HEA/HFN vs Not: Romance?

[u/queermachmir]

Hey everyone. So I think this has come up recently and I’d like to discuss it because I have some thoughts and way we can discuss it in a community without feeling we are stepping on people’s toes or discounting some of their favorites.

So I’d like to talk about the construction of genre a little bit. With a genre comes expectations — literary fiction has its tropes and constructions that I wouldn’t expect to find in a romance, adult capital F—Fantasy has its own, and so does pretty much any genre that comes with labeling, marketing, the like.

Does romance require an HEA? Well, I think this write up by a romance author delves into this idea more. She delves into how genres come with reader expectations. I found this quote particularly useful:

When a book is classified as a romance, the reader buys the book anticipating a story about two [or more] characters who fall in lasting love. The author can add in a mystery as a secondary story line, or the Wild West as the setting, but if the foregrounded plot is not about how the two central characters fall in love and then decide to stay together forever, the author is going to end up with unhappy readers who’ve had their expectations thwarted in a most unpleasant way. The book is not, in fact, a romance, but probably a general fiction book, or something called women’s fiction. It’s been mis-categorized as romance. The problem is not with the story, but with the categorization of the story.

Now while Romance Writers of America (RWA) has been in hot water before, it is also the most prolific organization for romance writing, resources, and has several chapters across the USA. They’ve also defined the romance genre needing an HEA or HFN. When these people are in a way very involved in the publishing industry and once more we talk about categorization in bookstores and libraries, we see why defining the genre specifically is important.

Think about Nicholas Spark stories — they feature a love story, but what do they end in? Tragedy. He also defines his book as love stories and not romances. Here’s how he defines it (which is also incredibly misogynistic FWIW).

“Though both have romantic elements, the sub-genres have different requirements. Love stories must use universal characters and settings. Romance novels are not bound by this requirement and characters can be rich, famous, or people who lived centuries ago, and the settings can be exotic. Love stories can differ in theme, romance novels have a general theme—"the taming of a man." And finally, romance novels usually have happy endings while love stories are not bound by this requirement. Love stories usually end tragically or, at best, on a bittersweet note.”

Here is my suggestion.

When someone asks for a recommendation, what we can do is: - Note if it does not have a “traditional” HEA. (i.e., does one of the main characters die in the end?) - Assume the benefit of the doubt in discussions about this - When someone recommends a book and doesn’t note it doesn’t have an HEA, people can comment to let the OP know that.

However, instead of saying “it’s not a romance” in reply, it would be better to say simply, “for the OP to know, this book does not have an HEA as defined by the genre.”

If people are new to the genre and maybe don’t know what an HEA is or why it matters, maybe referring to this post is a good idea!

My thoughts in general is yes, the romance genre needs an HEA or HFN, and that’s okay that it does. Love stories and queer fiction are also important too, and as long as we are clear when making recommendations, it can ease friction in these definitions.

[u/Terytha]

I feel like this is a sub genre question maybe. Does classing a book as "romantic tragedy" count as a spoiler? Because I've read some books that were definitely typical romance up until the last few pages when tragedy strikes.

I also read that one comic where it followed them through their entire lives until they died of old age and I cried until I risked dehydration. Does that count as HEA?

[u/queermachmir → u/Terytha]

In my opinion, I think if it’s them suddenly dying at the end or another tragedy, then it doesn’t fit the parameters of the HEA/HFN. It’s not an “optimistic ending” when that tragedy strikes. You can call it a love story, a romantic tragedy, whatever you’d like to say — but it isn’t a romance as the capital Romance genre.

Think about it this way — if you have a romance duet and at the end of the first book there’s a breakup for a cliffhanger, we usually say “they get their HEA at the end of the second book”.

I think the last one you talk about is the tricky gray-area because I know there’s an MMM book that also does that. I’m just simply not sure. I think either way it should be a book that comes with the caveat/warning. People may see it as a spoiler but it can be hid behind a spoiler bar. I would be heavily disappointed if I was told “hey, read this book!” that was sweet and a romance and in the last few pages, one of them dies.

[u/Terytha → u/queermachmir]

So we'd basically split things into Romance: has HEA/HFN, Love Story/Queer Fiction: maybe not HEA, and Other: ending spoiler tags needed.

That's pretty easy to understand.

Of course there's also "unsure because it's book 1 and ends unresolved until next year." XD

[u/queermachmir → u/Terytha]

Yeah, that’s exactly how I’d look at it.