BookTok loves its “spice” — but what happens when dark romance blurs the line between fantasy and reality for young readers?

One of the most prominent communities on TikTok is BookTok — which consists of readers, typically younger women who primarily read dark romance novels. 

Dark romance is a subgenre of romance fiction that features morally ambiguous characters as the protagonists in the story. The common plotlines of these dark romance novels usually include themes of trauma, violence, abuse, and sexual desire. The sexual explicit content of the novel, or the “spice” is a critical aspect of dark romance content. So much so, that under any book recommendation on BookTok, most of the comments ask, “What’s the spice level?” or perhaps a more subtle “What’s the 🌶️🌶️🌶️ level?” Despite the obsession with spice levels, the controversy surrounding dark romance doesn’t stem from the explicit content alone. Erotic literature has long existed, even under censorship.

The first English erotic novel, Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure,  was released in 1748. While the book was subsequently banned for decades, copies of the novel were secretly read and reprinted. In 2019, a Victorian-era copy of the novel was sold for 400 USD. 

While early erotic literature like Fanny Hill was consumed in secret, modern day’s sexually explicit content is found primarily in video form. 

Since its creation, it’s been a well-established fact that men consume video pornagraphy at a much higher rate than women. Approximately 70% of American men view online porn at least once per year, while only 40% of American women view online porn. Moreover, American men are also more likely to have a porn addiction with 11% of men self-identifying as having a porn addiction compared to only 3% of women. 

Women are sexual creatures the same way men are. These statistics only prove that American men consume video porn at higher rates than American women, the study did not include reading material.

With the recent explosions of erotic novels in the mid 2010s, such as Fifty Shades of Grey and A Court of Thorns and Roses, women are consuming porn in a different way. They’re not watching it, they’re reading it. 

Australian Women’s Weekly is one of many publications to support this statement, as their findings are that 82% of romance and erotic novel readers are women. 

While both male adult porn addiction and the oversaturation of online pornography have been long debated issues, it’s almost been accepted as simply a consequence of our new internet age. Still, the particular issue of children being exposed to video pornography remains a topic of discussion. Many academic research centers have produced study after study detailing the harmful effects of pornography on children and young people, particularly violent pornography.

Therefore, the criticism of dark romance novels lies within its potential catastrophic effects on the sex lives of young women around the world.

Is it hot for your decade older mafia boss/CEO (or more recently fairy king) boyfriend to kill any man who looks at you? 

For a dark romance fan, this is a dream scenario. A mafia boss kidnapping them and proceeding to aggressively have sex with them is something to fantasize about. They think they want to be slapped, choked, and spit on while a man is holding them down. Many people defend these fantasies by arguing that “people are allowed to be kinky.” 

This is a valid argument. The sexual activities of two consenting adults shouldn’t be an online debate; however, when one looks at the ages of the women who both consume and post content about these dark romances, it becomes clear that it’s nearly impossible for these women to truly know what they want because most of them are not women — they’re young girls. 

According to Nielsen’s Romance Book Buyer Report, the average age of romance book buyers is 42 years old — not a statistic to be overly concerned about. The number to be concerned about is the age women begin to read these novels, which is cited as young as 11 years old. 

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has a call to action on their website encouraging all governments to take steps to limit children’s exposure to online porn, citing potential life-long effects for affected children, such as poor mental health and increased risk of sexual violence. 

The American College of Pediatricians further supports the idea that depression, anxiety, sexual promiscuity, and distorted view of sex are all potential side effects of early porn exposure. However, in their study, they define pornography as “the depiction of erotic behavior (sexual display in pictures or writing) that is intended to cause sexual excitement in the viewer.” Therefore, the negative effects of early exposure to erotic reading materials in women causes the exact same harmful effects as early exposure to video pornography in women — proving that erotic literature consumption in young girls is a much bigger issue that needs to be discussed.

While adult women have every right to explore and enjoy erotic literature, the normalization of violent sexual behavior being consumed by minors is a major cause for concern.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with dark romance or the fantasies it explores—consenting adults are free to enjoy whatever content speaks to them. But when these stories are being consumed by girls as young as 11 years old, it becomes less about personal preference and more about the messages young people are internalizing about sex.

If governments can acknowledge the risks of early exposure to video pornography, the impact of written erotic content must also be taken seriously. That doesn’t mean banning books—it means being more aware of what young girls are consuming. 

BookTok influencers, parents, librarians, and even the readers themselves have to be responsible for these conversations. The stories young people grow up reading shape the narratives of their adult lives, laying the foundation for what they come to expect, and accept, in intimacy and relationships.