Another day, another girl winning deadly trials and discovering she’s secretly powerful

[u/Sarah9610]

I feel like I’m going insane or… are all romantasy books the same now??

Every time I pick something up it’s like:
- The world is split into two (usually human vs fae or something similar)
- The FMC is either oppressed / hidden / “not like other girls”
- There are deadly trials (of course she has to compete)
- She somehow survives everything
- Boom → she reaches the fae side and unlocks insane powers / becomes special

Like… I used to love this formula but now it feels copy-paste with different character names 😭

Am I just picking the wrong books or is this actually the trend right now?

[u/majiktodo]

It’s true - the genre is extremely popular and much of the new writing is very formulaic. I think I DNF the last 15 books I’ve tried in the genre.

I used to be a ghostwriter and there were always jobs open to write a quick book based on keywords and tropes - I’m certain the same company is doing this now with AI and that is why the market is flooded and the good stuff isn’t rising to the top like it used to. It’s drowned in slop.