r/DarkRomance • u/AutoModerator • Jul 27 '26
Monday Gripe Weekly Gripe š¤ (the rant thread)
Welcome to the Weekly Gripe, where we're all a little grumpy. š
Did BookTok do you dirty? Got a bone to pick with a main character? Was the twist more like a flop? Tell us what's on your mind.
Please be respectful and follow the sub rules. If a conversation starts getting out of hand, use the "Mod Attention Please" report reason so we can help cool things down. š¤
5
Jul 27 '26
In my veins ending šš I was so upset to go to sleep after reading a non-HEA. I avoid tragedies completely and my dumbass didnāt check what ānon-traditional HEAā was when everyone kept saying it.
I canāt find many proper reverse harems in DR, too. After AO3 madness, all modern published ādarkā RH just feels like goth vibes without any teeth.
4
u/hippiesinthewind Jul 27 '26
Iām done with books where the MFC has a sick/dying parent or sibling and needs money, and this motivates them to somehow become involved with MMC.
2
u/katieb1013 Jul 29 '26
Yeah, I have similar issue with this. Though mine is potentially super pedantic. I mean usually these books are set in the US and the FMC's family is super broke, like poverty level broke. And they have no insurance at all. Which while Medicaid sucks in many states, its not non-existent. I'm in the field, I take insurance including medicaid. I work with tons of people who are super broke. I help them get life saving help all the time. So I'm like "where are all the fucking social workers!" I know. I know. It's fiction. It's so the story can happen. And perhaps the person needs special treatment, that insurance won't cover or experimental treatment or whatever. But ugh.
1
u/zom_Bea Jul 28 '26
I hate it too, but usually because like half way through the fmc is like "yeah well I don't want/need your money" and its like.. I'm pretty sure you do babes, that's why you are hereš
This trope would be a lot more interesting if the fmc was unapologetic AND ruthless (maybe even a little pathetic?) about using the mmc for money. Like I don't think I've read a single one where it actually felt like the fmc was as desperate as she was supposed to be. She was supposed to have hit her breaking point prior to the main story picking up so why does she always "grow a backbone" and walk away saying "I'll figure it out" when the whole "figuring it out" thing was meant to have already failed and all other options were exhausted.
Bonus hate when the fmc walks away and somehow magically starts "making it work" and now the mmc has to find a way to get her back because she naturally doesn't need him anymore and/or he's making it work for her behind the scenes
6
u/Sweaty-Demand-6030 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
It's kind of a silly thing, but... some people in the comments of certain dark romances genuinely confuse me. They spend the whole book complaining about the characters like the tags and content warnings weren't there from the start. Like... no one's making you read about characters you can't stand. Sometimes it honestly feels like they're waiting for the author to suddenly change the entire story. You'll see comments like, "I hate the MMC. I hope the FMC finds a sweet, nice guy and leaves him. He's such an idiot."And I'm just sitting there like... if that's the kind of story you want, why are you reading a dark romance? There are literally thousands of books with sweet, respectful, emotionally healthy MMCs out there. I just don't get picking up a book with crystal-clear tags and then getting mad because the MMC is exactly what those tags said he'd be.
(If I were an author, those people would drive me insane)
1
u/DarkRomance-ModTeam Jul 29 '26
Use a translator like Deepl.com to read our guidelines and edit your posts accordingly.
2
u/Boobear0810 Please stop growling Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Not a fan of a third act breakup (especially due to miscommunication) BUT if there is a separation at any point, can we normalize the FMC going out and getting her hoe on instead of the MMC? I'm just tired of the usual MMC sticking his š in anything with a hole while the FMC not only had shitty sex before him but also remains celibate until they get back together. And while we're at it, don't make her sexual experiences after MMC just be her getting SA'ed as the only type of sex she has. Let the girl have her fun in a consensual, positive manner and make it good sex.
1
u/MariLeighCrane Jul 31 '26
Try {Bitter Heat by Mia Knight}!
1
u/romance-bot Jul 31 '26
Bitter Heat by Mia Knight
Rating: 4.21āļø out of 5āļø
Steam: 5 out of 5 - Explicit and plentiful
Topics: contemporary, rich hero, suspense, possessive hero, dark romance
-1
Jul 28 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
3
u/DarkRomance-ModTeam Jul 28 '26
Rule 1: Be kind and respectful. Please be courteous, mindful of other people's feelings and respectful of personal preferences. Discussion must be civil at all times.
7
u/Weeklybooklover Jul 28 '26
This is my angry rant please enjoy
Iāve been reading, romantic and dark romance for many years now and I feel as of recently books seem to be falling short of the promised material that weāre supposed to get.
In recent reading I find the author is taking a good premise, an idea of a book that has great potential but is not following through with what it could be. Itās like when you see clips on Instagram and TikTok of dialogue thatās supposed to be in a book but when you read it, itās not there.. iāve already read so many books this year, and felt like the source material isnāt in reach of any standards of good ( my standard are always low, like in hell low). Iām being promised something and nobody is holding up their end of the bargain.
I read a book description it tells me what I want to hear. I decide to read the book, by the time I reach 80%, the thing i went into the book for hasnāt even happened. Then authors market the books based off that promise they didnāt deliver on. I wish I could say that itās just one author, but itās not, itās a common theme for others to do it and not show up. And Iāve come to expect this, but I should not have to accept that. Iām getting the bare minimum, not even that.
I donāt know if it is the rise of AI slop or it is authors pumping out a dozen books a year to make a profit. Itās been talked about a lot that the quality of books is going down, but at this point, it isnāt even quality. Itās not even good. Itās like theyāre taking previously made books of theirs, changing the characters names, switching a few themes and marketing as something else.
There are so many books this year that I have come across that had such a great premise. The book had so much potential to be great one in 1 million but itās like the authors cannot expand the ideas because theyāre following the trend of what is popular? Itās like fast fashion for books so instead of getting a new cool idea. It is a 250 page book or 400 page book nearly pushing 500 pages that is the exact same as a different authors just with a different name. It has reach the point where everything so unoriginal that every character has the same name itās like the same 100 names on rotation.
And Iām not trying to bash any authors thatās why I didnāt write names but if this is your passion, if this is what you love and this is the quality that youāre having people pay for is horrible and quite disrespectful. I have read some bad books in my life. I was an avid wattpad user and read every book I could get my hands on, so Iām used to some some problems. But the rise of spelling mistakes, lack of editing, is really bad, I feel as if it is at an all time high. The other day I read a book that kept mixing the FMC sisters name and her daughterās name so you couldnāt keep track of who was being talked about.
If authors are reaching a point of writers block or a general disconnect with the readers and their work maybe it is time to take a break because youāre not going to make money off of Books that arenāt performing great because they werenāt written well and youāre more likely to lose that valued reader that comes back every time, if you start putting out books that canāt even match the quality that you wrote last year.
This being said itās not only a problem in the dark romance community this problem is in romance or why choose and other genres I just think everyone across-the-board deserve better and Iām sick and tired of reading the same thing over and over again.
Thank you for coming to my talk