It seems that scholars cannot stop talking about the illiteracy crisis in the United States, and for good reason, too. According to the National Literacy Institute in 2024, 21% of American adults are functionally illiterate or reading below a sixth-grade level. Many scholars are saying people need to read more books, regardless of whether they are fictional or non-fictional. However, I think one key issue is overlooked: fantasy and romance are two of the most well-read genres, but many modern books of this genre are really badly written and encourage people to read “with their brains off”. In this article, I am going to go over some reasons modern fantasy and romance books tend to be lacking.
Firstly, the authors are telling, not showing, especially in fantasy books. Older fantasy books like “The lord of the Rings” by Tolkien gained so much popularity because the writing seemed to transport readers to another world. He did this because he was able to show, not tell. One of the first rules English teachers state about narrative writing is that you are meant to show, not tell. For example, as opposed to saying “it was a beautiful day outside”, you describe what makes the weather beautiful. However, it seems that many modern writers have forgotten this rule. In their books, their writing tries to paint a picture with the least amount of adjectives as possible. When authors refuse to paint a beautiful picture with their words, it kills the reader’s creativity, and their book sounds flat.
Secondly, the commercialization and popularization of “tropes” is killing the romance and fantasy genres very brutally. A few days ago, I was scrolling on TikTok, and this new author was trying to market her book. As opposed to stating the plot or premise of the book, she proceeded to list all the tropes that she had crammed into her book. It was “enemies-to-lovers”, ‘forced proximity” and “grumpy x sunshine” and when she listed these tropes, I visibly rolled my eyes because aren’t they all? Publishers encourage writers to squeeze in as many popular tropes as possible into their books to boost sales and “binge-ability” and this is not necessarily a horrible thing but it kills creativity in books and makes it feel like the same books are being published with different character names.
On the topic of all books kind of sounding the same, I have to address the most common problem facing modern romance or fantasy authors: plagiarism. When I think of plagiarism, only one situation comes to mind: the Powerless/ Red Queen saga. In 2015, Victoria Aveyard released her YA fantasy book, Red Queen, and less than 10 years later, Lauren Roberts released her fantasy book, Powerless. I read Red Queen a few years after it came out and Powerless the year it came out, and I vividly remember thinking Aveyard needs to sue Roberts PRONTO. After scrolling through my social media, I discovered that other people shared my concerns.
In short, romance and fantasy books have long been overlooked because they have women as their target audience. However, in order to gain the respect of the literary community, it is important that romance and fantasy authors put in the work to create cohesive and well-written pieces.