So, if you have been living under a rock for the past few years, you may have missed the recent phenomena of writers going straight to the dark side. I mean, I'm sure there were stories out there that dealt with darker themes with a backdrop of romance...but now you can see just about everyone and their mother saying, 'ooh, dark romance is so thrilling'!
Is it? In my mind, dark romance isn't meant to make you feel comfortable and lovey dovey. It isn't meant to warm your soul. It's meant to make you feel anxious, uncomfortable, beyond your boundary. I want to be repulsed and intrigued, unable to look away, like watching an accident happen. You know it's bad, yet you can't stop watching. I want my heart to break, just a little bit.
To me, dark romance is about villains.
This leads me to my first thought: I'm a writer of things people are uncomfortable with. I've written stories I wouldn't tell a friend to read. I have read stories I wouldn't recommend to the delicate, everyday reader. I write and read very dark things that sometimes I struggle to call 'Dark Romance'. I'm not sure what else to call these stories. Sometimes, it isn't an erotic tale, it's just very dark, exploring the darker side of human sexuality.
I'm not talking BDSM, since that appears to be the 'so risque' trend that everyday housewives read and enjoy. That's totally fine! It's a fantasy! To some people, it isn't. To some people, it is their lifestyle. All is cool. I just find it more and more strange when a simple story with some spanking or bondage becomes labeled as 'Dark Romance'.
The people who enjoy those stories and consider them 'dark' are often times knocked on their rear when they come across something truly dark. They ignore all the warnings that people put in their books, as if oblivious. Then, they become horrified by what they read.
I see people complaining that a story was 'too dark' 'twisted' 'unhealthy' 'not romantic', and I have to wonder what these people expected from a story that clearly was NOT about a healthy romance.
Let's take a step backwards.
When I was a young girl / teenager, my mother noticed something that she found excessively troubling to her. In movies that we watched, we would usually point out the guy we were most interested in. She always loved the sweet, kind hero. I didn't. I was always drawn to the villain and it drove her absolutely bonkers. My mother is a youngest child. I'm the oldest, so as her firstborn, I'm sure she had hopes that we would be somewhat similar.
Nope.
I remember watching A Knight's Tale with her. Yes, we all adored Heath Ledger in the movie, but I was also intrigued by Rufus Sewell's villain in the same film. I'd been too afraid to tell my mother, because she couldn't stand him, he was the bad guy!
Or, let's try The Patriot. My mother was a fan of Mel Gibson. I was struck by Jason Isaac's sarcasm, general nastiness, and excessive eye rolling. I can still remember my mother giving me serious side eye over him. Even worse...seeing Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List. I felt pinned, like a bug, like that vicious stare of his could see straight through my bones. Am I a terrible person? Probably. Yet, I still love that intense look of his even when he's in The English Patient, so perhaps I can be redeemed?
Now, as an adult woman, I still have these same feelings in movies. My mother has accepted it. In fact, now when she watches a tv show, she will text me and say, "So, this absolutely nasty man was introduced in the recent episode; you'd love him". I'm not sure I should be flattered or not, but I'm just thrilled it doesn't bother her quite so much anymore.
Did I marry a horrid villain from a movie? No. I married a man as sweet and caring as my kind-hearted mother. In fact, when people have the old conversation of 'I married my father', I always get a chuckle when I chime in, "I'm my father; I married my mother" XD
Back to Dark Romance.
Now, you can likely tell why I have such concerned thoughts about how people view Dark Romance. I want to be drawn in by a villain. I want the male character to be bad. I don't want to read a story where the author eviscerates him halfway through and makes him secretly sweet and kind on the inside. NO! Please, stop, I can't handle.
I want a male character that isn't familiar with love. It isn't a thing for him. I want to see him twist up and become tortured inside when he gets hit with an inkling of emotion towards the main character. Sometimes, it isn't healthy emotion. Sometimes, it's obsession. Possessive. An stark feeling of being afraid of losing something you have never had before, all twisted up and ruined by someone who isn't used to feeling so strongly about another person.
I love total power exchange. Those stories absolutely make me crumble. A lot of people hate total power exchange...they say it's demeaning and sick to even read about it. However, it seems that many people are forgetting that women have been writing about captive romance FOREVER. Sure, maybe it wasn't dark, but something about power and the loss of it intrigues many women. Why else write about a man taking you captive and making you fall in love with him? Because it's exciting, forbidden.
Dark romance is such a large genre now. It keeps growing each day. There are so many sub-genre's that I really wish that Amazon would make Dark Romance its own category so we can easily filter by sub-cat. I think it would make it much easier for people to skirt by certain themes they want to avoid.
Dark Romance is my favorite genre to read. Even when it is a sub-plot in historical fiction or sci-fi. To me, Dark Romance is being tied to a villain, hating him, wanting him, being intrigued by him. Wondering what terrible thing he's going to do next...or if perhaps he will show mercy and like how it tastes, just one time.
So. What is Dark Romance...to you?
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