Brittany Luce

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.

There's a YouTube video, I believe from last year, that has prompted months of discourse among authors, influencers, and fans, making the argument that popular romanticist books are filled with old school, trad wifey ideas about relationships.

Like in A Court of Thorns and Roses, the main character is powerful, but her male love interest is even more powerful and has to save her a lot of

Do these criticisms ring true for you?

And are there any examples of this that people are discussing in particular that you've seen?

Netta, I want to hear from you on this as well.