Book Slop and the Downfall of the Romance Genre

 

Hi everybody! This will be one of my less articulate posts, but please bear with me. 

I just wanted to talk about something I've been noticing and dealing with more and more. If you're anything like me, you love a good romance book. One with plot and true love and real raw emotion. Lately it has been so hard to find a good book in this genre. Everything I see is just a bunch of buzzwords strung together. It seems like every book is a Hockey player romance with an AI generated cover. Or, it is some tiktok trend put on paper. The books have hardly any plot besides pure smut or just the most insane utter bullshit you've ever read. Instead of having a main driving plot carrying the story, it's just a bunch of tiny events strung together to give the lead characters opportunity to crack or for the "book boyfriend" to make the reader "love him." I am so sick and tired of it. 

The genre has blown up so much on social media, (specifically tiktok) that writers are becoming lazy, or writers with no passion are becoming more popular. They write a book that will trend to make quick money rather than writing something with any sort of soul behind it. For example, I recently DNFed a book I tried to give a chance because there was no real plot and it was, for lack of a better phrase, "buzzword buzzword buzzword." I genuinely never read physical books anymore because it keeps ending up like this. I have read more well-written fanfics than I have published books lately. I think this is because fanfic writers do it for the love of the game, they have a passion for it, and get no money from it. Whereas many popular authors would rather something that sells than has any heart. 

I went to Barnes and Noble today and here are some of the worst books I saw, because I just had to document how bad it is right now. Also none of these covers are inconspicuous, like what if I wanted to read around family? If you have enjoyed any of these, I do apologize but I also stand by my opinion that this genre has fallen very steeply downhill. 

If you have any recommendations of actually decent not buzzwordy romances please let me know in my suggestion box or the comments!! Please!!