Why romance and ‘sexy’ book clubs are booming
Like many millennials, Larissa Chadwick’s introduction to the world romance Meanwhile twilight TV series in high school.
“I absolutely fell in love. I read it all in a week and before that I had read absolutely nothing except what we were supposed to read at school,” says the 30-year-old from South Sydney.
Chadwick, who ran Instagram last year, or “Bookstagram” — an account dedicated to romantic fiction, started a book club out of a desire to connect with other fans of the genre, who in turn were able to keep up with his voracious appetite for reading (Chadwick reads up to 10 to 12 books a month).
Made up entirely of other “bookstagrammers” between the ages of 20 and 30, the group meets monthly to discuss the complex worlds concocted by authors such as: Sarah J. Maas (Court of Thorns and Roses), Elle Kennedy (Love Song) and Elsie Silver (Chestnut Springs).
“It’s the escapism of going to another world, and I think it’s also a way of tackling a lot of political and real-world issues in an imaginary context,” Chadwick says.
These books, some set in fantasy lands, others not, are also an escape from the dangers of pursuing romance as a woman in 2026.
“We have a lot of people [in the club] “It’s interesting how easily we can compare our book boyfriends, married or single, to the real-world dating scene,” says Chadwick, who is happily married.
“A book friend will do absolutely anything for you and values your ground, but as some girls say, it’s hard to take a message back in real life.”
Genre dominated by female writers “highlights important issues”[s] what women are really looking for,” she says.
In other words: loyalty, friendship, and a chance to believe that chivalry may not be dead.
Chadwick thinks one of the biggest things people misunderstand about romance fiction is that they’re “completely full of smut.”
“There’s actually a world that they’ve built. They have different magical systems and languages and things like that,” he says.
Otherwise, in a stagnant publishing environment, Romantic fiction is spreading rapidly – driven by young women and social media communities like #BookTok (the global, online community of readers on TikTok).
Combine this with increasing demand offline connection and romantic book clubs are popping up all over the world.
“These are strangers I met online, and now we’ve met everyone’s husband and gone through a few dating cycles. We have some really beautiful, real relationships,” Chadwick says.
Romanticism writer and academician Dr. Jodi McAlister agrees that the genre is booming, but notes, “Romance fiction has always been popular. Even when it was pushed to the back of bookstores and no one was talking about it, a lot of people were still reading it.”
She attributes the current boom to the genre’s increased visibility during the pandemic, spurred by the rise of BookTok, popular feminism and people shrugging off the “guilty pleasure” label.
Melbourne-based sex columnist and podcaster Laura Roscioli launched her own reading group this year, aptly named “(sexy) book club”.
“The idea was initially Eyes Wide Shutbut a book club,” he says.
Thematically, however, the club may read “sexy books,” though Roscioli emphasizes that it’s not about romantic fiction.
“Actually, there is a group of women who want to read erotic things like obscenities. But books of this kind [we’re reading]“They invite more political discussions about sex and sexuality,” he says.
The last thing they read was: Greater SwitzerlandJen Beagin’s 2023 novel follows a transcriber working for a sex therapist who becomes attracted to a 28-year-old gynecologist who has never experienced an orgasm.
Other previous readings include: Catherine M.’s Sexual Life, A memoir written by French art critic Catherine Millet in 2001 novelist Edmund White called “The most explicit book about sex ever written by a woman”.
For Roscioli, a writer who spends a lot of time thinking and writing about sex and relationships, the club is a way to analyze those ideas with new people.
“I feel like all my thought bubbles and trend-based information always comes from a digital platform like TikTok, Instagram, etc. So I said, ‘I want to create a space where people learn new things offline.'”
About 25 women attended Roscioli’s first event at her home in January. However, after sharing this experience on Instagram, interest quickly snowballed. While the club’s May issue has attracted dozens of readers, there are 200 people in the WhatsApp group and a 300-strong waiting list.
Most of the members are between 23 and 35 years old, and all are women or female-identified except Roscioli’s best friend Christian, a gay man who serves shirtless cocktails.
Some participants, she says, were sex workers who were reluctant to talk about their work with friends and family.
“Often the reason people are there is because they don’t feel like they have the language or comfort level to talk about these things in their lives with their family, their friends, or even their partners,” she says.
“I think women, in particular, are really fed up with not being able to get a clue about what’s going on in the world and in their own bodies.”
“For too long, women’s sexuality and pleasure have been diminished in mainstream places, and we’ve gotten to the point in society where women are like, ‘no, I really want to understand what this is.’ I “For example, I want to understand why I am not happy in this relationship or why I am not having an orgasm.”
Roscioli is working on how to expand the event to meet growing demand and plans to hold interstate events. For now, she’s excited to have built a community of like-minded readers.
“This is my dream. It’s like being in a really smart, well-thought-out English literature class.”
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