yeah, we're not entirely sure what's up with that, and sometimes it seems that Lauren herself doesn't know. Neither does Grayson Mora, really, or any of the other sharers Lauren's Earthseed crew comes across.
Here's another interesting fact about the genre of this novel. It's set in the real world, on Earth as we know it. California, I-5, Highway 101? Those are all real-world places. It's not set on some strange foreign planet light years away. It's really close to home in a way that a lot of sci-fi just isn't— and that seems to make the book have extra impact on people who aren't usually science fiction readers.