Sometimes, I enjoy entering Goodreads giveaways. I win more than you’d think. I’m sometimes unsure if the book would interest me if I do win, but if not, I'll donate it to my local library or give it to a friend.
One thing I’m noticing more and more is a category called ‘romantasy'. Now, I had to look up what that was all about because it was a new one on me, but as I expected, it wasn’t something I would be interested in. Apparently, it focuses on a ‘magical world’ with morally grey areas for the ‘love interest’. What does that mean? Honestly, it sounds the same as paranormal romances, also a category I have no interest in, which apparently is about having romances with vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts....it just gets weirder the more I go on, so I’ll stop here.
Needless to say, I’ve written a couple of books about vampires. Still, humans having vampire qualities (which can be taken in a less literal sense) feels less weird than having a romance with a werewolf because a werewolf is essentially a wolf, which is an animal. Think about it.
Although it’s insisted that these two categories are different, I fail to see how. I also don’t care. Either way, there’s a mighty big psychological study just brewing at the surface of this one, because one has to wonder why so many young women are drawn to these dark, non-human romances in the first place.
Other than the fact that our world is clearly fucked ten ways to Sunday, choice in entertainment may just be Exhibit A in this trial. Not to mention that a lot of young people now have AI relationships, as in ‘dating’ a NOT REAL person, so I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that they can’t even have a fictional book that teeters on the side of realism. Of course, is it simply an escape from reality? Maybe if I were much younger, these categories would have more of an appeal. And in the end, it's really none of my business what people choose to read. I'm just happy they read at all.
Art imitates life. And here we are.
