Bookish ‘Love’.

In a very casual conversation with my friend yesterday, I realized something that I already agreed with on some level. As an avid reader, it made complete sense of why he was tired of the same old nonsense that gets published in the name of a ‘Romance novel’, and well, romance novels in general.

Now, I have always loved a good romance novel, but there’s a catch— I like the really good kind of romance novels that have a good plot, great character arcs, and most importantly, something different that hasn’t already been written a million times over in the history of any kind of literature ever.

I’ll get straight to the point.

Romance novels today suck! And personally, I would like to think that this is because everyone likes the idea of ‘love’, but most don’t understand what the ideal kind of love feels like. And of course, art imitates life and life often imitates art, so given the hook-up culture that we live in today, I don’t think a lot of people know how to actually write a story about two people who happened to find everything they were looking for in each other.

We live in an age where people take Romeo and Juliet as an example of true love. Guess what? They were kids, their families were sworn enemies, and oh, here’s the fun fact: they died! The story was purely written as a tragedy, and I have no idea why people find the idea of death romantic. (I mean if you’re into death and everything, sure. But it’s creepy anyway).

Here’s what today’s ‘romance’ novels think love is: stalking, blackmailing, the cliché bad-boy fetish, bad-boy turned good, good-girl gone bad, somebody ends up heartbroken and then they ‘gravitate’ back to each other. That is not love, people! That is extremely toxic, is what it is!

Even though books are meant to be a means to escape the harsh realities of the world, some of them come with all the wrong kinds of messages. I’m not saying that this is a problem on a large scale, but it clearly affects impressionable minds and creates this twisted idea that love should hurt and heartbreaks are beautiful.

Love is meant to feel safe. It’s supposed to be a safety net. It’s what home feels like. It’s not perfect, but perfection is subjective anyway. So if books have led you to believe otherwise, I am sorry to break your bubble.

But seriously. Educate yourselves and do not let false expectations hurt you.

Cheerio! Xx

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Hey guys! I hope you liked my post. If you have any thoughts at all, leave it in the comments below. You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.
Yours truly,
The Shubhster.

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