I fucking hate that Romantasy has become such a big thing. I go into the fantasy section of the bookstore and only find romance shit now. I swear the back-flap description of every single fantasy book at the last bookstore I went to talked about how the protagonist would have to come to terms with her feelings for some man she shouldn’t be with.
As someone who likes the genre I’m just really happy there’s so much content being made. Yea some of it is slop trying to recapture the fad of ACOTAR (the book pictured), but some of the stuff coming out of it is really good. Also, because of this, there’s more romance in a lot of genres that didn’t have much before (looking at you sci-fi).
Personally, I love love and reading romance brings me joy. Some of these books are cringy teen angst with unrealistic and toxic relationships (mainly the YA side), but I’ve found that most I’ve picked up have healthy relationships with interesting plots that don’t revolve around just the romance.
That said, pure romance books (the pastel section of the store) have burned me too many times for me to bother trying anymore. Almost everything that this post complains about but 1000%.
Ngl, this post reminds me of the backlash that seems to follow anything coded for women that becomes really popular.
When I watched the movie, I turned every line spoken by a vampire into a pickup line and it became fun again, but you shouldn’t have to play games like that with your literature. Or cinema.
The whole “imprinting on a baby” thing I heard about, that really skeezed me out
I honestly really liked the book series. It got popular to shit on the series for being fucked up, but the guys in my group changed their tune when I asked them to read the gender-swapped version of the first book. “Naw, I get it now” was basically a universal sentiment.
that’s fair. i’m not in the target demo. most of my making fun of it over the years has been because she had a bad editor, frankly. there’s a lot of stuff that slipped through that should not have.
100% all of this! I used to hate romance novels back in the day. To me it was all boring nonsense with beefy long haired men on the cover. When romantasy became popular, more genres started breaking into the romance sub-genre. I realized that the reason I hated romance novels was because I don’t like reading contemporary fiction and that’s what the vast majority of romance used to be. I’m a total scifi girlie. I’ve watched scifi shows and movies my whole life. I prefer scifi over all other genres, scifi is and always has been my jam.
I picked up Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik on a whim as a blind date book and fell completely in love with scifi romance. I read all of the Starlight’s Shadow and Consortium Rebellion by Kit Rocha trilogies, then I read the Mercenary Librarians trilogy (more dystopian). I’ve never stopped reading, but finding scifi romance reinvigorated my love of stories and books. I get all of my space opera scifi adventures and a good romance story to go with it. I’m extremely happy that the romance genre has broken out of just contemporary and historical fiction. I can walk into the local romance bookshop and find something that hits all the buttons and brings me joy to read. Scifi romance is my jam!
Ngl, this post reminds me of the backlash that seems to follow anything coded for women that becomes really popular
It does feel this way doesn’t it? I remember talking to a guy who said romance novels trashy and worthless with no storyline, therefore it’s a useless genre and women who read it are brainless. This came from a mid 40 year old man who hasn’t read a book since high school. Romance is the best selling genre and has helped keep authors and the publishing industry afloat, but women like it, so it has to be bad.
Romance isn’t quite my jam (I prefer it to be the B plot to a good A plot, rather than the inverse), but sci fi and fantasy romance stories are much more to my tastes than the old school stuff because I too can’t stand contemporary fiction.
And yeah I’m of mixed feelings on it. The backlash is real and feels very misogynistic, but also real is the slop and ravenous fan bases. But I can’t judge, I prefer to read queer speculative fiction, and it’s absolutely no better. In general I’d really just like a lot of these authors to consume something not deeply entiwined with fanfic and to step outside fanfic tags. A heavy fanfic influence can go awesome, Tamsyn Muir is one of my favorite authors, but a lot of authors that came up in fanfic could really use ths range to move beyond it as well.
And beyond that, I’ve seen pulp readers judge romantasy and that’s funny. For all my criticisms of romantasy, pulp is worse. And even the so called golden age of sci fi had so much garbage. We remember the Dune and the Clarke and the Asimov and the LeGuinn, but a) for each one worth remembering there’s a lot that isn’t and b) (personal opinion) modern authors do a better job of making books easier to get into. Like I love LeGuinn, The Left Hand of Darkness is an all time classic, but it absolutely is throwing a lot at you without hooking you in until well into the book.
I worked at a library when I was a teen and I just remember all the romance novels looked the same, same storyline, same character types, just all the same stuff. Which is totally fine if that’s your thing, but it definitely is not my thing. When I first read Hunt the Stars, it showed me that romance isn’t all the same, that you can get good science fiction within a love story. I don’t read exclusively scifi romance, but it gets it my rotation fairly often now. I still do read primarily scifi though.
The backlash is real and feels misogynistic, but also real is the slop and ravenous fan bases
I totally get this. I’ve heard the Fourth Wing fan base gets crazy and the romantasy fan base in general is bad. I’ve heard of the drama in BookTok spaces and I want nothing to do with it. This is why I avoid pretty much all big fan bases of anything I truly enjoy, there’s always someone who will ruin it for me.
And beyond that, I’ve seen pulp readers judge romantasy and that’s funny. For all my criticisms of romantasy, pulp is worse
I never got why people get so judgy on what a person reads, criticism is ok, but some folks can get nasty. I’ve had people make snarky remarks on my love of scifi I’ve heard someone refer to superhero stuff as “stupid nerd shit”. I’ve even heard someone criticize people who don’t enjoy romance because “those people have no heart or soul”. Idgaf what someone reads as long as they read. It may not be for me, but just pick up a damn book!
Ooh, thanks for the recommendations! I haven’t read any of those yet.
I love scifi but have always struggled as some, especially some of the classic scifi authors, seem to write women pretty strangely.
Just takes me out of it. My favorite scifi book recently has been Moonbound (not romance, just a great book IMO).
My current scifi/romance read is The Veridian Priestess. A little explicit, but it gives dune/chronicles of riddick vibes with a heavy space religion plot. For me it’s also a local author which is always cool. I also have heard really good things about “Of Monsters and Mainframes”.
But yea, kinda sucks how some people view it. As a guy I’ve gotten a few sideyes from other men, but I’ve also had the occasional guy who also likes it. Bit of a mixed bag.
Honestly I have more of a complex over not reading ‘proper literature’, but I decided a while back that it’s better to read for fun than to not read at all.
Edit: While we’re talking about shitty books, behold the worst book I’ve ever read 3/4’s of:
He Who Fights With Monsters.
Had a friend swear up and down it was incredible, ended up sending him a mini dissertation on how unbelievably bad it was. Didn’t realize it started as a Wattpad story when I read it. 😬
You’re welcome for the recs! Jessie Mihalik is one of my favorite authors now, I loved the Consortium Rebellion trilogy. I picked up Of Monsters and Mayhem at the last local book crawl, I may have to read it sooner now!
Classic scifi can be hit or miss. I actually haven’t read much of the classic authors, although I have some in my collection to get through eventually. I read Stowaway to Mars by John Wyndham as a blind book date and it wasn’t a bad book, but man the woman was very very poorly written.
It sucks you get a side eye for reading books you enjoy. I don’t think anyone should be shamed for reading anything. Even if it’s a genre I don’t like, I still ask questions when someone does enjoy something. One of my colleagues is a big biography reader, which I am most certainly not, but I still enjoy chatting about who she is reading about and she likes hearing about my dorky scifi books lol
I’m going to add all your books to my library list! Thanks again!
I will say, mixing in some books with more depth outside the romance genre every few books can be good for you and very enjoyable. Just like something like a Hugo winner (A Memory Called Empire was great) or something widely acclaimed (I’ll always recommend Tamsyn Muir and Brandon Sanderson) or even a classic (LeGuinn is awesome).
Yeah the classic sci fi authors absolutely wrote women terribly, I’m dreading starting Dune despite knowing I’ll like it for that reason.
Ngl, this post reminds me of the backlash that seems to follow anything coded for women that becomes really popular.
I don’t fucking hate that romantasy is being made, just that the percentage of fantasy that is centered on anything other than love is so low I have a hard time finding anything new I like. Just like I’m sure you were frustrated that your only option for romance was from the ripped bodice section and wanted more branching out. I’m upset that the fantasy genre has swung so hard. I’ve read fantasy books that were pretty decent that had romance as a large section, but most of the time it’s either men writing women badly or writing wish fulfillment porn, or women writing toxic and/or angsty shit.
If you want a recommendation of what NOT to read when choosing new romantasy, avoid the Clocktaur set of books. Not only is the romance both angsty AND toxic, but the author switches between first and third person while also switching who the first person character is mid-chapter. Also, all of the characters constantly pinch their noses in consternation. It was really promising world building ruined by bad writing. A much better romantasy set of books was the Shepherd King set (One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns). It isn’t great, but the romance part was better written, and the magic system was very unique and interesting.
I have so many small book stores around me that all stock the exact same romantasy/fantasy/teen-fantasy catalog. I don’t mind that it’s there, but it bums me out that there isn’t any bookspace ever dedicated to the non-fiction stuff I’m actually interested in. If there is, it’s usually a single shelf of not very good over priced something or other off the New York Times best seller list.
Multiple local bookshops by me had to resort their shelves just to create a new “romantasy” section because otherwise the fantasy section was inundated.
I fucking hate that Romantasy has become such a big thing. I go into the fantasy section of the bookstore and only find romance shit now. I swear the back-flap description of every single fantasy book at the last bookstore I went to talked about how the protagonist would have to come to terms with her feelings for some man she shouldn’t be with.
As someone who likes the genre I’m just really happy there’s so much content being made. Yea some of it is slop trying to recapture the fad of ACOTAR (the book pictured), but some of the stuff coming out of it is really good. Also, because of this, there’s more romance in a lot of genres that didn’t have much before (looking at you sci-fi).
Personally, I love love and reading romance brings me joy. Some of these books are cringy teen angst with unrealistic and toxic relationships (mainly the YA side), but I’ve found that most I’ve picked up have healthy relationships with interesting plots that don’t revolve around just the romance.
That said, pure romance books (the pastel section of the store) have burned me too many times for me to bother trying anymore. Almost everything that this post complains about but 1000%.
Ngl, this post reminds me of the backlash that seems to follow anything coded for women that becomes really popular.
i dunno. twilight was really bad
Now come on, if you stick to reading it out of principle it sorta turns into X-Men and that’s ok with me.
When I watched the movie, I turned every line spoken by a vampire into a pickup line and it became fun again, but you shouldn’t have to play games like that with your literature. Or cinema.
The whole “imprinting on a baby” thing I heard about, that really skeezed me out
But that baby is named with a portmanteau of the grandma names! It’s so carefully thought out! /s
it’s very illustrative of the culture the author comes from.
I worked at borders when the last book in the 4 part series came out. Manager told me to read it. So I speed read the first two
The only part I liked was the use of blank chapters to represent the passage of time during depression
The rest was so dullllll
I don’t know if xmen in the 4th book would have saved me
I honestly really liked the book series. It got popular to shit on the series for being fucked up, but the guys in my group changed their tune when I asked them to read the gender-swapped version of the first book. “Naw, I get it now” was basically a universal sentiment.
that’s fair. i’m not in the target demo. most of my making fun of it over the years has been because she had a bad editor, frankly. there’s a lot of stuff that slipped through that should not have.
100% all of this! I used to hate romance novels back in the day. To me it was all boring nonsense with beefy long haired men on the cover. When romantasy became popular, more genres started breaking into the romance sub-genre. I realized that the reason I hated romance novels was because I don’t like reading contemporary fiction and that’s what the vast majority of romance used to be. I’m a total scifi girlie. I’ve watched scifi shows and movies my whole life. I prefer scifi over all other genres, scifi is and always has been my jam.
I picked up Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik on a whim as a blind date book and fell completely in love with scifi romance. I read all of the Starlight’s Shadow and Consortium Rebellion by Kit Rocha trilogies, then I read the Mercenary Librarians trilogy (more dystopian). I’ve never stopped reading, but finding scifi romance reinvigorated my love of stories and books. I get all of my space opera scifi adventures and a good romance story to go with it. I’m extremely happy that the romance genre has broken out of just contemporary and historical fiction. I can walk into the local romance bookshop and find something that hits all the buttons and brings me joy to read. Scifi romance is my jam!
It does feel this way doesn’t it? I remember talking to a guy who said romance novels trashy and worthless with no storyline, therefore it’s a useless genre and women who read it are brainless. This came from a mid 40 year old man who hasn’t read a book since high school. Romance is the best selling genre and has helped keep authors and the publishing industry afloat, but women like it, so it has to be bad.
Romance isn’t quite my jam (I prefer it to be the B plot to a good A plot, rather than the inverse), but sci fi and fantasy romance stories are much more to my tastes than the old school stuff because I too can’t stand contemporary fiction.
And yeah I’m of mixed feelings on it. The backlash is real and feels very misogynistic, but also real is the slop and ravenous fan bases. But I can’t judge, I prefer to read queer speculative fiction, and it’s absolutely no better. In general I’d really just like a lot of these authors to consume something not deeply entiwined with fanfic and to step outside fanfic tags. A heavy fanfic influence can go awesome, Tamsyn Muir is one of my favorite authors, but a lot of authors that came up in fanfic could really use ths range to move beyond it as well.
And beyond that, I’ve seen pulp readers judge romantasy and that’s funny. For all my criticisms of romantasy, pulp is worse. And even the so called golden age of sci fi had so much garbage. We remember the Dune and the Clarke and the Asimov and the LeGuinn, but a) for each one worth remembering there’s a lot that isn’t and b) (personal opinion) modern authors do a better job of making books easier to get into. Like I love LeGuinn, The Left Hand of Darkness is an all time classic, but it absolutely is throwing a lot at you without hooking you in until well into the book.
I worked at a library when I was a teen and I just remember all the romance novels looked the same, same storyline, same character types, just all the same stuff. Which is totally fine if that’s your thing, but it definitely is not my thing. When I first read Hunt the Stars, it showed me that romance isn’t all the same, that you can get good science fiction within a love story. I don’t read exclusively scifi romance, but it gets it my rotation fairly often now. I still do read primarily scifi though.
I totally get this. I’ve heard the Fourth Wing fan base gets crazy and the romantasy fan base in general is bad. I’ve heard of the drama in BookTok spaces and I want nothing to do with it. This is why I avoid pretty much all big fan bases of anything I truly enjoy, there’s always someone who will ruin it for me.
I never got why people get so judgy on what a person reads, criticism is ok, but some folks can get nasty. I’ve had people make snarky remarks on my love of scifi I’ve heard someone refer to superhero stuff as “stupid nerd shit”. I’ve even heard someone criticize people who don’t enjoy romance because “those people have no heart or soul”. Idgaf what someone reads as long as they read. It may not be for me, but just pick up a damn book!
Ooh, thanks for the recommendations! I haven’t read any of those yet.
I love scifi but have always struggled as some, especially some of the classic scifi authors, seem to write women pretty strangely. Just takes me out of it. My favorite scifi book recently has been Moonbound (not romance, just a great book IMO).
My current scifi/romance read is The Veridian Priestess. A little explicit, but it gives dune/chronicles of riddick vibes with a heavy space religion plot. For me it’s also a local author which is always cool. I also have heard really good things about “Of Monsters and Mainframes”. But yea, kinda sucks how some people view it. As a guy I’ve gotten a few sideyes from other men, but I’ve also had the occasional guy who also likes it. Bit of a mixed bag.
Honestly I have more of a complex over not reading ‘proper literature’, but I decided a while back that it’s better to read for fun than to not read at all.
Edit: While we’re talking about shitty books, behold the worst book I’ve ever read 3/4’s of: He Who Fights With Monsters.
Had a friend swear up and down it was incredible, ended up sending him a mini dissertation on how unbelievably bad it was. Didn’t realize it started as a Wattpad story when I read it. 😬
You’re welcome for the recs! Jessie Mihalik is one of my favorite authors now, I loved the Consortium Rebellion trilogy. I picked up Of Monsters and Mayhem at the last local book crawl, I may have to read it sooner now!
Classic scifi can be hit or miss. I actually haven’t read much of the classic authors, although I have some in my collection to get through eventually. I read Stowaway to Mars by John Wyndham as a blind book date and it wasn’t a bad book, but man the woman was very very poorly written.
It sucks you get a side eye for reading books you enjoy. I don’t think anyone should be shamed for reading anything. Even if it’s a genre I don’t like, I still ask questions when someone does enjoy something. One of my colleagues is a big biography reader, which I am most certainly not, but I still enjoy chatting about who she is reading about and she likes hearing about my dorky scifi books lol
I’m going to add all your books to my library list! Thanks again!
I will say, mixing in some books with more depth outside the romance genre every few books can be good for you and very enjoyable. Just like something like a Hugo winner (A Memory Called Empire was great) or something widely acclaimed (I’ll always recommend Tamsyn Muir and Brandon Sanderson) or even a classic (LeGuinn is awesome).
Yeah the classic sci fi authors absolutely wrote women terribly, I’m dreading starting Dune despite knowing I’ll like it for that reason.
That said, yeah reading at all is better than not
I don’t fucking hate that romantasy is being made, just that the percentage of fantasy that is centered on anything other than love is so low I have a hard time finding anything new I like. Just like I’m sure you were frustrated that your only option for romance was from the ripped bodice section and wanted more branching out. I’m upset that the fantasy genre has swung so hard. I’ve read fantasy books that were pretty decent that had romance as a large section, but most of the time it’s either men writing women badly or writing wish fulfillment porn, or women writing toxic and/or angsty shit.
If you want a recommendation of what NOT to read when choosing new romantasy, avoid the Clocktaur set of books. Not only is the romance both angsty AND toxic, but the author switches between first and third person while also switching who the first person character is mid-chapter. Also, all of the characters constantly pinch their noses in consternation. It was really promising world building ruined by bad writing. A much better romantasy set of books was the Shepherd King set (One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns). It isn’t great, but the romance part was better written, and the magic system was very unique and interesting.
it’s huge because real life romance is collapsing as people prefer imaginary romance.
the problem in real life is that if you are with someone you shouldn’t be with, there are usually real negative consequences in your life.
A lot of romance was like Pirates and shit. It’s not like it was ever really particularly grounded.
I also hate this trend. I’ve been reading a ton of SciFi the last few years because I fucking hate romantasy.
I don’t mind love being part of a storyline either. But there’s a huge difference between love as part of the story and fucking romantasy.
I have so many small book stores around me that all stock the exact same romantasy/fantasy/teen-fantasy catalog. I don’t mind that it’s there, but it bums me out that there isn’t any bookspace ever dedicated to the non-fiction stuff I’m actually interested in. If there is, it’s usually a single shelf of not very good over priced something or other off the New York Times best seller list.
I mean… there was romantasy before (for example the Rhodry and Nevin books, something Spell) but not nearly as vapid.
Edit Daggerspell, that’s it. Katharine Kerr.
Multiple local bookshops by me had to resort their shelves just to create a new “romantasy” section because otherwise the fantasy section was inundated.