Brittany Luce

Dragons and fairies.

You might think these books contain some classic fantasy epic a la Lord of the Rings.

Well, you would be wrong.

Books like A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, or Akatar if you're in the know, are being billed as romanticy, a blend of romance and fantasy.

And this new genre is taking the publishing industry by storm.

Bloomberg estimates that in 2024, Romanticist sales totaled over $600 million, up from about $450 million the year before.

It's one of the fastest growing genres of books.

But with all of this popularity comes a whole host of questions.

Is Romanticy just an old-fashioned reductive romance novel with a few dragons thrown in?

Or something more sinister?

To sort through these questions, I'm speaking to Netta Baker, Advanced Instructor in the Department of English at Virginia Tech, and Princess Weeks, online pop culture critic,

and video essayist.

Hello, hello.

I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.

Netta, for those who are new to Romantasy, what is it?

Give us the elevator pitch.

Okay, so Princess, how did you first encounter this genre of romanticism?

What hooked you?

As romanticism becomes more and more popular, people have had more and more to say about it, good and bad, as you both have noted.

But there's something people are criticizing it for that I want to dig into with you two.