Let's Trash-Talk Romantasy - It's Easy

Social media being toxic is nothing new. From hateful posts, reels, one hour long rant videos on YouTube, you name it, people finally found a place to vent hoping it would reach a large number of people who would support their statements and satiate the need for ‘being right’ if they don’t get acknowledgement at home or in their social circle.

Don’t get me wrong, I am always for a good rant session, especially if I have something to say, but I am a huge supporter of measure your words and support your claim if you are to be aggressive with your rant.

Otherwise your ranting and accusations without leverage just sound pathetic and attention seeking.

The good thing about social media is that whether something is good or bad you can take it or leave it. But do we? We are already slaves to FOMO, ‘naked’ without our phones, “we hate social media” but we still have an account, and our exhausted minds need that doom scroll to stop time and not think. But that’s the key. Not thinking. 

With all the amazing technology advancements that improved our lives and provided us with more opportunities that we could dream of, us humans saw it as an easier way out where we don’t have to think, but just take the majority of information and someone’s opinion at face value.

I Hate Therefore I Am

That brings me to perpetual public hatred towards new(ish) literary trend that of course reached its peak and all fame thanks to social media. Romantasy has been a publishing and cultural trend for the past four years or so, and all thanks to social media, specifically BookTok.

It pains me to admit, I was one of the haters; True hater of the genre, the fuss, the bookstore shelves with #booktok signs, book covers, social media posts and individuals yapping about how a book is ‘a must read’ and so on.

Why? Well, I stubbornly declined to get off my high horse and 'stoop to the social media books' because and I am quoting myself: “that can only be trash”. I was a fully dedicated crime/thriller, general fiction, magical realism, occasional epic fantasy, and non-fiction reader. In my (narrow-minded) world only what I chose to read in libraries and certain shelves in bookstores was true intellectual content, everything else is ‘boring’, ‘cheap’, ‘shallow’ and so on. Until I realised how I am the one that’s boring, cheap, and shallow for displaying obvious hatred towards something I know nothing about.

“I’m the problem, it’s me”

When I made a decision to purchase and read Fourth Wing I started it with a determination that I am going to hate it. I wanted to arm myself with hard proof that it’s trash, boring, and cheap so I can sleep peacefully with my hatred towards the genre.

Imagine my shock when I got dragged into the world and needed to know more. Then imagine my face when the first ‘spicy’ scene happened, and then my face when the book ended and I found out that there’s book #2 (and #3 not released yet at the time).

I was not ready to admit that I was wrong, because the first bite doesn’t determine the quality of the meal. 

I continued the series of course - once a binger, always a binger, but I wanted to widen the experiment pool and decided to read the top 10 series from the genre at the time and then determine if I was right all along. Spoiler alert: I could have not been more wrong and I love when I am proven wrong.

Common Romantasy Trash Talk

Now, almost two years since my first romantasy book and almost 200 read and 150 more on my TBR I think I can honestly talk about some common misconceptions and accusations I had and some people still have and proudly share on social media today.

1. Romantasy is not true fantasy

All I can say to this is LOL. These books may not be categorised as high fantasy, or epic fantasy, but some of the series I've read have such complex magic systems, world building, and epic battles, that I was not well after reading those. The amount of CGI that would be needed to recreate those on screen would equal Game of Thrones and Rings of Power TV series, for example. So yeah, sorry to disappoint, it’s fantasy. You rarely hear romantasy readers trash any of the fantasy books for its aspects, themes, or tropes, but apparently vice versa is legit out there.

2. Romantasy is only SMUT (or corn for women)

This one makes me laugh every time. Do romantasy books always have explicit scenes? Yes and no. Some do, some don’t. Even the degree of explicit scenes varies, along with perspective, detail, and intensity. Believe it or not, some of the most popular romantasy books have maybe one or two explicit content chapters out of 60 or 70. That’s a lot, no? People reading these books are despicable.

Take into consideration that the adult entertainment industry (we all know what I mean) rivals Amazon, Netflix, and other streaming services in number of views and revenue and that’s considered ok as it’s been like this for decades, but people reading romantasy are immoral.

3. Romantasy promotes toxic relationships

This is something that I also hear often and I believe that this stems from people being too exposed to repetitive popular social media statements about main male characters in these books such as: touch-her-and-die, possessive MMC and many more. Now, this is a touchy-feely topic that can be debated for hours, but romantasy overall promotes female empowerment first, how the main female character navigates her feelings, his actions, and overall challenges and obstacles with a complex relationship hand in hand. Nevertheless, it also explores the emotional aspects of main male characters and their impression of the same challenges and obstacles. What’s great about these books is that these characters are so flawed that apart from some magical war happening you get to see how their character develops despite the emotional chaos.

It’s important to know that there are different themes and tropes that can appear as toxic, as well as very dark elements in some romantasy books that really are toxic, but the reader discretion is advised.

It’s not like we go in blindly and then suddenly apply FICTION in our daily choices. At the end of the day, this is fiction and we should all be aware of that.

4. “People who read romantasy are illiterate”

I saw this statement recently on some platform, and it made me laugh so hard but then I realised how far this hatred towards romantasy goes.

This is one of those statements that screams “I have no arguments, I just want to talk trash”. Apparently, there was this girl on Threads that publicly asked authors to “use simpler words” in their books, and of course that created an avalanche of comments and perfect topic for reels and YouTube videos. Her comment has nothing to do with romantasy as a genre but shows one’s attitude towards reading a book or just a genre, it does not define the whole interest group. But seriously, that escalated quickly.

5. Romantasy is just the hype now 

I cannot dispute this because it’s really true, but it doesn’t have to be a negative thing. Publishers, content creators, digital artists, even big networks have shown great interest in romantasy as it connects complex fantasy worlds and real human emotions. It does, on the other hand, create a certain amount of pressure on known authors to create more in short amount of time so the quality may decline, while at the same time indie authors who do create some really good stories worth reading sturggle to find their place under the sun, but it's up to us individuals to choose what we like and share our honest feedback. We can all agree that civilisation needs more magical worlds and more pleasant emotions as we kind of destroyed our reality with capitalism and greed, nature and intellectual pollution along with total emotional disassociation. As long as good entertainment things are hyped, I say I will take it, doesn’t matter how quick it can pass.

This too shall pass

These misconceptions are not all that's out there and you will hear even more negative comments about the genre until it stops being popular and something new takes over. That’s the world in which we live now. One thing is true, all of us who dipped our toes in romantasy as a genre, opened our minds and stopped judging, have been reading more than we did in the last 10 years. Whether it’s for the plot, flawed characters, dragons, other magical worlds, you name it, we have healthy hobbies, friendly communities we've joined, and something to talk about instead of complaining on random life stuff all the time.

So take it from my experience, before you hate something accept that you either know nothing about it and you have been under influence of other people's opinions or be brave to say that you tried it and maybe it's not your cup of tea and move on. We are all entitled to our tastes and opinions but let's just leave the bookish communities in a nice comfortable hate-free zone, at least one out there.