February 4, 2024

Forget romantasy, what about romantorror?


Romantasy, or romantic fantasy, is huge nowadays. The bookish part of the internet is flooded by posts showcasing books by Sarah J. Maas, Rebecca Yarros, and others. Last year, Romantasy even became a category in the Goodreads Choice Awards. (The winner, not surprisingly, was Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.)

The popularity of this genre that mixes romance with fantasy made me wonder if I've been missing the boat on other genres that are combined with romance? What about romance and horror (romantorror?) Romance and science fiction?

To learn about other Romance+ genres, I searched for Goodreads lists that contain books with romance and another genre. Some other Romance+ genres I found include:

Judging by the small sample size provided by these lists, other Romance+ genres exist, but they aren't nearly as popular as romantasy. For example, I've only read two books from the Romance Horror list, two from the Romance Science Fiction list, four from Romance Mystery, and three from Romance Thriller. Perhaps Romantasy's popularity will result in greater interest in these other genres, or maybe romance+fantasy is unique to itself. It's hard to say, but I think I'll try out more romantorror.



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