Here’s our super late edition of LIT NEWS! Welcome.
[Content Warning for Child Sexual Abuse; Topics include pedophilia in fiction, taboo vs illegal contents.]
When we opened Twitter on December 6th, the conversation was already well underway. It was a bit like the ground rattling, but from where we were standing, we weren’t sure if it was an earthquake or a train. Whatever kind of disaster this was, Romancelandia was already in it and it started the day before.
So, we bring you the news because it’s not over yet after nearly a week long battle. Reading might take a while, so get yourself some tea and brace yourselves because we have a lot of trails for you to follow. We’ll wait for you to come back when you hit those links because there’s more.
The Background
December 5th, Kini tweeted about Frolic’s piece, authored by Rebecca Jenshak, which included a romance novel with one love interest being an underage gymnast and the other being an older coach. Frolic billed itself as the entertainment brand for modern romance fans AND wasn’t without scandals of its own (psst, one was about R. Kelly, ironically). Almost immediately following the tweet and Kini’s email to the brand, the book and its sequels were pulled from the piece.
Not only was it pulled from Frolic, Amazon’s bots caught wind of it and pulled the Off Balance series for violating its terms of services. The event prompted hundreds of supporters to declare censorship, speculate on who reported the series, and start up a petition. This wasn’t even the first time the series had been yanked from its shelves. The first time was shortly after Balance was published in 2016.
Did that pump the brakes? Hell, no, it didn’t. More people outside of the “niche taboo corner” of “erotic romance” now knew the existence of the book Balance by Lucia Franco. If they already knew about it, the underage part was unknown to them. It spilled like toxic oil into other parts of book twitter, then into Reddit and Facebook before finally hitting the hidden kraken community of Tumblr.
The Backlash
Joy Demorra and Caitlyn Lynch, two of the several co-authors of The Weird & Wonderful Holiday Romance anthology, rose up from Tumblr when Lynch got pushback and Demorra got hit with a negative review. Imagine the crashing tides against a weak ship which quickly avoided the kraken’s tentacles and scuttled to find a different target. We know this is a lot of links, but we highly recommend reading Caitlyn Lynch’s post.
Amidst the cries of free expression, censorship, banning, and novel miscategorization, Scarlett Parrish, a Scottish erotic romance author who writes in multiple subgenres including paranormal, contemporary and menage, was targeted the hardest by Lucia Franco’s defenders and allegedly Lucia Franco herself. As of this writing, Parrish was doxxed and sent cease and desist letters.
By December 11th, she was locked out of Twitter and mass reported, despite being one of the many authors, readers, and bloggers in the community who were vocally against the underage taboo in Romance and the miscategorization of the series. The others who spoke out include Jim C. Hines, Isabel Cooper, and Jenny Trout.
It was a legitimate concern: The heroine was 15 and the hero was in his early 30s when sexual contact began within the books. One of the questions was where do we draw the line in fiction when it came to minors and romantic/sexual entanglements? Now, we ask whether Scarlett was just the weakest link and the easiest target for them.
One of the main defense of the series is that we should stand against censorship. However, what that doesn’t take into account is obscenity laws and the ethics of child pornography even in fiction. It’s a wide ranging concern that films and tv shows have already covered to a large degree: Don’t show it, don’t glamorize it, and here are the obvious ratings. When the issue is addressed and portrayed, it’s usually addressed exactly as it is - a Very Bad Thing.
Yet Lucia Franco wasted an opportunity to shift her taboo focus to a legal zone. Instead, she debated whether the heroine should have been twelve or if it was better to push the age to fifteen. Her reasoning was that underage taboo could and should be portrayed in a sexy way so as to be desirable. Her defenders believe that to forbid her to do this is to censor her and this would be the crumbling down of our society.
I mean, because it’s so difficult to find content like that in fanfiction and hidden dark corners that push past taboo. Why NOT make a profit from the lucrative romance market, too? Capitalism, amirite?
Zoe York, an USAT bestselling author, took a moment to explain this aspect of the controversy, also touching on publishing standards.
Bad Readers Have Tea With Kini
Alright, are you with us so far? If so, y’all take a seat. Some of you probably need to take several. Now that we’ve covered the basics and y’all returned from following those trails, we have an interview with Kini for your thirsty eyes. Kini was kind, accommodating, and informative as she answered our questions. We love Kini.
Maura: How do you feel about having been the first to point out Frolic’s piece? Do you think you mainly got the ball rolling about the book? Do you have any comments regarding the entire situation?
Kini
Full disclosure, someone tipped me off to the inclusion of this book in an authors’ promo post on Frolic. I checked the post in question and skimmed the reviews on Goodreads. Frolic intends to position themselves as a major outlet for Romancelandia, but they have shown to be careless with the information they post. Although saying that it was never intended to be an attack on them, the author that posted the list, or the author that wrote the book. It was intended as a call to do better. Frolic should be better at monitoring the content it presents to their audience. I tried to be careful to not include author names in the original post. It took another Tweeter minutes to identify the book.
The content of the book sounded horrendous and unlike anything I believe belongs to be categorized as romance and it most certainly does not deserve attention given to an up and coming romance outlet. In 2019 when we are fully aware of struggles and abuse the USA gymnastics team went through, I find it outrageous that this kind of book not only exists but has an average 4 star rating on Goodreads. A "romance" featuring a 15 year old girl and a 32 year old man is wrong. Legally, a 15 year old can not give consent. And sure, this is fiction, but this particular work of fiction is being categorized as romance so let's hold up the standards of the genre. How can someone who enters into a relationship as unequal as that dynamic ever have a HEA? How can that dynamic have a central love story when the female main character can't even give consent?
I felt very comfortable about taking it public. It was incredibly naive of me to think that perhaps a conversation would start and Frolic would remove it from the site (which they did) and that would be the end of it. Once the book was removed from Amazon, the conversation shifted. The defenders went hard for the book and the author. I do not agree with any sort of personal attack towards the author of this book nor any of the folks that Tweeted about it.
I think that when you categorize your book as a particular genre, you as an author are bound to the conventions of the genre. A mystery book with no mystery is not a mystery. Same with sci-fi, fantasy, etc. Had this author labeled it fiction, perhaps this conversation would be slightly different. Who knows.
We live in a free society where we have the ability to complain, defend, and share our opinions in public about anything at anytime. Amazon removing the book is not censorship. To equate it so is ridiculous. It is how it works.
We live in a free society where we have the ability to complain, defend, and share our opinions in public about anything at anytime.
I feel ill equipped to really delve into the child predation in literature, especially when others like Jenny Trout (USA Today bestselling author, blogger, and all-around funny person, also known as Abigail Barnette) have said it much better than I could have. Heaving Bosoms had a good thread as well.
Maura: Anything else you wish to share publicly, even so far as making a statement?
Kini
I am, however, incredibly sad to see how quickly it devolved into ugliness. I am sorry for all the victims and survivors of sexual abuse that were bombarded with this conversation. I am sorry that even I didn't use enough care when talking about the issues. I am not sorry that I brought this up. I think that as a community we need to have some discussion about where our line is.
About Kini
Kini Allen (she/her) is a lifelong reader who has always enjoyed getting lost in books. She started reading romance about ten years ago and discovered the joy of a HEA and hasn't looked back since. She's a knitter and is ruled by her cat, Kitty Scarlett. She's an active participant of romance Twitter and reviews and operates Smexybooks.com. You can find Kini on Twitter @kinilei1 and Instagram @1kinilei.
Aftermath
As of today, December 12th, Scarlett Parrish has returned to Twitter. In all the cries of banning and censorship, it happened to someone who fought back against being bullied. What is this really about? Why the hell do we care?
This isn't a question about reading and writing what you want. This is about romanticizing child abuse, miscatogorization, blatant disregard of terms of service, and legal versus illegal content. This is about that side of “romance community” showing their true colors.
Thank You For Reading!
We are Fools of Literature, a newsletter by bad readers for bad readers, written and run by Brigitte O’Riain and Maura Bright. We hope you share this very first Book News issue with your friends as we explore reader journalism along with book snark and analytic essays.
Where do you stand on the Lucia Franco, #IStandWithLucia, and #IStandWithScarlett twitter controversy? How do you feel about the conversation discussing exploitative underage romance and censorship of written fiction?
Keep your eyes open because we are opening a discussion thread right here in your inbox and on Substack to invite conversation.
Our inbox and Twitter DMs are open. If you have been affected by or wish to share a statement regarding the lit news, feel free to reach out to us.