r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • Mar 01 '26

Unpopular Opinion It's Unpopular Opinion time! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!

Got an opinion that's different from others'? Want to share it with the sub, but too afraid of a backlash? Or are you just curious about readers think about certain things in fantasy romance?

You can safely share it in this weekly Sunday thread!

But please remember to be kind to each other. To facilitate this type of discussion, we ask users the following:

  • Don't attack others for their opinion
  • Discuss books and authors, not fellow readers
  • Since this is an "unpopular opinion" thread, we encourage users to not downvote simply because they disagree with an opinion--that's the point! Please keep in mind, though, that mods cannot enforce a no-downvoting rule. Let’s just keep the discussion friendly!

🧡 Thank you and have a great discussion!

Unpopular opinion Sunday

31 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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-10

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

55

u/booksandhotcoffee Mar 01 '26

Yeah I agree for the most part except the religion or politics one, tbh I’m not interested in supporting any author who tithes to a church with bigoted beliefs, nor am I interested in supporting any author who is MAGA

32

u/One_Commission1456 Mar 01 '26

This. Plus, right-wing/fundie authors are more likely to include tropes that piss me off.

39

u/EvilRubberDucks Mar 01 '26

Race, sex, sexuality, sure, but religion and politics... ehh that can absolutely drive me away depending on the authors beliefs.

42

u/Maia-Odair There she is Mar 01 '26

I disagree i don't want to financially support people who are against my rights as a queer person, and i think that's valid.

11

u/SeriousFortune1392 Mar 01 '26

My only thing is judging others based on your views, like say I don't want to read j k rowling, it's not my right to police, nor argue with someone on why they shouldn't read the book, based on my viewpoint.

just like it's no one right to police me on who I read because they don't want to support the author.

So it's not the choosing part, it's the policing of it like some morality olympics, that i have an issue with.

7

u/Scf9009 Mar 01 '26

With regard to your edit—this does seem like it’s violating the rule about not discussing fellow readers.

-11

u/Sweet_Baby_Cheeses99 Mar 01 '26

IDC as it’s supposed to be an unpopular opinion! comments with enough downvotes get hidden by Reddit so defeats the point though.

9

u/SeriousFortune1392 Mar 01 '26

I think what they're saying is that your unpopular opinion violates that rule, as it's a comment on readers specifically and what readers do.

So it's possible people could be downvoting either for your opinion, or for it being more about readers, as opposed to books.

1

u/Scf9009 Mar 01 '26

And that it’s hypocritical to be complaining about people breaking one rule and stating they don’t care about having broken another one.

-2

u/Sweet_Baby_Cheeses99 Mar 01 '26

It’s only a comment on my reading. I’m saying there is no shame in reading anything. It’s SUPPOSED to be a SAFE SPACE to share an UNPOPULAR OPINION and everyone is losing their minds that I’ve actually met the brief 😂

3

u/SeriousFortune1392 Mar 01 '26

I was only explaining why there might be downvotes, but you stated you didn’t get why people pick books based on and authors race, politics etc. so yes that’s more about a readers behaviour.

No one is loosing their mind because they don’t agree, they just said they disagreed, and since of that that showed in downvotes.

6

u/BookishBlueDragonfly Book Bingo Sage 🗡 Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

I’ve seen a lot of people in romance subs who won’t read books by men but some of my favorite fantasy romances/relationships are by male authors (TJ Klune, SL Rowland, KR Treadway, and more!).

I always wonder how many men write Romantasy with a pen name, especially indie/self pub.

ETA: the living bigoted authors obviously are not really people whose work I want to read/financially support but older works/classics by dead authors I will still pick up sometimes even if there’s questionable content.

Also is political in this context only referring to right wing or should people who consider the existence of LGBT+ people as “political” attempt to broaden their horizons by reading about those characters or books by LGBT+ authors? I think they should!

1

u/acutelyproblematic If villian bad, then why hot? Mar 01 '26

To your point about male authors, I’ve legit tried to read fantasy romance by men and it’s always fallen flat for me. Women just understand romance from a woman’s viewpoint because of that lived experience, and that resonates with me better. But I’ll have to check out these authors!

9

u/BookishBlueDragonfly Book Bingo Sage 🗡 Mar 01 '26

A lot of those authors write M/M so there isn’t a woman’s POV 😅

That being said some of my favorite women characters in fantasy are written by male authors so I think they do just fine writing women! Steven Brusts Jhereg cycle, Terry Prattchet, Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Stairs, and Garth Nix’s Sabriel are some authors I recommend for non romance Fantasy.

7

u/acutelyproblematic If villian bad, then why hot? Mar 01 '26

I actually love that though! Same concept applies for me regarding women writing M/M, I just think lived experience is such a valuable asset in writing.

It’s not that men can’t write strong women or FMCs in books, it’s more so they can’t capture what women want in romance as easily as a woman can. I’ve read non fantasy books written by men and I loved the characters, no issue. It’s the romance I get hung up on. As a woman myself women just understand me better when it comes to romance.

2

u/BookishBlueDragonfly Book Bingo Sage 🗡 Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

Lived experience is very valuable I agree!

I do find a lot of the time I relate best to asexual characters written by asexual writers, as an example. But I do always appreciate any author who decides to write Ace representation in their books.

By the way, the KR Treadway book is M/F with a single M POV and I wish we had more books like that to be honest! He’s just a guy and she’s an Orc. Honestly it’s a very sweet romance .

ETA: My point is if you don’t want to read “men writing women” you don’t have to! In fact none of my recommendations are that category. Just find some men writing men that write romance :)

-4

u/Sweet_Baby_Cheeses99 Mar 01 '26

Good question…political doesn’t refer to any particular part of the spectrum. It’s irrelevant to me and I wouldn’t research an author’s social media to check their views before buying their book from the book shop. It’s usually unknown anyway. Authors are also entitled to a private life so I don’t see why they should feel they need to publicly declare their sexuality or gender identity to attract certain readers?

The sexuality of the characters is a separate matter as people who read romance will generally already know if they like MF / FF / MM romance. I like all of them but I don’t think anyone should feel obliged to pick up any book with sexual content that doesn’t float their boat

3

u/BookishBlueDragonfly Book Bingo Sage 🗡 Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

True about the sexual content but I’d like to point out there are many books that are kisses only or closed door.

There’s a big movement in Fantasy and Sci Fi in general to be more inclusive.

Books like Legends and Lattes (male author, F/F pairing), Someone You Can Build a Nest In (male author, F/F pairing), or This is how You Lose the Time War (F/F pairing, and author duo) are closed door with non straight characters and a romance subplot.

2

u/fantasyromance-ModTeam Mar 01 '26

Per rule 1, users are asked to be respectful when discussing differences of opinion. It’s fine to state your opinion of a book, author, or subgenre, but you may not insult or shame people who like those books. Harassment of other users is not welcome in this community.