YA Romance, Mushrooms, and Valentines Day

Hello! 

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and stampeding behind it lots of chocolate, cards, flowers, and the color pink. (Which, I’m writing this after an trip to the store, and there are some cool cards this year! I saw THREE giant snoopy cards!) But also with Valentine’s Day comes the subject of romance. 

Ha. 

I started reading a lot of YA books about a year ago, and one of the first things I noticed was that most any book, even if no hint of romantic-ness was in the blurb, featured a romantic relationship, a sappy speech, and then an epic kiss. 

At first, I loved reading these subplots. I even tried writing romance… *cringes and throws papers into a fire* If I had to totally destroy one thing I’ve written, I would most definitely throw away my really bad, corny romantic subplots. 

But then the lovey dovey subplots got old, a little predictable, and I got fed up with it all. So, for a while I hated romance. (hence me reverting back to my middle grade origins) Now I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t love romance, but it’s not my greatest enemy either. Think of it like cooked mushrooms. 

Those little chunks of slimy grossness are everywhere. Sometimes they are chopped up into un-noticeable pieces that I am too lazy to pick out, so I just eat them and ignore them. But other times, there’s a giant bowl of just plain cooked mushrooms. It’s so much easier to avoid the giant bowl of mushrooms than the smaller ones sprinkled in almost everything. 

So where am I going with this, exactly? Yeah, I honestly don’t know either. 

Basically, when romance is sprinkled everywhere in small bits and chunks and subplots, I would rather just read the book and ignore the romance. It’s easier to avoid books that only focus on romance. 

 I think romance needs to have a purpose to avoid getting put into the bowl of mushrooms. Let’s have some romantic subplots that serve a purpose for the story. A subplot that actually assists and affects the plot. Basically, If a sappy love-story subplot can be taken out of the story and the events would happen mostly the same, it’s getting thrown into the bowl of disgustingness. 

Some books that do this well: 

Dust – Yes, there’s a fair bit of romance, but it actually affects the plot. And the romance in this book breaks so many cliches and kind of makes fun of sappy speeches that I flat out laughed during a few parts. 

The Raven Boys – I’ve so far only read the first book in the series. The premise will fool you, there is not much romance in this book. I don’t know about the next books in the series, though. 

The Scorpio Races – Again, yes, some romance but it’s basically nonexistent. 

Scythe – There is a tiny bite-of-mushroom romance in this book too, but again, basically 

nonexistent and ignorable. I’ve also only read this book and not the others in the series, so it might not be true for the next books. 

The Girl Who Drank the Moon– Absolutely, positively romance free (and with some magical realism!) 

The Book Thief – Again, absolutely mushroom free, and a very amazing book in a ton of other ways. 

Some Middle Grade Books For Those Of You Wanting to Take A Break From YA sappy-nes 

(AKA I just need an excuse to list some great middle grade books) 

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle – You’ve probably heard me talk about this book a lot, but that’s for a completely justified reason. It’s a really fun pirate-ship-adventure-mystery story! 

Walk Two Moons and Chasing Redbird – You’ve also probably heard me talking about these books a lot too. Again, it’s for a very good reason. Despite being middle grade books, these two books still deal with some very deep themes and are just amazing. 

Paint the Wind– A book for my fellow horse lovers. But really, even if you don’t like horses, you will love the character arcs and descriptions in this book. 

Holes – A fun, lighthearted read that I just love. My copy is very torn and loved. 

The Dreamer– Again, beautiful descriptions like Paint the Wind, but the descriptions in this book are very beautiful and poetic. 

So, in conclusion, um… romance is like mushrooms? (To the mushroom lovers out there, sorry) I honestly don’t really know what this post turned into 🙃 Thank you for reading this rant about romance and cooked mushrooms! What do you think of romance? What are some of your favorite romance subplots? I hope you have a great Valentine’s Day! 

-Hannah

4 comments