The owner of a new book store in Subiaco stocking almost exclusively romance novels says she wants to champion independent authors.
Author Shannon Riley opened The Indie Realm last November.
“For the business, it doesn’t matter if it’s popular on TikTok or not; we specialise in independent authors only,” she said.
“If you’re a baby author or you have 20 books under your belt, I’m going to have them in store.”
Shannon Riley
The Indie Realm carries all sub-genres of romance including contemporary, romantasy [romance-fantasy] and dark romance stories.
Dark romance focuses on flawed main characters and their complex dynamics.
The sub-genre became popular during the COVID-19 lockdowns as readers turned to social media to share their reviews of books to the ‘book-tok’ community.
Stories range in intensity but often explore topics such as domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, kidnapping or underage relationships.
“Dark romance allows you to explore trauma, taboos and healing in safe, fictional spaces,” Ms Riley said.
Creative writing major and dark romance fan Maria Collett says such novels often provide an exciting contrast from readers’ everyday lives.
“I can delve into the side of myself that’s a little more risqué and enjoys some things that wouldn’t usually be accepted in society,” she said.
“Masked men are very often male main characters in dark romance books because people like the mystery.”
White Dwarf Books employee Bella Branch says she has seen an “uncomfortable” rise in the number of adults searching for mature material in the young adult section.
“[Some] books are marketed as YA but contain the content adult readers are looking for, making it harder to reccomend books to younger folk if you yourself haven’t read the material,” she said.
Humanities teacher Dr Tara Sidebottom agrees dark romance books are often mixed with other genres in stores, which makes it difficult to know whether they contain explicit content.
“Innocent looking covers [are] a popular style [so] can be misplaced quite easily – the specific adult content is not obvious from some of the marketing,” she said.
Authors are also increasingly taking steps to include warning labels, which make clear what a reader should expect before starting a book with potentially troubling content.
The Indie Realm owner Shannon Riley recommends not choosing books based solely on opinions shared by online influencers.
Shannon Riley
“Some content creators will lean into the darker sides of a book and they’ll pull the darkest or spiciest quote.”
“I would read the reviews [and] a lot of books now have content and trigger warnings in the front so you can’t go blindly into a book,” she said.
Categories: General