As a teenage girl, I found comfort in scribbling melancholic poetry and rereading Gothic novels like To Kill a Mockingbird. Southern Gothic and romance novels captivated me with their raw, tangled relationships, blending roughness and tenderness like the people around me. Eventually, my interest in these literary genres would take me someplace much darker.
In grad school, I began exploring the more taboo side of love and literature, particularly the Gothic trope of doubling — mirroring opposites like good and evil. This theme weaves through classic works like The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Talented Mr. Ripley, adding to their macabre allure.
I also researched classical authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, newly released hit memoirs from the stars, and best practices in unconventional fantasies. This led me to my favorite pastime, BookTok. As the name suggests, BookTok is a corner of the TikTok that fosters discussion on mostly modern literature. BookTok has become primarily populated by one specific genre: romance, a category of fiction with many subgenres. BookTok only reignited my fascination with not just romance but also the Gothic branch, Dark Romance. Dark Romance explores darker themes within love stories oftentimes found in Gothic literature, such as moral ambiguity and societal taboos: Think knife play in sex scenes, a male character’s kidnapping of a woman protagonist to settle a family dispute, etc For context, many believe the 50 Shades of Grey series a rather tame variety of Dark Romance. While these themes present as problematic, this genre can provide its readership a catharsis.
Whitney Collins, writer on romance and Southern Gothic themes, says, “Traditional romance stories and novels tend to lean hard into the ‘happy ending,’ where most things are tied up in a relatively nice bow by the end. This is immensely satisfying for the reader.” Collins continues, “That said, I think we often underestimate the equal joy of ambiguity, as well as literature that embraces imperfection, our shadow selves, so to speak. This brand of romance can give a reader agency to claim the story as more personal.” Romance, and Dark Romance specifically, provides its predominantly woman-based audience an opportunity to release, rewrite, and re-engage with their own lives.
If Romance is a release, Dark Romance is a daring release. Grotesque horror novelist Evan Camby says about Dark Romance, “Dark themes allow readers to safely explore the forbidden, the taboo, and the deeply emotional without real-world consequences….These stories appeal to our fascination with what lies beneath the surface, exploring the complexity of human desires, weaknesses, and resilience.” As an occasional reader of Dark Romance, I can change and investigate my desires, while remaining true to my feelings — and encounter my double. It creates a space where we, traditionally female-identifying readers, have the power to create, release, and abandon. So, where did this expressive and sometimes restorative genre with its subgenres come from?
Gothic literature, also once called Medieval, began in 18th century England. During this time, Gothic literature wasn’t taken seriously and was often looked down upon and seen as trashy because of its over-the-top, seemingly illogical nature with settings of decaying castles and magical folk. Fred Botting’s book, Gothic, relays that Gothic was born at the beginning of what we know as the romance novel to be today, with the monsters becoming attractive and playing with the ideas of virtues and vices.
Ann Radcliffe’s first novel, A Sicilian Romance, was published in 1790 and is widely considered the beginning of Gothic Romance, according to Fordham University Lecturer Jessica Denzer. “Radcliffe’s characters were female protagonists, unlike many of the Gothic Horror novels written by men, which primarily focused on male heroes. The romantic elements of Radcliffe’s novels and other gothic works written by women were often categorized as Gothic Romance, a subgenre of Gothic Horror because the primary plot hinged on an isolated woman fighting incredible and seemingly supernatural odds to be with her one true love,” says Denzer.
The uniquely American Southern Gothic and Southern Romance genres started in the 19th century. This evolution opened up the perspectives and conversations of dark family secrets, the loneliness of being left behind in a speedy developing world, racial tensions, and general outcastedness, like Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.
I began reading more romance novels during grad school, my first and still one of my favorites being a “Clean Romance,” Moon Over Paris by Jennifer Robson. It wasn’t just my reading list that grew but also my conversations with other romance readers and authors. I even tried my hand at writing romance, under a pen name, of course, given the stigma still surrounding the genre and cruelty of the internet comments section. I could see elements of my own relationships coming through in the stories (write what you know!). Then something much more sinister came out, things I was excited and scared to let out of myself at the same time, such as voyeurism.
As seasoned Dark Romance author Sofia Aves puts it, “…Dark Romance can be Gothic, but it doesn’t have to be. Gothicana adds ambiance and a sense of the demonic….Usually, Dark Romance pushes out societal expectations in a way that makes us (the reader) hope the bad guy gets their comeuppance and the not-so-bad guy (see the good guy but in a bad way) wins the day. This genre is often high steam (though again it doesn’t have to be) and a high variety of kink and taboo play is frequently on the page (often the filthier the better).”
And what delicious divergence it is; it feels good because it’s “bad” in every manner from language, themes, and community. Dark Romance captures the unspeakable, and allows for a kind of doubling with oneself, the reader.
Romance is profound and intellectual because it is a reflection of the feminine. For us, there is always another side, a doubling of dilemmas, people, and even the self.
Book Recommendations for Dark Romance and More
Reflections of Silence by Raven Hush
Rook and Rebel by Kate Crew
Big Bad by Whitney Collins
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Become a Saturday Evening Post member and enjoy unlimited access. Subscribe now
