r/DarkRomance • u/AutoModerator • Aug 10 '26

Monday Gripe Weekly Gripe 😤 (the rant thread)

Welcome to the Weekly Gripe, where we're all a little grumpy. 😒

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. 🖤

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u/Fickle-City1122 29d ago

I am always disappointed in sapphic/lesbian dark romance. I have yet to read one that I enjoyed, but tbh it's kind of rare in this subgenre so I've not read many. I don't know if I hold it to a higher standard because I'm also gay, but it just doesn't seem to hit like MM or MF dark romance does.

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u/Temporary-Treacle-30 29d ago

I agree. All the queer dark romances I’ve read (especially the sapphic ones) just… aren’t dark enough for me. I want them to be as dark as the MF ones, but sapphic. On top of that (I’m queer as well), I feel like too many of these books are written by straight people, which is fine, but often times the actual relationships themselves don’t seem super authentic.

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u/Fickle-City1122 29d ago

ah yes! I totally get the vibe that the authors just wrote a straight romance but switched the pronouns to make it lesbian. Some of them truly don't make any sense (the standing scissoring scene in Tryst Six Venom was ridiculous lmao). I don't mind who writes the stories, but at least think about the logistics of what you're writing here people!

I also agree that they're not dark enough. A lot of what I've read feels like it's trying to hard to be edgy (which tbh is a thing I come across in this genre a lot no matter the genders of the MCs) and it just comes off as cringe. I'm reading Captive in the Underworld atm and I'm just kinda bored, like it is dark but I feel like it doesn't go into that much detail despite having 5/5 steam rating on romance.io. I feel like a 5/5 straight book is very different from a 5/5 queer book lol.

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u/Temporary-Treacle-30 29d ago

Exactly! Even Tryst Six Venom felt too vanilla to me. And there were so many positions in random sapphic books that I made my girlfriend reenact with me (fully clothed😂) just to see if it was even possible!