#booktok critical

[hoolay-boobs]

YA novel covers

#ya novels #bookblr #book tumblr #booktube #booktok #booktok critical #books and reading #writeblur #writeblr #writblur #memes #booktok cringe #they all look the same #anti game of thrones #game of thrones critical #serpent and dove critical #serpent and dove #meme #my memes #book memes #books #bookish #book covers #book cover

[gigantomachylesbian]

I could never read those booktok-popular "dark romances" for. well. many reasons. BUT the biggest of all is that the instant a man wrongs a woman in a book I want his ass dead. I have zero tolerance for that shit. I don't care if it's a misunderstanding I don't CARE if he's got a secret sadboy past. If he insults her to her face I want her to come after him with a chainsaw no matter what forever

#k talks #booktok #books #bookblr #dark romance #romance books #booktok critical #booktok cringe #sorry. I KNOWWWW it's just because I'm NOT the target audience for that kinda thing in the first place. peace and love if you do enjoy it #but me? I want her to be biting and attacking him. personally.

[happysharkintensifies]

Booktok makes me sick, not just because of all the shitty books. It's the prevalence, no, the celebration, of toxic masculinity. Every single booktok book features some variation on the same man. And without fail, against all sensible reason, these characters are portrayed as handsome and charismatic and desirable.

It makes me sick when these authors hold up these toxic, predatory traits and put them on a pedestal as some kind of Ideal Man.

It makes me sick when their aggressiveness and possessiveness is treated as romantic. It makes me sick when these shitty men forcibly grab women, invade their personal spaces, and render them helpless by 'purring' in their ears, every. single. fucking. time.

It makes me sick that these misogynistic, heteronormative, and hypermasculine social conventions keep appearing in so-called feminist literature.

Strip away the idealized elements and you have what is basically the rich, white, cishet, alpha-male archetype. He's tall, usually six feet, physically fit and muscular with obligatory six pack abs, and conventionally handsome, with a chiseled jawline. He's usually clean-shaven, and any hair he may have on his body is minimal. He maintains composure at all times and rarely shows anxiety or uncertainty. He exudes raw charisma and charm and navigates social spaces effortlessly.

His hobbies, if he has any, are stereotypically masculine. When it comes to sex, he's confident, skilled, exclusively dominant, and always knows what to do without communicating with his partner. The sex he enjoys is usually rough, animalistic and overpowering. He may have been with several women in the past, and he may be regarded as a sex god, both in-universe and out.

His toxic traits are rarely portrayed as negative. But when they are, they're usually held up as some edgy, anti-hero persona and the reader is inevitably manipulated into sympathizing with him. He'll be portrayed as a tortured, wounded animal, and his female love interest (and, by proxy, the reader) will decide on some variation of 'I can fix him'.

He is essentially the unrealistic standard the ideal Proper Man; the one that men are expected to emulate, and that women are expected to swoon over.

But what really irks me is the lost potential.

If there are men who don't fit into this mold, they are depicted as pathetic, ineffectual, or any number of negative traits.

The narrative quietly and passive-aggressively mocks them and portray them as boring and un-sexy.

After all, is this the kind of man who will bravely swoop in and sweep a helpless woman off her feet? Of course not. Such men are boys. Wimps. Cowards.

These books are supposed to be fantasy: a genre in which easily anything can be explored. If faeries, magic, and contrived mating bonds can exist, then why can't we also have male characters who exist outside the stereotypical, hypermasculine mold?

Why is it that we can have so many fantastical, impossible, and wondrous magical forces, creatures, and peoples, but we can't have men who aren't possessive, abusive, or controlling?

Why is it that male characters, have to be so innately dominant, abusive, and violent? Why do they have to be so fit and muscular and strong?

Even worse, why is it treated as something that is so natural, so inescapable, even in the realm of fiction?

Where are the men who aren't tall and fit? Where are the men who don't have sculpted abs or chiseled jawlines? Where are the men who aren't lean and muscular?

Why can’t we have men who are skinny or overweight? Why can't we have men who aren't handsome or attractive, but just average looking? Why can't we have men who are shorter or just average height?

Why can't we have men with non-stereotypical hobbies? Why can't we have men who love to read, or paint, or write, or sing, or dance, or build model kits?

Why can’t we have men who are timid and shy? Why can't we have men who feel anxiety, fear, and sadness? Why can't we have men who aren't afraid of crying openly?

Why can't we have men who aren't sex gods? Why can't we have men who aren't confident in bed? Who are anxious, or even scared, at the prospect of sex? Who are passive instead of dominant? Who want to experience intimacy and affection?

Why can’t we have men be kind and gentle and sweet for once?

I'll tell you why we can't. Because booktok says men like these are not 'man' enough. Booktok says men like these are the 'boring' option, and completely devoid of interesting quirks, traits or personality. Booktok says men like these are underserving of attention, and only fit to be background noise.

As far as booktok is concerned, men like these can't exist.

#anti sjm #anti booktok #anti colleen hoover #anti coho #masculinity #toxic masculinity #booktok critical #healthy masculinity #fuck booktok

[slateston3]

Sure booktok sucks but the way some of y’all talk about it sounds like a victorian moralist “women are reading too much smut and it’s giving them The Brain Fever™️” 😂 Y’all have GOT to stop being so protestant about reading.

#Booktok #booktok critical #booktok cringe #also booktok is not destroying people’s critical thinking or reading comprehension #People never had those things in the first place

[sluttypatrickstar]

#anti booktok #booktok critical #cough cough haunting adeline ... #im not in any way against dark romance or books that tackle the themes listed but #from everything i've seen a lot of booktok “romances” really romanticise these things in a way that does not sit right with me #you can write dark romance w/o making bad behaviour seem like it's Good or Romantic yaknow

[superbsandwichunknown]

I hate how booktok books overload everything. It’s almost impossible to go to a new adult or young adult and not see a booktok section, which makes it impossible to find older books or ones that haven’t been as hyped up. I’m not saying all booktok books are bad, but most ones I read are ones that didn’t realize were booktok books like The Folk of the Air or Six of Crows. But I hate how the quality of books is going down because of booktok. Books now are tropey or even worse for me at least described as Hunger Games-esque or The Selections meets Divergent which is soo annoying because can people not make original content anymore?

#anti booktok #booktok critical #booktok #ya books #ya book #ya fantasy #ya fiction #just anti things #book blog #books and reading #booklr #bookworm #book tumblr #bookblr #books & libraries

[watchingtheearthrise]

If your reaction/response to finding out someone is a minor in your space is to recommend them dark romance/smut, I’m going to need you to get off the internet forever.

#anti booktok #booktok critical #absolutely disgusting behavior #and you call yourself adults #shameful #Booktok smut enjoyers have boundary issues I’ve noticed #not all of you #but a good chunk of you #watchingtheearthrise

[emxritus]

"We need more unusual dark romance stories!!!!!." You all can't even handle older dom women dating younger sub men without pissing your pants about it and whining about how "toxic" it is. Give me a break.

#emxritus #book #books #book tropes #we need more #booktok #booktok critical #dark romance #sub x dom #sub men #dom women #fdom

[galileo-figero]

every "dark romance" novel I've seen recommend on booktok: there's this horrible monstrously abusive man and I hate him but he's hot and he has lots of violent bdsm sex with me and I hate that he makes me so horny he wants to own me like property but he'll eventually fall in love with me fr ahh romance

#anti booktok #booktok critical #Booktok #Tiktok #Books #Literature #dark romance #Cringe #i can fix him

[lavavintage]

Bad boys in shitty romance novels are bad in the eyes of everyone but the narrative

#romance #booktok #anti booktok #booktok critical #writers on tumblr

[killianmichaelcastor]

modern ya novels…

#castor talks #shitpost #ya books #booktok critical #writeblr

[vasiliapetrovna]

whyyy do people rush reading "reading for 24 hours straight" "reading #__ books in #__ hours"...like bitch, it's supposed to be fun?? and even when you haven't read in a long time? you wanna do that challenge? you wanna resent reading forever?

#i'm not your keeper but don't put pressure on yourself for something you wanna do for fun #why are these reading challenges the newest fad? #like challenge yourself to read outside your comfort zone #that's cool! #booktok critical #booktube critical #anti booktok #anti booktube #queue to where no man has gone before

[happysharkintensifies]

Thanks to booktok, should we expand the idea of 'enshittifcation' to books as well?

Booktok's rampant commercialization and dumbing down of anything that is remotely good and interesting about reading has created a wasteland of derivative, tropified, 'spicy' books that bring nothing new or unique to literature.

There's simply nothing good to read. It's just shelf upon shelf of Colleen Hoover crap.

(On the plus side, t's because of booktok that I'm now reading more manga. But that's another story.)

#anti booktok #booktok critical #booktok #fuck booktok #anti colleen hoover #anti coho #anti sjm #anti sarah j maas

[sluttypatrickstar]

reading smut is not a substitute for a personality

#sorry but it's so pathetic to me that this whole entire art form. u refuse to engage with unless it's got sex scenes #anti booktok #booktok critical #and u know that “spice” is like. bland. mild. boring #hot take i think adults should be able to read books without sex in them and not be weird about it

[meet-you-at-the-cemetery-gates]

If I ever do get around to finishing and publishing my book (which will likely never happen because my brain can't figure out how to pace chapters correctly) I pray to the nonexistent Lord that it is not picked up by booktok. Unlikely since there's no sex and it's just a lot of murder and gore, but who knows what can happen. Maybe the middle aged suburban moms suddenly become edgelords.

#booktok critical #anti booktok

[watchingtheearthrise]

For a community so steeped in sexual content you’d think Booktok would understand the concept of ‘consent’ but nooo they do not.

#booktok critical #watchingtheearthrise