#and the like 4 achillean romances that are “cool” one of which MIGHT have a PoC love interest DOES NOT COUNT AS DIVERSIFYING YOUR READING

[dabookgoblin]

I don't say this to start fights or anything, but I've been watching a lot of booktube videos lately by creators I'm new to and I've been hearing a lot of the same complaints-- and MAYBE this is bc I honestly haven't been on top of the latest releases (in my niche or outside) the past two-ish years-- but every time I hear people talking about how samey publishing is, in particular for the romantasy and romance genres... I feel like it's bc none of y'all complaining are actively reading as diversely as you pretend to be.

I read queer fiction/sci-fi/fantasy almost exclusively and there is a lot of diversity in that genre (tho it is a niche not without its own criticisms) I see people who read a lot of these 'book-tok darlings' that are all these cis-het allo-normative books by (predominantly) cis white women and then complain how everybody is "using the same tropes" "every romantasy is just a SJM clone" "romance books are just thinly veiled erotica anymore" and how even the online book community/creators all fall into the same ruts and like, BABES. YOU ARE LITERALLY READING ALL FROM THE SAME POT.

I'm in the community, I read a lot and often, I was even on (queer) booktok and my experience could not be any different. If you just went out of your way to follow people that promoted and read things that are different LO AND BEHOLD they often don't fall into a lot of these issues and complaints???? Like at all?

I'll be listening to these people vent and even tho they talking about books and the community I feel like I'm only allegedly in at this point, it always feels like finding one of those rant/gossip videos from some niche potting hobbyist community you've never even heard of.

IDK, I want to hear what other people think.