This week, Agnès Laurent, senior reporter at L’Express, explains to us the phenomenal success of “dark romance” in bookstores and the unease it creates among professionals in the sector.
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The team: Mathias Penguilly (presentation and writing), Milena Rossi (editing) and Jules Krot (directing).
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Mathias Penguilly: Dark romance. Once again, we have chosen to focus on an Anglo-Saxon expression – and this one is quite transparent – we speak of “dark romance”. The expert on the subject at L’Express is Agnès Laurent, senior reporter. Agnès, this “dark romance”, where exactly do we find it?
Agnès Laurent: It is found in digital bookstores especially, in the form of ebooks. Sometimes in paper format, in “classic” bookstores… or even in media libraries. “Dark romance” is a literary subgenre, a subcategory of romance novels. It’s aimed primarily at a female readership – like all romance subgenres. And originally, it designates a set of works which depict the toxic relationships between a submissive heroine and a dominant male character. Even if today the genre is diversifying a little.
For further
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Morgane Moncomble, star of New Romance: “Perhaps we will be rehabilitated in a century”
Literature: “romance” at the top of sales
Cultura: the revenge of the “book hypermarket”