The aim of this study is to show the pragmatic possibilities of toponyms in the implementation of an evaluative-characterizing function in the English-language literature in three most popular genres: romance, thriller, and detective story. The scientific originality of the work lies in conducting a comparative study of using toponyms in three literary genres and identifying their stylistic potential. As a result, it was revealed that toponyms that carry out the evaluative-characterizing function can be conditionally divided into 5 groups: toponyms, which give the socio-cultural characteristics of a character or scene of action, psychological characteristics, aesthetic, quantitative characteristics and characteristics of physical parameters.