Very well said. This is such an important conversation to have, especially when some authors present these books without trigger warnings so as to not "spoil" the content. Many readers of this content are doing so to process their own personal, real-life trauma, and opening a book expecting dark romance only to get erotic horror can have serious repercussions.
Exactly. Especially now when we CAN have public conversations about consent and coercion, it’s important that dark romance is a genre that IS consensual. Read erotic horror if you like. Read it if that helps you process your trauma. The difference is that you would then know what you’re getting into and choosing to read it. It always revolves around choice, both in real life and in fiction. Dark romance is often marketed with such a wide spectrum of severity that is not warned or talked about. There is a very big difference between even books like Lights Out vs Haunting Adeline, despite them often being placed on shelves side by side. One is dark but consensual, the other isn’t. We need to be marketing and labelling dark romance and erotic horror books as what they actually are.
Very well said. This is such an important conversation to have, especially when some authors present these books without trigger warnings so as to not "spoil" the content. Many readers of this content are doing so to process their own personal, real-life trauma, and opening a book expecting dark romance only to get erotic horror can have serious repercussions.
Exactly. Especially now when we CAN have public conversations about consent and coercion, it’s important that dark romance is a genre that IS consensual. Read erotic horror if you like. Read it if that helps you process your trauma. The difference is that you would then know what you’re getting into and choosing to read it. It always revolves around choice, both in real life and in fiction. Dark romance is often marketed with such a wide spectrum of severity that is not warned or talked about. There is a very big difference between even books like Lights Out vs Haunting Adeline, despite them often being placed on shelves side by side. One is dark but consensual, the other isn’t. We need to be marketing and labelling dark romance and erotic horror books as what they actually are.