I did a video to give an audio version of this post if you’d rather listen to this content than read it:

I’ve been doing some thinking over the past couple of months about why romance and horror as a genre. These seem to be the redheaded step-child in the book world. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people dismiss romance and horror as being “trash”. They aren’t seen as “real” books. At least, they aren’t as respected among the literary community like other genres.

Note: this is how I perceive things from my own experiences. I will admit that my perspective might not be what others pick up on when doing a genre comparison. For example, someone out there might believe the technological future of AI in a science fiction story would be way more terrifying than any horror book out there. But since this is my blog, I am issuing my own opinions because I don’t personally find AI scary, though I am not in favor of using AI to write actual books. Also, I’m not a fan of AI taking jobs in other industries. But I do not fear AI. Some people do fear it. To them a story about AI is a lot more terrifying than a story where some monster is hunting down people to kill.

Okay, enough rambling. Let’s get to the post…

What I think of when I consider other genres:

When I think of literary fiction, I think of a book that will end up being on an English teacher’s required reading list where the teacher will make students dissect different aspects of storytelling. Elements like symbolism, foreshadowing, setting, and theme. When I think of science fiction, I think, “This is a look into where the future might take us.” It can be a look into technology or an alien species. Sometimes it will even look into diseases and how people, especially the government, will respond to it. When I think of fantasy, I think of adventure and magic. It’s often the journey of some humble, unknown person who ends up performing some great feat that makes them a hero. When I think mystery, I think more of a puzzle that needs to be put together in order to solve it, so this is more intellectual than anything else.

So those are the main genres that make me think of a more low-key emotional experience. I mean, there are certainly high emotional experiences within these genres if the author chooses to use them, but overall, the stories are pretty “calm” to me. There aren’t high emotional stakes. I see these as more intellectual or perhaps “emotionally satisfying enough”, depending on how the author takes the story. These stories are not all that exciting to me as a reader unless they merge a strong romance or horror angle to them.

Now that is just my opinion. That’s how I see those genres, and it’s why I don’t spend much time in those genres.

As a reader, I am looking for an intense emotional experience. I prefer feelings over intellect. I want to be in the character’s heart, not the character’s head. And this is why romance and horror is appealing. I’m going to give a quick side note here to address thriller. Thriller, to me, is a cousin of horror. Done right, thriller can be just as intense as horror. I am especially a big fan of psychological thriller because I think it’s what you don’t “see” that can be even more terrifying than what you do “see”. The human imagination can really fill in some blanks that can cause a lot of emotion.

A tangent about how I hate “loose ends”:

That said, I do think the author should give answers to questions that are raised during the course of the story. To “leave the ending up the reader” or decide to not answer a key question is lazy writing, in my opinion. If I wanted to come up with the answers myself, I would have written the story. The author’s job is to deliver on the promise. In horror and thriller, the author needs to answer all questions. Just as in romance, that author needs to deliver on the “how” the hero and heroine get to their happy ending. If a romance author decides that the hero and heroine just end up together because “it’s a romance”, that is also lazy writing. The romance author needs to show the emotional development between the hero and heroine as they grow closer together and then solidify the journey by making the commitment for love.

So why the Romance and Horror Genres (with a nod toward the Thriller Genre) Appeals to People:

I’m tuning in specifically to romance and horror because they have clearly high emotional stakes attached to them. They are genres that exist simply because emotions exist. They need to pull an emotional reaction from the reader in order to be effective. Other genres don’t need to do this to be successful. As I mentioned above, those are fine dealing strictly with the reader’s mind. Romance and horror require the reader’s heart. Whether it’s love, terror, excitement, dread, joy, anger, or sorrow, the reader needs to “feel” something in order to enjoy the book.

I have no way of proving this, but my theory is that people who enjoy romance and/or horror are higher in empathy than those who don’t. I think readers of these genres are comfortable with their feelings and the feelings of others. On the surface, you might see a romance book and think, “Smut. Porn.” On the surface, you might see a horror book and think, “Gore. Disgusting.” What they aren’t getting to is the stuff that surrounds the steamy love scenes or the stuff surrounding the murders that happens on the page. I understand why people don’t like these genres. But I personally love these two genres the most, and I’m just explaining why.

We are not reading romance for the sex. We are reading the romance for the thrill of finding love, of being connected with that one special person we’ll get to spend the rest of our life with. It’s the emotional completion we are looking for in a romance. If you ever fell in love, you’ll remember how exciting those emotions were. I’ve been married for 25 years now. Not every day has been a paradise with my husband. No marriage is perfect because humans aren’t perfect. But I’m happy to be married to him. I don’t want to be with anyone else. But it’s still fun to “fall in love for the first time” all over again. That’s the pull of romance. I get to fall in love. Love is a highly-charged emotion.

We are not reading horror because we want some person or some entity to hunt us down in real life and brutally kill us. We are reading horror for the thrill of being scared. There is a thrill to being scared, but that thrill is only fun when you are actually safe. I remember being a kid, and my mom would tell me and my sister scary stories that creeped us out so much that we had to sleep in the bedroom with her. (My dad was in the civil service of the military, so he went on quite a few overnight trips for work.) I remember being creeped out of my mind while safely in her room, but I loved it, and I think fondly back on how safe I was despite the fear because she was in the room with me. I love Halloween stories. I love exploring things aren’t real. I love “not knowing” what will happen next in a book, and horror will deliver on that, more often than not. The not knowing factor plays a role in the dread and tense emotional pull in horror.

So that’s the appeal in romance and horror: the two genres I love most.