You've probably noticed that most romances feel the same, but we still love them! Why is that?
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Get notified of top trending articles like this one every week! (we won't spam you)The comfort of a story we already know
After a lot of thought, I think it all comes down to one thing: comfort. You know the idea of a ‘comfort show’? Well, it’s the same with books. Well, it's the same; since many stories resemble each other, we anticipate without realizing that we somehow know how it's going to go and how it's going to end, so we feel reassured.
There is also identification, which I find to be a quite important point. In new romances or dark romances, they highlight protagonists with traumas/difficulties that they generally overcome for and/or thanks to love.
A lot of young people go through tough times, and seeing characters who are open, empathetic, and vulnerable can really help. It gives us a moment of escape from an anxiety-filled world.
Thus, we find in these clichés a kind of comfort and/or a projection of ourselves, situations we have experienced or are living through. A moment of escape. And this explains why this genre is still very popular with young people.
"Romance novels generate over $1.44 billion in revenue, making romance the highest-earning genre of fiction." - Sweet Savage Flame
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Where do these stereotypes come from and what do we consume on a daily basis?
These stories have been around forever. Think of Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc. Foundational tales full of clichés: eternal love, the fragile distressed princess saved by the prince, etc.
We literally grew up surrounded by stereotypes. And all these tropes are often like this;
The male protagonist: handsome, rich, tattooed, a bad boy, a mob boss.
The female protagonist: fragile, shy, lacking confidence in her body (but everything will be better once her boyfriend buys her new clothes!).
Publishers also tend to play it safe: if a trope is selling millions, they’ll greenlight more of the same.
It almost always comes down to she’s going to be saved by a man. Even if the author tries to make her a badasse she still ends up with the guy in the end, right? Even in the movie "Little Women" Jo ends up with someone. In everything we consume daily (series, movies, books,...) we find the same stereotype.
How BookTok Shapes What We Read
Now let's talk about this phenomenon, young people are not looking to read classics but what's popular to fit into the reader category. And I find that really unfortunate, BookTok began to gain popularity on TikTok thanks to videos of teenagers sharing their readings, recommendations, etc. Users quickly embraced this trend by sharing their favorite reads and passionately discussing their favorite stories.
« #BookTok has accumulated 370 billion views, with over 52 million creations jumping on board … »
Somme content creators present quick and captivating reviews, which makes you want to buy. And thanks to that, many teenagers have taken up reading.
Writers have therefore been forced to adapt to the requirements of BookTok, which means using tropes. Readers place more importance on ticking a book off their list, making edits, or even creating videos than simply enjoying the reading of the book. Popularity is emphasized more than literary quality. Now, instead of buying a book because it looks nice, it's because 'I saw it on TikTok or because it's trending.'
But I think it's not all negative; the fact of sharing a passion with friends or being introduced to reading because of this is really great.
« The #romancebooks hashtag has gained more than 5.4 billion video views … romance is the biggest sub-genre within BookTok. »
« Romance consistently stands as one of the top-selling genres, generating around $1.4–1.5 billion annually in the U.S. alone (RWA). »
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Why Familiarity Will Always Win
Romance novels might be predictable, but that’s exactly their magic. In a world full of uncertainty, we crave stories where love always wins, and that’s why this genre will never stop being popular.
So maybe romance isn’t about originality, it’s about the comfort of knowing how it will end.
