Week 8: Special Topics Paper
Covid-19, BookTok, and the Rise of Romantasy
.png)
I have yet to get into romantasy, but I know it is extremely popular on TikTok/BookTok/Instagram reels, and I wondered what that was all about. I'm glad I chose this topic because there were a lot of recent articles about romance and romantasy and the power of social media in promoting these titles.
I focused on 3 reasons that romantasy has exploded and continued to have such a hold over readers:
- The Covid-19 pandemic left a lot of people with the desire to read to escape. Are you going to read a mundane office drama when you can't even go to your own office and the news brings you terrible anxiety? NO! Readers were wanting something that was comforting and predictable- romance- but also something that could provide an escape- fantasy. What sets romantasy apart though is that there are fantastical worlds and romance combined, often with the familiarity of the romance plot helping to break up the world building and lore of the fantasy plots!
- While this genre really exploded during Covid, BookTok helped to keep this genre and its most popular titles in the limelight. Readers promote titles often by talking about how they made them feel and viewers really latched onto that. Popular titles get promoted over and over again, keeping them on best sellers lists and helping them find new readership. I haven't read ACOTAR but I've seen so many spoilers that I feel like I have!
- Finally, there has been a de-stigmatization of the romance genre in general! Gone are the days of Fabio's bare chest on a mass market paperback, our mothers hiding these books in their bedside table! Romance as a genre has become more bold and more queer and more black in recent years, which has helped to draw more readers and allow them to be unashamed of their interests! 2023 was the year of Barbie and The Eras Tour and sold out Beyoncé shows and Pantone color of the year Viva Magenta 18-1750; its no longer cool to hate on things that typically women like (like romance novels) and time to embrace romantasy!
References
Creamer, E. (2024, February 2). A genre of swords and soulmates: the rise and rise of 'romantasy' novels; From Sarah J Maas to Rebecca Yarros, the authors writing blends of fantasy and romance have found huge commercial success -- largely thanks to TikTok. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/02/romantasy-literary-genre-booktok#:~:text=Romantasy%20authors%20are%20selling%20well,14bn%20views%20on%20TikTok%20alone
Harris, E. (2022, July 6). How TikTok became a best-seller machine. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/01/books/tiktok-books-booktok.html
Milliot, J. (2023, January 13). Romance books were hot in 2022. Publisher’s Weekly. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/91298-romance-books-were-hot-in-2022.html
Nguyen, V. (2023, April 17). Love in the time of dragons: Romantasy satisfies world-weary readers’ need for escapism with complex, emotional stories. Publishers Weekly, 270(16), 20.
Stewart, D. (2023, August 12). Romance readers swoon for Brooklyn’s newest bookstore. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/12/nyregion/ripped-bodice-brooklyn-romance-book-store.html
.png)
Hi Haley! I picked up on that notion of how romance makes you feel in my paper, too. AND the fantasy book I chose to read for this class turned out to be a romance, as well, albeit a very chaste one. I like the idea that romance is comfortable and predictable for readers who otherwise might get bogged down in world-building. Did you come across much about the Twilight books, or are those too old now? I recall reading an article on Twilight that said the the Bella character was deliberately kind of uninteresting so that any reader could more easily imagine themselves in her place. In romantasy, do things just happen to the main character, or do they have personalities of their own? I don't like romance enough to try and answer that question through reading, lol. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI didn't come across anything about Twilight, but I do think that was an early entry point to the genre for many people! I think every romantasy is a little different and it depends on the setup if the main character is bumbling along or not. In Outlander- which I would classify as romantasy because main character Claire time travels- she kind of stumbles into the time travel at first and is mostly just trying to keep herself alive, but she is a very strong personality.
DeleteYour topic sounds so interesting! I know we talked about romance being one of the "Emotion" genres, the other being horror. I can see why people would choose to latch on to romance, particularly during COVID. I think we were already living our own horror movie during that time, so we would definitely be more interested in what romance offers as far as a dopamine hit on our emotions.
ReplyDeleteI had to wade through a lot of steamy New Adult covers for my paper this week. While I do agree that the romance genre has definitely become more varied, I am still seeing a lot of skin on the book covers! But definitely more women on the cover as well, which shows how far we have come as well. I like that you talked about how it's becoming more acceptable and less "hide this book in your nightstand."
Hi Callie! We definitely still have a lot of shirtless men on the covers of the historical/cowboy romance at the library! And I didn't even touch the steaminess in this special topics paper because that could be a topic on its own!
DeleteYES to the trip to The Ripped Bodice!! I need to find all of the romance only bookstore and make it my goal to visit each of them.
ReplyDeleteRomantasy is my favorite thing to read! And I didn't realize this until now but Covid actually is when I really started to get back into reading it. I had read it in the past but when we were all stuck inside and I had the extra time that is really the main thing that I wanted to read.
Hi Haley! I like how you presented your topic. It made everything sound so interesting. I am one of the ones who has yet to get into romantasy, for various reasons. I've read some, but they are definitely YA, which doesn't really help me in this class, and are a lot lighter on the romance usually. What resources would you suggest for someone who likes sapphic romance?
ReplyDeleteHi Kayla! I would recommend lesbrary.com and they even have a list from about 8 months ago on this topic exactly! https://lesbrary.com/sapphic-book-recommendations-full-list/
DeleteGreat summary and discussion in the comments!
ReplyDelete