BookTok is aflame over a viral video claiming books have been “fast-fashionified.”

But this feels less like a critique of romantasy and more like a reaction to the algorithm built around it.

What many people are reacting to isn’t the genre itself. It’s the social media version of it: rapid recommendations, aesthetic trends, and the pressure to move on to the next title before a story has time to linger.

Romantasy didn’t suddenly change. The pace of online attention did.

When books are treated like trends, reading starts to feel shallow. The genre itself is still doing what it has always done, building long emotional arcs that reward readers.

Of course not all romantasy books are brilliant, and I have my concerns about BookTok too. That is why we are here on Substack.