{"id":50,"date":"2026-02-26T00:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T00:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaelromer.com\/?p=50"},"modified":"2026-02-26T00:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T00:39:14","slug":"youre-too-good-for-romance-an-ode-to-genre-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaelromer.com\/?p=50","title":{"rendered":"“You’re too good for romance” (An Ode to Genre Fiction)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Memory Lane ~ Nov. 3\/24<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you get the darndest compliments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a few weeks ago when someone in my life reported in that they had finished reading Handsome Devil and expressed how impressed they were with my writing style and the story (although they weren\u2019t big on the intimate scenes). They even cited a specific passage to illustrate why they felt compelled to give the praise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then she said something funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just feel like you\u2019re too good <\/em>to be writing romance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It gave me pause. After all, what does one mean by that? While there are certainly a lot of romances that can be generously described as \u2018stinkers\u2019, that\u2019s true for any category of book. And many romance authors truly shake my soul with what a beautiful picture they can paint with just 26 characters and a little punctuation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first thought is that it comes down to the age-old disparagement of genre fiction. As a former bookseller and sci-fi enthusiast, I can attest that it is alive and well (although certainly softened in recent years). It was always discouraging to try recommending a title to someone on the basis of its intense emotional impact only to see their eyes glaze as soon as they realized the aisle we were walking down. \u201cDo You Dream of Terra Two?\u201d by Temi Oh is one of my all-time favourite books and will leave you as a quivering, sobbing mess, but fuck me if I could get people to give it a chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, we all know it isn\u2019t that simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genre fiction as a whole is undermined, but romance, as the genre that is aimed specifically at women, has to fight twice as hard and show up twice as well to be taken seriously. Certainly, one of the more irksome requests that I got in my bookstore days was from a young man who specifically wanted the worst, cheesiest romance to give as a gag gift to one of his friends. Because romance is a thing to be mocked. Because things that cater to women are inherently jokes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have been this person before, I intend no shade and at the end of the day, I did sell him some fine cheesecake. I just think it\u2019s interesting that I never encountered women looking for the stupidest, most misogynistic dad-on-the-toilet spy thriller to be a gag gift. I\u2019ve certainly encountered more of the latter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the day, romance has<\/em> quality authors. Romance deserves <\/em>quality authors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TL;DR? Romance is something special that deserves to be cherished and respected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until next time, travellers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gael Romer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Memory Lane ~ Nov. 3\/24 Sometimes you get the darndest compliments. It was a few weeks ago when someone in my life reported in that…<\/p>\n

Continue reading“You’re too good for romance” (An Ode to Genre Fiction)<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[43,41,28,5,42,40],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-disparagement-of-genre-fiction","tag-do-you-dream-of-terra-two","tag-genre-fiction","tag-handsome-devil","tag-temi-oh","tag-too-good-for-romance","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaelromer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaelromer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaelromer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaelromer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaelromer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gaelromer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117,"href":"https:\/\/gaelromer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaelromer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaelromer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaelromer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}