Why Gen Z is obsessed with reading dragon porn
Gen Z: Keep it down, I'm reading my book.
Boomer: You've actually put down your phone?
My new romantasy read – Onyx Storm by 44-year-old Rebecca Yarros – has me in a chokehold.
Romantasy? Like Aragorn and Arwen's love story in The Lord Of The Rings?
Nah, it's 527 pages of hot dragon-rider sex that topped both The Sunday Times and The New York Times bestseller lists.
You're reading dragon porn?
Everyone is. #Romantasy has more than a billion tagged posts on TikTok.
So long, J K Rowling; hello, randy reptiles.
It's not just dragons – sales of 75 million steamy fairy novels made Sarah J Maas, 39, the world's top-selling author of 2024.
I saw that she was on The Times' bestselling authors list last year, and agreed with the commenter who wrote: 'Horny Hobbits! What on Middle Earth?'
Laugh away, but romance sales have more than doubled since 2020. It's now the world's most popular genre.
We all enjoy a good love story.
It's about spice, not love. A literary agent told The Guardian: 'The steamier the sex, the better a book does.'
I read Jilly Cooper's Rivals. Never seen the word c**k so often in one book.
Lame. Bookfluencer Tierney Page would give it three at best on the spice-ometer.
Isn't that the flavour scale at Nando's?
It's a ranking of a book's smuttiness.
So five chillies means full-on bonking?
Five chillies is for books that are 'cooked', 'unhinged' and 'taboo', Page says.
Dare I ask what qualifies?
Dream lovers: romance (and romantasy) books are huge among Gen Z
Try Taming Seraphine by Gigi Styx. It has a two-page list of triggers, from BDSM and bondage to knife play and exhibitionism.
What would Jilly think? Makes Rupert Campbell-Black and his, erm, 'baseball bat' seem ideal boyfriend material.
The hitman love interest is described as 'sexy as hell' and 'pant-melting'.
The latter sounds more like an iron setting than a character description.
One of the book's most popular quotes shared on TikTok is: 'I've killed two of the most important people in my life for you… Because I love you…'
My idea of romance is more 'flowers and chocolates' than 'I'll take out my entire family to prove my devotion.'
Fair. Maybe have a browse of West London's Saucy Books instead.
Let me guess: Hugh Grant's store from Notting Hill has been turned into a sex shop?
It's London's first romance-only bookshop, launched last month by 38-year-old Sarah Maxwell.
They should have called it Randy Elf On A Shelf.
TikTok sisters Avie and Jazzi's tour of the store hit 200,000 views, with shoppers loving its 'Smut Hut'.
I imagine that'll cause some issues when people search it on Google Maps.
It's a section for the store's most erotic titles, BBC News reported, arranged into sub-sections like 'Enemies To Lovers'.
Aren't you lot embarrassed to read this stuff in public?
Obvs not. Saucy Books is so popular it sells tickets with customer time slots.
I was so mortified reading Fifty Shades at the beach I hid it under Orwell's 1984.
Surveillance, submission, a guy obsessed with control: TBH they're not that different.
If everyone's reading porn in public, maybe I'll cash in. In fact, a spicy rewrite of a classic novel is already simmering.
Jane Eyrotic?
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