Need help with today's NYT Strand? Today's theme, “It's lit! - is seemingly different from.

Below are some helpful hints and what-if answers for Strand #289. First, a few hints will lead you to the full solution for Strand #289.

WARNING: There are spoilers for Strand #289.

The official theme for NYT Strands #289 is... “I'm on fire!”

And here's an unofficial hint from me: “What's on your bookshelf?

If you're still in the dark, here are a few useful words that will give you valuable hint tokens:

Still struggling? Spangram gives you a hint on conjunctions. Today it starts with 'F' and ends with 'E'.

Scroll down to see what it is.

FICTIONGENRE.

Now, what's the answer to the strand in today's game #289?

Drumroll please.

... Spangram was FICTIONGENRE.

Strand #289

“It's lit!”

💡

🔵🔵

Hello Strand fans! On the subject of today's puzzle of cunning, I thought I would hopelessly go off the deep end. Now that I am middle-aged, the current slang meaning of “lit” is only loosely familiar to me, and I have no intention of modifying it anytime soon.

Thankfully, that was not what it meant, nor was it my second thought about illumination; it was only when I unraveled CRIME using clues that I realized it was an abbreviation for “literature.”

I found FANTASY to its right, confirming that this was about the genre of the book, and sure enough, I found the spangram of FICTIONGENRE twisted in the middle of the grid.

Then I found ROMANCE in the upper left corner and went back to the bottom of the board to complete it with HISTORICAL. This left WESTERN in the upper right corner, completing the puzzle.

Are you reading this late in the day? You can read the full article about Strand's solution to yesterday's game #288 here.