#2018ish i was like hmm......but now i love him | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

toxicnotebook · 1 year

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Okay, SO.

I am very blessed to live in a neighborhood with a bunch of readers who hate throwing anything useful away, so there is a local little library that is constantly getting new books. I- being a reader who hates throwing anything useful away- visit this little library on a regular basis. I tend to look for fantasy, sci-fi, and any romance novels that look especially cheesy.

I am not a regular romance reader, but I have found a couple of gems here and there through the little library. And the ones that didn’t work for me were entertaining for, hmm, perhaps not the intended reasons, but a good time none the less.

The books in the photo are my latest grabs from the library- Love on the Brain and Go Hex Yourself. Enemy-to-lovers in NASA and a cozy modern witch settings, respectively? Sure! Sounds fun!

I decide to start with Go Hex Yourself and you know what, I’m enjoying the first couple of chapters. The writing style is a little undeveloped, but the hints at the heroine’s backstory are drawing me in, the old witch is charming, I’m having a good time. And then the POV switches to the grumpy love interest.

After a few pages of his inner dialogue, I'm like ‘I need to look at some reviews’ because MAN I could not STAND HIM and wanted to know if it was worth sticking it out.

So I type the title into google, intending to just look up reviews, and then I notice, in the autofill section:

Go Hex Yourself Reylo

And I'm like

Oh I GOTTA know why this is popping up

I'm fully expecting there to be a mega-popular Reylo fic that just happened to share a title with a romance novel, but the truth is so much better- and so much funnier- than my expectations.

Here’s what I can tell from my brief deep dive: from at least 2018ish, Reylo fic authors have been successfully publishing their AU fanfics as original books- to the point where there are MULTIPLE GOODREADS LISTS. And, from what I can tell, this trend really took off in 2020. You know, after a certain franchise-crushing movie came out.

Now, I don’t know if this was a conscious fandom movement or just a coincidence, but it really looks like a good chuck of the Reylo fandom basically decided to take their toys and leave after the release of The Rise of Skywalker. And then publish the toys themselves and make their own money.

Listen. Reylo is so not my thing. These books are going back into the wild. But I have nothing but respect for this kind of hustle. A piece of fiction gives you a bad, unsatisfying ending? Fuck it! Take your fanworks, tweek ‘em a little, and then sell it as your own IP!

Like I am not kidding when I say this is a trend other fandoms should follow. If the work sucks, make a better version of it. Become their competition. Make some cash out of SPITE and love for your favs.

Absolutely fantastic. I can’t wait to see if any other fandom does this in the future.

#books #reading #fanfic #fandom culture #reylo #sure fuck it I'll tag the ship #no hate here only respect

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