Romance and Fantasy and Romantasy – Oh My!

I don’t know about your city, reader, but if you walk into my local Barnes and Noble, you’ll find yourself in the romance section, rather than fiction, which it had been for decades. Half of the display tables will be about fantasy, or romance, or the magical blend between the two, romantasy. And if you’re looking for a copy of, oh, I don’t know, The Great Gatsby, you’ll need to do some real searching, starting by heading toward the back of the store. 

This is no complaint from me, I am a huge fantasy reader, and I hate Gatsby, but I’d also like to acknowledge that the huge spike in reading that COVID-19 saw hasn’t died away like many expected. Trust me, I worked at Barnes and Noble for years, and I know what it was like to wait with bated breath for the sales to simply drop, possibly even overnight. But, though I no longer work there, I can still feel the immense appreciation from booksellers that these genres have kept the lights on. I mean, the store is now essentially dedicated to them.

I’ve seen many other bloggers contribute these sales to the wave of screen adaptations we’ve been getting lately, and while I don’t think that isn’t not what’s happening here, I don’t think it’s the whole picture, either. Sure, nothing sends readers running to their local bookstore faster than a “Now a Major Motion Picture” tagline across the top of a book (I hate permanent stickers, myself). But anyway, when a streaming service announces a new adaptation of a fantasy or romance series is in the works, stores can hardly stock up enough copies. 

Also, it’s not just one or two books; the entire Bridgerton series was sold out overnight back when just season one was announced. And don’t even get me started on the special editions with sprayed edges. There were lines outside before the store even opened. In other words, it’s no longer just book buying, but book collecting, too. 

Fantasy and romance especially feel made for the moment (if you can consider several years a moment). We’ve seen plagues, politics, climate dread, and I’ve yet to meet anyone who isn’t facing some sort of uncontrollable world anxiety. It’s no wonder people want stories where love conquers curses and kingdoms fall because someone couldn’t communicate their feelings properly. 

While literary fiction certainly still has its place (somewhere in the back, apparently), the shift isn’t necessarily a bad thing, at least, I don’t take it as one, and I hope you don’t either. Genres that used to be dismissed as “guilty pleasures” are now front and center. There’s no more pretending you’re buying that 800-page fae romance ‘ironically.’ You’re buying it because you want it, and you’re probably about to text your friend about it, or maybe even make a TikTok about it, before you even leave the parking lot.

From a former bookseller’s perspective, bookstores feel alive in a way that, if I’m being honest, we weren’t sure they would again. Sure, I’d groan at the thought of dealing with the Fourth Wing fanatics crowding outside the door AN HOUR before we opened for the newest release, but I knew that if I wasn’t working, I’d probably be right out there with them. 

So yes, if you’re hunting for a classic, you might have to weave past a display of dragons and princesses and neon romcoms to find it. But people are reading, they’re passionate, they’re invested, and they’re finding one way to escape all of this… mess. And for those of us booklovers who remember holding our breath, waiting for the last lights to flicker out, I’ll speak for all of us when I say we couldn’t be happier.

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