Everything In Conversation: Dark Romance

Hello QTS, we're back with a not very cute subject, let's go to the dark side...

Last week we read a piece on Substack called “We Have To Talk about Dark Romance” by Stella Tate, in which she grapples with a problematic literary genre.

Dark romance, for anyone not aware, is a subgenre of romance literature, that features characters, relationships and dynamics that are typically taboo in other genres, often involving violence, obsession, stalking, emotional abuse and sexual assault. Basically the romantic heroes of these stories would often be the clear villain in any other story. And as Stella writes: “from the perspective of a highly non-judgmental book lover (or at least that’s who i aim to be), dark romance is mainly a romance that takes the shape of a horror story, or possibly a horrific tale dressed up as a romance. dark romance is a genre bender, with elements of romance and horror, not always in equal parts… dark romance doesn’t seem to be one thing or another; instead, it seems to me like a wide spectrum, where you can find all 50 shades of grey and more, from the lighter vampire love stories to the harder to swallow stalker romances with sexual abuse and all sorts of triggering content.” 

We delve in!

We Have To Talk About Dark Romance

Thanks so much for all of your takes and comments on this topic, we love being in conversation with you all! O,R,B xx

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