So I got hooked on do overs a few years back after I found them here on SOL.
I tried searching it as a genre in mainstream literature and came up pretty empty.
There is a similar post to this on Reddit that had a few suggestions but I think they came to the same conclusion as me above...
Surely it's not THAT niche? Is it?
Do-overs might be something SOL came up with as a label.
In general I think other sites might use the reincarnation label if they have stories like that.
My Girls by unknown 1000u2 could be tagged a do-over story, but not listed as such.
According to ChatGTP:
This is an established science-fiction and fantasy premise, and there are several novels in which a person returns to an earlier point in their life while retaining the memories and knowledge of their older self.
The concept is often called time regression, life regression, or a second-chance time-travel story. The key distinction is that the character doesn't merely travel to the past in their adult body; they wake up in a younger body, with their adult mind and memories intact.
1. Replay — Ken Grimwood (1986)
A 43-year-old man dies and awakens in his 18-year-old body, remembering the next 25 years of his life. He uses that knowledge to make different choices, revisit relationships, and try to change his future. He repeatedly relives his life.
2. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August — Claire North (2014)
Harry is repeatedly reborn at the beginning of his own life, retaining the knowledge he acquired in previous lifetimes. Unlike Replay, he returns to infancy rather than waking up as a teenager.
3. The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin — P. D. Ouspensky (1915)
Ivan is given the opportunity to return to his childhood and live his life over. He remembers what happened before, but discovers that knowing his mistakes doesn't necessarily mean he can avoid repeating them.
What if the character enters someone else's younger body?
That is also a variation of the premise, although it differs slightly from returning to one's own body. In fantasy and speculative fiction, related concepts include reincarnation with retained memories, body transmigration, and possession of a younger self or another person.
1. Once in Every Life — Kristin Hannah (1992)
This is a particularly close match. Tess Gregory, a modern-day research scientist, dies and begins a new life in post–Civil War America in the body of Amarylis Rafferty, a woman who is already a wife and mother. Tess retains her own knowledge and memories.
2. The Star Kings — Edmond Hamilton (1949)
John Gordon, a twentieth-century man, has his consciousness transferred into the body of Prince Zarth Arn in the distant future. He retains his own identity and memories while inhabiting another person's body. (this one travels to the future rather than the past)
3. Calculated Risk — Charles Eric Maine (1960)
This novel explores a form of psychological time travel in which a person's mind can be sent through time to take over another person's brain and body.
It's possible that unknown1000u2's My Girls trilogy was posted before the do-over code was implemented, and the author never bothered to update it.
Before the DoOver tag was introduced here, do-overs were tagged as Time Travel (not a tag exclusive to do-overs). I have seen (years ago now) a listing of Do-Overs, this was likely on the defunct ASSTR. Try searching the web for a couple of the older do-overs by exact match names (for Google, enclose each name in double quotes); it's likely that if you find a page with a couple of known do-overs listed that there will be others too, likely including ones new-to-you; you may even find the page I'm remembering. It was a section of a page listing many Time Travel stories.
SOL erected the tag 'isekai', which previously would have been covered by the 'do-over' umbrella.
Does that term exist in mainstream literature?
AJ
Does that term exist in mainstream literature?
It depends on what you mean by 'mainstream'.
Isekai (異世界 — 'different world') started in Japanese folktales. See, e.g., Urashima Tarō (浦島 太郎) from around the 14th/15th century. It was made into some of the first-ever anime in the early 1900s.
The first modern Japanese isekai story is considered to be Warrior from Another World by Takachiho Haruka (高千穂 遙) from 1979.
It depends on what you mean by 'mainstream'.
Is it something you could search for on 'the river', for example?
AJ
Is it something you could search for on 'the river', for example?
Yep, with 20,000+ results.
SOL erected the tag 'isekai', which previously would have been covered by the 'do-over' umbrella
.
Isekai should not be used for do-over.
Cmsix stories like nano-virus are isekai. The protagonist is transported to another world. They're not redoing their life. They're living a new life in a new world.
That's why I added isekai.
SOL erected the tag 'isekai', which previously would have been covered by the 'do-over' umbrella.
Hmm, I think it would more accurately fall under either straight "Sci Fi" or "Fantasy".
Isekai is traveling to another world. Now traditionally it has been to either a fantasy world (think "The Familiar of Zero"), or into a powerful being from the past or a mythological past (returning as Miyamoto Musashi in the Tokugawa shogunate). The trope as far as I know does not have them repeating their own lives as they were before the change.
I can't think of a single isekai story that would be do-over.
I can't think of a single isekai story that would be do-over.
It depends what you mean by do-over.
Human dies, is resurrected in another universe and gets to live another life. I think that fits under the do-over umbrella, even though the protagonist is living a different life rather than reliving the same one. I also know many here, including management, disagree with me.
AJ
Human dies, is resurrected in another universe and gets to live another life.
As I understand it, Isekai does not strictly require death and resurrection.
So even with your broader definition of do-over, there is not a complete overlap between isekai and do-overs.
Core tags for "reliving your life"
These are the most common across English‑language fiction:
Do‑Over
Used heavily on StoriesOnline.
Means the protagonist goes back to an earlier point in their own life.
Usually memory retention.
Tone varies from slice‑of‑life to wish‑fulfillment.
Regressor
Borrowed from Korean webnovels (회귀자).
Implies the protagonist lived through the timeline once already and returns with memories.
Often darker or more serious than "do‑over."
Second Chance
Broad, softer tag.
Includes do‑overs, regressors, reincarnation, or even metaphorical second chances.
Good for general audiences.
Time Loop / Looping
Character repeats a period of time.
Not always a full-life reset.
Often includes memory accumulation.
Thanks all for your responses. Yes big fan of isekai novels on ku but do-overs here started it and it's a seperate genre (similar though). I don't like time loop stories AT ALL. I'll have to look into those regressor tags mentioned above and I'll look into the time travel tagged stories here too... Thanks.
I tried searching it as a genre in mainstream literature and came up pretty empty.
I am a voracious reader, and to be honest can only think of one.
"Replay", a 1987 novel by Ken Grimwood. I read it when it first came out, and absolutely loved it. But it is not like the do-overs normally found in here, and more like Groundhog Day. Where a 43 year old man dies, and wakes up when he is 18. Lives his life again, and at the exact same moment when he is again 43 dies and it repeats.
And I want to say on the 3rd or 4th repeat realizes that he is restarting later and later each time.
It is recognized as being the originator of the trope, having been written over six years before "Groundhog Day".
I admit, I did enjoy the first variations I read on SOL, but they soon grew boring as most were literally just "have a sucky life, get reborn and have a perfect life".
I guess that is one of the inspirations behind one I wrote which is kind of an "Anti-do-over story".
most were literally just "have a sucky life, get reborn and have a perfect life".
I'm reading one now called "Why Didn't I Just…" by Openbook. It's not that typical do-over because there's an entity that sent him back that is controlling what he can and cannot do. He cannot do anything that will have major consequences this time around.
I hate the way it is written. I'm a "show don't tell" guy and this story is all telling. But it's an interesting story so I'm still reading.
ETA: I just read a conversation between the entity and the do-over character who went back in time. Talk about being relevant. This is part of what the entity says to the character:
"Unlike you, I have to accept that some things aren't possible, given other, more important, constraints. There is a big picture, Jimmy, and someone has to see what it is, and keep it intact."