book trends we need to leave in 2023

today we are discussing the biggest book trends of the past year and thinking about what to keep and what to leave for 2024! Romantasy, fourth wing, colleen hoover, gothic fiction, the hunger games and even more :) let me know your thoughts on all of these trends!

🌼 s o c i a l m e d i a
• twitter: @thebookleo
• instagram: @thebookleo

🌺 a b o u t m e
Hi! My name is Leonie and I am a 26 year old girl from the Netherlands who loves talking about books! From YA to non-fiction to classics, I read it all (although fantasy will always be my fave).

🌹 m u s i c
Music, art, and video by Jokabi

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[sillylizard]

My biggest gripe with Colleen Hoover is how her marketing team targets *young readers!* I teach middle schoolers and I'm blown away at how they're all reading CoHo books (which portray super toxic relationships and glorify things that shouldn't be glorified which young readers soak up and don't know how to critically separate from reality the way adults can) because "everybody else is reading it" and their adults see a fun and colorful cover and don't question anything about it

[audreydickinson]

I think a lot of people on booktok just haven't discovered AO3 yet and it shows in what they're reading

[summercannon]

I work at a bookstore and I think my manager explains Colleen Hoover the best - "Colleen Hoover sells millions of books. McDonald's sells millions of burgers. But is McDonald's really the pinnacle of your dining experience?"

[L.Arroyo]

I think the problem with special editions is when the author (and/or co.) decides to include special and different content in each special edition book, so it's no longer about what the edition looks like, but what it contains. Imagine expecting people to buy 5 copies of the same book so they can read 5 different extra chapters… that's a nasty move by the publishing industry.

[angie]

I wouldn't mind tropes so much if authors actually delivered, but if I have to read one more book with enemies to lovers trope where they slightly dislike each other for the first 20 pages...

[baileyinnarnia]

PLEASE leave Colleen Hoover in the past I’m begging the world at this point

[may-rwjj]

My biggest quarrel with the new Romantasy genre is that although the books are written for adults getting past the YA stage, they are still written as if the author never learned how to actually write a book FOR adults. The only “adult” aspects are explicit sex scenes and cursing… but the writing, world building, and plot are all explained as if they are still writing to teenagers.
They aren’t producing books for adults, but for people who want to read smut. It is really, really disappointing! The 4th Wing is a prime example of that.

[whitesnowrabbit]

I guess the main problem with Collen Hoover books is that they are marketed as romance when they deal with abuse

[writerwiles]

I want actual fantasy prose back in books!!! Like no-one's saying it has to be at the level of George R R Martin but I'm tired of seeing modern slang and lingo in fantasy settings 😭 Also more period-appropriate names with actual thought put into them plssss

[pendragon]

For me, one thing I'd really like to see disappear is the idea that EVERYTHING needs a dark, gritty side so if you're right that this is going away, I'll be much happier. Great video, Leonie! Hope your holiday season is going well!

[juststayhappy]

My problem with tropification of books isn't so much with sorting/recommending books based on tropes they use to but with writing the books around the tropes that are popular on booktok. I read multiple books this year that were written like the author was playing trope bingo and trying to get as many tropes in as possible.
Like it's not just enemies to friends to lovers it also has to have fake dating AND there's only one bed AND that trope where we find out guy had feelings all along... I'm tired. I want a story, not a collection of cliches.

[lizanderson]

I think "cozy" books are great for when you are in a reading slump or in between heavier reads and I love the potential that lies within the fantasy genre for more low stake books. I always wished some of the bigger fantasy novel series came with sidebooks that let us get to know the characters in a low pressure enviorment more. A slice of life look at the elves in LOTR would be amazing.

Slice of life books are somewhat missing in fantasy and hope that this trend of "cozy" pushes us to see more of that specific subgenre within fantasy.

So, i hope the "cozy" trend keeps up because it opens up a lot of doors within genres and lets authors know that not every single books needs to be high stake or emotionally intense. It helps keep a bit of balance in the publishing world.

[girlie]

tbh I don’t think a lot of romantasy are actually that much more mature than YA. on page sex is the only distinct difference imo

[taliasmith]

unpopular opinion but i dont like tropification😭i could never put my finger down on why bookish content nowadays lowkey bothered me but you said my exact thoughts

[winterkind]

I like knowing about tropes, because sometimes I just need to scratch a certain itch. But I hate that some books are written to just fit a popular trope - esp. when it just feels so forced.

[scionsilverbeat]

Romantacy - I want ACTUAL slow-burn relationship building to become a part of it. And for books without any lust to be written.

Romantasy should technically be my favourite genre by definition. And yet I hate it for what it currently is in the adult category. Being an adult book is about SO MUCH more than just “ooooh look, they’re thirsty”

[HelloDarling]

Caleb Joseph, the original Hoover hater, started that trend with a genuine reflection and criticism of her and I agree, it's been done! He did the damn thing

Edit: Joseph, not Hammer. Too overconfident in my abilities to remember things around the holidays

[andrewbunda]

I'm a bookseller, and I see so many people who buy tons and tons of books for a book haul that they see just because it's popular or because it looks pretty, which I have nothing against in theory, if you think you're going to like a book, or your collecting editions of your favorite books then it makes sense, but so many of those same people I see showing off huge book hauls either never actually read any of the books, or they end up not liking the book, but keep it on their shelves anyway because it looks pretty. Idk about other people, but I want my shelves to be a reflection of who I am as a reader, I want to have all my favorite and most loved books on display, of course there are books on my shelf I haven't read yet, because who doesn't have those, but I'm not going every other week and buying hundreds of dollars worth of books that I haven't even read the synopsis of. I think a lot of the algorithm promotes buying books and promoting the ones that become popular so that you can get more views and clicks, and I honestly don't fully blame the people involved just because I know social media and keeping up with trends can be exhausting. I think it would be so beneficial for places like booktok, which is so saturated with over-consumption and constant book hauls, to start promoting libraries and maybe unhauls and stuff. Libraries are amazing, and idk how accessible they are outside of the US, but here, a majority if not all libraries are free and genuinely such wonderful places for community. they do so much more than lend books out, and as a kid who grew up in a lower-class family who loved to ready, libraries were really a saving grace because I didn't have to waste money on books I didn't end up liking. I love a sprayed edge and a fancy hardback as much as the next person, but I think the over-consumption on the internet, and booktok specifically, is more than just that. (sorry for the essay lmao I apparently had a lot to say)

[fanni_sophia]

My pet peeve is the: how spicy is it? question. People are asking this about every book, and it concerns me.

I'm down for a spicy book, why not. But people were asking the author of Keeper of Enchanted rooms about how much doing the deed is in it. That book is the most tame urban fantasy ever. Nothing in the description talks about romance or spiciness. But I feel like lots of readers just go to Kindle Unlimited and expect every book to be a romantasy full of adult scenes.

My concern is: If you only read spicy books, and this is the only thing that matters is how hot it is, ( no plot, no story, no world building, no characters ) when does it became a corn addiction?

[randomgirl]

I think because media makes women seem like we're all the same and there's a right way to "girl", all women will eventually go through a "I'm not like other girls" phase whether it's doing sports, how you dress, what you read, what your hobbies are. We're all made to believe all other girls are like this and that, and we're not so we're cool. without realizing that we're all cool.