Does it romanticize the toxic and harmful?
I am going to say it up front. I love dark romance. Give me your criminal alphas, all your bullies, stalkers, all the codependent relationships, and all of what is typically considered problematic in mainstream romance. There is something about this subgenre of romance that just does it for me.
Not too long ago, Tillie Cole found herself in hot TikTok water over her book “Darkness Embraced”, a dark MC romance featuring a former KKK member as the book’s hero. The TikTok person (who admits to not reading the book and was basing her entire thought process on the back matter) accused her of romanticizing the KKK and said she prayed Tillie Cole’s downfall would be swift. A great hulabaloo ensued. Tillie Cole subsequently posted an apology, removed the entire series from sale, and exited social media.
I have no opinion on this book as I have never read it. I do have lots of thoughts about how all that went down, the review bombing, and the awful rhetoric against Tillie Cole by other authors and readers who had not read the book in question – thoughts that all belong to their own blog post. However, I did start thinking a lot about the subgenre of dark romance in general. I have read some pretty dark books. Some were so dark I asked myself was a reading a romance or a general fiction story about a taboo relationship with graphic sex. Some also made me raise my eyebrows way up into my hairline (are you raising your eyebrows?) and induced a bit of guilt that I was actually reading what I was reading and probably maybe liking it. In others, I found myself hoping the hero got pushed off a cliff and the heroine given a different hero.
My thoughts boiled down to one question – does dark romance romanticize bad people, relationships, topics, and social, moral, and ethical taboos? In other words, does it make these things look better than they really are? And my answer was sometimes – it depends on the book – but does it really matter? From what I have found in reading about the Tillie Cole problem and others’ thoughts about dark romance in general, it appears that many people seem to believe that dark romance is okay as long as it doesn’t cross the lines drawn by any given reader or potential reader. But this idea is not sustainable as authors in the genre can’t ever be expected to please everyone. It really is a matter of – if it triggers you, if you find it offensive, if you don’t want to read about certain themes, characters, or plots – then don’t read it. It is a matter of reciprocal freedom – if I have it, then you have it. We should not ever want to censor what authors should write or what readers should read. That is a slippery slope that leads to all sorts of book-banning nonsense.
Authors and readers alike are human beings with thoughts, feelings, friends, and families. And we have a responsibility to each other. We, as readers, have a responsibility to consume what we want to read and leave others to what they want to read, regardless of how you feel about the content. Authors have a responsibility to write for the audience of their choice and accurately represent the major theme(s) of their book in the blurbs. I don’t know if Tillie Cole romanticized the KKK or if she didn’t. Looking at the blurb, it is probably not something I would have ever read as I likely would have been a bit taken aback by the overall theme. I don’t read historical romance set in the south on plantations due to my not wanting to read books that could potentially have characters I want to like justifying slavery in any way. But I would not have ever – ever – judged this book, its author, or its readers in a public forum without reading it. It is unkind and unnecessary for either the author or the reader to shame or critisize the other over opinions and books that aren’t for them, and certainly no one should be praying for the downfall of the other.
Jessica Reads Smutty Books 
I’ve stopped reading Mafia romances, because I feel that they romanticize bad people doing bad things. I feel the same way about shows like Dexter and Breaking Bad. They’re great shows, but I really don’t like that they’re trying to make me feel sympathy for a very bad person. But that’s my choice and I’m not going to judge other people for liking it.
I don’t like this whole trend online of harassing authors and readers based on the poster’s personal beliefs to the point where they retreat completely. You don’t have to agree with other people’s views. If you don’t like an author because of their opinions or beliefs, then don’t support that author, but don’t make the decision for everybody else. And if people want to continue supporting someone like that, that’s on them.
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Hear! Hear! We have to give people room to like what they like if we expect the same treatment. One book I read recently had a hero that was a true psychopath. It was a little bit scary. The author has hinted that in future books, there will be a reckoning of sorts and not everyone will come out ok. This would generally make me feel a bit cringy as I think that it takes away the HEAs I chase after, but instead I am finding myself hoping this particular character is blown up haha! I do have to work on refraining from judgment when I see other readers naming this ‘hero’ as their favorite. 🙂 I just remind myself that I don’t know what their life or the inner workings of their mind look like and have no idea why this character resonates with them. I think in some ways, we use reading as a way to vicariously experience different things that we understand are just not acceptable in real life.
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So true. I think that when readers romanticize a character, it’s truly just fantasy, I doubt they would want that person in their lives for real. I know I’ve swooned over some questionable “dark” characters before that I would never want to meet in actuality. But it’s fun while you’re reading that book, for sure.
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