Romance.
You see it everywhere, in movies, tv shows, plays, books. Especially books.
Now, I don’t know about you, but personally, I am a lover of the Fantasy genre, and I expect epic battles and torn worlds and little limitations on creativity for races (werewolves, vampires etc.) and alliances between worlds. I mean, you could literally get away with anything because it’s fantasy. I love it, especially when it’s raw and violent. However, it is extremely difficult to find a book (any really) with little to no romance in it.
Again, I don’t know about you, but I am not a fan of romance. So I have a question for you: why is romance so prominent in everything? We don’t need romance to be happy, and a book certainly does not need romance to be enjoyable. So why is it so hard to find a YA book without romance?
I can list very few book right now that have either little or no romance in them that I’ve read.
- This Savage Song. No romance! Though granted, it feels like there might be in the next book, but I’m hoping not.
- Taran Matharu’s Summoner Very little mention of romance, though it does seem to be brewing.
- And now I can’t think of anything else.
- There’s probably more. Maybe. Hopefully.
So you get what I mean now.
I’m not saying I hate romance, because I do get swept up in it from time to time, but I honestly think in fantasy, there’s so many books that could benefit from having no romantic triangles or squares, and opposing forces falling in love against the odds and bam! war is not fought. In some of the books I’ve read, it felt like the author’s limited themselves by adding in romance. The romance would take over the plot and there would be little left for the creative world building and war politics and just the general distance between species and how they work out their differences without romance.
That’s not to say that it doesn’t work and help in other cases because there are times when the romance works brilliantly, but does it need to be in every book?
Editor’s Note: Sage is a blogger who has written this guest post for our reading pleasure. Please feel free to visit and follow her blog, as well. Fishing for Books is a great spot featuring book reviews, cover reveals and more. Thanks for visiting us Sage!
Oh, Sage and Tay, you are both so typical of today’s fantasy generation. I don’t mean that as a criticism, although it will come out sounding like it is. But, that’s more because I live in a different world, than because I think you’re both wrong.
For me, the popularity of romance is simple. It gives readers a small glimmer of happiness and hope in a world filled with violence, hatred and malice. As a reviewer, I read fantasy after fantasy where the author reflects a new world. A world filled with stranger creatures, different languages, unique cultures and, more often than not, each at war with the other.
As I read, I can’t help but think I’m in a variation of one of the many video games so popular today. So much for originality! I also can’t help but notice the core of violence each revolves around. Who, can take out the most enemy forces? Who can do the most triple flips to avoid being taken out? Who can build bigger and better mouse traps, steampunk contraptions, new automatic weapons that never run out of ammunition, to help them win the war against the alien super race(s).
Every time I review a fantasy story, I can’t help but notice how similar and, frankly, unoriginal they are. Sure, the names, planets, cities, maps (yes they all have to have a map), battles, languages and other details are different but, deep down, the plot remains the same.
I add that to today’s chaotic political world, movies and TV shows like Breaking Bad, Weeds, Transformers, and others, and it’s not hard to understand why there are so many depressed people. It’s also not hard to understand that for some, the only relief might be a cheesy romance novel. It’s kind of like the only break from all the doom and gloom of everything around them.
Do I think the generations behind mine are screwed up and beyond hope? Not only no, but hell no. The friends we have across various generations are some of the most impressive people I’ve ever met. However, I can’t help notice that many of them have little to no interest in reading. And, if they do read, it’s typically non-fiction. (I submit that maybe we just have weird friends but I’ll go on thinking they’re more typical than not.)
Since I’m a romance writer, and damn proud of it, I’ll continue to live in my own little world of happiness and continue to try and spread it as far and wide as I can. But then, I’ve always been noted for trying to swim upstream, being too happy, using way too many hugs in my books and living in a fantasy world just bubbling over with love, warmth and friendship.
So, if anyone wants a little (a lot) of that? Just venture into my fantasy world and give it a try.
I’m going to go with no, romance isn’t always necessary, and I think you’re right that it can take over and bog an otherwise good book down.
From a marketing stand-point, throwing in a romance is probably the easiest way to get people invested in a book from beginning to end. As a culture, we’re obsessed with watching other people pair up and fall in love, even if those people aren’t real. We’re so hungry for it that we’ll even take horribly written romance if it has a happy ending. This is honestly why I don’t like romance in general (see my most recent post for me details). A lot of it feels manufactured and cheap. I think this tactic is abused so much in YA since dating is such a big part of the culture–figuring out what kind of people you’re attracted too, going on first dates, first kisses, all that craziness.
On the other hand, if done right, I think romance can be a really good way to develop characters. Well-written and interesting couples often play well off each other, drawing attention to their unique strengths and weaknesses in the way they compliment and foil one another. Not to mention it’s usually pretty fun to see how ridiculous people are willing to act at the beginning of a relationship, so long as the author doesn’t take it too seriously. Plus, healthy relationships depend heavily on trust, communication, and vulnerability, so romance can be a good way to really show what characters are made of at both their weakest and strongest moments. If I do include a romantic subplot, that’s how I try to use it.
But, like you said, it does feel really over used and there are plenty of other ways to bring out your character’s, well, character, including family relations and friendships. Romance has a lot of character-building potential, but it definitely feels wasted a lot of the time, especially in YA.