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The New Adult Romance Genre has come out of nowhere and is now oozing with popularity. It’s the new chick-lit but tells realistic, romantic comedy-esque stories filled with tropes. And the best part is, a decent amount of it is queer! This new genre has opened up a world of possibility within queer literature, allowing for stories meant for pure enjoyment and happiness! They do not deal with the heavy topics often associated with queer literature and demonstrate that queer relationships experience similar trifles to any other relationships. The still-developing genre began with a contest run by St. Martin’s Press and book blogger Georgia McBride in 2009.
The contest rule was: “cutting-edge fiction with protagonists who are slightly older than YA [young adult]… Fiction similar to YA [young adult] that can be published and marketed as adult.” (( “New Adult: A Book Category for Twentysomethings by Twentysomethings.” PublishersWeekly.com )). Thus, the beginning of the New Adult Genre. The age in the books is between 18 and 30 years old. Not quite young adults, but not quite established adults, either. The plots touch on first apartments, shitty cars, being broke, navigating this new, independent world, and other woes of adulthood. This evolving genre provides a dreamscape for queer authors to tell queer stories. Of course, more heteronormative books also fall under this category, but the genre provides a different opportunity for queer stories.
New Adult Literature: ‘Queer Representation’
For most people who fall under this age group, queer representation within literature was minimal. For example, The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2013) is about a girl who is sent to a gay conversion camp. Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2012) is the story of two boys coming to terms with their sexualities and their trauma. I’ll Give You the Sun (2014) tells the stories of twin siblings, one of whom is gay. Their mother walks in on the queer sibling, and then he proceeds to shove his identity down until further notice.
It is not intended to reduce these novels to the queer trauma within them, as they were essential stories to tell during this time. The 2010s were a time in which we were just beginning to escape the blatant homophobia from the early 2000s. Until this point, many queer people had suffered through traumatic homophobic experiences. But these traumatic stories were virtually the only representation that 20 to 30-year-old readers grew up with. There were little to no “happy” queer stories that came out during this time, leaving young queer readers with little hope for their future when it came to this part of their identity. The New Adult Genre changes this; it allows for the trauma to be left behind. Writers have the opportunity to tell uplifting and happy queer stories, leaving homophobia behind if they so choose. Most of the stories center on people from their early 20s to early 30s, a generation that did have queer representation, but the representation was centered around queer trauma.
The Shift In New Adult Romance
The New Adult genre provides opportunities to create cheesy, trope-filled romances in a world where homophobia doesn’t exist and being gay is normalized. Basically, a queer dreamscape. It allows the author to build these romances in a world where the characters are already comfortable in their sexuality, aren’t dealing with family trauma, and aren’t faced with homophobia. Albeit, this is not yet the world we are living in. But having positive, happy queer representation within literature is just as important. Many of us who fall under this age group still read these novels and wait for the pin to drop. We wait for the mention of the parent or grandparent who no longer speaks to the character since they have come out. We wait for the trauma to hit, for the homophobia to hit. In this genre, the pin never drops. The characters face normal relationship conflict, normal life conflict, and being gay has nothing to do with it!
Let’s face it, most romantic comedy situations are a little unrealistic, but this doesn’t make the characters any less realistic. The New Adult genre seeks to write characters that 20 to 30-year-old readers can relate to, whether with experience, feelings, or maybe just being queer, just as Young Adult aims to write characters that 12 to 18-year-old readers can see themselves in and look up to.
Queer representation is just as important in adult fiction as in children’s books and Young Adult novels, but up until recently, a lot of that representation has been based on some sort of trauma. These coming out stories are important to tell, yes. It is important for recently out queer people to know that they are not alone in their experience. But it is just as important to show them that they can be happy, functioning adults and that they will face everyday life struggles and normal relationship struggles just as anyone else would. And they are allowed to enjoy cheesy romance novels that they see themselves in.
The Purpose Of Queer New Adult Romance
The rise of queer literature within the New Adult Romance genre serves a purpose, providing us with happy queer stories and queer characters who face everyday issues outside of being gay. But it also serves as a sort of escapism or dreamscape where homophobia doesn’t exist.
Addressing topics such as coming out and conversion therapy were important in the early 2010s, but now queer people want happy stories. Queer people want those trope-filled romances that they haven’t otherwise had the opportunity to witness in the context of a queer relationship. This romance genre has finally given queer people a space to write about everything they didn’t get to read about in their teens, the happy endings that were never touched on being a possibility. It’s an exciting turn within literature for the queer community.
Recommendations
Every New Adult Romance suggestion must begin with Casey McQuiston’s debut 2019 novel Red, White & Royal Blue. Which depicts the romance between the First Son of the United States and a British Prince with quite a few tropes, the most prominent being enemies-to-lovers. If you want to briefly live in a pretend world where politicians aren’t totally corrupt, the U.S. has a democratic woman for a president, and maybe even restore a little pretend faith in the governmental systems, then this book is for you! Above all else, it holds incredible representation and tells a swoon-worthy love story.
Moving right along to McQuiston’s 2021 novel, One Last Stop, tells the story of our grumpy protagonist, August, who falls in love with this girl she sees on her train every day, Jane. August and Jane only see each other on this train, their connections often small but impactful. When they begin to fall for each other, sparks fly (literally!) Not only is this a grumpy sunshine romance, but it’s also sealed with a time travel twist. McQuiston is also releasing a Young Adult book, I Kissed Shara Wheeler, on May 3rd. The reviews are in, and McQuiston’s books are a must-read!
Alexandria Bellefleur’s Seattle-based trilogy begins with Written in the Stars, a loose Pride and Prejudice retelling of a grumpy, beautiful actuary named Darcy and a sunshine-y, bubbly astrology blogger named Elle who fake a relationship to get through the holiday season. The following book, Hang the Moon, tells the story of Darcy’s brother, Brendon, and her bisexual best friend, Annie. Childhood crushes, the woes of dating, and grand gestures are all in tow in the second book of this trilogy! And finally, the third book, Count Your Lucky Stars, which just hit the shelves in February, gives Elle’s best friend, Margot, her own love story! Margot has the mouth of a sailor and walks around with a mysterious air of confidence, but her childhood lover? Best friend? Comes crashing back into her life, and she gets a second chance with the girl she never got over.
Another book that just hit the shelves in February is Ashley Herring Blake’s novel, Delilah Green Doesn’t Care. It tells the story of Delilah Green, who was raised by her cold stepfamily and moved across the country upon turning 18. She returns to her hometown after being offered a large sum of money to photograph her stepsister Astrid’s wedding. When she’s there, she connects with Astrid’s best friend, Claire, and from here, things get cute and messy and then cute again. The second book in the series, centered around Astrid’s newfound freedom, Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail, will be released this November.
The Future Of ‘Queer New Adult Romance’
The New Adult Romance Genre has created possibilities within queer literature. It has allowed us to leave behind the traumatic coming out stories and read about characters who are established in their sexuality. The stories being told are the young adult scenarios that queer authors didn’t have the opportunity to take advantage of until now. So they are writing these scenarios and applying them to adults, giving this generation of 22 to 30-year-olds the chance to enjoy them and see themselves in it. Take some time to check out this evolving genre of literature; it has something for everyone and is changing the face of contemporary literature.