#'what genre is this book?' 'oh booktok' ??????? whAT???

[moregraceful]

my hot take as a person with an english degree and a library degree is that some of the dorkiest fiction and poetry ever committed to paper in the english language came out of the iowa writer's workshop so it is at best goofy and at worst completely futile to argue that your average amazon unlimited writer is having a more deleterious effect on literacy and literature.

[smute]

honestly the problem with booktok (and bookstagram) is not YA lit. it's not about people enjoying books that some might consider "low-brow" or whatever.

imo booktok is the culmination of several problems:

firstly, there's the homogeneity of algorithmic recommendations and the enormous influence those recommendations have on the publishing market. booktok recs tend to be of a very similar style and subject matter. they're easily digestible, easily bingeable titles that arent overly complex. booktok favors stories written by white women, often featuring characters with traumatic backstories and focusing on themes like overcoming adversity and the pursuit of romantic love. they are also usually very anglo-/americentric. none of this is necessarily bad, and none of it is by design, but it's not a coincidence either. it's the result of the constraints of short-form content on the one hand, and on the other, of an algorithm that amplifies, in broad strokes, the preferences of the core demographic of any given group of users.

secondly, it's about the commodification, not of reading, but of being Someone Who Reads Books (TM), which i think is just a particularly obvious symptom of online peer pressure and social-media-driven self-presentation. booktok doesn't encourage you to read, for example, sally rooney. it encourages the cultivation of one's own identity as someone who reads sally rooney. the problem here is not that sally rooney is a shit writer whose work has nothing of note to say. quite the opposite. sally rooney's work is relevant and interesting. in fact, it's being studied by scholars, and even if it wasn't, people can and should be allowed to enjoy some light reading, and yes, even Problematic (TM) fictional characters.

the real problem is the fact that the very nature of how booktok works actively discourages the critical discussion of the stories that it circulates. the problem is not millions of teenagers reading colleen hoover's slop (i love me some slop) – it's millions of teenagers encouraging each other to read and internalize – UNCRITICALLY – hoover's particularly romanticized depiction of abuse. tiktok's algorithm does not foster diversity of opinion. it doesn't foster diversity PERIOD. it doesn't foster slow, in-depth discussion. its only function is *make line go up* – line go up = clicks, views, engagement, money.

due to tiktok's popularity, booktok also has an enormous influence on marketing-related and (apparently, to some extent) editorial decision-making in the publishing industry. this is not just the fault of booktok, goodreads is part of the same problem. i mean, booktok has managed to turn colleen hoover's 'it ends with us' into a bestseller FIVE YEARS after it was originally published. it has also led to publishers dropping authors or DELAYING THE RELEASE of new titles after booktokers flooded the goodreads pages of unpublished books with one star reviews.

as i said, the underlying issue here is not unique to booktok. it's the same homogenization that plagues the movie industry, the tv industry, streaming services, etc. the publishing industry is just particularly vulnerable to such manipulations of public opinion. in the end, tiktok is not a social media app. it's an entertainment app and its content is focused on brevity. the biggest booktokers aren't simply avid readers. they don't post actual reviews of books they enjoyed. they're influencers who receive boxes of books from publishing houses to show off in haul videos like "have you guys heard of squarespace?" and that's it. the level of engagement with the texts themselves is like reading a blurb on the dustjacket, and unfortunately that is reflected in the selection of titles that become popular. if it can't be sold to you in 3 sentences, the algorithm will bury it.

[courfeyrec]

just saw someone say that 'booktok' was an actual book genre. leaving the internet for a few days.

[wonwooslibrary]

svt as boyfriends ♡ seungcheol edition

member: seungcheol x reader genre: fluff, bullet points word count: 876 summary: seungcheol's boyfriend things warnings: none!! author's note: this was so close to not being posted in time...I just worked two 10 hour shifts in a row and i am so tired...anyway, i hope you all enjoy this small fluff piece <3 happy birthday seungcheol !!!

Okay so Seungcheol is what I like to call “The Boyfriend Material” and I have a feeling all you couprangs will agree with my genius 

Cheol is the booktok boyfriend, jeans made 100% out of boyfriend material 

Quality Time 

Seungcheol loves when you get chaotic. He’s used to dealing with twelve idiots (loving) every day, and adding another one to the list is no biggie! He loves to spend time with you, especially when you go out with your friends. 

If you go to a club or even just to hang out at the park with your closest friends, Cheol will be perfectly content sitting quietly next to you, his arm over your shoulder, or his head resting on yours

He likes to see you happy, and if that means tagging along to all the events you go to, then so be it! 

He would definitely want you to hang out with his best friends too, and you have quickly learned in your relationship, that even though Cheol is usually calm and collected, he becomes the most…energetic person when he is with his friends 

If he is gaming with Wonwoo, or some other friends, he would love for you to just sit with him! Reading a book, drawing, or just dining something relaxing next to him as he tries to absolutely destroy his friends in the online world 

Though, dates are definitely Seungcheol’s best version of Quality Time - mans knows how to treat you !!!

Cute dates like picnics or stargazing, where the two of you are in public, but are still away from public eye, are his forte 

Words of Affirmation

SEUNGCHEOL IS THE ABSOLUTE KING OF PETNAMES 

Anything he can come up with, he will call you it 

This can range from something cute like “sweetie” or “darling” to the other end of the spectrum that makes your heart race a bit more than you would like, with him calling you “baby/babygirl/babyboy” or “prince/princess” 

He knows that you love him, and you know that he loves you, so knowing that his major way of showing affection to you is talking oh so proudly about you when you’re not around, is totally acceptable in your relationship 

He loves bragging about you and telling fin stories to your (and his) friends about funny moments between you from dates and just casually hanging out

He never fails to compliment you when you do something you’re proud of, or if you look particularly cuddle-able one day

“Sweetie, you look absolutely adorable in that sweater! Is it new?” 

AAAA choi seungcheol boyfriend material 

Physical Touch

Who is one of those members that is constantly koala hugging his dongsaengs? That’s right, it’s Seungcheol, and that DEFINITELY does not stop him from constantly wanting your attention

This could be through regular morning cuddles when you both wake up a bit too early for your liking, watching movies together, playing games or even when seeing each other for the first time in a couple hours 

Seungcheol would love to just attack you in hugs when you get home from school or work

He would also be the king of small pda: holding hands when you’re walking together, putting his hand on your back when you’re going up and down stairs or going up a hill, putting his arm around your shoulder when you’re sitting next to each other in the park

Seungcheol just loves being around you and cuddling you please just let the poor, attention starved man hug you 10,000 times a day

Acts of Service 

My favorite thing about Seungcheol is his Boyfriend Material Acts of Service™

He LOVES sharing hoodies and shirts: whether it is you giving him a hoodie or him giving you one, he doesn’t care as long as someone is wearing the other person’s clothes 

Helps with laundry because everything has to be perfectly clean, smelling nice and soft, otherwise it’s not worth being worn by you !!!

He loves helping you !!! Like if you have a big project or exam for school or work, he’ll be right next to you helping you out! 

If you need flashcards to study for an exam, he’s right there asking you questions! 

If you need a second opinion on this presentation, he’s telling you what websites to use for themes…

He loves you, and he wants to prove that by helping you with the little things <3 

Gift Giving 

You know how Ken’s job is just Beach? Well Cheol’s job is just Wallet 

Seungcheol loves surprising you with things!!! Whether it be your favorite snack for movie nights or a random coffee when he gets home in the mornings 

Or even !!! buying little trinkets for around your home that remind you both of each other 

He’ll also surprise you with a cute outfit one in a while, or a piece of jewelry you have been eyeing lately 

Mans earns plenty of money and he just wants to spend it all on you <3 

You have student loans? Cheol is begging you to let him help you, even if you want to be independent with things like that 

People say money doesn’t buy happiness but Seungcheol’s gifts reminds you of him…so I guess that counts as buying happiness

[soracities]

hii! do you ever get into a huge reading slump? i would say ive been in one for about 3 years now and im desperate to escape it and read again but i cant find anything that's 'popular' enjoyable and have no idea where to start in finding content and books i actually enjoy by myself without tiktok or booktube 😭

Oh I've been in a particularly bad slump for at least 2 years so yes, absolutely! I think the key thing here is to try and remove the pressure off yourself as much as you can: don't look at every book you approach with the mindset of "THIS is will be the antidote to my reading slump" or "THIS novel will save me" because it will most likely stop you from actually enjoying the book: when you go in with such high expectations, you're also bringing a very distracting form of hyper-vigilance with you, waiting for the magic moment to hit, counting the pages until it does, being too conscious or worried when it doesn't in the way you envisioned it. It will turn reading into a chore, an endurance test which you either succeed or fail at, and this will only cement the slump further.

Everyone is different and I don't know what kind of books you like most, but the best thing I can advise is to go back before your slump and see what some of your favourite reads were. One way to ease back into reading is to revisit books you loved and read them again--this eliminates some of the pressure and I think it can also help rebuild that excitement because you know you're returning to familiar ground you've enjoyed before. That, or find other works by those same authors whose writing / style you liked and slowly expand from there. I don't log my reading through apps or websites anymore (and I stay away from booktok like the plague but that's a whole other conversation)--I have an ask on how I find my books here and I hope that helps too--but I've heard really good things about The Storygraph so if tiktok and booktube haven't done it for you, this might be a much better way to move towards books you actually enjoy because it's based on your preferences, not an influencer's or what an algorithm is pushing.

Whatever book you decide to try next, I would also advise you to start slow and / or small if that's what you need (more here)--don't force yourself to plow through several hundred pages in one sitting or 2 days. Sometimes breaking a slump is far more sustainable when you do it chip by chip, slowly, but consistently in a way that makes it less daunting than thinking you have to finish 2 novels every week. Something as simple as setting aside 15 minutes to read in bed before you go to sleep each night can do it. You can also look at audiobook versions, or short story collections in whatever genre it is you enjoy most!

Best of luck, anon, and I hope some of these answers will help 🤍

[sexcromancy]

young adult, new adult, and fantasy fiction: the audience of a book is who reads it

title clumsily based on the purpose of a system is what it does.

before we begin, I want to focus a bit on defining our terms. young adult, new adult, adult, science fiction/fantasy, speculative fiction, contemporary romance - all of the terms I will use in this post are created by marketing companies and readers, and all of them have fuzzy and subjective applicability to any given book. there is no objectivity in cataloging, which is the lens through which I approach knowledge organization projects like this. there is no definitive answer to what any given book or genre "is", because these categories are not fixed values. instead, their values are expanded and developed by what gets placed in which category, by whom, and what criteria they base that decision on. that's what I want to discuss.

to provide some context: debates over age categories and who is reading what books for which age ranges currently dominate discussions among publishers, authors, librarians, and readers. ages of characters in YA are skewing up, sales are slowing down. young adult as a category has existed for 50+ years, but it is currently undergoing some growing pains. here's one more article for good measure. new adult is a term created by the publishing industry in 2009, which developed in fits and starts despite multiple bestselling authors publishing under the category. oh well. in 2015, sarah j mass published her new book, a court of thorns and roses, which is widely regarded as a turning point for the popularity of new adult (more on the classification of ACOTAR itself in a moment). NA stalled out for many years, but has recently very quickly grown in popularity, especially for romance readers on booktok. some of the most popular books listed under new adult on goodreads are colleen hoover's it ends with us and it starts with us, ali hazelwood's check & mate, and rebecca yarros' fourth wing.

I want to look at two of these currently very popular authors as case studies to really dig into what new adult has come to mean.

in this 2014 interview, SJM discusses her currently running throne of glass series and the upcoming release of ACOTAR in 2015. she notes that the book is intended for "a slightly older YA crowd (aka steamy times ahead!)". earlier in the interview, she dodges a question about whether throne of glass will be YA or NA by saying she appreciates her teen and adult readers - if I had to guess, the label was still too new and publishers didn't want to alienate anyone. in 2023, I can't find anything on her website or bookseller sites that specifically identify the series (or any of her series) as YA, NA, or adult. however, Goodreads (which relies on user generated tags and is, to put it lightly, a mess wrt information organization) firmly classes ACOTAR as YA - almost 9k tags in young-adult and ya (lack of authority control is just one aspect of the mess), as opposed to about 3.5k new-adult. the thing is, though, ACOTAR comes up in essentially every blog post and article I read on the definition of new adult. it is a flashpoint in the discussion: it either did or didn't restart the term, it is or isn't too sexually explicit to be classed for teens, the writing is filled with young adult tropes and this does or does not matter. the answers to these questions aren't particularly important to me, but it's very interesting to see how people are attempting to draw those boundaries. I took a quick census of how SJM's series are classed in my library system. her throne of glass series is uniformly shelved in YA; ACOTAR is mostly YA with a few copies in adult, and her newer crescent city series is mostly adult with a few copies in YA. I do think that any discussion of ACOTAR is partially colored by this divisive relationship to the new adult category itself, so I'd also like to bring in a much newer book facing similar conversation.

if you follow this blog you might already know that I have an entirely non-neutral relationship to ali hazelwood; I love her books both as books and as cultural objects deserving of study. previously, she published three adult romance novels and a set of adult romance novellas, which all fall firmly and inarguably into those defined categories, based on age range and content (I have an argument for the love hypothesis being a horror story, but that's a different conversation). last year, she published her newest book, check & mate, as a young adult romance. it was widely marketed as such by the young readers imprint at putnam. however, on reading it, I (and many goodreads commenters) were surprised to find that it aligned more with some hallmarks of new adult. the characters are out of high school, and the challenges and growth moments are more focused on evolution, rather than coming of age. one blog post I read made the argument that YA is about high school firsts and NA is about adulthood firsts. this is amorphous, partially because there is no real one life path into adulthood by which to judge this, so let's switch focus to something more concrete: sex. in each of Ali's adult novels, there are a few explicit sex scenes. they're not as explicit as other romance novels, but they're definitely not fade-to-black. in check & mate, characters have sex, but it happens entirely off-screen and any discussion is fairly chaste or, at most, relying heavily on implied content. this is a real disconnect to me. much of NA lit (ACOTAR included) is quite sexually explicit. among those most popular NA books on goodreads, there are many books that get marketed specifically for their sexual content (spicy🌶️ to the tiktokers, smut to everyone else). to me, this cements check & mate as a YA novel - if she was going to write a book with explicit sex, like her others, she could've. she's mentioned in interviews that her chess novel concept originally featured older characters, and she aged them down once she realized what kind of story she wanted to tell. to me, it is telling that moving from adult to YA creates more clumsy caution around the handling of sex, as opposed to SJM, whose books "aged" upwards over time.

another interesting example I've noticed in the emerging NA space is how the age category intersects with genre. YA as a category has a pretty expansive genre playing field - we've all read YA fantasy, contemporary romance, historical fiction, action/adventure, issue novels, etc. NA so far seems pretty exclusively limited to romance as a main focus, especially in the most popular offerings as discussed above.

I've seen many a tiktok alleging that despite the drawn out fight scenes, extensive lore, and huge interconnected web of characters, the ACOTAR books are not "real fantasy." even more so for the fourth wing books. I've seen these books compared to Tolkien, as if to say, well, if you didn't invent a language, you're not really on the same level. that's entirely unfair, imo - plenty of fantasy doesn't engage at that level. but there is a wide array of contemporary fantasy I do think we can contrast with ACOTAR and other popular NA series.

we've discussed some of the hallmarks of YA and NA as categories: the age range of characters, coming of age, explicit sex for NA. i'd add fast-paced, immersive writing, especially in first person or close third, because so much of the appeal described on booktok is a book sucking you in completely. now, i want to bring up a few books that, on the surface, might check several of these boxes: dune by frank herbert has an 18yo protagonist, and the first book is very much a coming of age story. eragon (christopher paolini) and the name of the wind (patrick rothfuss) focus on a young person coming into their magical abilities through school/mentorship, a similar setting to many YA series. mistborn (brandon sanderson) and game of thrones (george r.r. martin) both have prominent protagonists that are 18 or younger when the story starts. of all these series, only eragon has young-adult as its most popular age-related tag on goodreads, and eragon was, at the time of release, very specifically marketed to and shelved in young adult in bookstores and libraries. some of these books have explicit or non-explicit sexual content, but only GOT has even close to as much as your average NA novel (to my knowledge).

i am not alleging that any of these books should be classed as YA, necessarily. but the glaring difference in their marketing and readership does point to one thing: these books are largely about men, and they are all written by men. i am not the first person to point out this gender gap in fantasy writing, and i don't have anything particularly new to say about it, except to bring it back around to my original point. none of these novels "are" adult fiction, and plenty (plenty!) of teenagers read them, in an interesting reversal of the trends in YA. who is making the decisions about where these books go, and why? what can we draw out about the books and their marketing? how is the future of "adult fantasy" shaped when these are the benchmarks by which we measure new entries?

i did also look into a few of my own favorite sci-fi series by women to see how they ranked by similar parameters. parable of the sower by octavia butler, featuring an 18yo protagonist and sexual content, has no age category at all in the top 20 most popular goodreads tags. it's in adult fiction in every library in my system that owns a copy. ive seen gideon the ninth (18yo protag, and yeah lets go ahead and say explicit sexual content) on YA shelves in bookstores, but its adult tag on goodreads is more popular, and almost every library in my system has it in adult. in my opinion, these books are important in rejecting the "women write YA, men write adult" narrative around speculative fiction, but they're not necessarily an exception to a different trend. it is not difficult for me to think of more adult scifi/fantasy books by women, because i actively seek them out. however, almost every single one of them has a protagonist under 25, as is the case with so much of the adult fantasy written by men listed above. last year, i read the adventures of amina al-sirafi, by s.a. chakrabotry, which was (i believe) the first non-contemporary/realistic fiction book ive ever read with a middle aged mother as the main protagonist. the book club at my library branch, mainly composed of middle aged and older women, read it, and expressed such genuine joy and excitement over a fantastic, adventurous book featuring a woman they saw themselves in. representation really does matter, and it matters to everyone, not just young people. but that's a different soapbox.

young readers are extremely picky. i've watched many a teenager (or younger) browse the YA section and turn up their noses at books with a cringey cover, an overly dramatic blurb, or just because. marketing books to teens is hard. booktok is an incredibly powerful marketing tool and divisive social force. it skyrockets an author one day and by the next week, other accounts are tearing that same author to shreds. in this environment, its no surprise that the sensationalized books - extremely good or extremely bad, blatantly sexual, shocking, consumable - become flashpoints of discussion. who should be reading ya? who is it for? what is inappropriate for young teenagers to read? what is inappropriate for adults to read? i think about these topics a lot, especially as what the publishing industry terms a "gatekeeper" - i'm a children's librarian; i control the access teenagers in my community have to these books. i take that role seriously, and i want to be thinking deeply about the books i put in my YA section and who will read them. our decisions, about where we class books, how we label and present them, how we discuss them: that is part of what dictates what genre and age classification a book "is", in addition to marketing.

[the-modern-typewriter]

helloo just wanted to know your thoughts on the recent tik tok commentary on “booktok” about how literature is being “ruined because of spicy books” and authors who cater to tropes I definitely see both sides!

Caveat: I don't have tiktok. I don't spend a lot of time on bookstagram either. So while I'm vaguely aware of the discourse, assume I spend most of my time blissfully unaware of everything, under my rock, writing my own little things.

Spicy books:

As with everything, there is nuance to be had. I don't think there is anything wrong with spicy books. There is clearly an audience for them and it's great to have books that recognise this desire! Western society can be weirdly puritan about sex and anything that challenges that get points from me. I've enjoyed the spicy scenes myself when they happen to miraculously meet the very specific vibes I personally like.

However, I also don't think every book needs to or should be pressured to be spicy and I personally get annoyed when I feel like spice replaces adequate plot or character development (which is something I've come across a few times in the last few years). I don't say this in a 'every sex scene must only be there to develop plot/character' way! I say this in a, oh my god, why has the plot stopped for sex in every chapter instead way. In a 'you guys used to have interesting conversations! why are you doing this to me!?' way.

But, you know. I'm not typically the target audience for sex scenes. So I'd just not read another book by an author who did that and let other people enjoy it, if that's what they're looking for. I still feel that there are still plenty of other books in the world I can read.

Tropes:

Tropes have and always will be a tool in writing. It's not new that writers are using them, but I think it's just a trend at the moment to be particularly upfront about them (especially in the romance genre tbh). Specifically, I think this is a marketing trend not a writing trend.

(Does trad publishing like books that are easy to market? Obviously. It's a business.)

I don't inherently mind this, because book marketing is really hard and realistically a lot of people don't stop to engage with original content or long descriptions about original content. Especially not on social media. Tropes are an excellent shorthand for conveying information/vibes, and then people can get more information and decide for themselves if they want to engage with the story.

(In a way, to me this is like when people add 'it's queer!' when they make me a recommendation. Does it make me more likely to go and look at the thing? Yes. Is it the deciding factor on if I actually read/watch/like it. Nope. It's just a quick flag for me to consider it and make my own decision.)

Maybe there are people who are specifically just writing tropes without much more to it...but I haven't really seen it in the books I personally read. At least not any more than the usual.

Some great books I've read this year so far:

The Luminous Dead By Caitlin Starling

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant

(They are all horror to some degree...I've been on a kick.)

[foxglovepng]

Random Headcannons 3 🌼🥀

Requested: naw

Characters: Scarabia + Pomefiore

A/N: I'm getting back into the writing mood yay I'll probably take requests in the future because I am slowly getting over writer's block. I looked up a word in Arabic and if the word is incorrectly translated incorrectly feel free to correct me.

If you liked reblogs and likes are appreciative <3

Kalim

Knock knock who's there? Autism br br br where the hoes at? not here

I love my Autistic headcanon for Kalim. I also saw a headcanon he has ADHD too. (I forgot the word for ADHD and Autism combined help)

When he's unmedicated Jamil is that one meme of Shinji his stress levels are high. He's practically lived with Kalim so he knows he can get hyper although he pushes through it being used to it.

I headcanon Kalim has sensory issues that mainly have to do with touch. (Mine are sound and taste :skull:)

Since he likes parties and is extremely sociable I feel like sometimes he can get overwhelmed he chills in his sensory swing. I also feel like since he plays the drums he does have backup headphones on hand in case it's too loud.

Jamil tends to calm him down with essential oils (Don't ask me what kind he likes I only know Rosemary, and Cherry blossom)

Jamil

Jamil drop the hair routine or I'll break your ankles Sangwoo style so you can't dance anymore. I will even report your music-listening account so you are no longer allowed to play hip hop DROP THE ROUTINE RN JAMIL

This is my no 2 pookie bear I love him sm ANYWAYS

I feel like in his alone time Jamil has his own hobbies he hides from Kalim and will go above and beyond just to have them to himself. One of those I feel like is reading romance books (Not the feral ones booktok gooners read) romance is one of the genres he reads I feel like he also reads fantasy. (He has read Pride and Prejudice)

He'd probably also go to art conventions on his spare time. He has a sketchbook and draws on occasion (I think he draws similar to Hyunjin's style)

Him and Kalim speak Arabic and English although I feel like when Jamil wants to cuss someone out or insult someone he will bring the Arabic out.

*Ace messes up a play*

Ace: so um great play

Jamil: اهبل (Google says this means stupid/idiot)

Ace: HUH?

Vil

*Throws my genderqueer headcannon at you Eminem style*

Gender queer Icon Vil.

If I am correct he is referred to as Queen by Rook?? so I believe Vil doesn't really care for pronouns and just simply exists. So Vil would use any pronouns interchangeably.

Also random headcannon but Vil's father is like..famous right? So I feel like he gets insulted and called a Nepo baby.

Peep Epel and Vil get into a fight and Epel calls him a Nepo baby. Oh all hell is breaking loose.

(I also headcannon he'd make an appearance in Eurovision)

Rook

I need Frenchie to become a slur so I can shout FRENCHIE at Rook 24/7

This man either has a really good memory or a diary in which he keeps info of students. (Their height, weight, UM, etc) its freaky ngl. AND NOT A GOOD FREAKY WAY.

I saw some art of him and Floyd in the bathroom and he was peeking over the urinal. BRO KEEP YA EYES ON YA JUNK.

I can imagine certain NRC students have a group chat dedicated to slandering Rook.

He probably knows about it :Skull:

Epel

Guys this my son <3

I am a firm believer he is an Amish hater.

"I hate the way you talk the way you walk" ahh beat.

From a farmer's perspective I don't think he's 100% vegan, but if you bribe him with bbq he will start foaming at the mouth.

Bro probably listens to Dixon Dallas good looking-

He's also a Dolly Parton and Carrie Underwood fan.

I feel like with people he's close with especially the first years he lets his country accent loose and it will get even looser if someone (or Yuu) has a country accent as well. The rest of the first years will be like "They are speaking in tongues"

[sleepinglionhearts]

No no get started on the whole "new adult" thing, I desperately want to hear

Ok, so here's the thing about New Adult:

It's a genre that's been emerging lately in the catalogs I view when doing frontlists (essentially just pre-orders for upcoming titles) for the book store and I'd been wondering what the hell it was. I'd noticed it was especially common in the descriptors for the romance books, but it was often the ones with that sort of sexy-but-not-full-blown-erotica kind of book that also tended to have the sort of description full of fanfic trope terms and "for fans of [usually a Young Adult title]" or "like [popular title] combined with [other popular title]!!" <- and here it's important to note that the popular titles don't always sound like they would mesh well.

And finally, FINALLY, one of these books is highlighted by the sales rep who works with us and she's got a little blurb about it and I get my first useful description of what "New Adult" is:

"Imagine the golden age of YA - The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Mortal Instruments - but aged up and spicy."

S P I C Y

Which would explain why they're not-quite-erotica type books, you see, we're not straight up PORN we're just ✨️spicy✨️

Nevermind that a lot of these books do have sex in them, but whatever, it's SPICY because that's what's popular to say on BookTok!

Oh. Right. Yeah. BookTok also gets mentioned a lot in listings for this sort of title.

And yes, this includes the Court of... books by Sarah J Maas and things like The Infatuated Fae books by Jeaneane O'Riley. In fact, I'm pretty sure O'Riley was described as a "BookTok darling" in the contributor bio part of the listing, but don't quote me on that, I'd have to look at the listing again.

Anyway, these are some of the biggest offenders regarding that whole "we will describe this with fanfic buzz terms and BookTok girlies will eat it up :)" issue.

[thefudge]

I don't know if it's just me but if ship isn't problematic/toxic I find it boring

hah! that's a slippery slope! but i feel you. i think a larger observation we could make here is that really compelling dynamics that are real and human will always have problematic aspects. not that all couples have abusive dynamics or whatever, but rather that we as people are extremely fallible and we are even more so when we are in love and sharing ourselves with others. like, we are at our most noble and wretched with someone we love. so maybe what we find boring is being presented with relationships that gloss over these aspects. a well-written ship, no matter how "wholesome", will always have that interesting edge, imo.

that being said! i do wonder if ao3 + tiktok (but mostly tiktok and maybe wattpad) have served ppl a recipe of shallow "spiciness" where younger folks, especially, navigate towards seemingly "darker" ships just for the toxicity, instead of toxicity + substance. then again, this would've been people's complaints about the gothic genre back in the 19th century. "oh no, ppl will read too many penny dreadfuls and start murdering their neighbors in the street" etc. so it can become a silly moral panic, especially with regards to what women are reading. we all know how that goes.

buuuut i think there is cause for *some* concern about people's general tastes, not in terms of morality, but in terms of what they're consuming for themselves and their well-being. cuz i know what you mean and i have seen a shift in my own tastes over the years. like yes, we deserve to have fun with that trashy book, but i don't want us to only read easy things that will scratch a certain itch. because a lot of mainstream toxic/problematic stuff is written in a flat, trivial way and i want us to search for and be willing to read things that really challenge us. not just booktok's "dark romance" of the week (which is usually quite boring actually). i'm in a position where i do read a lot of different things constantly due to my job and my interests, but i have noticed a lack of patience in myself lately when it comes to certain stories and it gave me pause. btw, i'm not referring to you or your reading habits in particular, just thinking some general thoughts. ultimately, it's totally fine and we can enjoy as much problematic content as we want, as long as we don't forget the human element, as long as we don't settle just for the surface of things. because that's when we cheapen it, i think. idk, but i do think we have a responsibility to ourselves to always seek beautiful things (and by that i mean quality literature and quality trash lol). yes, we turn our brains off from time to time, we absolutely need to, but we need to come back to the things that make us think and feel to the utmost.

anyway, sorry for this very weird rant, this has been on my mind too!

[greenconverses]

This might be a silly question but do you enjoy contemporary romance novels? I love historical romance novels but for some reason I find contemporary romance really cringe. Are there certain authors you think always have good stories? ( like the way I know anything you write will always be a banger). I want to expand outside of historical romance but not sure where would be a good start that I would also enjoy. (And I know I won’t know if a book is bad or good until I read it but I can’t finish bad books I just read the last chapter to know how it ends and then return it to the library so would rather avoid this lol)

Oh, I definitely struggle to find contemporary romances I like! I'm reading way more of them than I was a few years ago, but historical is still my go-to.

It's probably because I prefer third person POVs and historical is absolutely dominated by third person. First person can be so great in the hands of a good author, but contemporary is full of really shitty first person, especially now that BookTok has a chokehold on the romance genre. (Don't even talk to me about the trend of using first person on back of the book blurbs, I want to set it ON FIRE.)

I'm also very distrustful of the overall quality of contemp romances. I've been burned way more often by crappy contemp than I have with historicals. I think the standards are just higher with historicals because authors want to sound/be time period accurate, so they end up doing research and being a bit more thorough with the entire writing process. Obviously shitty historicals do exist and the "wallpaper" trend of just plopping modern characters down in Regency/Victorian setting is whole other thing, but by and large, the style, standards, and tropes of historicals just serve me better as a romance reader.

When I'm looking for contemp authors, I look for some of those same qualities: third person POV, great attention to detail, strong character voice, actual romantic tension, satisfying emotional arcs. I also look for authors who implicitly understand what romance is as a genre.

BookTok contemp authors love ticking off romance trope boxes, but most of them don't do the work required to make that trope sing or deeply misunderstand the appeal of said tropes outside of fan fic. The same thing happens with ~spicy books. There's so much of a focus on sex/being sexy versus the romance leading up to sex that you get these really bad cardboard sex scenes that, again, do nothing but check boxes and fail to further the romance.

I can rant about BookTok ruining contemp romance for longer, but that's not that you asked for! Contemporary authors I'd recommend you try: Talia Hibbert, Emily Henry, Ashley Poston, Roni Loren, Alisha Rai, Amy Lea, Rachel Lynn Solomon, Ashley Blake Herring, Alison Cochrun, Uzma Jalaluddin, Julia London, Alyssa Cole, Helen Hoang, and of course, my forever favorite, my GOAT, Meg Cabot.

[cowboybrunch]

writerblr interview tag!

thank you for the tags @tragedycoded (here) @sableglass (here) and @saturnine-saturneight (here) <3 ive been meaning to get to this one for a minute sooo let's get into it

Short stories, novels, or poems?

i started with poetry, so it has a special place in my heart. all of my short stories turn into beasts. is it a cop out answer to say all of the above?

What genre do you prefer reading?

it'd be easier to list what genres i don't like. when i say ill read anything, i mean ill read anything. lately i've been on a sci fi kick (thanks Pierce Brown) but i love a good modern trashy romance as much as the next guy (i read the booktok sludge so you dont have to!) im not really a nonfiction guy but hey, if anyone has some recs, ill give em a shot

Are you a planner or a write as I go kind of person?

def NOT a planner. usually when i start writing i have a vague idea of where we start and where we need to end up, but what happens along the way is a surprise for everyone involved

What music do you listen to while writing?

SILENCE. sometimes white noise. i cant focus with music, brain gets jumbled

Favorite books/movies?

of all time? oh god for books, probably This Is How You Lose the Time War or The Song of Achilles but The Locked Tomb series is def up there. not a novel but i've read Bluets by Maggie Nelson so many times i probably have it memorized by now favorite movie is Zoolander, easy answer. that movie owns. i can watch it on repeat and ill never get sick of it

Any current WIPs?

Dust to Dust is still alive but im taking a bit of a hiatus before hopping into the final bit (tag is here if you wanna see me ramble about it) Felix Wonder is the fun time brain break WIP of choice currently and im working on draft 3 of Burden of the Reluctant Death (we will get to the ending this time. we will)

Create a character description of yourself: 

Elusive, or pretends to be. Too much energy in too small a body. Refuses to sit properly in a chair. Prone to fits of melancholy remedied by sunlight. Easily excitable, but fussy. Same outfit every day: big sweater, little pants, fuzzy socks. Nails bitten bloody but at least her hair is clean (if a bit too long for summer)

Do you like incorporating actual people you know into your writing?

i could say no but that would make me a liar

Are you kill happy with your characters?

i was gonna make a joke but it would be spoilers soo. i write about grief. no way everyone makes it out alive

Coffee or Tea while writing?

coffee. i dont like tea (sorry sorry!)

Slow or fast writer?

im very much a burst writer so. flood or drought, no in between. lately i'd say SLOW but im just waiting for that spark u get me?

If you were in a fantasy world, what would you be?

this really isnt fantasy but i feel like i was destined to be the kind, slightly off-putting maintenance man in a haunted apartment building that says cryptic things like "don't take the east elevator on a full moon" and "the air conditioning has made that noise since the fire in 12B"

Most fav book cliche:

yea there's only one bed and ill eat it up every single time!!! also: "i didnt know where else to go" or basically any overdone romance trope you can think of. im here for it

Least favorite cliche:

if there's a cliche that i dont like, i havent found it yet

Favorite scene to write?

confession scenes of any kind! scenes where the big tough character breaks down. any kind of emotional revelation, positive or negative

Reason for writing?

words in head, need words out of head ok ok fine, serious answer. i feel like writing is both asking and answering the question, "have you felt like this before? has anyone ever felt like this before? am i alone?" and it's proof that you're not the first and only person to ever experience the things you're experiencing. even this made up guy in this pretend world understands rage and despair and joy and grief and love. the source is different but the result is the same. human connection, man. love it and! it's fun. im having fun

tag!!

@knightinbatteredarmor @friendlesscat @tildeathiwillwrite @glassonthewall @illarian-rambling

@mysticstarlightduck @dyrewrites @sarandipitywrites @oliolioxenfreewrites @xenascribbles

[belle-keys]

Hello, I enjoy your rants very much so, top three most annoying booktok things in your opinion?

Oh, I really love this ask.

1. Paint by the number books - Looking at the fantasy and romance genres in particular which are being developed and marketed mainly based on tropes. I'm so extremely tired of repetitive and derivative books that have shitty writing and recycled structures. I will not read a book if you tell me it's "enemies to lovers spy fantasy romance south indian inspired royalcore knife to the throat" like I actually detest it. Where is the meat? Where is the narrative? What is your purpose as a novel?

2. Unnecessary politicized reading - Fed up of hearing all about how some books or their writers are problematic. It seems that a lot of booktok readers are incapable of separating real from fiction, the art from the artist. Which is funny, because the ability to both of those things falls under multiple schools of literary criticism– it’s not something… anti-woke or anything. Like, if you hate Lolita because it’s about grooming and sexual assault and was written by a man, then I have some news for you.

3. Commercialization and viralism - Everything is just about numbers and sales and marketing and merchandise and branding and book collecting and I hate it. Half of booktok likes owning books, not reading, This is nothing new in publishing, but I’m fed up of some books getting a push and going “viral” for the most silly reasons and being “buzzy” when they’re objectively trash because of the booktok marketing or special editions.

[mermaidsirennikita]

Any thoughts on the most recent booktok drama with that girl complaining about Six of Crows? I'm seeing romance readers getting dragged again...

As is often the case with BookTwt/other spaces reacting to BookTok things, it's got moral/pseudointellectual panic vibes, because everyone wants to act concerned about literacy while actually dunking on people they look down on (primarily young women) and making themselves feel better/victimized.

Oh noooooes, literature is dying! Except please look at how many litfic novels trad publishing is putting out, often with marketing blitzes that DWARF what adult genre releases get (especially niches like historical romance) with placements on the NYT bestseller lists which probably don't reflect what the books are actually selling. In order to induce people into buying these books. Despite the genre releases everyone sneers at keeping the lights on.

And all this is provoked from one random dumb BookTok vid, which honestly may or may not be ragebait, I don't know that girl, utilized as an example and used to create a monolith out of a huge community. Whether that community is BookTok in general, YA readers, romance readers (and I'm very "why are y'all bringing us into this" about THAT because SoC is thoroughly YA fantasy with a smattering of romantic subplots) (but they bring us into this because it gets them attention because we are the Moment, apparently) or what have you.

What I always find interesting about this is that another highly commercial genre that keeps the lights on, thrillers, very rarely gets dragged into this. Despite the fact that it's also pumped out on the regular, also tends towards a set formula, and also can lean towards shock value and big headline-grabbing bites, similar to YA and romance. I do think this has to do with the perception of the primary audience. Not so much on a gendered level (because thrillers, like much of lit, have women as the main makeup of their VOCAL audience) but on an "intellectual" versus "silly" level.

I mean. That video is dumb lol. But I feel like part of why it caught on is that a conventionally feminine, attractive girl posted it. The exact type of girl that a lot of nerdbros, and a lot of nerdgirls, want to dunk on. Again, I don't know her. She very well could be The Worst. But come on. A lot of the people reacting don't know her either. Her inner self and TikTok habits are not why they're freaking out.

I think her video is stupid; I think the reaction is stupid. Like, to be truly real, if the girl genuinely can't read well the issue probably lies less with BookTok and more with

a) public school funding issues

b) a lack of focus on literacy in schools in general (which is absolutely a political issue as well, it's not because teachers don't want to teach kids how to read properly)

c) the filtering of privileged kids into private schools that more purposefully de-emphasize the importance of reading (because the focus is on other things... like knowing the books of the Bible by heart...)

I would assume. At least.

[theliterarywolf]

Books drama in recent times has always either meant tiktok or goodreads. Pro-tip to anyone who's gotten into reading: Avoid booktok and goodreads, reviews don't mean everything. Find other spaces that are more tailored to your own tastes, and don't let yourself be led astray by people who just by default dislike a certain genre or writing style. Avoid loud echochambers like booktok. : p And read SNTTGD. : )

All great advice, particularly for the 'avoid BookTok' portion because it's thanks to BookTok that we have published authors advertising their books less like summaries and more like fanfiction tags.

But I both love and hate how I was confused at the end of the ask like 'what the fuck is SNTTGD' And then my dumbass finally realized 'Oh, shit, it's the book that I wrote!'

Thank you for the shoutout, anon!

[soybeansyu]

is it just me or has the quality of books have gotten so bad it’s almost comical?

don’t get me wrong i’m sure there’s a lot of great authors out there, and even some of the more recently released books are pretty good! but in reality, i can’t name a good book that came out in the past year. it’s as if all the books dominating the market are all the same repetitive cliché bullshit. personally, i don’t classify myself as a ‘romance reader’ ‘spicy reader’…

(ill be real, i read whatever grabs my attention. albeit a thriller, romance, comedy you name it.)

honestly my main issue is with the romance genre. mainly ana huang, ali hazel wood, monica murphy, and almost every single dark romance. (don’t get me even started on colleen hoover 💀 )

i’m going to save you some time and summarise what (some) people’s issue is with dark romance. (+ colleen hoover) usually it’s just uncomfortable and romanticizes disgusting shit such as r*pe, p*dophilla, gr**ming, and/ or disturbing/ extreme kinks.

1. Romanticizing fetishes/insane/creepy behavior

now onto ana huang, ali hazelwood, and monica murphy. people always say “omg men written by women” but i do not understand the hype about the men these women created?? obviously i’m not putting these talented people down whatsoever!

But..

the twisted series had the most ridiculous fucking plot but the tropes were nice, the love hypothesis felt like a fanfiction (which it actually was, so i’m not going to say anything about that) but it wasn’t exactly bad, just felt like it was a fanfiction. A million kisses in your lifetime was sorta creepy, the mmc kinda gr*ped the fmc but it was brushed off as “sexual tension” and the daddy-daughter relationship was straight creepy.

2. Repetitive stories, nearly all the same plot, characters, writing style

It’s as if all romance books are just all rewritten versions of the same plot, using the same tropes and the same personalities?

i mean the sunshine x grumpy is cute and all but GODS does the male character always have to be the dark brooding one who’s only soft for the fmc, who’s small and naive and acts like a kid?

if you’re going to use a trope atleast make it unique? make the plot, characters and the story YOURS.

It’s like literature doesn’t exist, it’s like reading straight wattpad in a book form. what happened???

3. requirement for spice/ unnecessary plot points

OH MY GOD. i’m not even blaming authors for the spice things, rather booktok and bookstagram. oh my goodness the requirement for spice in every book even when it’s main genre isnt romance is ridiculous. some people won’t read a book if it doesn’t have SPICE!? it’s ok to like it, but it’s so annoying when i see YA novels have it?

!! sex should not be in a YA novel. !!

along with the weird spice demands, it’s also another thing that sometimes there’s unnecessary plot points / scenes just to make a trope work. like having a character act out of character just to make a scene out of it.

i’m currently in a book slump because i can’t seem to find a good book to read. my expectations are so low you’d probably have to dig underground.