WHY SO MANY BOOKS FEEL THE SAME 🤔
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- Опубликовано: 5 июл 2024
- WHY SO MANY BOOKS FEEL THE SAME 🤔
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#fantasytrends #fantasytropes #fantasyromance 
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I think one reason books are getting really trope heavy (besides laziness) is that authors have started viewing their books like internet media. They want their book to appear in as many search results as possible, and algorithms are increasingly presenting tropes. "Because you liked enemies to lovers, here are 100 other enemies to lovers books". So authors are doing the equivalent of keyword stuffing: trope stuffing. Put every trope you can think of into the book so you can list them as keywords. Algorithms don't recognize original concepts. We may soon have to look at the last page of search results for the original books.
makes sense
Yes and those quick hit IG images showing the tropes for the book to gain interest
Kinda the book version of how all tiktok meme edits use the same songs
Good points. Similar to how many companies became smart about playing the SEO ( search engine optimisation) tactic when Google was getting more use back in the day.
Then everyone and their grandparents saturates the whole scene because everyone knows the tactics.
I really hate this trend of books appealing more to the algorithm and fleeting internet hype than to the interests of the reader (and frankly, the author)
The repetition in the rhythm of titles drives me nuts. A Song of Ice and Fire, A Court of Cliches and Tropes
That second title is ideal for a spoof book.
A blank of blank and blank
to be fair, A Song of Ice and Fire came out in the 90s. all the ones after are getting a bit tired tho
A Bowl Of Mac and Cheese, a thrilling fantasy trilogy set in a world inspired by Sarah J Maas about a chef fighting for fame in a cooking competition
The Girl On The Train
The Girl In The Cabin
The Girl In Cabin 13
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
The Girl With All The Gifts
The Girl In White
The Girl Who Played With Fire
The Girl Who Got Away
Yeah we have a quantity over quality problem right now.
Everything always has.
Yes. The nature of things when there's a low bar to entry and lower bar to what's considered quality.
Word
It started with harry potter (i love hp, dont misintepret me). They realized books were narketable
Yep, it takes me a long time to find a truly good book on audible and especially one that isn't mature.
• I wish they had mature and non-mature version of the same book (with no hate/offense meant to either versions) so people that like wholesome experience and ones that prefer mature both could read too.
• audibles mature isn't equal to spotifys mature content of just swears and some 18+ mentions.
• it's explicit n there's no way to filter those books except scroll down to the description.
• I wish they had like levels of mature like subtle/explicit/if they mean mature violence like gore/mature tropes like suicide/mature sexual content whatever so we can pick what we can stomach.
i suggested them to get an ai incorporated in the app to search a book we describe because search bar just works by the search and feed is just bad.
Gotta agree on the language. Nothing breaks immersion like characters saying something "for the win" or that someone is "hot as f$%#"
Trying to read fourth wing because it's hotshit. Alright we're in some vaguely early modern fantasy setting, great. Then I read "for the win"
In fantasy, I don't want the word "hot" unless it's describing temperature. Please, give me the poetry when you talk about your loved one. "Hot" is such a pedestrian concept, which is fine for modern worlds, not ancient/old worlds. That's bare minimum to me.
"For the win" = Fourth Wing = Wtf
@@izmatopia4347 /r/iamverysmart
'😈', said the Dark One.
The modern language drives me crazy in particular when everyone talks like a 14-year-old that just discovered swear words. That was part of what threw me off about Fourth Wing, was even the old generals spoke like modern teenagers.
very few ppl have the ability to code switch and create a Voice for each individual character. And editors are not harsh enough
@@blah914 'very few'?? What? Almost every good writer can do that. If you cant create individual voices for characters, which to be entirely frank is a basic element of writing, then you are a bad writer. End of.
Character voices aren't the only thing you're going to be doing wrong if you can't even get THAT right. How are you going to craft in-universe cultures and religions, or write a coherent plot, or manage complex character arcs and relationships, if something so simple as 'dont make every character sound like every annoying tiktoker' is beyond you?
@@zoerice4227 ... very few ppl are good writers 💀 have a cuppa and destress a bit. it sounds like u had a rough day.
@@blah914 nice bait, but it's a bit obvious. Maybe next time imply that I'm on my period, at least blatant misogyny is more typical in a comment section.
@@zoerice4227 omg 🤣 I did not imply u were on ur period in any way. I'm a woman. my point still stands: few ppl are good writers, and you need to chill and not resort to victim mentality and identity politics when u are the one being a d*ck.
Shrek has the best fantasy romances - there, I've said it 😄😄
🥨
Fr 💚🧅
SO TRUE!!! Not saying it as a joke, this is very true!
True.
Shrek is goated
Honestly the height thing 🤣 all these men are like 6’5” and “massive” 😂😂😂
😭😭😭 just make them 7'10 alr
I kinda feel a little bit liiiiike well..??? Women have been described the same way for an eternity, strictly to be lusted over so a little part of me like oh well lol that may also be because I love imagining a 6’5 muscle god so I’m biased but I get that across the board we need diversity in terms of body types. Short kings, fat kings, medium kings, all the kings!
I kinda like this trope because my BF is 6’5 and I’m 5’5 lmaooooo 🤭😅
As a 6’4” woman who’s not thin I like that a lot :D
Not to mention 6’5 muscle beefcake with 16 abs is probably really uncomfortable to cuddle and feels like a board. Let’s bring back celebrating blacksmith builds and dad bods bc at least they got cushion as well as being functionally strong for that fantasy ideal
"Moronically snarky MC " 😂yes! I cannot stand this type of main character, it completely ruins a book for me.
It also feels like there are only two typed of girls/women that exist in fantasy romances: either a snarky badass or a quirky wallflower (who also suddenly tends to become snarky when she meets the love interest). It's so frustrating!
I agree with all other points as well, especially the All Lust, No Love and constant descriptions of how hot the characters are. Our society is already so hyperfocused on appearance that seeing the same thing in books is just annoying. I don't want to read about square jaws and chiseled abs, I want to read about emotional and intellectual connections the characters develop.
The "only 2 types of women" is so true 😭 like why can't we have a MC who is literally just a normal girly girl? She can still be badass without having to be "not like other girls", edgy just for the sake of being edgy or 'quirky'... We need romance authors to have a Barbie marathon ffs...
Hear hear! As a man, I can't stand the terribly written woman characters written as love interests by mostly male writers back in the day. Typical hot girl who's only there to fulfill the obligatory sex scene/ wish fulfilment of the male protagonist. As if she has no agency or layers beyond her relationship to said male protagonist.
In recent times, we have a crop of women writers who are just as terrible with their characters. 🤦
@@misamisaa4547 Where are the "not like other girls" though... I only ever see the kind of women you just wished there were more of...
Well, I don't mind having fit, handsome male characters in books. Sure, the emotional connection between characters is important. But whats wrong woth looking at your love interest thinking "he/she is so gorgeous looking"? Like, it's the most natural thing in the world to be physically attracted to another person due to their looks.
So yeah, I want both. Chiseled abs as well as emotional/intellectual connection. Both are important to me in a relationship.
This here is what I call the someone-let-a-preteen-girl-ghost-write-this technique 😂🤦🏽♀️💀
Im really tired of how all the protagonists became queen in the end even though they said at beginning they hate royals and nobles but as soon they "fall in love with a prince" they change themselves. Also that trope: oh-I-was-a-lost-princess .
The lost princess shitck is getting old.
Big reason why I disliked Throne of Glass. Also the protagonist is a poorly written Mary Sue and I despise her so much.
@@draeannxRIGHT. Because Celaena was SUPER ADAMANT that she didn’t want to become a queen and that part of her life was dead. But then the characters and the author portray her as selfish for feeling this way.
Recent polls show that many people love tropes such as a mysterious prince as the MC.
It's a power trip thing. People want to be the top dog, just with underdog arcs. I hate it.
Why should all protagonists be the top line, best in the world? Imagine a story about a sheep herder who learns to take up arms in a civil war, I'd root that. So ling as he doesn't take the crown in the end
@draeannx That was actually on my reading list - (Idk anything about the book, it was a suggestion that kept popping up) but now that you're saying this...I'm not reading it. Thanks for saving me from a story like that
"I can't handle the characters that have a chip on their shoulder and are also really stupid" -- YES YES YES.
Actually pretty much everything combined with idiocy doesn't work (for me). ^^
Stupid enough to seek revenge, smart enough to come up with a plan that convinces others to go along with the doomed mission. haha, these can be great side characters though or bad guys
This is literally what I felt whilst reading When the Moon Hatched
@@matthewvp8507That's disappointing. I was looking forward to reading it. Those characters are really annoying though, unless they have a good growth arc.
Depends for me. I adore Kvoathe in Kingkiller Chronicles. He is magnificently flawed, and I love him. I'd hate him if i actually met him tho
The “stupid, snarky protagonist” only works for me if they actually have some consequences for being stupid and snarky, like they get fired because they rudely refuse help from a more experienced person (setting themselves up to both fail their task and burn their bridges at that workplace at the same time). It’s the stupid, snarky protagonists who somehow are always proven right and somehow always succeed that pop up all over the place though, and they drive me nuts.
I know what you mean - they start of all confident & arrogant & get beaten down a peg or ten in the book. Tho normally I prefer if the moronic snarky character is a side character 'cuz you don't have to deal with their BS for as long as it takes for them to realise they fucked up
question, if the protagonist does indeed get consequences for their actions, lets say they get humiliated and they know it, but they also get support from other characters, would that negate the kinda impact of their consequence? idk if that makes sense but thats the best i could explain it 😭
That's applicable to pretty much all major character traits - they got tropey without carrying over any consequences.
I definitely agree that the stupid and/or snarky protagonist trope does better in some situations more than others (like in SH3, it makes sense for Heather Mason to be a snarky teen since it could be a coping mechanism for all the horrors she's come across).
Part of me wonders if we have a lot of protagonists that follow this trope because there's something inherently rebellious to them, and authors could project their own issues they've had against authority figures in their lives.
I have some elderly family members who, when they were young kids, grew up in some variation of a "children should be seen and not heard" environment - so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people create snarky protagonists that are in the right as wish fulfilment after growing up in those kinds of environments.
Your point of characters only finding each other hot instead of actually loving each other makes me think more authors should have seen the The Swan Princess movie as a kid.
*cracking up, remembering some classic lines* 😂 Thanks for bringing up the memory, although I don’t even think I’ve seen the movie all the way through since we never owned it.
"You should write a book... 'How To Offend Women In Five Syllables Or Less.'"
😂😂😂
OMG, the "male" "female" thing has bothered me FOR YEARS. It started in romance and has migrated as romance authors have moved more towards fantasy. It's SOOOOOOOO cringe.
It was common speech when I grew up. Some women insist its an insult, and I have to state: as a female person, I prefer the word 'female' to 'girl' or 'woman'. "Woman' had connotations of motherliness and breeding sexuality that made me uncomfortable--still do. Girl was slightly better, but meant immaturity. "Female' is a bit distanced from the grotesqueries of mating expectations.
Nowadays, I can skip to 'Crone'. 😆
The male/female thing drives me INSANE! It takes me so far out of the world. In my work/school background, “female” was only ever used as a derogatory term for the women, who were a tiny minority. It’s become ingrained now that when used as a noun to describe a sentient human (or human-enough, like fae or whatever), it’s inherently dismissive. Like, “Ugh, females.” When I encounter that trope in books, my brain just twitches and brings all that baggage back, so instead I replace “male” and “female” when used as nouns in my head with “man” and “woman” as I’m reading (if that makes sense).
A good way I spot these same old romantasy novels is by checking the book covers. The book covers also seem to follow a certain trend.
🤣 Know exactly what you're talking about.
They're just as ubiquitous and terrible as music marketing executives back in the day.
PR and marketing factories.
Another good thing to check is what the reviews on the back cover are saying. If I see a single review that says something like “This was so hot!” I immediately put it back down, because I now know what the focus of the book is, and it’s not story
Thanks.
As a librarian I can tell you it is not just romantasy. Nearly all genres have book cover trends. A few years ago nearly all books had women on beaches on them, in the 60s it was very prominent text, in the 70s it was graphics, and so on. Book covers aren't immune to trends. They always had trends and will always have them.
Just say "Fourth Wing"
😂
😂😂😂
YEP
Am I the only one that think it’s super similar to Red queen by Victoria
@@blackvelvetsings5310 Nope. Fourth Wing really just feels like someone asked an AI to read through the popular Romantasy or young adult Fantasy books of the last 10-20 years and then make a list of all relevant tropes and plot points and then she just wrote them in one book. Like many parts of the world building look like a rip off from Game of Thrones, characters are a mix of Red Queen and ACOTAR, the whole: a disabled person's challenge is to ride a dragon plot is from Dragon School etc.
Enemies to lovers (or friends!) is such a trip for me. Either the author writes it too soft so the main characters aren't really enemies--more like mildly inconvenienced with one another upon first meeting--or they go in HARD and it feels too mean and personal to come back from 😅
Personally why I prefer rivals to lovers, or at least describing it as that. Some people say the ultimate enemies to lovers is Pride and Prejudice and everything else is a failed knock off. Others say a true enemies to lovers is they should be obsessively trying to kill or thwart each other and are actually enemies on opposite sides, while having a mutual respect and obsession with each other. Both are p different, and I like both if they’re done well.
The former is like the first example you said, done poorly they’re just kinda mildly inconveniencing each other while annoyed they’re attracted to one another, as opposed to challenging each others biases and learning from each other. On the other hand the second is like-yikes idk if this is a believable transition to a relationship depending on how far one pairing goes during the enemies portion
@@Joyride37 the second version of the trope was great in Phineas and Ferb.
@@ringinn7880for which characters
Reminds me of trying to create a 'evil' version of a heroic character that was likable. So many likable villains are just..unlawful. Or you just don't see the truly evil consequences of their actions, and the writer carefully portrays the victims as not really bothered.
@@cloudberry7241 Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Perry the Platypus
I'm glad you bought up the Sarah J Maas thing, actually. (I read the "Throne of Glass" series on a recommendation...) Honestly, the Fae business went beyond hot, long-lived, pointy-eared "males" and "females" for me; precisely because Maas herself didn't seem to go beyond that. Fae in her books seemed to have no discernable culture at all. Their ways of speaking were the same; their ways of scheming were the same; their cruelty seemed as on par as anybody else's in that world, if a little more bitey. Maas's world struck me as fantasy ornamentation to dress a romance. And given that just about every main- or side-character got a perfectly fitted side-piece by the end, it was pretty boring to me, too.
Maas could literally call her "faeries" elves and nothing about them would change
Edit: honestly some of them could literally just be humans with magical powers. There's no reason to make them centuries old (especially not with their 19-year-old love interests)
The main characters sucked in TOG, but I am ride or die for Manon’s coven. That scene made me shed an actual physical tear.
See this is why when I was in HS, ACOTAR didn’t do it for me because I read “Iron King” which was FAE. Like King Oberon-Queen Titania- myth. Idc what people thought of the female lead, personally, it was plot over romance but the romance was dashed in and high school me LOVED it. There’s nothing like it in the Romantasy genre honestly because they don’t world build
The super snarky and aggressive girl is a very cheap shortcut to write "strong female characters", imo.
I think the reason I wasn’t impressed with ACOTAR is because it’s basically a wattpad story and I read too many of those as a teenager 😂
I hate when the fantasy book I was so excited to read turns out to be fantasy romance with lots of these tropes. Happened to me few times this year already :/
can't wait t o see what the 'fantasy books with miniscule romance plot' is
Same! I hate the surprise smut fest because I love fantasy, just without the spice! ... At least not that kind of spice.
@@zoebrugg7594 yeah, if I wanted that, I'd pick that in the first place. So many 'fantasy' books with interesting premises were ruined for me to the point I don't pick a fantasy book when it has 'romance' tag on goodreads anymore, no matter how interesting it might seem.
@@zoebrugg7594I’ve taken a long break from reading young adult and new adult fantasy because of this. I’m only in my early twenties but since I’ve always been an avid reader the smut and tropes started annoying me during my late teens. Once you read the popular series like TOG you’ve basically kind of have read it all.
While there are still unique books in the genre, I think they are the minority at the moment.
I’ve found that fantasy and science fiction books outside of those genre spaces have more to offer me at this point in my life.
I self published a trilogy quite a few years ago now. I purposely limited the amount of romance in it because so many books have it so much and without any logical purpose.
@@danikajayde8577 I’m a writer too interested in self publishing one day, how’s it going for you?
11:00 I think doormat love interests are actually a large waste of opportunity for some deep characterization. People don't become doormats for no reason--they just learn early in life that there is no point in asserting themselves, so they just learn to let people walk all over them. Though not fantasy, one manga that explores the doormat psyche fantastically is Goodnight Punpun.
Thanks for the suggestion :)
Ooh, that reminds me of Yue Qingyuan from Scum Villain's Self-Saving System
I almost feel as though I’ve committed some kind of unspoken writerly taboo by writing a werewolf book that isn’t a romance.
Thanks for more werewolves. ❤
@@AliasPhex It’ll be published some time in the next few months. Basically, spooky wolf dude pops up in this six year old kid’s bedroom and just sits there watching the door every night for six years. Then it bites him in the arm and disappears. I really hope people like it😅
So many books feel the same because that's what the readers want. Readers only want to read what they've already read... just with some tweaks. As an indie author, I learned that the hard way.
The star system doesn’t help with this. Authors can be judged harshly for doing something unexpected by readers who want books that cater to their wishes.
It’s giving “A [place] of [noun] and [other noun/verb]” 😂
Enemies to Lovers has variants. My least fave is when they are supposed to be on the same side and enemies over some trivial interpersonal misunderstanding. My fave fave favorite is when they are both honorable mature people but their nations are at war, or he killed her father, or only one of them can win the elixir of eternal life to save their sick mom/dog whatever… then you don’t need Snark and Miscommunication to keep them apart. They are driven apart by real differences.
have you read anything like that? i need some recommendations
Yeah, what I don't like is snark for snark's sake and relationships based on needless and gratuitous betrayal.
My best friend's mom watches a lot of Hallmark and there's about ten million movies about someone surveying a town/farm/business so they can bulldoze it/sell it out from under them/undercut their market for a big corporation, and every single time they start a romantic relationship with the person they're scheming against without telling them they are, or are planning to, destroy their life for profit. The love interest gets mad, the guy makes some grand gesture and an emotional speech about how he totally changed his mind after he ✨fell in love with her✨, she forgives him, the end.
And almost every single one starts with them being needlessly, even moronically snarky to eachother. For no discernible reason. Until they either get in an argument that somehow turns into a makeout session or one if them does or says something uncharacteristically sentimental leading the other one to realise "There's more to them than I thought 🥺"
The endless repetition of these 2 tropes has turned me off them completely in any context. It takes willpower to even give any kind of "enemies to lovers" story a chance because a good 80% of them are exactly that type of bs and the other 20% aren't necessarily good either.
I think Pride and Prejudice and Much Ado About Nothing are the gold standards and the umpteen bazillion imitators just cannot handle it. One in a million is actually decent.
@@perlapamela2023I recently read Daindreth's assassin, and it has more than one really good enemies to lovers plots. And the character are actually really clever, there is zero pettiness, zero stupidity, just circumstances that place them on different sides and they have to deal with them. But if you want a book that takes aaaages for the characters to stop viewing each others as enemies, that ain't it. They are too mature and the world is in too much peril for that. Great books though
One of my most favourite examples is Lois McMaster Bujold's Shards of Honor... technically SciFi, but it's no technobabble :)
i just read Dark Shores and loved the execution of enemies to lovers for the reasons you mentioned, and its a real slow burn too :)
One book’s tropes get super popular and everyone tries to jump in the same bandwagon. Fantasy has chased this dragon for a loooong time too
Enemies to lovers is a Pride and Prejudice remake (and often written poorly). Characters immediately falling in love solely because they are hot is Romeo and Juliet (and still just as cringe).
Pride and Prejudice isn't even Enemies to Lovers. It's miscommunication trope 100% lol
@@izmatopia4347 idk if I completely agree with you. Darcy actively works against the bennet family’s best interests by stepping in and preventing bingley from marrying Jane. Elizabeth is constantly trying to down play or smooth over her family’s social flubs in front of bingley to help the match go through. For at least the first half of the book they are actively working against each other for opposite interests even if they didn’t realize it at the time.
Cringy, to be sure.
But Midsummer Night’s Dream is the ultimate basis for Fate having a sense of humor and things work out in the end after we have all had a good laugh. (It’s the only Shakespeare piece that I truly like.)
Romeo and Juliet at least is a Tragedy and knows it is 😂
A lot of people seem to forget that and are like INSTANT LOVE STAR CROSSED PASSION and put it in stories, forgetting that the whole point is that was a bad thing actually bc their families hated each other and got them both killed
This is why I love the Emily Wilde’s books. She is not helpless, she is an academic, her love interest is annoying but he LIKES her actually like her as a person… the plot is smart and the fey aren’t evil “just because”
I love those books too! So good!
i got the first book a few months ago and i can't wait to read it soon because it's such a breath of fresh air within the popular books 🥹 it may just appeal to me personally because it's the kind of story i fall in love with but i think it's brilliant 🌟
I don't wanna sound mean, but most of the writers that get massively popular online aren't actually writing for the sake of the story. They are writing for the potential money, and use social media as a way to stitch a story together. They don't treat their characters as people with agency, and they don't allow the story to naturally progress. I call these kinds of writers as "cosplay writers" because they have the veneer of being a writer, but there's ultimately nothing there. These books are easily marketable because they hit all the popular words and phrases online, not because there is any substance. And you can like these books all you want, but at the end of the day they are made of nothing.
Good way of putting it and why I don't like most of them.
@@RoseBaggins
Like it something I've noticed more and more over the years. It also kinda inspired my own work because I see what people want, and just put the effort, love and attention it needs. Unfortunately being broke and a single mom I don't have time to market myself lol.
Omg I am stealing the expression "cosplay writer" 😝 and you're right, because it feels really amateurish, like they just read ACOTAR and we're like "you know what? I can do that too!" Except they've never written anything in their life 😅🤦♀️
@@nessaidolslayer3426
I'm glad I'm not alone I don't wanna knock inexperienced or bad writers, since fiction writing is something everyone can do. But these books are soulless and only made to make money. I hate it.
ACOTAR and Fourth Wing
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This is the same in the movie industry. Nothing but remakes of the same old thing for the most part.
YES, thank you, agree with everything you mentioned. I think one of the issue is that a lot of new writers are mainly inspired by contemporary fantasy romance, and it's extremely limiting. If you think of the greatest writers, they were inspired by History, poetry, the classics, mythology, and not just greek mythology. They were very educated people, and/or had experienced a lot of the world, and because of that were able to create rich and unique worlds, they also had more things to say, and could write deeper stories.
One reason why Lord of the Rings works but not its copycats.
Very well said. Such writers, both men and women had plenty of real world experience to draw from.
I like Tolkien. I also like Mary Shelley's original Frankenstein ( not the typical abridged version).
A man who was a war veteran and young woman barely out of her teens with different life experiences and standing yet capable of capturing my attention and admiration with their writing.
What's the connection?
Both wrote from life experience, observation, reflection, discussion with peers and being unconcerned with market segments.
Fiction = overwritten short stories. Non-fiction = overwritten magazine articles.
Fucking thank you! I’ve been reading a lot of old pulp horror and fantasy stuff, and it just absolutely nails why modern novels suck so bad-the BLOAT is killing everything from the novel to cinema. People don’t know when enough is enough. There’s nothing more satisfying than a less-than-two-hundred-pages story that just sticks the landing perfectly. It’s a shame we have what we have, right now.
You said it. Something I've noticed the past few years. Very off putting to me.
When it comes to romance-and a good love story-I am a firm believer in "less is more." Attraction can be important (and in fact, UST can be a great tool in building/writing romantic relationships), but if you rely solely on physical attraction to sell your romance, the story feels more like a tale of lust rather than love. There's nothing wrong with that, and many people enjoy those stories too, but if a love story is what you're going after, then you'll have to do the work to sell it to your audience.
YUP!👍
Y'know you're the first person who's done a breakdown like this that actually not just makes sense, but takes things from a logical standpoint without being patronizing or that same kind of "over snarky" that are being used too often in books these days. Thank you!
I think Sarah j.maas stole the mate thing from Wattpad 😂
its such an old term and idea that i cant have people calling her an "inventor".
@@kattodoggo3868 I saw it in multiple wattpads wolves dark romances ,😅 i feel ashemed just to read this term
We should just leave that word for animal pairings and British dialogue because we honestly say it A LOT over here it's funny
i am not surprised that fantasy romance has copycats. i mean the romance genre is built upon this concept, i think this is where a lot of clash comes from between fantasy readers and romance readers when figuring out the right balance. i just hate that i am not into all that epic dark fantasy romance/erotica trends. give me more light hearted fantasy romance that isn't just legends and latte.
My Lady Jane might work. Both the show and the book.
I'd recommend Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater and A Far Wilder Magic by Alison Saft :)
Tress of the Emerald Sea or Yumi and the Nightmare Painter might be what you're looking for.
Highly recommend the webtoon 'A Spell for a Smith'
@@CoraMaria Started reading from your recommendation and I really love it! Thank you! 💕
Try being a professional editor. 😂 I get book after book that literally has the same names of the main characters, the same settings, and of course the same template, plot point by plot point. It feels like the majority of "authors" (and I use this term very loosely anymore) don't even try to be creative at all. In many cases, the art has been eliminated from fiction writing, especially in genres like romance and mystery, but in fantasy as well. But while I can vent about the writers, it's the readers that glom onto these carbon copies that really get in my craw. Why are so many people acting like something is brilliant and groundbreaking when it's legit a stolen plot from a much better written book of the past???
So much has been written in all genres by now that it's getting extremely hard to come up with something entirely fresh. I think fiction as such, unless perhaps it deals directly with contemporary sociological issues and/or politics, is bound to grow increasingly stale with time. There are only so many plots and tropes to choose from. You can push at those boundaries to some degree, but if you push to the point where you break too many "rules" the stories stop making logical sense. For the fantasy genre I think perhaps world building is the only facet of a given novel where an author can approach true freedom of creativity. In the end you can only place a finite number of plots in hopefully novel settings.
@@christerdehlin8866 There may be only a limited numer of plot elements, but there is a nearly infinite number of ways you can put them together, and if you want to copy, pick a story so old few have read it nowadays.
the two previous comment make very good points, but I'd like to add from my experience w writers, my education work in film and tv script development: a lot of it is also anxiety as a response to cancel culture. so many writers gets put to the wall about what they write, as if the actions and statements of their characters were their own, and bc they "thought of it" therefore they must approve or subconsciously support it ect. that sort of thing is paralysing for your creativity and ability to write about deep issues, or even just write a good s*x scene. with some writers, once we have developed a good enough relationship to share A03 pen names, it is insane how much better they are at writing and storytelling when they are unencumbered by expectations, fear, and anxiety. and the crazy thing is, they all view their fanfics as their "crap writing", and are shooketh when I tell them that's it's actually pretty good. Writing like nobody is watching is *hard*, esp in this day and age when authors have to basically be their own marketing team and constantly be exposed in such a way that 30 yrs ago, only a-list rockstars were.
This applies, ironically, even to Maas as ACOTAR is just reskinned self-insert of The Black Jewels trilogy.
@@user-sl2ng2hr1k How I fantasize about rewriting some things: What if this didn't use offensive words, but original non-Earth words? What if this was written so the reader had a clue what was going on? People will tell me the originals were masterpieces, but I'm not the only person to hate them..
Books are like any other media in the business world. Publishers find a trend and then overwhelm us with the same thing until the market collapses. At this point, I'd like to see a return to LOTR-style fantasy.
LOTR style fantasy? Are you referring to its high fantasy setting or its Hero’s Journey set up?
@@melindagallegan5093 Really both, though I don't mind if it's one or the other.
@@darrickdean1849 So essentially less romantasy then?
I am running into this with my current read - What Lies Beyond the Veil - the LF Estrella was raised as an oppressed peasant in a very strict society and says things like "Dont be a dick", and "Im not going to spread my legs for any man" ... just things that she should not be saying/are overly vulgar for what we know about her character. Also, these are things her fated mate would not be charmed to hear her say because he comes from a very formal court. The way she emasculates him and he just "chuckles" drives me crazy. You cannot have a strong alpha character who is also a dope and allows his mate to snark him all day long with an amused expression. Estrella has zero skills, has had her life saved by him multiple times and still is such an "oppressed, I don't need a man, girl boss". It's something that lets me know the author has leaked a bit too much of her modern day thinking into the story and it just doesn't flow right.
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Right now Estrella is upset because Callum is insisting they share the same sleeping quarters (and not be separated) while they figure out there new circumstances (surrounded by strangers and stuck in a dark, creepy cave system) (she is also supposed to be horribly afraid of cave monsters, but put her around a group of strangers in a cave and I guess she is fine?) ... However, IMO - Estrella shouldn't want to be separated from Callum. He is safe, strong and based on the time period and dangers around her, SHE NEEDS HIM. Again, she has no skills lol other than picking berries. She isn't even very grateful or appreciative, always got an attitude. Give these fated males a woman worthy of them! BUT it does show you that it's easy to write a male character we all swoon over but very hard for female writers to tap into writing worthy women.
so spot on
idk what it is with everyone making their main character mean af 😭😭
I totally agree with you about the whole male/female thing. I hate when people use male/female as nouns when talking about people. It is incorrect and generally fairly inhumanizing. When talking about people, male/female are adjectives like a male singer or a female astronaut. But the male singer is a man and the female astronaut is a woman 😂
Tell me you're joking, please this cannot be real
Agreed. It comes off sounding like a nature documentary. "The pale-haired male is sending signals of unease to his rival."
@@xiiir838they aren't lying, what they said is 1000% true, and 9f you have problem with that, look into yourself bud
@@baristaz8834 I'm fortunate that I don't have the same ideology as you so I'm not deIus¡xnaI
As a non-English speaker it is even worse : even as adjective, we only use these for animals, and it was hard at first to adjust when I learned English.
Fantasy books that annoy me the most is where a character doesn’t know that he has some inner magical powers until he does and then he’s the “key” or “chosen” or something along those lines. I also don’t like female characters that are written as “badass” but they’re really not, they’re just mean to everyone for no reason. Imagine if Aragorn was an a hole to everyone, would that make him badass? But for some reason, many writers think their female character can’t be strong if she’s nice. Or she can’t be strong if she doesn’t kick some man’s butt twice her size. Like they HAVE to establish that. To me it’s extremely immature writing and I’m honestly sick of it. I just want a good story.
This is the fantasy genre, anythings possible. Physical size does not matter when their is magic involved especially since a lot of these female characters have magic powers like super strength. It's ok for a girl in fantasy books to beat a man in a fight you're just butthurt and misogynistic with frail masculinity who underestimate women and think they are inferior. All women are different, and not going to fit your narrow view of them. Women are not here to pander to you're feelings. You're feelings are not more important than women's lives.
@@seductiveraven4895 oh wow, there we go, a butt hurt comment. You completely missed my point and you went straight to attacking.
I love discovery of hidden powers! But not when the character ends up being the most powerful/smartest/prophecied, etc. just out of nowhere. The chosen one trope can be done well, but it has been done a lot. I have fun with it my novel, Sky of Seven Colors, where the race of giants insist their prophecy is about the main character, but she quickly realizes any human would have worked. She’s just the first one they stumble across and kidnap. In the giants’ world, her humanity is sort of a power because color is treasure to them, but she is completely ordinary.
@seductiveraven4895 that was super mean for no reason. Its really ironic how strong you think you are because your mean. Didnt we just talk about this!
Um eww why is there a misogynist here, looks like we got butt hurt men in the comments who hate women in fantasy.
I agree with the modern language being a problem, and I think it’s because it messes with the immersion. We expect that, given that the characters are in an entirely separate world with different historical and cultural influences, the characters will not be speaking and thinking like a modern Earth-human, so it pulls us out of the moment.
The tan/ethnically ambiguous thing is seriously disingenuous. Authors know the meaning of words and leaving them out (I hope) so trying to get the broad appeal by being vague in books then going for the social justice points by being explicit on social media is just so UGH
the liberals won’t like this comment
The “tan” and “golden” skin tone kills me. You could have knocked me over with a feather when SJM confirmed that her FMC rom the Crescent City series was a POC? Huh?
@@joylynn0620 but you forget it’s to protect the future of femininity within the poc community. she had to be the hero and do it last minute!!
I know. It's like did they learn nothing from jkr redconning her characters after the fact to make them nore diverse but never actually making the effort to write it in??
It just feels like the "Latino lover" stereotype where Latino or Mediterranean men are exoticized and oversexualized. With "olive" skin or some other colour where you can make them white-passing or mixed race or Latino however the current trend go. It usually happens to male characters, while female characters are more commonly blonde / readhead with alabaster complexion... Colorism is well and alive, unfortunately. Irl pale skin is associated still with being "pure & noble" and darker skin with being "wild & passionate". This is why Black and Latina women are often stereotyped as "passionate, promiscuous, easy". Making fmc pale & virginal and mmc tan and experienced / rakish reinforces that colorism association with light skin = virgin, darker skin = promiscuous.
I agree with pretty much all of your points 🤪 I avoid romance-based fiction almost completely because it’s all so ridiculous and unbelievable…none of these books showcase how relationships actually work, lol.
@@AFrolicInTheTomesxxyou can still have realistic relationships in fantastical worlds
@@AFrolicInTheTomesxx we expect them to behave like people so we can relate to them? Sure, their experience might be (and probably will be) different, they can have different worldview and personalities, and the world will shape them differently - but they can still be believable charaters. For example - a veteran of war may suffer from trauma - and it doesn´t matter if the war was fought with pistols, swords or fireballs. Or the "lust romance" - I don´t like it either - because that is crappy romance, it´s not love and "two hot people sleeping with each other" - well, lets say, I thought women were more romantic and appreciete a good romance, if that is their idea of love, they are pretty superficial
@@AFrolicInTheTomesxxPlenty of fantasy stories have well developed romances.
Geralt and Yennefer from The Witcher
Guts and Casca from Bezerk
Faramir and Eowyn from Lord of The Rings
Edward and Winry from Fullmetal Alchemist
Hell even Inuyasha and Kagome are a good example despite how dragged out it was.
A lot of these authors just don’t know how to write romance.
@@armandvega2752 Guts and Casca's romance is pretty sweet, but I can't get over how it all started over Casca's poorly timed period lmao
"... none of these books showcase how relationships actually work" And there I might say, Do YOU have enough experience with romantic relationships to say what is realistic and what is not?
It's not meant to be a personal attack, but tbh here, the current American generations are, well, a bunch of Ioners/Ioosers that hardly can get a group of friends, what makes you think you actually know how relationships, something so diverse, "actually work"?
Also in mystery/thriller is feels like every other book is an "And Then There Were None" retelling but done oh so poorly 😅
Omg yes! There’s so many of them.
Curious, but what books are these? Do you have any examples? I might want to read one. (Since I liked And Then There Were None.)
Interview with the vampire is an example of great romance! There is no Fay (poor Louis), colloquial language (except French), moronically snarky main characters (Lestat is goofy, but also manipulative), enemies to lovers (it feels like everyone is each other's enemies); there is no sex ( in the books, but tv series is spicier), love is not main plot (loneliness is), i don't remember if in the books there was anything about height, i think it wasn't important; there isn't an omegaverse dynamic; the aren't massive men (Armand is 17 years old (+/- 500) and teenager in look, Louis is average, except Lestat - he is handsome, but his personality is more alluring); one true pairing still refers to each other "My love. Mon chéri'. Book was released in 1976 and it was phenomenon - > overall it is complicated relationship, but in the end... you have to see. Especially tv series. I read this book 15 years ago and I can truly say that this is fictional romance where everything fits incredibly well. Also check Good Omens, book and tv series and Witcher books only, please don't hurt your eyes with netflix abomination.
All of this is true, but why would you call it a romance then? The first 2 books are closer to existential horror than anything else, after that they seem to lose track a bit and I don't quite know what to call them, supernatural something, I only read up to book 4 I think.
Literally none of those books you mentioned are romance or were ever pitched as romances to agents/publishers. (IWAV = horror/gothic, Good Omens = fantasy/comedy, the witcher = high fantasy). None of them will have the same focus on certain tropes that romantasy does. They were also written at a completley different (trending) time in the publishing industry. Had good omens or IWAV been pitched now, by unknowns, i doubt theyd be represented/published.
A lot of people are like this now. No thought is original. The more plugged into media genres, identities, and cultures the more the experience in life is controlled. What your eye sees is the experience. In times when people were independently experiencing the world while consuming less all encompassing mass media, the opportunity for individual experience could flourish. People could still pick up on what they read in the newspapers or heard in Church, but most of their lives were spent living and interacting directly with the world and having unique experiences. The best artists and writers were fiercely individualistic and questioned everything. They weren't running off a gender studies text book or looking at memes.
I'm sure there are still plenty of individualistic authors out there, they just don't get the same attention
So much of this has parallels with the music industry.
Readers have been commodified. Publishers are chasing revenue instead of investing in developing and promoting talented writers.
You basically called out everyone on booktok lmao.
Great video ^^ One massive thing I'd add to this list is book titles themselves! A Court of *Words* and *Words* is eeeeeverywhere and it's so unoriginal! ACOTAR being so widely beloved unfortunately had the side effect of spawning a market for this genre and there are just SO many amateur authors capitalising lazily on trope-filled word fluff that somehow sells? Every time I see a new one advertised it's "Do you like Enemies to Lovers, Forced Proximity, Lost Princess, or Chosen One tropes? then you'll love this!" The authors seem to think adding a bunch of two-dimensional OC's into a vague plot based entirely on those tropes into a pre-existing template for a somewhat magical Fae world is all they need to do. It hurts my brain :(
6:00 GOD YES. OH MY GOD. I have come to HATE the snarky main character. It's why I don't read modern young adult fantasy anymore. Every MC is more clever than the rest of the world. I'm over it. Give me an MC with some humility for once. It's not a character flaw to accept help graciously. It's not a character flaw to treat others with respect. As a raging feminist myself, _calm your tits,_ authors. Damn. Anger isn't a personality, it's an emotion you're meant to deal with and move on from.
It's because they sell. Some readers just want ACOTAR in a different font.
Haha, I'm going to have to remember "in a different font." That's perfect.
That stuff you mentioned about the cute romance really intrigued me. I'm gonna need a name for that Book you were reading because I need good examples of natural romance.
You've just described what it's like to read really bad writing basically. And apparently there's quite a lot of it around. These kind of romantasy is basically harlequins with a dash of magic. These tropes are old as...yeah, they're old 😂 And it seems that they will keep on resurfacing in different forms cause there's always audience of people who will read it. It's so formulaic it can be mass produced in no time so perfect for our current 'instant' market of booktok etc.
To me, if you read one S.J.M. you've read all of her books, and I don't like her books. Still salty for the Assassin fantasy let down during my Assassin's Creed phase.
You should read Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb :D
@@IVNesse it’s on my tbr, and shopping list on thrift books.
Yea lol, I picked them to learn creative writing, and I figured itll just make my writing worse. So I went back to dune and song of ice and fire. And caleana is so intolerable, oh god, always talking to herself and imagining about how she can kill every random person she passes
Unrelated but I LOVE your grays! It looks like glitter or tinsel in your hair. Gorgeous 🥰♥️
Man, for about 90 percent of this, I was like, yes, girl talk that talk. How can you say Sarah J Maas is kinda played out without directly calling her out. The other 10 is directly calling her out😂.
Romantasy tropes are often well-tread because they are nifty to ideas to play with, but they can lead to predictable routes and make them dull or, worse, irritating to read.
Personally, I will devour anything that is similar to the Saint of Steel series, but I have not found much that hits the same: MCs in their 30s/40s, intelligent, with their own lives and motivations, in a well-built fantasy world with intriguing conflicts.
i am checking this out right away because as 30yo i feel weird reading about 20 yo
Hmm. Maybe I need to re-check out the series… A friend suggested those a while back and I picked them up, but I got turned off at a whole conversation on periods and I’m like, “It doesn’t seem plot relevant and I’d love to not be reminded of unnecessary nitty gritty life details I’d rather forget, thanks,” but maybe I should try again. :/
Sometimes it’s nice to escape and not be reminded about real life, you know? Breaks the immersion.
I LOL-ed when you mentioned amnesia trope, 'Oh I used to love you so now I have my memories back so I guess I'm in love with you again.' I just read one book that has this trope and I'm still digesting the whole thing, wondering how I really feel about the book. Lol.
I’d actually never heard of this trope, so I’m actually intrigued. It seems novel to me.
@AliasPhex Yeah, its not a trope that's usually mentioned when recommending a book because its usually a major plot spoiler.
I’m a guy who’s discovered I like reading but dislike most of what is getting published or what books have been popular online and my observation is that many of these tropes are there to cater to wish fulfillment fantasies for an audience of predominantly women. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, there’s plenty of media like that for guys, it just seems like that’s what’s selling so that’s all publishers are interested in so that’s all aspiring writers want to write. I really like fantasy but I notice fantasy video games get my attention more than most books because it’s the same malaise of romantasy stuff everywhere that just has no appeal for me. I don’t mind romance in a fantasy story but the romance part is never the main draw for me, it’s usually the characters and my favorite fantasy settings are stuff like Berserk, Dragon Age, Baldur’s Gate, Final Fantasy (several of them but especially 12), Blasphemous, Fear and Hunger. I like fantasy stories about misfits coming together to beat impossible odds or hopelessly bleak worlds (not grimdark, can’t stand excessive violence) with sparks of beauty and themes of being able to find purpose and belonging in a cruel world. Maybe I’m just not looking in the right places but I’ve had a very hard time finding fantasy books that scratch this itch. Idc about Faye or magic schools or dragons or vampires etc and I notice a lot of fantasy books have paper thin worlds that revolve around one thing the author is interested in (Fourth Wing and Dragons for example) when I would even prefer a really stock, tropey, Tolkienish DnD flavor generic fantasy world with really sincere characters and a fun adventure rather than what’s presented in books like Lightlark and ACOTAR. I understand I’m not the target audience for those books but I struggle to find alternatives I am the audience for without going to other media like video games. I think fantasy has so much potential for stellar characters who have realistic struggles, but since romance has become the default for fantasy books, it seems like it’s mostly just a backdrop to add flavor to indulgent smut. I don’t even need a super intricate world I just want characters to root for and a noble quest or understandable goals. I feel like there’s a serious drought of fantasy novels that are more about the journey than seeing two characters hook up.
You might try Gareth Hanrahan's Black Iron Legacy (a little dark and hopeless at times, but epic, and great characters) and The Founders Trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett, which has a little more comic relief in between, also great characters, and an epic story as well. Very different from the cut-out romantasy stuff. ;-)
I second the recommendation of Robert Jackson Bennet.
Also: Joe Abercrombie, Marina Dyachenko, Brandon Sanderson, Kira Jane Buxton, and NK Jemisin
I'm a woman who also deeply dislikes most of the tropes that appeal to "female audiences." It feels like many authors think we are idiots and infantilize us ... but maybe it's also that many authors are themselves idiots with infantile sensibilities.
It's extremely frustrating!
Honestly, I really like to read fan analysis of George R.R. Martin's work even though I barely have the patience for his actual prose. He doesn't think his readers are stupid, and that goes an incredibly long way towards keeping my interest.
If you're at all interested, Kelsey Hayes on Quora has posted volumes and volumes of analysis spanning the past decade and she doesn't veer hard into fringe fan theory, so her readings are very relevant to real life while also demonstrating unreal understanding of Martin's fantasy world.
Thank you! I’m an aspiring author and I delve more into Urban Fantasy than High, but I appreciate hearing a man’s view. It’s very valuable and precious. Thank you for opening up and sharing your thoughts!
Try Dragon, or The Phoenix Guards by Steven Brust. They’re both set in the same world but follow different main characters. The first is about a minor crime boss who has friends in high places and gets entangled in a pissing contest between nobles; the second is an homage to the Three Musketeers set during the glory days of the same society.
Been reading Brust since 1987
13:17 omg THANK YOU. The “male, female” things really irks me. It’s almost as irksome as the modern language in fantastical worlds issue imo. I will say, The Shepard King Duology (One Dark Window, Two Twisted Crowns) by Rachel Gillig did romantasy very well and, for the most part, the characters were very well motivated by their circumstances and internal guidance systems which made it so easy to relate to them. The world building was also there which you can’t say for lots of books of the same ilk (basically anything SJM writes 🙄). Also, the romance was precious and done in a balanced way as opposed to taking over the whole story. Haven’t found good romantasy since 😓
Overuse of the F word in fantasy romance!! It drives me nuts. Reading the word doesn’t bother me, it just seems weird in a fantasy novel that they’d use modern cuss words. Looking at you SJ Maas! Also why does everyone in this books behave kind of how most of us did back in college? For the fae and vampire books, this makes even less sense. You’re telling me that these are hundreds of years old beings and they still behave like 20 year old frat guys? Just makes no sense. You’d think you’d be pretty mature at that point.
Yup, that's why I switched over to high fantasy and contemporary romance books now. I find that "romantasy" books have become formulaic. As if authors want to chase the fame SJM books amassed, by sticking to those same tropes/storylines.
10:40 Hans and Anna *cough cough*
Currently writing a sci-fi ya romantasy and you don’t understand the SIGH OF RELIEF I breathed when none of these were applicable to my WIP!
You’ve got this, buddy! 💪 🌟
Same for me!
Just discovered the Tairen Souls series and realized SJM took literal scenes, characters, etc... yet no one gets mad at her about it.
I love the background of your bookshelves the colours fits each other in a great combination and harmony and with your sweater too.
It's funny booktubers are only now realising what general people knew for years now. This has been a problem since 2015, when peruse project and all the other RUclipsrs started to punch these fantasy / romance/ love triangle type of Hodge podge stories on us. These type of books pulled down all the other books to their level of low quality writing. My theory is, it's the Harry potter hangover of peruse project and contemporary readers. They grew up reading this one low quality book, and then started craving the same type of low quality fantasy, and the publishers responded and started pushing scam authors like sjm, Coleen hoover. And now everything is so bad, it's a miracle if someone finds a decent quality book among these clone type books
You're just out here voicing all of my thoughts 🤣 (and I'm only on point 3).
Since I'm working on a novel of my own atm, I've been doing a lot of "critique partner" reading of other people's works, and let me tell you, 90% of them were fae romantasies and 75% of those had modern language in them and the authors could not understand why it irked me so bad 😭 I could never explain it well to them, but you've nailed it exactly. Next time it happens, I'm saying that!
….because all these books are fantasy mashups of high school teen love triangles written for the exact same audience without care for actual literary merit?
A lot of this is on the publishers really.
POC characters: To some extent context matters. In urban fantasy set in a modern real world city, a characters race and ethnicity means a lot about how they interact with the world. In a fantasy setting with no relation to the real world, that context falls away. You can't be Mexican or African or Scandinavian in a world where these places don't exist. I'm going to use From Blood and Ash as an example here because it is has a good contrast. Kieran is black, he is described as dark skinned with tightly curled dark hair cropped close to the skull. Delano is white, pale skin ice blonde. But they're both wolven (naturally born werewolves) and that has more bearing on their place in the world then their skin color.
A lot of authors are held to strict parameters. Publishers have to sell what they know will sell.
Indie authors (myself included) are not held to these standards, but those can sometimes be a hit or miss (hopefully a hit). But I think a lot of movies have this problem also.
Even when I was in highschool (2010), I was noticing all YA was the same. I asked one of the associates at Barnes and Noble if they had any recommendations that weren't all the same, but he said, "try a different genre."
That's when I started branching out, and I think that's important to do. 😊
Every time I see videos like this, I get a spurt of desire to write because I’ve had a story in my head since 2018 that I think is actually different by not playing into the tropes and could be big (the few people with whom I’ve shared it agree). It hypes me up that I think I can provide a unique story with impact and intrigue in a culture keeps producing shallow cliches, but I don’t have writing experience or lasting motivation to make it happen. I really just want to make it already!
Omg you have such amazing points, thank you, new subscriber
What about the love triangles? Can we please stop with the love triangles??
Great video! I believe it happens a lot because we are all so used to the algorithm choosing things for us that are similar to what we already like. I believe that the books that are published follow this same idea and are advertised like that, which keeps us on this loop of consuming similar things all the time to the point that they all look the same
For the same reason a lot of music is samey now and a lot of movies are from franchisee. Fewer large companies are in charge of funding creative endeavours and they have such massive overheads they can only bring themselves to put money into safe bets. Add to that decisions are being made by fewer people so biases are more concentrated. Publishing has not escaped this.
I think we don't like characters in fantasy talking like we do because why would they ? It's a different world with different features and references. It feels nonsensical that they would speak exactly the way we would.
Fantastic video. I think this quite articulated my feelings on the situation. I love a romance in my stories, so on paper fantasy romance should really work for me, but I feel that its currently reading very samey, that Ive kinda been put off. That being said the ones I have loved have been favs of the year such as Foz Meadows Tithenai Duology.
Honestly, everything you mentioned is why I’ve given up on most modern writers and I’ve gone back to reading more of the classics. The reason why so many of these tropes are overplayed is because today’s generations have neither a great understanding of the English language nor do they have the depth of character to really flush out complex emotions and characters
The reason popular booktube books sound the same is because they are all the same
Yes, they are all the same "fanfic style" of books. Going outside of this subgenre is the best the readers and reviewers can do.
One my pet peeves comes from Sarah J. Maas and it’s her naming practices.
I really irks me that in fairly isolationist courts, no one really has any distinct names.
Her world appears to be based at least somewhat on the British Isles, so she missed a great opportunity to have some unique names for the residents of each court that sets their individual cultures apart from one another.
Instead, she chose to sort of half-ass it by making up a few names and then throwing in random things like Morrigan and Valkyries and Illyrians. Add to that the confusing time period aesthetic and sometimes archaic, sometimes painfully 21st century dialogue and it just gets to be a bit of a mess.
Love your bookshelf! So -- well-coordinated!
Yesss, the snarky character one especially. I am tired … so tired of dumb snarky bs.
This was great; you had me laughing at loud at one point 😂
Also, the thing that drives me crazy about fantasy romance right now is that all of the covers look the same. Mine also looks the same, but this was because everyone told me that to compete in a genre, our covers have to look like all the rest of the books in the genre. It’s frustrating.
It can be an easy shorthand if you’re looking for a type of book as a reader, but also discouraging, too, if you’re a writer because you can get lost in the aesthetic.
Agreed with every single point. Enjoyed this video very much!
There are some books where I've confused story lines before but I don't mind it so much as there are still a decent amount of books that stand out enough for me.
I agree with you so much!! I seriously wonder what book you are mentioning around 9:55, can't wait till the video comes out! I'm def subscribing!!!
I think that writers aren’t reading like they used to. Reading classics and studying characters can help diversify the genre .
I feel like you tapped into my thoughts exactly.
How many times must I read about a character sheathing their sword after a battle _without cleaning it!?_ 😅
Like a paste-encrusted toothbrush. Animals.
This is very well done! I’ll keep many of the things you’ve said in mind as I plan my future books 😎 awesome job!
another reason I think contributes to books feeling the same is, I suppose many writers are inspired to write bc they read something with an interesting and promising premise but bad execution. So they want to write another 'better' version of that story to deal with the disappointment. This is part of why I write (of course, not professionally, I only write as a hobby)
So glad that this problem touches only US writers. As a latvian reader, everything feels so fresh and different. Even the pumping style books are nice. Never have it ever been better.
And the answer for Americans is - read translated books.
I'm old enough to remember when horror books became really derivative in the 80's. Publishing houses saw $$$ and printed every garbage author until the bubble burst and horror went away for a long time. Now we have aesthetically ornate books with garbage content much like Hollywood movies.
I love secret identities but it is often times done so poorly 😭 Especially the “big reveals” suck soooo often