Things I wish the book community would leave in 2025

I’m going to venture into the territory that will probably anger people the most and just rip the Band-Aid off. For those of you that can stomach this first unpopular opinion, I think you might possibly make it to the end of this post with your sanity intact.

Fourth Wing is a piece of trash… and so are most of the viral romantasy books that have been released the last couple years.

I know, the reading community worships this book series. But it’s not good. The story was bad. The characters were insufferable. Everything I JUST talked about with books and characters and worlds having no reason to be the way they are other than plot progression is all jammed into this book series and it shows. These books were literally manufactured with business in mind rather than story. It’s like they were designed to display every popular trope trending on booktok. The story is weak. Everything about it was weak. And, I dare say, stupid. Rebecca forgot her own lore half the time. She contradicted herself a lot, which made the world building weak and boring. It was just bland and it is what I like to call “popular because it’s popular.” And maybe my standards were just too high because of how much people were talking about these books, but even so, I don’t just not like Fourth Wing. I fucking HATE it. I forced myself to finish book 1 because I wanted to have an opinion based on my actual knowledge of the story, but like… that’s a lot of hours of my life I can’t get back.

And since I do have a whole video where I express how bad I believe Fourth Wing to be, I’m not going to linger too long on it.

NEXT!

Dark romance sucks…

Chill… chill. I read dark romance. I do. I’ve read things that make me question my sanity and my character. But, the current dark romance climate feels like this.

Let me be clear and loud. Not liking pointless, gross, toxic characters and not wanting to waste time reading about a relationship that should be arrested (yes, the whole relationship should be put in handcuffs) does not mean we’re just to innocent to understand. No. Some of us want substance and if you read the previously mentioned kind of content and enjoy it, good for you, to each their own, but don’t be that person that then judges people who DON'T enjoy that stuff and act like we don’t like dark romance because we like story with our dark romance…

See, I fully believe dark romance has lost its edge. It should just be called ridiculous, shocking, “spice” between two or more unlikable people. Like… what is Haunting Adaline, guys? Gross and annoying. That’s what it is. Yes, dark romance is often uncomfortable, but we’ve lost the plot I think and people are latched on to the shock factor more than anything these days. A good dark romance (in my opinion) has a strong emotional undertone that often elevates characters in a way, even if it’s twisted. It explores uncomfortable realms, borders on characters being irredeemable, and sometimes makes you question yourself. But Dark romance has become this shallow, icky, competition based on who can make the most ridiculous book about the most ridiculous things. I mean, one of my favorite dark romance books was about *grape as a *radish if you know what I’m saying, and it was done wonderfully and realistically and I closed that book feeling like I’d read a good story about characters that that fit together very well.

Now days… it’s just not that way. And now days, you have people reading these books that actually have NO clue about radishes and have likely not explored their own radishes enough to feel secure in them so they tend to take these books a bit too seriously and that lack of understanding has led to some pretty unacceptable behavior in the book world. Sinners and Stardust being exhibit number 1 where many allegations of sensual basalt were reported, not by men… but by WOMEN to men. Women being the primary readers of said dark romance books. Guys, just because you are female does not mean you can do no wrong when it comes to this stuff and in fact, many times, men get shamed for even reporting sensual basalt and that is just… a gross thing to take advantage of. You’re gross. Don’t do bad things. I never thought I would ever say this, but maybe you’re reading TOO much. Go touch grass.

It’s like when a person who has been told no their whole lives by their parents has their awakening where they finally decide to break the rules for the first time and realize how fun it is to go out partying and drinking but because they’ve been denied that sort of freedom their whole lives, they don’t have the same experience and self control and they vastly overdo it. I’ve seen it happen more than once with people close to me and it can be very harmful. Practice self control, people. I know we’re all capable. Don’t be a lazy weirdo and don’t let badly written shock romance dictate your real world actions. OK? Dark romance is for adults and if you can’t be an adult then don’t read it.

That’s a whole other subject, but what I’m saying is we’ve severely lost the plot with dark romance as a genre. I believe there is a place for dark romance. I greatly enjoy it for various reasons, but dark romance doesn’t mean shock romance to me and that seems to be the way the genre is veering these days.

My next unpopular opinion is… Limited editions and special editions are just ways for authors to stay relevant when they've run out of ideas.

If you know me, you know I have strong opinions on this. I am so tired of limited runs. Special editions. All that. Authors are making their books prettier and their stories shittier. I have been in the indie world for some time now. I mean we’re in year 6. And I am also a reader so I get a pretty good taste of both worlds. The writing side and the reading side. As a reader, I am fatigued. I am TIRED of books being SO hyped up and then being the biggest disappointments. And 9 times out of 10, the biggest disappointments are the prettiest books. Books with 5 special editions. Redesign after redesign. These books are appealing, not for the readers, but for the collectors, and I think authors have picked up on that and are quick to capitalize.

These days, the bookish community is obsessed with esthetic and appearance, but the contents of said books are becoming extremely lacking. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen a comment on a book that says something along the lines of “I got this book through TT because it looked so pretty, but upon receiving it, the book itself is trash.” Or I see comments like “I am so glad I didn’t let the pretty book reel me in on TikTok because after reading it on kindle, it’s horrible.”

And I don’t mean the stories are bad, I mean these authors have completely tossed the idea of even doing a second draft and it’s all covered up by the fact that their covers and sprayed edges are appealing. They spend tons of money on art, special covers, sprayed edges, inserts, and all that combined could pay for a really great editor! And I know, if you know me, you know I don’t have editors. I self edit, so I am in no way shaming anyone for not hiring editors, but if you have the means to spend all this money on the collector’s edition books, why not polish the actual book itself.

It actually irks me. Even Barnes and Noble is capitalizing on this collector’s edition craze because EVERY book is sprayed now with a new limited edition cover and the sprayed edges aren’t even good! I was mind blown last time I was in a B&N store because the pages were so poorly done and the paper was such low quality. I actually took pictures because the books I spray at home look better than what I was seeing. It’s so blatantly obvious that it’s all being geared toward people who just want pretty shelves rather than good books. I don’t know. Tell me your opinions about this in the comments.

For my next trick, I present to you my opinion on booktok.

Although, lately I think this is becoming a popular opinion. And I’m choosing to word it differently than other channels have worded it. while other channels say booktok is ruining books, I say… booktok is just a toxic side of the internet that we don’t HAVE to pay attention to. It’s only ruining books and reading for the ones who still let it dictate their reading and then end up hating whatever the newest booktok craze is. I, for one, have entirely stopped trusting booktok recommendations whatsoever after being burned one too many times.

I think the most popular books these days are just clones of the last most popular book. If a book is popular on booktok, it’s guaranteed that I will hate it because it likely follows the same exact formula when it comes to characters, tropes, and even the story… if there’s a story at all. And these days we are measuring books by their spice level, which, even as a romance writer who writes spice into her books, I think that is absolutely ridiculous. Get a life. Find a purpose, you weirdos. I like spice, yes, but honestly, you all sound like idiots commenting on some 60 year old man’s fantasy book promo asking if there’s any smut. Fuck off.

Yes, I said the F word because it actually irritates me so much. I believe in spice! I love it. I write it. As a romance writer, I fully believe sensual chemistry is necessary in a love story. But I also believe not every book NEEDS it and not every author has to include it, even if there is a romantic sub-plot. Asking if there is spice on any random book video as if it should dictate the size of its audience is so… ugh. Angering.

The booktok community and the romance book community has become so unhinged, but I fully believe there are two sides. There’s the side that still understands how to function in real life and socialize with others and separate their books from their own reality and relationships. And there’s the side that has forgotten their humanity completely, probably spends more time watching tiktok videos than reading, and hasn’t come out of their house or taken their eyes off their phones since those couple of years that shall not be named.

Guys… you can come out now. Re-enter society! Breathe real air. Maybe brush up on social etiquette a little. Not social media etiquette. SOCIAL etiquette. With real people. I don’t know.

And since we’re on the subject of booktok, I just have to say my last unpopular opinion. It’ll be quick, I swear.

You do not have to read 20 books a month to have a book channel.

I was overburdening myself with reading for this channel and have since stepped back from doing top 5s or top 10s because it was too overwhelming and I do have a life that can get very stressful AND, I write. I’m published. I have self-made deadlines and sometimes I read 20 books in a month and sometimes I read ZERO. But here I am with a channel/blog still doing book stuff. Am I popular? NO. I only have 4k subscribers on youtube because one short went viral! And 90% of them have already forgotten I exist.

That’s beside the point.

I think channels that read huge amounts of books are great. I do read books that are recommended by some of these channels sometimes and that’s great content, but realistically, not everyone can read that much and if you have time, that’s awesome, but just because YOU read 30 books a month doesn’t mean channels that read one or two are lesser, which is what the booktok community has been sort of underhandedly preaching lately… shocker. SHOCKER that booktok is full of out of touch influencers more than readers! It should just be called toxic-tok because the drama last year was wild and I don’t expect it to be anything less this year. I wasn’t a part of any of the drama, thank the gods, but I do enjoy seeing other people cover it, I won’t lie. It’s like reality TV. You know it’s the dumbest shit ever, but you need to know what’s happening nonetheless.

Those are all the unpopular and maybe a little popular opinions I have for you today. I hope I didn’t hurt people’s feelings too much. One of my new year’s resolutions is to be more like myself in the way I present on social media and I feel like this was a good little intro for that. Take it or leave it, subscribe, unsubscribe. I don’t know. Give this post a thumbs up or give it a thumbs down if I just ruined your whole day. Either way, I hope you guys have a great rest of your day, 2026 is looking great on you so far, and until next time, happy reading… or writing. Bye!

#booktok #tiktok #readingcommunity #unpopularoppinions #fourthwing #booktube