I haven’t exactly hidden my love for romantasy books, specifically ones written by Sarah J. Maas, here on my blog, specifically her ACOTAR and TOG series. Her fantasy writing abilities remind me of the GOAT (greatest of all time, for anyone unfamiliar with the acronym) of fictitious description – J.K. Rowling – and her works are as special to me as Rowling’s.
One stark difference between Maas and Rowling, however, in the context of their writing, is the existence of smut. Remarkably, there is not one single sex scene in any of the Harry Potter books, and I say this is remarkable because nowadays, it seems as though each and every romantasy book written is exploding with smut. I suppose it’s worth acknowledging that the Harry Potter series is not considered to be romantasy, despite romance existing within the books, whereas Maas’s books are absolutely romantasy, because they have a far heavier presence of romance in them. But, regardless of the genre classification, I have to say that the level of smut in current-day romantasy texts is a bit ridiculous, and simultaneously unnecessary. I have a friend who skips over smut entirely anytime it appears in a book, and she is actually the one who inspired me to write about the topic.
If you are wracking your brains in an attempt to understand what the hell smut is, it’s basically a term used to describe sex scenes in a book. Personally, I’ve never been terribly interested in smut, but I know plenty of folks who enjoy it.
To each their own, I suppose.
If I had to surmise my main reasoning for disliking smut, I would say that (1) it’s almost always unrealistic as hell; (2) sex is a highly personal experience, and the smut written in romance books is usually cringe-worthy and awkward as fuck to read; (3) in romantasy books, the same tropes appear over and over again in the context of smut, and it’s redundant and repetitive.
I could go without reading smut, but if I had to read it, all I ask is for some originality and zero mention of a fucking monthly tonic.
Photo by Elin Melaas on Unsplash
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