Romantasy: Fae Baes
Just what exactly is a Shadow Daddy?
Romance readers have always had a preoccupation with genre and subgenre, and BookTok is no exception. Readers break down tropes and micro tropes, recommending titles on a granular level: enemies to lovers dark mafia romance with secret baby. Small town contemporary cowboy second chance romance.
What feels different with this new generation of power readers, however, is how willing they are to read across subgenres, perhaps partially owing to the fact that as YA readers first, they are used to different genres being shelves side by side. Nowhere is this clearer than with the rise of romantasy (romance and fantasy) and its popularity with the young female readers that drive BookTok and, increasingly, the entire publishing industry.
Sarah J. Maas
In order to talk about romantasy, publishing and BookTok’s new favorite portmanteau, we need to start with Sarah J. Maas. A prolific writer of sprawling series, Maas published her first novel, Throne of Glass, in 2012. Since then, she has published an additional 6 books in that series and written two other series: A Court of Thorns and Roses and Crescent City (5 books and 3 books, respectively).
A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) is objectively Maas’s most popular series (the first book has 230,940 Amazon reviews). Published in 2015, the series is remarkable for the steadiness of its popularity, with new readers discovering and breathlessly discussing the books 9 years later.
Maas writes addictive, fast-paced books (despite the fact that the books are so long that if you dropped one on your head while reading you might die), with empowered heroines and the alpha heroes they love to hate. She has a deft hand with worldbuilding and balancing side characters, many of whom become sequel bait as the stories expand and overlap.
Her popularity (per her website, she has sold more than 38 million books in English) has given rise to, if not an entirely new genre, a new way of thinking about fantasy novels and the potential audience for them. Namely, women in their twenties on BookTok who burn through 1,000 page novels in days and create memes about their characters.
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Fourth Wing
In spring 2023, a hot new bombshell entered the villa: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (to date - 236,039 Amazon reviews). Yarros had published several books, mostly contemporary romance, before breaking out with her fantasy novel about a cutthroat school for dragon riders. For a generation of readers decades removed from Anne McCaffery, perhaps this felt like a novelty.
Many romantasy novels had already broken out before Fourth Wing, but none so convincingly. And its popularity underlined that romantasy had legs outside of the Maas industrial complex.
Fourth Wing’s power is in its ability to understand tropes and then maximize their impact. Spoilers ahead: riders typically bond with one dragon? Our heroine will bond with two! The enemy who wants to kill her? Their dragons are mated to each other and their desire for each other spills over into their riders’ emotions! Even from the beginning, no character is safe - riders and other side characters are killed with reckless and bloodthirsty abandon. And all of this would be familiar territory for readers who grew up on The Hunger Games and Harry Potter and Divergent, just with a spicy twist.
Faerie Mad Libs
A funny thing happens when a book goes breathtakingly, world-changingly viral: a wave of imitators flood the market. This trend cycle is accelerated by indie publishing and TikTok, resulting in dozens of romantasy books with titles structured in the exact same way, like a fae-inspired mad lib. Out of A Court of Thorns and Roses is spawned:
Just see the reel below, which summarizes the sameness efficiently and elegantly:
Shadow Daddies and Morally Grey Heroes
The readers of BookTok are setting the trends, not following them, so we turn to them to see where romantasy might be headed next. And what our romantasy queens want is Shadow Daddies.
Shadow Daddy is more of a vibes-based term, but here is my attempt to define it, compiled from TikToks and Reddit explainer threads:
old but looks young (if you’re not a 500 year old fae do not inquire)
tattooed
rich
morally grey
BDSM vibes
has dominion over shadows (although honestly this seems true maybe 50% of the time)
TLDR; Shadow Daddy is brat. (I know brat is over, don’t at me).
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Some examples: Xaden from Fourth Wing (not old but controlling, all powerful, literal shadow powers that he uses during sex) and the Umbra Mortis from Crescent City (old, tortured, lightning powers that he uses during sex).
Interestingly, Shadow Daddies are no longer just confined to the world of romantasy. Dark romance, mafia romance, gothic romance, horror romance — all increasingly popular subgenres full of shadow daddies or morally grey heroes. Girls just want to have fun with emotionally dysfunctional assholes who might kill someone who looks at her the wrong way.
Up and Comers
Interested in exploring romantasy beyond the usual suspects and the mad libs titles?
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent: the goddess of death hosts a tournament every hundred years, with the winner receiving one granted wish. Oraya’s wish? To become a vampire like her adopted father. Full of trials, the bread and butter of every romantasy girlie.
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker: 718 pages of dragons, assassins, slow burn romance with a shadow daddy, and a glossary of fantasy terms.
Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole: Literally cannot tell what the plot of this book is from either reviews or descriptions, but if you’re looking for romantasy vibes with a feisty heroine, this could be for you. Very divisive.
Powerless by Lauren Roberts: This popular YA romantasy apparently includes a sexy thumb war.
Quicksilver by Callie Hart: I can’t believe this book has come up three weeks in a row, but that’s how you know people are talking about it. If you like your romantasy with a side of vampires, zombies, alchemy, and tattoos, this book is for you. Maximalist to the max, including in length (I think it’s too long but that didn’t dampen my enjoyment too much).
Imaginary Celebrity Book Club
There is such a proliferation of romantasy books that a good celebrity romantasy book club would be genuinely helpful. Already, dozens of BookTokers have their own book clubs and Amazon storefronts curating the best of the fae and dragons and vampires (oh my).
Jenna Ortega, queen of Gen Z spooky vibes, seems to me the obvious choice to launch a romantasy book club with a touch of dark academia and a soupcon of gothic. Celebrity book clubs tend to skew older - the youngest I can think of is Dua Lipa (29)’s Service95. Presumably, Gen Z’s curatorial needs are being met by BookTokers, but it would be worth a celebrity-led attempt. Call me, Jenna.
Great roundup--I do want more BTers (and people in my Spicy BookTok facebook group) to distinguish between shadow daddies who are morally gray in their behavior in the world but really not in their relationship, vs the ones who are morally gray in how they treat the FMCs. Could save me a lot of DNFs, as I'm looking for the former and everyone in the Spicy BookTok group seems obsessed with the latter, lol.
Great post! I definitely would be interested in a celebrity romantasy book club just to get some insight on what are people talking about (besides the obvious heavy-hitters such as Maas and Yarros. I also think the Assistant to the Villain series is a good entryway to reading romantasy, especially since it has more of a cozy vibe with not-so-difficult to understand worldbuilding as well as a morally grey villain (who's ironically a hero in this series).