Introduction

Happy new year! It’s 2025 and not much has changed except that I’ve rolled over my stats. So far I have 4 short story rejections and 1 acceptance to a great project: Push: An Anthology of Childbirth Horror edited by Ruth Anna Evans. My story “Proud to Be a Mother” is about childbirth and invasive plants.

I was inspired to write my second Romantasy post (you can read my first, The Unbearable Whiteness of Romantasy), by this article alleging that Romantasy and its fairy obsession is an insult to Wales. I’m not going to touch that, but the use of “fairy porn” to describe Romantasy, something I’ve seen before, did strike me as interesting, so I’m going to address it here. We’re going to break it down, “fairy porn,” in opposite order.

Remember the Puritans?

America has always had issues with sex. We were basically founded (after stealing our land from the Native tribes, of course) by the Puritans, a group of religious people so sex-negative and buttoned-up that the English thought they were weirdos and forced them out of the country.

It’s no surprise then that American morals around sex are somewhat tighter and more strict than they are in many other countries, including many European countries. This isn’t just a thought; it’s borne out by data.1 

So it’s also no surprise that sexual material in books is often called pornography—especially, it seems, when it’s written by women. No one calls GRRM dragon porn, despite a number of explicit sexual scenes in Game of Thrones and its sequels, some including minors (13yo Daenerys and adult Kal Drogo anyone?). There are allegedly sex scenes in the books too graphic for HBO.2 But Jennifer Armentrout throws in a few scenes and now it’s porn.

It betrays a lack of discomfort with sex, especially female sexual pleasure or queer sexual pleasure, that’s honestly, not surprising, but exasperating.

Now the fairy bit

Calling Romantasy “fairy porn” is not only inaccurate and derisive, it’s reductive. While fairies in Romantasy, popularized by Sarah J. Maas and her ACOTAR series, are immensely well-loved, they’re not the only creatures or scenarios we see in romantasy. To show you that, I’ve made a list of adult Romantasy that isn’t about fairies. Enjoy.

Fairy-free Romantasy

A small sample of traditionally published Romantasy that doesn’t center fairies. Go into indie; you can find even more, with even more interesting creatures.

• Bridge Kingdom - Danielle Jensen

• A Fate Inked in Blood - Danielle Jensen

• Mistress of Lies - Koren Enright

• The Witch Collector - Charissa Weeks

• For the Wolf - Hannah Whitten

• From Blood and Ash - Jennifer L. Armentrout

• A Heart of Blood and Ashes - Milla Vain

• Serpent and the Wing of Night - Carissa Broadbent

• A Promise of Fire - Amanda Bouchet

• A Touch of Darkness - Scarlett St. Clair

• Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros

• A Strange and Stubborn Endurance - Foz Meadows

• Deceived by the Gargoyles - Lillian Lark

• Tempting the Orc - L.V. Lane

• Wooing the Witch Queen - Stephanie Burgis

• The Spellshop - Sarah Beth Durst

• A Marvellous Light - Freya Marske

• That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon - Kimberly Lemming

• The God and the Gumiho - Sophie Kim

Conclusion

I’m not even a Romantasy reader. Clearly I have problems with the genre as-is, if you read my first article. But I also take issue with people reducing thing that women like to something bad or wrong. So maybe that’s what I’m trying to do with this article.

There. Have a thesis statement.

Thanks for reading C.J. Subko Books! This post is public so feel free to share it.

If you like what I do, considering buying me a one-time coffee/kofi or a $10 query critique.