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Struggling to find a consistent relationship? Look no further than Powell’s fiction bestsellers shelf, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year with Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses.
The series is perhaps the headliner of a genre that’s crept out of the woodwork over the past decade: romantasy. A blend of romance and fantasy, the genre is full of world-building and relationship tropes, both steamy and elaborate. Its growing grip—on Portlanders and readers globally—has even motivated merchandising decisions at local bookstores.
Bry Hoeg, general manager at Powell’s City of Books on West Burnside Street, says she first heard of romantasy as a genre sometime during 2019. Popular series that might have fallen under that category had been released before (think Twilight, for example). But Maas, among other authors, has piloted the genre, Hoeg says, and it’s now more concrete than ever.
Hoeg credits the rise of romantasy’s popularity to the COVID-19 pandemic. Before then, she says, romance sales had actually been on the decline, and the section was about a quarter of the size it is now. But the general doom and gloom of the pandemic, combined with isolation, drew people to escapism.
“People really wanted to get away from what was happening out in the world,” Hoeg says. “Genre fiction, which covers everything from sci-fi, to romance, fantasy, mysteries, horror, etc., has all exploded.”
BookTok (Book TikTok) is also to thank for some of romantasy’s rise. Fantasy and romance have both been popular genres independently, but the new hybrid genre has helped fans of both communities discover each other.
The upward tick in sales presented some minor challenges for bookstores like Powell’s. There’s a ton of genre overlap in romantasy—books can fall into romance, fantasy, science fiction, or any number of genres in between. Hoeg says the genre’s rise fueled a decision to bring romance and fantasy together into Powell’s Gold Room, which moved up to the second floor this past November. That room’s about double the size of the previous space where these books were displayed.
Perhaps one of the most refreshing things about romantasy is its inclusiveness. Love for the genre “is across the board,” Hoeg says—women, men, queer and nonbinary people all stop by the shelves. She’s confident that romantasy is here to stay.
“Readers are still really being driven toward escapism,” Hoeg says. “What always happens is, you get into something and you identify with it, or you really like it, and then you just continue to seek that out no matter what.”