Essay Bundle: How Romance Books Can Be Impactful

Introduction on Why I Feel the Need To Do This

Hello. I, for the sake of my security online, will introduce myself as Cloudy, and I have finally decided to fuck any form of decorum or my fears that a college will figure out my actual identity and deny me entrance into their school because they are reading any of the cursed things I post here and am going to start randomly placing these "articles" or "vlogs" in this metaphorical diary of what my writing life in like to rant on how society treats anything related to romance books.

For those of you who maybe are in communities that are really chill about romance books or the more mature content some of them bring, I have noticed in my home and town, even in media, that people look at you differently when you reveal that you love romance books.

For better context on the view I am bringing to the table, I am just about to start my freshman year in highschool. My age range is 14-16, again, I want to stay as anonymous as possible, and my bookshelf is basically exclusively romance novels from the innocent Caraval and Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogies from Stephenie Garber to the much more mature books from Sarah J. Maas.

For this "article" I'm just going to focus on the reaction some people may have from this information and why I'm even writing this to begin with. I've seen around three different reactions so far:

First, most of the other girls I naturally relate to just smile and nod when they see me reading my favorite books, more than happy to dive right into their own book-rants, eagerly anticipating me to share my own afterwards. It came to my attention rather recently that I have not been reading YA books (I assumed the system finally broke deeply enough to allow A Court of Thorns and Roses to be labeled as such) but that's wrong. We now have New Adult books, targeted for 18-25 year olds, which is the actual age range I have found myself in.

Given the fact that A Court of Thorns and Roses, Fourth Wing, Kingdom of the Wicked and so many other mature books were recommended to me by other girls my age, the specification in age range is utterly pointless. A topic I will be diving into at a later time.

The second reaction I get is one of shock. I'm sure if I spoke about my reading interests to the wrong crowd, it would be because I'm too young to read these books (a conversation my parents inform me they've had with their co-workers, actually) but as of right now, the only shocked responses come from classmates who hate reading.

And then there's the reaction that caused my need to write this. Being someone who showcases a more "feminine" image is difficult in society. It's a basic fact that we can't avoid, though it seems to be getting better over time. Being an author is a respectable job, and in general, no one is going to argue about it. . . until you specify what you write about. I'm sure each genre gets their own fair share of prejudice, writing is more subjective than paintings, most of the time. However no one will downplay what you write if it's non-fiction, or horror, or fantasy. Not the way people downplay Romance.

I want to write LGBTQ+ romance novels as soon as I'm mature enough to truly not hold anything back, and the amount of times people assume I already am writing sex scenes just because of that one series they know I've read is kind of shocking. And then there's all of the comments for people who do write those scenes. "It's just smut," has become the most aggravating sentence to me. Or, the classic "you've read one, you've read them all" in reference to those more fluffy, contemporary stand-alones.

People don't take the romance genre seriously, is the bottom line I always have to accept. There is always going to be a large group of people beyond the 20 and 30 year olds on book-tok who will frown down at me when I publish my debut novel when I'm older.

And the thing is, we all know that's how it goes. There's nothing truly wrong with their opinions, either, as there are always going to be bad books in a genre who attract haters, just like romance always will have some cheesy moments in it, not to mention that it will always be subjective. It's just part of being in the writing field. Take your draft to any number of publishers, there will always be people who think it's trash along with people who think it's the best writing ever.

Which really is why I feel the need to write this. It's just another frustration that comes with being part of the world and nothing will ever truly diminish it.

I will end my first entry saying this: If I have a purpose for this besides ranting it would just be to further ingrain the saying "don't judge a book by its cover" into people's heads. Though "Don't judge a genre by its reputation" fits more adequately. There are so many romance books that have numerous plots and really deep messages! And even the more fluffy, light-hearted books still have a meaningful purpose.