Latest news with #Acotar
Daily Mirror
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Inside the 'Fyre Festival of BookTok' as US book festival is shrouded in chaos
A book festival hosted in Baltimore, US has turned into a social media storm as authors have recounted every awful detail of the event - while many claim they were lied to by the event's organiser Traumatised authors, thousands of lost dollars and a missing DJ: welcome to the " Fyre Festival" of BookTok. Over the past weekend, hundreds of authors flocked to Baltimore to attend what should have been the perfect event for fantasy book-lovers. Instead, it transformed into something closer to a horror fic. The A Million Lives book festival was held over May 2 and 3 and set up by Archer Management for fantasy authors and their readers. 'Romantasy' is viral on TikTok, with almost one million posts falling under the hashtag, and includes novels like the bestselling book series Acotar by Sarah J. Maas. Tickets for vendors cost between $50 to $250 (£37 to £186) and promised to be the "perfect event to make bookish friends". One of its most exciting draws was that it also promised a lavender-themed ball. But over the past few days, authors have been running to social media to detail what some are describing as the 'Fyre Festival of book festivals'. Accounts depict an event hall filled with chaos, with minimal staff or identity checks and, most notably, hardly any attendees – despite false promises made by the organiser. One author, Samantha Heil, told Newsweek that there were around 40 attendees on Friday, compared to about 100 authors. Saturday only improved to about 125 people coming to the event. However, this is in stark contrast to how many tickets the owner of Archer Management promised had been sold. Authors claimed online that Grace Marceau, a writer who runs Archer Management, told them personally that between 600 to 1400 tickets had been sold. But the videos showing a near-empty convention hall tell a wildly different story. The Mirror reached out to Archer Management for comment. Stephanie Combs, author of The Stars Would Curse Us, posted a now-viral TikTok, declaring: 'I survived A Million Lives book festival. Or should we call it: a million lies.' She continued: "That is one of my dreams, bucket goal lists. I wanna be invited as an author to an event like this. Where I get to meet readers and get to connect with other authors." However, the experience she was met with was a poorly-organised mess. She explained: 'We had no badges, because they apparently shattered in transit. People were just wandering around because there was no one checking badges or wristbands. It was just very unprofessional.' It also put many authors out of pocket, as those who had travelled long distances had had to pay for both transport and accommodation. Some have even claimed to have wasted 'thousands of dollars' on the event. But the most egregious disappointment was the ball. BookTok authors dressed up in their finest romantic gowns for what they had been told was a black tie event – only to be met with an almost empty ballroom, minimal decoration and no snacks or refreshments save for some cookies. There wasn't even any music. According to one report, the DJ was hospitalised pre-event and they couldn't find a replacement. One attendee came onto TikTok to claim that a security guard had felt sorry for them so he 'brought a shower speaker from his home' that they could use. Grace Marceau took to TikTok on May 5 to apologise to the authors affected. She said, 'I do understand that the ball tonight was not set up to standards. There were a lot of issues getting set up, and it was not set up well…If you would like a refund, please contact me and I will issue a refund immediately.' However, the apology was not enough for many commenters on TikTok, who have labelled the entire event 'a scam.' She failed to address the fact that many of the events participants claimed she lied about ticket numbers. Comments also pointed out that, given the thousands of dollars some authors spent on accommodation and transport, that a refund wasn't enough to cover damages.
The Guardian
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Romantasy, Bridgerton, audio porn apps: it's a great time for horny ladies
When it was released in late January, Onyx Storm – the third book in Rebecca Yarros's The Empyrean series – became the fastest selling adult novel in 20 years. It sold more than 2.7m copies in its first week, according to the New York Times. Across the US, fans lined up in the cold outside of Target stores to nab special edition copies. In the UK, there were midnight-release parties where attendees wore costumes, made friendship bracelets and applied dragon-themed temporary tattoos. The Empyrean series is a prime example of romantasy – a genre that blends high fantasy and romance. It follows the cadet Violet Sorrengail as she trains to be a dragon rider. Fast-paced and detailed, the books boast mythical creatures and magic. There's also a lot of sex. On more than one occasion, sturdy wooden furniture is broken during vigorous bouts of lovemaking. Violet climaxes every time with her generous lover, Xaden. Violet and Xaden's dragons are mates – and they have sex too. Romantasy has exploded in popularity in recent years. It's also lucrative. In May 2024, Bloomsbury publishing announced that it had its highest sales year ever thanks in large part to Sarah J Maas, whose romantasy series A Court of Thorns and Roses (known by fans as Acotar), Crescent City and Throne of Glass saw a 161% sales increase in the 2023-2024 fiscal year. Fans say it's easy to get hooked. Emily Porter, a photographer based in West Virginia, started reading romantasy in the summer of 2024. She had never been a big romance fan, but loved fantasy stories. 'I was seeing those Acotar books everywhere – in stores and on friends' Instagram stories – so I figured I'd see what all the fuss was about,' she says. Although Porter had been an avid reader as a teenager, after college she didn't read much – maybe 10 books a year. She finished all five books of the Acotar series in less than a week. Then, she began tearing through other romantasy series. In the eight months since she first cracked open Acotar, she says she has read nearly 150 fantasy romance books. 'I went from being embarrassed about not reading books at all to being embarrassed about reading over 20 books a month,' Porter says. Highly sexual fantasy stories are nothing new. But romantasy is part of a recent wave of entertainment that makes sex look not just enjoyable, but fun for women. The genre tends to have strong, opinionated heroines; hot male protagonists who ask about consent; diverse characters; queer storylines; and mutually enjoyable couplings. And for some of its readers, it's improving their real, non-magical sex lives. Vanessa Marin, a sex therapist and host of the podcast Pillow Talks, says she started reading romantasy novels because so many of her clients and followers were talking about them: 'It got to a point where it was a professional obligation.' She's heard from a lot of readers who say their lives and relationships have benefited from romantasy. 'I've had a lot of women tell me: 'Previously, I felt like I had low libido or even no libido, and these books feel like they're bringing me back to life,'' Marin says. Reading about sex causes readers to think about sex more. This in turn causes them to desire it more. 'It's keeping sex top of mind,' she explains. Women have told Marin the books have encouraged them to explore their sexuality in ways they haven't before, whether it's trying out a new position they read about, or centering their own pleasure during sex like many of the genre's protagonists do. Porter says romantasy hasn't changed her sex life, but it's reinforced her confidence in her own long-term relationship. 'The tropes and elements I love the most all remind me of my own relationship with my partner,' she says. Dragons, magicians and fairies abound in romantasy, but the genre's recent explosion has produced more unusual stories. One of Porter's favorite authors, Mallory Dunlin, wrote a book called The Gardener and the Water-horse, which, according to Porter, features 'an immortal being who can shift into a man, and a horse, but really he's a lake – like a body of water – who's also a virgin'. These playful, surreal, magical elements are part of what makes romantasy so appealing, Marin says. 'Most of us tend to take sex very seriously, so to have something that feels fun, playful, lighthearted and whimsical, that's a really great thing for a lot of people.' Romantasy isn't the only kind of horny escapism consumers are flocking to. The first three series of Bridgerton are three of Netflix's 10 most popular shows of all time. Romantic TV leads like Andrew Scott (Fleabag), Katherine Moennig (The L Word) and Lucien Laviscount (Emily in Paris) voice breathy episodes for the audio erotica app Quinn, which describes itself as 'created by women, for the world'. In Laviscount's episode, the Regent, he voices Peter Kelly, a notorious jewel thief who 'recalls a series of thrilling encounters with fellow thief Katerina Laszlo'. Moennig voices Sam Shaw, a reclusive rockstar 'and you are tasked with ghostwriting her memoir'. Quinn's listeners reportedly tune in for 24m minutes every month. On a Reddit forum dedicated to discussing the app, users say the content helps them explore and reconnect with their sexuality. '[Quinn] literally woke me up,' wrote one user. 'I thought my libido had mostly gone to sleep.' Perhaps unsurprisingly, much of the recent content that shows women enjoying sex is made by women. When sex scenes are 'produced or written by a woman, that's really different than when it's written or produced by a man', says Christina Marshall, a bookstagram expert and self-described 'romantasy fiend'. Erotic content produced by women tends to foreground women's desire and consent, she says. The sex also tends to be safe. Faye Keegan, CEO and co-founder of Dipsea, another audio erotica app ('stories made by women, for women'), says their content shows situations that are sexually, emotionally and physically safe for women. Sign up to Well Actually Practical advice, expert insights and answers to your questions about how to live a good life after newsletter promotion For example, Keegan says, 'If two people are going to hook up, and they're in a semi-public space, let's make sure there's a lock on the door and that you can hear the door close and the lock click.' And if a man and a woman meet and spontaneously decide to hook up, Keegan says Dipsea scripts 'try to give the listener a perspective into the male POV so they can hear his voice, and know he's a cool, good guy. He's not a villain in this story'. Nevertheless, stories that feature sexually aggressive or very persistent male suitors are also popular. For instance, a lot of male romantasy heroes are possessive and hyper-fixated on their partners. When Xander sees Violet talking with her ex-boyfriend in Onyx Storm, for example, he uses his magical shadow powers to slam the ex into a wall. Marshall says these characteristics are green flags in a fantasy book, but red flags in real life. 'I don't actually want some stalker, ultra-possessive person,' she says. She argues that these characteristics are an exaggerated way of showing a man's devotion. 'In a fantasy book, he's going to burn down the whole world and kill all these people for you,' she says. 'In reality, you just want someone who's going to put your best interests first.' Many romantasy fans say the genre doesn't get the respect it deserves. Marshall recalls being at a reading where a man described Acotar as 'fairy smut'. (The protagonists of the series are faeries – hot, immortal magical beings – and there is a lot of sex.) The comment annoyed Marshall. 'What makes you think that this epic fantasy is fairy smut, when you would never call Game of Thrones dragon smut?' she says. To her, it is part of a 'longstanding pattern of dismissing anything women love as frivolous'. The idea that romance books were some sort of low-brow, shameful pastime was never accurate, says Leah Koch, co-owner of the Ripped Bodice, the first romance bookstore to open in the United States. '[Media] was pushing that narrative, but it is not really true.' Still, romance connoisseurs acknowledge that this moment is different. Koch says that in the 10 years she's been running the Ripped Bodice, she's seen readers attitudes shift from 'proud, but insular', to 'yelling from the rooftops, and saying: 'If this is something you have a problem with, you're the weird one.'' Marshall says Instagram and BookTok – TikTok users who post videos about books – have taken romance and romantasy to a new level. BookTok was key to the supersonic success of Maas and Colleen Hoover, the author of It Ends With Us, for example. 'It became a new forum for readers to connect, and amplified a conversation globally that existed already, but was happening in the privacy of our homes.' In addition to this bottom-up pressure, Keegan, of Dipsea, says there have been more women in positions of power bringing these stories to broader audiences. 'Bridgerton is a great example,' she says. 'Shonda Rhimes had the budget and the sway to make that kind of content. These stories aren't new, but being able to bring this big-budget Netflix experience, that's what's new.' Fantasy and period pieces also offer a much needed form of escape at a time when women's health, safety, gender identity, sexuality and reproductive rights are being widely threatened. 'The shittier things get on earth, the more people want to go fly with dragons and divorce themselves from reality,' says Koch. Contemporary romance – where two regular people with charmingly twee jobs meet and fall in love – isn't enough of an escape anymore. 'Sure, he's a cute baker and she owns a flower shop and whatever, but still, you wonder if his mom voted for Trump,' Koch says. The desire for female-centered romantic and erotic content doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Experts predict genre fiction like romantasy will continue to grow in popularity. Netflix recently shared a sneak peek of Bridgerton season 4, and a Fourth Wing TV series in early stages of development. 'The real world is exhausting and stressful,' says Porter. 'I'd rather spend my free time being immersed in fantastical worlds with creative magic systems, adventures, happy endings, and best of all – yearning.'
The Guardian
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
What do women really want from men? I delved into romantasy and found a good few clues
Feyre Archeron has many talents: she can skin a wolf and track a deer, and in the words of an amorous fairy she looks 'absolutely delicious'. An impoverished hunter gatherer, Archeron is the protagonist of Sarah J Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses, or Acotar as it's known to fans. This five-book series belongs to a genre called romantasy, so called because it blends romance and fantasy. And it's not too much of an exaggeration to say that it has the popularity of both combined. Acotar has sold more than 13m copies and all five books are in the top 10 bestselling fantasy titles of 2025 to date. If you haven't heard of them, the chances are that you have seen someone reading one on the train, perhaps concealed beneath the dust jacket of something less salacious. Most of romantasy's readers are women aged 18 to 44, and part of the genre's appeal is its reversal of gender roles. Archeron, for example, can't read. But that's only because poverty has forced her to focus her energy on hunting. Her illiteracy is therefore ironically a sign of strength. Maas's men, meanwhile, may live in gorgeous palaces with well stocked libraries, but as the plots develop they come to depend on Archeron for their salvation. It's not hard to see why millions of women are drawn to worlds in which female characters are beautiful hunters and men are bookish hunks. Especially when, in reality, only 13% of men read daily, and then mostly for personal growth rather than pleasure. Men gravitate towards self-help and nonfiction and make up only about 30% of the fiction-buying market. Romantasy capitalises on the scarcity value of literary men and leverages their appeal as sensitive and emotionally intelligent. Full disclosure: I'm one of the 13%, and I was surprised to find that my daily reading habit might indicate anything other than my unfitness for the modern world. I decided to make a journey into romantasy – a quest, if you will – to see if there was anything else these books have to teach men about what women want. I'm talking morally, of course, not carnally. Because, despite Acotar's much vaunted sexual content, Maas is more interested in friendship than any other F-word. In the third book of the series, A Court of Wings and Ruin, for instance, by the time the various couples get into bed, it's clear that their bond is about far more than just 'rippling muscles', 'corded muscles' or even 'muscles covered in intricate and beautiful tattoos'. It's also about, you know, feelings. Accounts of these books often emphasise their sexual content, as though it's somehow scandalous for women to be reading romance. But what is really surprising is how conservative they are. Which is not to say that their male leads are shrinking violets. Both Maas and Rebecca Yarros, in her equally popular Empyrean series, establish early on that the male lead could literally kill his female counterpart. He is the Beast to her Beauty but, just as in the original fairytale, his brutality is only skin deep. In order to pursue his relationship with the heroine, he is forced to come to terms with the complex trauma that turned him into such a sexy monster. It is only then that he can reveal himself to be, to borrow a word beloved by romantasy fans, a cinnamon roll. In other words, soft hearted, sweet and, yes, delicious. He may be handsome and powerful, but the hero's real draw is his emotional vulnerability. So strong is the connection readers form with these characters, in fact, that BookTok is full of readers weeping while reading emotional passages. As one young woman bawled while reading the tragic ending of A Court of Wings and Ruin, 'I feel like my family is dying.' Men sometimes find romantasy threatening – one took to Reddit, for example, after he found his girlfriend's secret stash of books: 'The fact that THESE are her fantasies doesn't sit right with me at all.' But these books are more about community than a desire to actually date men of such cringeworthy perfection. A romantasy fan I know, who happens to work in theatre, surmised that meeting Maas's heroes in real life would be as disappointing as meeting famous actors: 'In reality, they are far stupider than you imagined.' She has nevertheless found that romantasy has enabled her to reconnect with old friends who, after she recently became a mother, she rarely gets the chance to see: 'It makes conversation so easy,' she said. 'I mention a scene and we can talk for hours.' The connections that romantasy can foster meant it boomed during Covid. And now that our times are becoming ever more turbulent, readers are embracing the genre like a comfort blanket. The societies romantasy depicts are often as chaotic as our own – Yarros's Fourth Wing, for instance, is set during a time of total war. But everyone is given very clear roles that make their world, however dangerous, more predictable than our own: scribes report the news, infantry fight the battles and riders fly the dragons. And, of course, there is an elaborate prophecy that the protagonist needs to fulfil. Romantasy's ordered worlds sometimes made me uncomfortable. Maas and Yarros are both obsessed with status. Their heroes may be secret softies, but it is no accident they are all titled. In the first book of Acotar, for example, Archeron is abducted by an aristocratic fairy, or high fae, called Tamlin. But, when she finds out that Tamlin is also a high lord and ruler of a domain called the Spring Court, she begins to find her abduction rather more propitious. Despite her physical strength, it seems Archeron's way out of poverty lies through men. She may as well be in a Jane Austen novel. But it is possible to take this critique too far. Readers don't come to romantasy looking for moral edification. The genre's fans even codify books according to acronyms such as ETL (enemies to lovers), which shows they are looking for familiar narratives into which they can escape. And these novels are remarkably absorbing. I spent a very happy Sunday with Acotar, the washing piling up in the sink, tea-stained mugs gathering around me so that, when I was done, I could be under no illusion that I was a warrior king. Or even a particularly good husband. I was just happy to be a reader. Max Fletcher is a London-based writer
