For the longest time, romance novels have consistently been viewed in a negative light. Whether they’re deemed trashy, predictable, or just ‘not real literature,’ the genre has been carrying a bad reputation for generations. Up until these past few years, romance novels were something that people shamefully read at home to satisfy their guilty pleasures. Still, the genre has quickly become a much more celebrated form of entertainment. According to The Guardian, romance novel sales haven’t been this high since 2012 when the book “Fifty Shades of Grey” first came out. But what could be the cause of this resurgence?
The first thing that comes to mind when pondering this question is how the beginning of the resurgence coincides with the COVID-19 pandemic quite conveniently. During that time in people’s lives, things felt quite unpredictable and chaotic. Combine that with the quarantining and shelter-in-place orders that left people feeling trapped in their own homes, picking up a new hobby seemed like the most obvious solution. Reading is an activity that doesn’t rely on the presence of other people, and it also doesn’t require people to step foot outside of their homes. Plus, romance novels can provide an easy-to-follow and comfortingly predictable plot for readers who are searching for some sense of stability in their newly pandemic-riddled lives. People then began to take to social media to express their thoughts and opinions about the books they were reading, which led to the creation of the online community now known as BookTok. Now, books can go viral faster than they ever had before, and BookTok seems to have an affinity for the romance novel. With more and more people coming online and raving about certain romance series, more and more people are influenced to pick up a new series, and the BookTok community grows even larger. Because of this cycle, the genre is booming. Thanks to the pandemic inadvertently creating an online community where people felt welcome to be excited about the romance genre and reading as a whole, the stigma and negativity surrounding romance novels has almost disappeared.
Source: The Guardian
Photo: Sam Lion