Dark romance

yeah the snap

yeah uh okay so dark romance devney perry who you probably know is a romanticist author but also writes dark romance she has a new book called the secrets of clarence manor and it is a dark academia billionaire romance oh and

i'm

like say

Yeah, this is very different for her, actually.

Yeah, because she doesn't

write dark romance, does she? Not usually.

Have you read it yet? I haven't read it yet.

I'm telling you, I'm so sorry.

into talking about having gotten the more dark romance themes and stuff like that and getting to see that from not having...

It feels like we didn't have it in any other kind of publishing.

You had to go onto these sites that were like Wattpad, AO3, Literatica, whatever, Tumblr.

And it was just, like, it had, like, the little bit of stalking.

Obviously, it had, like, a very clever reimagining.

I feel like we go through phases in, like, dark romance reimagining where, like, for a while, it was Persephone and Hayden.

I don't know.

You know who loves a good costume though? BookTok.

Specifically, the dark romance side of book talk.

In case you don't know what dark romance is, it's a subgenre of romance that centers morally gray characters and taboo topics like power imbalances, BDSM, criminal activity, and dubious consent.

Dark romance is a safe form of fantasy fulfillment for readers.

But obviously, books about controversial themes are subject to controversy, and dark romance has been a point of contention in bookish communities for several years.

And with the rise of dark romance came the influx of

performative men trying to get brownie points with the women of book talk.

When they're not pretending to read Haunting Adaline on camera at the right angle to make sure we can all see their biceps.

We want to welcome everybody.

There has been plenty of girls who have never read dark romance.

And, you know, it's like watching a movie.

It's not something, of course, this could be a story to somebody.

That's the biggest topic.

It's like you don't like it, don't read it.

move on and we have not always been everybody's like cup of tea and i understand that but i respect it and that's where i would expect for everybody else to respect our decision of being a dark romance book club as well you know we tried to do icebreaker one time because everybody everybody wanted to do it and everybody's like what is this i was like you guys picked it i don't

And then you found me and I gave you the darkest hockey books on the, like, dark.

Were you a longtime reader of it? Do you have any favorites or people that inspired you or books that you want to recommend that like and also for film fans like if you like alien or if you like these try these books anything you want to recommend

Yeah, I like tend to read dark romance more than anything.

I think when I came out with this like dark romantic comedy, it was like, I don't know if anybody else was doing it at the same time.

I would assume that they were, but mine was probably the first that really like hit me.

hit you know uh dark romance i tend to read like some pretty like dark stuff a close friend of mine is santana knox and she has some like they're pretty they're like very much horror romance so if you're into like the blend of horror and romance there's a lot of that tyler page she's a really great author she has um like slasher past she's got um a whole bunch of books actually that are have been coming out lately and they're very like slasher horror which are really fun and still with that romantic element.

So those are some of, like, my favorites.

Haunting Adeline is a well-known one that's being made into a movie as well at about the same, like, similar timeline to mine.

It really came from...

Their wants lists, their demands, and you have a hard time getting in the door if you do not have the quota of some of these ideological storylines and characters intertwined in.

The rejections... are there unless you have elements of some type of lgbtq romance or character and one of the big requests right now include dark romance and paranormal romance what on earth is paranormal romance this is the big thing in the literary industry right now paranormal romance It's all over social media.

My friend was struck by the fact that as she's been getting more into the editing and the publishing side of it, all of this content's coming across, and it is focused on paranormal romance.

And these aren't just algorithms that are exposing her to strange content, which I'm sure the algorithms are there in doing that, but people are responding in droves.

So when initially she thought this was a joke as it was falling in her algorithm, she realized this was real.

And she was astounding.

Not to mention the fact that add to that dark romance genre is the other big genre right next to paranormal romance that all the editors want.

Dark romance would be one, non-consensual, usually some level of violent.

Mm-hmm.

So I figured, what if I take dark romance, because that's where my heart is, right?

Mm-hmm.

But I, I shot that into fantasy.

There was no dark fantasy romance, you know?

Right.

Um, so I really had to look into, like, dark romance and look at the numbers over there in the market, and then I had to look into, like, fantasy-

Mm-hmm

So I just was like, you know what? It's just it's too much.

maintenance yeah to keep like people coming at me and I'm like they don't they just want something to be angry at uh they don't care that I had a warning or that you know I've labeled all of these things that they don't like but they read anyway um and it mostly came from like people who don't like dark romance in general uh where they're just like this is disgusting and there's I think my favorite review is actually um ew there was so much blood I It's a vampire novel.

It's a vampire book.

It sure is.

over your work.

And, you know, obviously, you and I connected.

Recently, we became mutuals because of, like, all of the stuff with dark romance.

And, you know, I really do enjoy dark romance.

book talk fest.

Book talk, dark romance fest.

Or the Midwest.

Love that.