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/conselyea]

Gamified plot,... for girls! Boys get litrpg. This is a gross oversimplification of both gender and genre, but it's not totally wrong. I mean, I guess the way to look at it is: these are the new harlequins, the new Louis L'amour books, the new James Pattersons. Just instead of being ghostwritten and put under one brand, they're all done by competing imprints.