Books that lack any sort of subtlety at what it’s trying to convey/tell but it actually works very well.
Just an example of “on the nose” would be a modern retelling of the Iliad with a character named Achilles, throwing any doubt out the window that it is.
Or just overarching themes that the author beats you over the head with, but it works.
by NurplePain
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Babel by R.F. Kuang really beats you over the head with themes of colonialism/racism. It’s pretty much the entire book and there’s no way someone reads it and doesn’t see how in your face it is. R.F. Kuang even has footnotes in the book about real historical events/figures that really hammer home what she’s trying to say. I think it works very, very well though! Babel is one of my favorite books and I think these elements really elevated the type of story it set out to be.
Whether something works well comes down to personal opinion, so I can’t guarantee you will feel the same way I do, but here are some I thought were ham-fisted but still good:
* And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin. A post apocalyptic zombie apocalypse novella about political division between people.
* Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder. Feminist Lovecraftian horror.
* The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir. Complete with names based on where characters are from and what purpose they serve in the narrative. The leader of the evil empire is called “The Necrolord Prime,” lol, you don’t get much more on the nose than that. But I think these are well done, the author is able to write in many drastically different styles to show different locations, which you’ll see when you go from book 1 to book 2.
* There is a modern telling of the Iliad, but I haven’t read it, Ilium by Dan Simmons.
* A lot of renowned classics are really on the nose. Like for example, Animal Farm by George Orwell, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Out of those three, I’d say Animal Farm and The Handmaid’s Tale work best.