I usually don’t take time to shit on authors, but I have a bone to pick with one specific one and she’s big enough that she will not notice this blog post so I’m just gonna have fun here.
This is an author that has been the top seller for like 10+ years so this post doesn’t even touch her.
she has a cult following to the extent that it has essentially ruined the fantasy genre as of current and made it so that when I’m looking for fantasy books, I can only see people trying to copy her book over and over again thousand times
A beauty and the beast retelling is great, but that’s not all that fantasy is composed of
Fantasy is an umbrella genre for the ability to write magic and have fun with your imagination to the fullest extent
You have the ability to play with time, travel to play with magic spells to play with the concept of witches mermaids to play with mythology. There are so many different elements that you can play with that are already existing or you can create something from scratch within your brain That you have just developed and write about it
A fantasy book does not need to contain romance, nor does it need to contain a shifter nor does it need to contain a male, but is actually a werewolf, nor does it need to contain a woman who is trapped, nor does it need to contain a dead parent, nor does it need to contain recurring tropes nor does it need to contain a ton of spice? Like?
When you have all of your friends reading the same author with you because this author has produced so many you get into the echo chamber of your expectations for what this genre is supposed to be
You start to compare books to your favorites which everyone does naturally, but if you’re only comparison is less than five different authors or less than five different books and they’re not like the same series
You have a very limited exposure to that genre
It also limits the creativity that authors feel like they can play with while also having an audience that will pay money for it
I am severely annoyed that when I go to search up fantasy books 95% of them are fantasy romance with some animal shifter in them or it has to be a vampire
I just want magic. I just want A portal. I am not asking for much. I am asking for something fun. I do not want vampires. I’ve never wanted vampires. I did not like twilight.
I know that this fantasy author in particular doesn’t play too much with vampires and that’s more so twilight but that is something that it’s also severely bothering me because every single book I pick up that looks good. It’s vampires every single time.
It’s frustrating to see the lack of elements that are played with now and the lack of creativity and variety in the genre because everyone seems to be writing the exact same thing and I know that this is a common argument against a genre, and that the rebuttal to this is that it’s just tropes and themes that are recurring but if you look at other genres, they don’t have it quite to this extreme
I see so much variation in the thrillers that I read in the horror books that I read to the point where I can’t tell which genre it is when I pick up the book because there’s so many but when I pick up a fantasy book, there is a 95% chance it’s gonna be a beauty and the beast retelling once again
If I see one more shifter romance ——
The issue with these books is that these people these readers will end up wanting something that is in the same genre and then they pick up another book and it doesn’t fit those expectations because they expect expectations are from a different author and then they end up reading that other book badly
The people that are most active on Goodreads and social media and TikTok are this group of people
This is why when you go to these good reads list of top romance and top fantasy. People were usually scratching their heads in the comments because there’s a very loud group of colt followers for a specific author that is ruining a lot of fantasy.
I love romance in my fantasy books
I also love spice
I love taboo stuff I am open minded I have a fun time. It’s great.
What I don’t love is seeing the same beauty and the beast retelling and then we’re gonna do some consent Non consent over and over and over again and it’s gonna be a brother and I cannot do it anymore
When I ask for cozy fantasy book it’s gone to the point where bookshops and bonedust is the only author that’s ever brought up but it’s like yeah I think you I’m aware I have is like third arc audiobook currently and I have his other two books on my shelf the genre exist and I’m aware of that.
Do you know an author besides the top selling best selling author?
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