Day 0 of saving my boy from booktok:
Anyone who knows me (specifically that one buddy of mine: yeah, man, you know who you are) has definitely heard of my seething hatred for booktok and the way it builds books up like some kind of literary sonnet to change the world and then it turns out to be just straight up sex the whole time with nothing else. And how they’ll take some of the most thematically impactful novels and boil the characters down to what their version of peak literature is. See the sentence before that one for reference.
Now, I’m not saying they’re not entitled to their opinion, you can like what you like, even if it bothers me—it’s your life man, I ain’t gonna tell you how to live it—all I’m saying is there comes a point where you stare in absolute despair as they take a series you love and turn it into…well…booktok book stereotypes. This is me saving my series from misinformation and unprecedented hate because the wrong side of the media found it, because my boy doesn’t deserve that <333
The series itself is more sci-fi/fantasy than romance, though that is a subplot, however booktok has taken that subplot and turned it around so it sounds like the big idea, and maybe to people who are focused on that part of the book, it is. However, the plot isn’t centred around the romance like genuine romance genre novels would be, it is a subplot, so people building it up to sound like this huge part of the series when it comes second to a lot of bigger choices with the characters? It could very likely throw a lot of readers off who enjoy books with bigger romance plot points. Romance readers beware!!!: book two is not kind on your genre, the author actually quite violently rips the characters apart then stomps on them then sets them on fire and then rips them apart with her bare hands and then throws in an open ended bittersweet epilogue in the sequel and boom, the end.
Anyway, point is, what booktok advertises about the book is the bare minimum of only the parts that appeal to them. I don’t mind the relationship in the book because it works in a way in which you see these deeply flawed characters that are written so well and that find a way to move on and adapt, and if that means they fall in love then I accept with open arms that they fucking fall in love, but the point that bothers me is taking all the parts of their characters that matter away for stereotyped tropes or whatever.
This is not targeted at any one person in particular, I just don’t want to watch two masterfully crafted characters become a stereotype, especially ones like these two. Eueueueueghhhhrrghgg *chews my arm off and runs off into the sunset*