#also as an aside I actually do viscerally despise the word rep and will scroll past anything where someone says:

[aroaessidhe]

I mean, I do see where you’re coming from with the blurb thing, especially with how that poll was worded, but the majority of people I see actually complaining about the phenomenon are talking specifically about the ways books are recommended. Again I agree with you that I prefer it’s mentioned somewhere because I like to know (though sometimes being surprised by it in a book where I didn’t expect it is a delight), but if someone lists a bunch of books only by what kind of rep it has I won’t go personally googling every single book on the list simply because it’s gay, because my time is limited and there are some genres I won’t be interested in no matter what, so I prefer rec lists that as a minimum includes the genre, preferably also tone and basic plot (is it a mystery? a romance?). Not sending this to try and argue with you, just hoping to clarify where a lot of people are coming from!

I get that, but it's still a big ol overexaggeration imo! Most of the time when people are doing brief bullet point rec lists it is in the context of an age range/genre, or some other more specific element anyway? and if it includes the cover (which most do) you also will have a genre/age/tone indication (aside from the occasional book with a cover that badly communicates content).

like every time I see anything remotely like this it is always either a) "lesbian mystery books:" [showing just the cover of 10+ books] intending a broad selection to just pique someone's interest, and communicate the fact that these books have lesbian MCs to people who may not have been aware of that (and btw adding a sentence or two on every single one is a LOT of effort, especially in video format - and the op probably ALSO does longform reviews of individual books) or b) "check out this aroace YA fantasy!" <- minimial wordcount which includes genre/tone as briefly as it does any 'rep'

and then you have c) which is like a teenager who discovered a book that reflects their experience for the first time and they're excitedly talking about it just in the context of that element, which if you're mad about.......okay. (or sometimes you'll see a list of 'queer books' and it is the most random broad combination of genres, tones, age ranges - which is very clearly just someone new to reading queer books the only things they've read and enjoyed so far. those make me giggle a little.)

I often see books like 10 times on social media of just the cover and basic info that's used in all promo & am vaguely interested but don't see anything about it that might stand out. And then will see ONE post of '"books with the 'older grumpy person accidentally adopting an orphan' trope" and am like OKAY i'm intrigued - that is the purpose of these sorts of posts! telling you MORE than what the basic age/genre/plot/tone is! (and yes in the context of identity too, I can know about a book for months before finding out it has aspec characters and I run a database dedicated to that)

There are people that talk about books badly and clumsily everywhere, in every form of communication (tweets, GR reviews, tiktoks, whatever). I absolutely see reviews and stuff ppl say about books all the time where I am like OOF why are you only mentioning x without the context that it's only a tiny part of the book, or without mentioning some other significant thing.

But the idea that people are only ever saying 'heres x book, it's gay!' and never talking about anything else or doing any reviews is just not as common as people claim and shows no understanding of the wider context of the book community or the function of different ways of discussing or promoting books!!

#also not arguing just explaining my point more lol!!! #i dont know who you are i am just mad at the people being actively mean in the notes of that post :) #sorry for the essay i have been thinking about it a lot #also as an aside I actually do viscerally despise the word rep and will scroll past anything where someone says: #heres this book it has x y z rep #(you can say x main character and y and z side characters - so much more informative) #so like i do get frustrated by how people communicate this stuff sometimes #laya talks