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@@LyntzbartzkyPerez honestly. I’ve engaged in more interactive RPs on discord + on Roblox with literal kids, which are actually so much more immersive and entertaining than smutty booktok books. Even though I’m 17, it’s still funny as hell to me how LITERAL CHILDREN have better storytelling skills than grown adults.
I don’t understand the trope of “You’re a stalker, but the person you’re stalking is ALSO stalking YOU!” Like if you were stalking someone, wouldn’t you like… notice?
@@euphoricgecko9377 Sorry i dont use TikTok why are yall getting banned for saying "kill" but not for sharing cOrn stories? Because you can say the word "kill" for daily life things too. Like killing a bug or killing someone in a game.
@@euphoricgecko9377bingo. Authors have a literal thesaurus we refer to in order to find ways around the TikTok filter. I’ve been banned in the past, so I gave up promoting my books and my account is now “in good standing”. 😂
Tiktok is funny because they have rules as strict as in kindergarten ("s4fe" is the goofiest one) and yet there's so much adults. This censorship where you have to say "corn" and "unalive", can't even call someone stupid. What's with this replacing letters with numbers? You math teacher was freaky and now numbers turn you on? Tiktok really attracts some fucked up people😭
i HATE when my ex boyfriend's dad is obsessed with me and i'm also obsessed with him and we find out that we are obsessed with each other and we fall in love and live happily ever after UGH
They're obsessed with stories of younger women with older men, but they'll be 40 year old women posting dirty messages under thirst traps made by teenage boys. 🤮
@@ahassett37 cant believe i, a woman with an interest in bdsm and petplay, am as morally compromised as Ted Bundy, and that we both pale in comparison to the supreme evil that is any grandma
It kills me that the red flag list is a mix of abusive behavior, literal CRIME and then some kinda basic kink things you can do with 100% consent. Do they know you can be kinky with consent and healthy relationship???
the sad reality of people thinking such things are desirable are usually people who have such low self-esteems that they want someone to kiss the ground they walk on. They want to be desired, to be loved so much that their perception of love is obsession to balance the hollow feeling in their hearts. so I'd take a guess that they think that the abusive behavior is what they view as normal/healthy while the crime stuff likely to, unless they think it is hot since they're not bound by moral code, as they say "the hero might sacrifice you for the world while the villain would sacrifice the world for you." there's even a song of this delusional desire called "dating the villain" by Maddie Malekos.
honestly, cause when chad chad was reading one i was like ok spanking, tying someone up, those arent bad things to like as long as everyone is on the same page and then just the 180 into murder and that somehow being comparable??
i recently read a hockey romance book popular on tiktok, the male lead threatens to SA the female lead, verbally abuses her, violates her privacy repeatedly (walks into her space while she is naked and refuses to leave), is extremely controlling, belittling and at points physically abusive and she still goes back to him after all of that, and the goodreads reviews were eating it up with a 4 star score edit: book was called Broken Boy by Hannah Gray and did not mention in the summary/intro that it contained outright abusive behaviors (this is where my problem is) and the male lead never apologized for it either when we are supposed to like him. it was framed as a good thing and wasnt tagged/mentioned otherwise
Never, NEVER understood the appeal of a man showing me love through aggression, violence and annoyance. Nothing remotely romantic and sexy about someone constantly being mean towards me, grabbing me and degrading me. Nothing sexy about a man stalking me, unable to leave me alone because ''he loves me so much''. Nothing sexy about a man who is so jealous of other men he gets physically violent. Not one man in these scenarios being actually caring, empathetic or compassionate. No one has actual sense of humor in these stories. Some women really mistake abuse for confidence and assertiveness and it's upsetting.
True but also keep in mind all this rave about those scenarios are for fictional books and stories, it's really just for fantasy and fun for people, enjoying them as a fictional bit in your head is different to actually liking those kind of people in real life lol. I guarantee you 99% of those girls would run the moment they actually experienced these things. But when it's imaginary it's pretty harmless, cause those people that do those things aren't usually hot, or fun to be around spoiler alert
Right?? It’s such a turn off! And it’s so hard to find romance novels that are actually good when all the toxic male ones are getting rated so highly!!
As a book girlie, I absolutely hate when books are all just corn and no plot, like STOP I ASKED FOR ENEMIES TO LOVERS I DON’T WANT TO READ A CORNHUB SCRIPT. And oh my god, these “dark romance” books are NOT romance, they’re fetishizing and romanticizing torture, absue, SA, kidnapping and etc. It terrifies me to see that some young girls actually get books like Haunting Adeline.
@@fluffybread... it's about a women(Adeline), an author who moves into her dead grandma's old house and gets stalked by a mf named Zade. He kills pedos or smth(I lowkey forgot). He follows her around, rapes her multiple times, threatens her when she does normal things, things like going on a date bc only he😠😠 can have her. And she falls "in love" with him somehow. There is a LOT of rape/non-con smut. And a mystery-solving part about her dead grandma's murder through old journals. this is off the top of my head so beware💀💀
So glad to see pushback from people about legal, but brow raising age gaps. My sibling had turned 19, JUST gotten out of a toxic relationship, and ended up dating another man they had both had sexual relations with (all three of these individuals are polyamorous). That man was 33. I know my sibling is an adult with autonomy for themselves, but I do worry. They were so young, had just gotten out of a bad relationship, and had no foundations of an independent life set up, which is REALLY what I think matters in these age gap issues. If someone 18 or older is mentally and emotionally mature enough to start building their own life, to me, it makes it MUCH less predatory when older folks take an interest in that person.
Booktok has such a disturbing talent for turning every abusive and horrible situation into an attempt at romantic abuse, it’s disgusting. It’s a public space with young teenagers and the fact that they post such gross stuff there is genuinely gross
I'm not sure these writers or the audience it attracts have actually talked to guys in a non-romantic/intimate context, let alone been in a relationship before, healthy or otherwise. I'm also not convinced it's comprised entirely of teenagers but women in their 20s and 30s that are simply inexperienced when it comes to this sort of thing. Hence they gravitate to these saucier scenarios that are more exciting/less of a commitment than the irl experience of being in a relationship.
but you have to realize at the end of the day, nobody real is being harmed and this is all fiction. theres a reason why this is on the internet and its cuz its a controlled environment where you have the ultimate say in whatever happens, you can close the tab and move on with your life if you dont like something. And theres also a reason why this stuff is becoming so popular: women are often shamed for being sexual in literally any regard, and books like these are an escape into a world where they have the ultimate say and agency but get to experience a faux-powerlessness for a bit. not like the real, harmful, systemic powerlessness women often face irl. ik ur probably gonna respond with "im not gonna read alladat" and hit me with a nerd emoji but i hope u take in a bit of what im saying.
@ville__ hans asperger collaborated with the third reich to send "undesirable" autistic kids to the camps, i'd think twice about using his name to describe yrself
When I was in school I'd have a crush and "enemy" for the year. There was only one time I thought of having a crush on my enemy, tho most times the enemies were just mean to me and I didn't like them. The one enemy/crush want too bad. I grew out of this by 7-9th grade. Last time I had a crush like that was a person who was actually mean to me but I didn't see them as an enemy. 9th grade was when I stopped having crushes and enemies all together bc it was meaningless and got absorbed by my writing instead.
i mean heathcliff was so upset that cathy practically went into a coma while pregnant at her husbands house that he ran back home and impregnated his wife (cathy’s husband sister) and then conspired for their two kids to marry once they grew up so ig that’s some nonsense booktok may eat up
Booktok scares me so much. They recently sexualized a 16 year old who rode a motorcycle and had a motorcycle helmet and stuff. They uh. Really like that over on booktok apparently. He showed his favorite books which were things like maze runner, hunger games, etc., and booktok was like UHHMMM THOSE ARENT ACTUALLY BOOKTOK BOOKS!! (Like huh?? What??) and they were like ohhh he’s super innocent this one But he had his age in his bio and everything and even ended up making a video about how hey, he’s 16! Booktok women continued to be creepy and sexual towards this LITERAL TEENAGE BOY!! It was so gross to hear about.
I hate how booktok objectifies men and in this case, boys. Wtf 💀 it wouldn’t be okay regardless of gender, but I feel like they think it’s okay when it’s a man. It reminds me of the hockey player situation. As someone who loves romance, LEAVE REAL PEOPLE OUT OF IT! Keep fiction, fictional
I didn't know despite reading a bunch of fanfiction. And I somehow pieced it together. I do like enemies to lovers, if done right. And I barely see it.
@ville__ i would just like to note that the term asperger's syndrome is now outdated and was created by the n@z1s. if you want to keep using it then go ahead, i guess, but it is just autism, there's no difference.
I'm thinking of that one male character zade meadows or something like that correct me if I'm wrong but the whole haunting Adeline book sounds like romantised Sa.
I have seen so many apps with stories like "my older neighbor who I grew up with as a child claims me when I turn 18" or "my hot high school teacher sends me a spicy DM when I turn 18". Like wtf?!! Who tf is writing this shit???
It just icks me when the love interset has literally seen the main character grow up, and all of a sudden wants to involve themselves with the main character. Like what? Don't get started with the babysitter ones
@@flakky55yeah the whole thing is honestly really inconsistent but some of the things people self censor are super random. I chalk it up to most of the people posting this stuff being young people who I think thing censoring things makes them seem more scandalous. These really are like annoyingly formated wattpad fics.
When people make characters 18 in smutty books it doesn’t read as “oh she’s an adult” it reads as “I would have gone younger if I wouldn’t get in trouble for it”. This is so creepy and weird. Have your smutty books, whatever, there isn’t anything wrong with that, but don’t be encouraging that ideology to the young teenagers we all know are watching those videos and for the creep adults who like that.
I mean, I can see how some young teenager could write something like that thinking 18 year olds are super grown up or whatever. That's what I'm going to tell myself for my own sanity anyway
@@serazvi5387ngl I kinda get that, I feel like a lot of these ppl writing these stories on tiktok are like 13-15. But the actually published adult authors writing books like this are the real creeps imo
Adults have this all wrong!!! It's the other way around. Teens are writing these books and running these accounts and they have to make their protags 18 meanwhile they themselves are not. Have you ever heard of Wattpad?? I was reading a dark romance and the authors was apologising for not updating coz she had exams!! Another said 'Sorry if this is cringe. I wrote this when I was 14."
Booktok is just fanfiction for people who think they're too good for fanfiction. It only makes sense to look for stories based on tropes and only tropes if it's about previously established characters.
@@blackholedragon yeah, fanfic can be great! but it's inherently derivative. with fanfic i don't mind if a plot is described to me only in terms of tropes, because i know what the characters are, i know the plot, i know preexisting relationships, and ultimately im looking for something that probably didn't happen in the original story. but if it's a whole new book? nah, you have to give me something to work with beyond "grumpy x sunshine".
I think there was actually a situation with booktok objectifying a real hockey player and it got so uncomfortable the dude’s wife had to make a public statement asking them to stop
@@enhaenhahyphen22 you're thinking of nickisnotgreen! he uploaded it on greenisnotnick titled "BookTok’s Response to This Drama is Gross" if anyone is curious
Yeah hockey rpf is a problem, writing abt fictional characters is a whole dif ball game, but sports players?? Idk where the line is tbh, bc writing satire slash fic abt politicians is hilarious and keeps em humble, (also their decisions impact lives, so get got jackasses), but it’s gotta be in there somewhere between not real people who’s feeling and lives don’t exist to matter, and people in entertainment with private lives and loved ones
3:40 as a figure skater I can say that hockey players smell like ham and make the whole rink smell like ham and are therefore not sexy unless you think ham is sexy
Lmao you don’t need to be a figure skater to be on a rink or be around hockey players, don’t know why that detail is mentioned as if it makes it more legit
When she said "my adhd medication is not strong enough...it will NEVER be strong enough" I felt that to my utter soul. I'm currently watching this to put noise on while I also do the walk around in a circle trying to organize my tasks. lolololol.
capitalism demands all of our time and energy, "adhd" is just modern science functioning as a capitalist asset. labelling you as sick and disabled for being unable to keep pace with an insane system that prioritizes violence and silence over nourishment and truth
the way booktok has changed so drastically is so upsetting bc i was sort of into it in like 2021 where ppl were hyping up some pretty decent books and now all its all motorcycle riding 7 foot tall alpha males or hypersexual fairies with alarming age gaps stockholm syndrome and sa
I remember when all I saw on booktok were people making whole ass series dedicated to talking about their opinions on old classics and how to write your book with nuance and like actual helpful advise, what happened?
please i would love to contribute to trying to rebuild a community on tiktok who want to discuss literature but i feel disheartened when i think about the comments being swarmed by existing booktok asking about the spice level. like are you lost when did smut scenes become the benchmark for quality recommendations
i'm a hypersexual guy and by god stuff like this is so concerning. this kinda thing only promotes hypersexuality which is. not good??? and fetishizes so many things??? like at least if you're gonna read corn, read better corn. i miss old booktok.
I can't tell you the amount of times I've tried to find books with actual enemies amd all I can find is "They've been enemies for so long" and all it is a slight dislike that dissolves the minute they have an actual conversation
Istfg so many people these days don't know the difference between enemies and rivals like the amount of books and fics I've read where it's like like "SERIOUS ENEMIES TO LOVERS) when they just mildly dislike eachother
No but the obssession with Mafia bosses in such stories cringes the f out of me💀 also it's embarrasing how some people sexualize abuse, SA, him being controlling etc.
The only good mafia story I’ve ever read was this silly fanfic that was just a misunderstanding (I thought you were the mafia boss, turns out you’re just running a shitty business) and I wish I could find that fic again
Why is it embarrassing? I think some people who are in control a lot get off on not having control. It's like riding a roller coaster. Even these people want consent, they want it to be with someone they trust. It's not the same thing as being actually abused.
@@Pabolandatiny oh I haven't seen anyone be genuinely into that. I know a lot of people into a lot of shit haha I have a friend... I have seen it through her, seen it all lol but never this
One thing I'll never understand is why booktokers spend real actual money on these books when they could find literally thousands of stories of the same (questionable) quality on wattpad, for free?
Theyre so obsessed with juat throwing together tropes and cliches that they come up with e/n for "enemy's name" because it's just obligatory that the love interest has to be your enemy 💀
Kink is a thing. It’s unorthodox stuff that turns people on. As long as it’s consensual and legal it’s all good. Just cause you don’t understand doesn’t mean it’s bad.
@ville__Is it 2012 again or something? Not cute 💀 Also, FACTS OP, like sometimes people work through their trauma by writing these kinds of things as short stories or fanfic because it puts them in control of the situation, but a whole book is not a coping mechanism. Way too sustained.
its nothing new. this sort of content has been around since the internet became a staple in homes. i used to read this same stuff back in the early 2000s when i was 13-14. the only difference between then and now is that back then, it was a niche on xanga and quizilla, and now it seems more prevalent and widespread because tiktok has an easier reach
Chad getting mad over one tiktok not showing if they actually do it infront of the hockey team and immediately switch to getting mad over explicit ones is so on point
There are so many young teen girls who are obsessed with these creepy, abusive types of men and it really worries me. That's not the kind of relationship that ANYONE needs
That's one of my main issues with booktok, it't not the books but the fact that younger girls are going to think this ok. I'm 18 and I read some books from booktok but I don't want thst in real life. But so many people don't seem to understand how this stuff isn't ok in reality
@@harutosoma7186 There definetely is. People who for the longest time have felt lost and sheltered or people who ahve to always make constant decisions with unbearable weight. they do appreciate a fantasy *emphasis on FANTASY* of not being in control for once. Of having someone that does that for them sexually. Admittiedly it might sound weird and I get that people don't really get it. I am not really good at explaining it either but I definetely understand the appeal. I had a friend who was very much into that because she was very much lost in life. She liked the fantasy of giving herself up, having someone in charge, because sometimes it felt like she wanted to do just that IRL, to give up on everything and have her life for once not in her own hands but someone else's. there are probably tons of reasons why but what people don't realize is that non con is not immediately the r word. it can be subtle things , scandalous ,even ridiculous that people would never dare do in real life and that is also what makes them a bit appealing. in fiction there is no such thing as societal pressure. This friend actually made lend me some of her spicy books and while it wasn't for me I can understand why she liked it. but at the end of the day it's still a fantasy, noone should ever have to go through that in real life. Because people in real life or characters written on a page they are people, and sadly nowadays some people think they are a main character and fantasize horrible acts.
@@harutosoma7186not op, but there can be an appeal to it: for victims of sexual assault or rape it can be cathartic to experience non-con in a fictional setting where they have ultimate control over the situation (closing the book). non-con also squarely puts the blame on one actor, while the other is resolved of all responsibility. this can be interesting to (primarily) women, who are often shamed when they are sexually forward in real life. in a fictional non-con scenario, they can identify with the who is subjected to the advances of another, and can thus experience pleasure without the related shame. but these are very adult topics and they should not be shown to teenagers, as they unfortunately sometimes are on tiktok. i’m personally not interested in non-con at all, but i can understand how/why someone might be. if you would like to know more about the subject than the two snippets i mentioned above, contra points twilight video discusses this issue at length.
the way these people define "enemies" reminds me of an old manga I've read, where two dudes were supposed to be enemies, but most of the time they were just hanging out together and teaming up against a bigger threat (and also their "antagonism" was expressed solely by exchanging snarky comments and calling each other names)
@@nursezatufek5716 Super Doctor K and its sequels Sadly, only a small portion of this manga has been translated into English (so I've read it through old Chinese scanlations)
I had a "relationship" with a man who was 20 years older than me and i wasn't even 18 at that time. He was manipulative and called me everyday for the stupidest reasons. Even now when i'm thinking back at that two years, i'm so disgusted with myself. Please, don't write about this stuff. It really isn't romantic.
I can promise you it wasnt your fault, that man was a predator trying to groom you. He is 100% at fault and the adults in your life should have stepped in. I hope you're doing okay now!
I'm so sorry that happened to you, I was manipulated by someone 2 and a half years older than me over the span of 3 years, but I can't even imagine what you must've gone through. I'm glad you're away from him now, please don't blame yourself, he deserves to be hurt and put in jail. Hopefully time heals the wounds. ♡
@@micahguillemette3344 Thank you for the support. I hope that everyone who had to live through the same thing find a way to heal and get better. My mum knew i had "a boyfriend", she even found the email he send me the day i decided to have sex with him (i wasn't old enough to do it since it happened a month before my 15th birthday), and did nothing. She let me leave with him and didn't call or check with me through the day. When i finally asked her, why she didn't stop me from seeing him, she said that i wouldn't listen to her anyway. It hurts even more that she is a good mum, but this is something i can't ever forgive her and she still doesn't understand why.
@@micahguillemette3344 Thank you for the support. I hope that everyone who had to live through the same thing find a way to heal and get better. My mum knew about this guy, she even find his email when he asked if we could have sex the day it happend (a month before my 15th birthday), and she still let me go with him. When i asked her, why she didn't stop me from seeing him, she said that i wouldn't listen to her anyway. It hurts even more that she is a good mum, but i can't never forgive her that she did nothing about this. And she still doesn't understand why.
I really feel like these have been written by teenagers attracted to older male celebrities or characters . It’s spicy AU fanfics written by someone who shouldn’t be reading or writing spicy AU fanfics.
Weirdly, a lot of the time it's middle-aged women who are writing these…and reading them. Which is weird because they know what it's like to be hypersexualised as a teen/younger woman, but do the exact same thing when they feel like they're no longer in their prime.
@@ValentineValmadre as a middle aged woman who likes fan fiction, I don’t feel like it’s up to the standards of things I’d read. As a teenager I would have ate some of this up. That’s the only reason I thought that, because I had been that teenager girl. Now an hardly legal girl and an adult man feels unbelievably wrong and makes me feel pretty icky.
@@nova_beam I agree with you on that. It's like how middle aged women read AO3, whereas teenage girls read Wattpad. The fanfics published on AO3 are (usually) better written and less romanticizing of toxic relationships. I just raised the middle aged women point because a lot of the sexually explicit content that's gaining traction in the fanfiction universe (e.g; 50 Shades, After) are written by middle age women who are sexualising child-like young women (small, frail, and often virgins).
@@ValentineValmadre Lol, I definitely read most of my Fan Fiction at AO3. It’s like you’re my head. Though I don’t like the “damsel” archetype, I can see some older women wishing to feel they’er that type of girl.
I have no problem with people reading super smutty books, even super toxic relationship smutty books. I've been known to partake, but you have to be clear 100% up front that these characters in your book are abusive/toxic/give trigger warnings for the content. And posting basically porn, on the kids dance app, is too much
a. I agree, fic is just fantasies, fantasies don't have to be stuff you would *ever* consider or condone in real life. if you're young enough to base your life on fic, your'e too young for fic. B. this is what happens when there's no delineation between kid sites and adult sites (outside of *true* xxx sites). You either end up like youtube having to censor every other word in case a child might be in the room, or you go full on inappropriate on the dancing app.
Yes, exactly! Fly the freak flag with pride, write literally the worst people imaginable doing literally the worst things imaginable but oh my god, keep this stuff somewhere where it’s clearly labelled so people can choose to engage or pass on it. Kids will still seek this stuff out but at least it’s on their terms rather than tiktok deciding for them.
I work in books. My job is books. I am so drained from mid-30s white ladies telling me I *absolutely have* to read Colleen Hoover, Rebecca Yarros, Sarah J. Maas (which, for the record, I did. When I was in the target demographic of "teenage girl." And she still wasnt good then.), or any of the other "booktok trendy" authors. Read what you want, but like. Recognize that its objectively Not Good. This is the new era of Harlequin romance novels, except now we're romanticizing assault, abuse, and bad editing, lmfao.
It’s pretty ridiculous that people are treating all this like it’s somehow new and uniquely terrible. Harlequin romances, bodice rippers, cheap smut paperbacks, etc. have literally always been exactly like this. Honestly they’re probably more consensual than they used to be, and definitely less generally racist. Some of those 70s “historical” romances were horrendous.
THATS WHAT IM SAYING!!! So, so damn many books recently have just had abusive smut tacked on for no goddamn reason other than "well these guys're doin it, so i have to!" Hard enough finding a fantasy where I don't have to sit through dragging sex scenes, god forbid I want a cute little romance.
Sarah J Maas is so ass. I read throne of glass expecting it to be like a spookyish fantasy novel, was kinda annoyed by the whole "I'm so badass I've already memorized the perfect escape route in 30 seconds despite their winding path" bs at the start, was more annoyed when a love triangle already started forming, and put the book down when it started describing her beasts in a sexualized manner after she had been malnourished for months or years. You can write better romance than "I'm so hot, omg two hot guys, let me talk about my boobs for half a page, and we're only a hundred something pages in." I hear she turns out to be a princess or some bullshit in a later novel and like... yeah okay sure fuck it why not. Garbage writer.
This whole enemies thing is so second-grade to me, no grown adults have enemies. Unless it's a fantasy novel and you're actually enemies, like, trying to kill each other and shit, don't bring up the word enemies
Like frenemies sometimes work but even then it comes off as petty. I think there was a show I watched where the main love interests weren’t enemies but were constantly trying to academically one up each other but didn’t actually hate each other.
I’m 19 and a 31 year old man told me he liked me recently. I wasn’t flattered. I was weirded out. Like. Why??? I don’t rlly have much against age gaps but when one person is that young it’s just weird. 28-48 feels totally different than 18-38. Like yeah it’s still a big gap but at least the younger person has lived a little- and isn’t. Yk. STRAIGHT OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL. Booktok is wild.
Honestly I feel like booktok is for people who never had a fanfiction phase when they were younger. Like, they didn’t discover the s*xual side of themselves during puberty through p*rn or fanfiction, and now they’re living it out through booktok
@@Heyaheyaheya7 Aw, don't dismiss the entire genre! There is so much incredible fanfiction out there that isn't at all NSFW. Some of the most beautiful writing I've ever experienced was in fanfic. It's just about utilizing the tags and keywords to find what you'd actually enjoy.
I was (and still am) a huge fanfiction reader and I have read some foul fics in my time- from extreme abuser to lovers, stalking, kidnapping, trafficking, etc. And my 14 year old brain romanticised it until an ex-partner choked me until I nearly passed out because I had decided to partner up with a male classmate for a university project. I quickly realised his 'aggressive love' was just abuse in hiding. I do read fics with similar plot points but I don't romanticise it and it makes me sad that girls like me won't realise how dangerous it is.
Agreed. I write a lot of fanfic (ain't no shame here, I love writing but I hate coming up with characters) and some tropes or plotlines may sometimes be very unsafe and toxic, but that's me working through my trauma while writing something I think would be interesting to read. The thing is that I know it's bad and that I would never want anything remotely close to whatever I wrote to happen to me or anyone else. It's fictitious actions that I don't support irl, and most of the people I share my work with understands that. Unfortunately a lot of people don't, and It makes me sad to see how so many, mostly those too young to be in that space to begin with, think that it's an acceptable way to treat a person or to be treated. As much as I stand for it not being entirely the author's responsibility to make sure that everyone's comfortable, because not everything is catered to everyone, a writer still has the responsibility to make sure that they give at least a note that says that this is fiction and not something that should be sought after in a real relationship. Especially when it's published on an app that's full of minors or people in vulnerable positions like tiktok. It takes like five seconds to write a disclaimer, and yet I see so little of it.
I assume e/n is "enemy's name." That last age gap one immediately reminded me of the horror I felt when I realized there was a 20 year age gap in Jane Eyre. Large age gaps with barely adults is not a sexy trope.
I occasionally write on AO3, and 90% of the time the community there is SO much better than booktok. Mutual interest over literature is awesome, but not when it feels like everyone is just begging for your attention :(
ao3 is much much more sophisticated and better than booktok and i love it so much lmao. even when there are taboo topics, the writers make it obvious that it shouldn’t be romanticized and handle those topics well imo. the part abt how it feels like in booktok ppl are just begging for attention actually makes a lot of sense, like all the posts with literal corn feel desperate
Exactly! There’s nothing wrong with writing a bit of smot here and there, I’ve dabbled myself, but not when your primary audience is LITERAL CHILDREN!!! From a writers perspective the stuff on here is just so poorly written and so cringy that it could really only be meant for one purpose.
I agree so hard. Also I've found the majority of Tiktok ao3 fic recommendations are so Sus and generally average. Makes me feel like such a snob. I've just been here a while 😅
It isn't perfect but the tagging system, content warnings are a GODSEND. Most people on Ao3 are really good on tagging warnings and disclaimers. Hell, Most of the dark, twisted stories in ao3 are pretty upfront with you saying "Hey, just want to let you know that this story has some serious messed up content, please keep that in mind"
I wish that there was more education on having a kinky but consensual relationship. Like the guy doesn’t HAVE to be abusive and mean, but if you’re into it you can roleplay that stuff. I want to see more stuff like “he was afraid to slap her” etc. like more of the people in the relationship discussing their kinks and fantasies and then acting them out rather than it being fully real. Like having some consensual nasty af s*x sounds so much hotter to me than the girl being genuinely scared during the situation. Edit: I do not read stuff like this I just meant it SOUNDS more attractive to me for things to be consensual, I know fanfiction like this exists. But I mean there should be more authors publishing books like this rather than all the weird abusive garbage that gets popularized on tiktok. Colleen Hoover, Sarah J Maas, etc. I don’t read books with sex in them I an averse to sex PLEASE do not recommend me shit!!! Thank you!!!
@@dopex89 not a writer and I don’t read books like this. I just meant it’s what I would prefer to see since I can’t seem to escape booktok even tho I don’t use tiktok
There is a book series where the author wrote the main character as "getting off" on being afraid. In the same book, the male love interest repeatedly stalked her and broke into her house, and assaulted her in her sleep twice. But it's okay he's a mercenary that takes down pedo rings. Low bar
I hate enemies to lovers only because most of the time they were never actual enemies- you need to want to kill each other or smthn and romance should never be a possibility.
No you're so correct, if they don't try to kill each other at least once what's the point? Most of the time it only works in like fantasty etc where it makes more sense in context. You can't really do it in contemporary and a lot of the time it's rival to lovers and I wish people would just call it that
I hate when stories are advertised as enemies to lovers, but it's actually kidnapper and victim lol. Enemies to lovers should be more about rivals on equal footing imo.
thats why I prefer rivals to lovers- makes more sence because the charecters inherently have some similar traits (a shared sport, academic prowess, etc) but also have reason to dislike eachother- hence tension. If they are competing against eachother it also makes sense why they would interact which gives more plausible scenarios for romance to develop. Enemies is too strong of a hate to ever become love if its a convincing enemy-ship
I agree. Enemies to lovers has to be like a hero villian dynamic where you can follow one of two paths: a hero corruption arc or a villian redemption arc.
Enemies to loves can be done well but it's incredibly difficult. You have to acknowledge that the enemy was a bad person so maybe hooking up with them makes you kinda bad
My fave romance trope to this day is still: two strangers (of age) who get stuck in a situation together (eg. accidentally locked in a room) and they bond and fall in love while trying to escape. Bonus points when they’re both hopeless romantics because these days I only see couples where one partner is a romantic and the other is either unbothered or a grump. And lots of cuddles pls.
the hockey rabbit hole is wild. there was a whole situation on TikTok where booktokers were sexualising real life hockey players that felt uncomfortable with it.
That does sound really unpleasant but hearing about this now I'm mainly confused that of all the sports this invasive sexualising could've been related to it was one where players wear a ton of padding, oversized jerseys, helmets and mouthguards. Seriously, no one looks hot with a mouthguard in 😭
@@emmao6578 its the "hiding something under all that" trope where a character will be wearing a bunch of stuff and have a conventionally attractive body type underneath it
Funnily enough, the reason for all the hockey books is racism. They used to write more sports romances about popular sports like football and basketball, but when poc rightfully questioned how there were only white people on an American basketball team, the authors decided to pivot to primarily white sports instead of adding black people into their stories. They are also trying to push golf, but readers love a bad boy trope, and no one is buying a "bad boy golfer" in a polo shirt and khakis. It's honestly hilarious😂 and it's a plus that the writing sucks regardless.
as a poc i can NEVER find books where the romantic interest is black and DOESNT contain “black struggle” Every time the write “tall dark and handsome” but it’s not about their skin I internally cry.
okay but genuinely, chad… hearing that you also walk in circles when you’re paralyzed by “what i have to work on” stress made me feel so much better abt the 2.5 hrs i spent circling the same spot in the living room lolol
Part of me imagines politicians who voted to ban TikTok just being forced to sit down & watch this stuff during hearings then going like, "What has my life become?"
There was actually some issue involving the alpha/omega fanfic trope that ended up in federal court, not quite sure on the details but I think an author tried to claim it was their thing and they should get compensation from other authors "copying" their work or something. And yes hearing lawyers quote some of the smut in a very dry serious way was pretty damn funny, I think it lindsay ellis did a video on it.
