“No HEA, not Romance” vs. “No HEA, still a Romance”. This debate has been going on for so long, I doubt it’ll stop heated discussions anytime soon. And if the title of this blog post didn’t clue you in, I’m firmly in the no HEA is still a Romance side. Why wouldn’t it be? Think about this: if someone asked you to list 5 OG Romances, chances are Romeo & Juliet will make it on there. So why is that story called a romance? They don’t end up together, they’re dead af by the end.
I can do the same with movies. Chances are Titanic makes it in the top 5 and they don’t end up together either. So why is it ok to call those stories romances, but not newer stories? If you’re still not convinced think about it in real-life terms. A couple gets married and they’re living their happily ever after until one of them unfortunately dies. It could happen days, months, or years after the wedding, but it happens. Does it mean that their story isn’t romantic? That their story isn’t a romance? If you wouldn’t go up to the grieving party and say “don’t worry, your real happily ever after is still out there” because they experienced a true romance and love, why doesn’t that apply to fictional work?
There are so many stories you hear about real-life couples who are perfect for each other and truly are happy. But terrible life incidents happen that break down the relationship or even tear it apart. It doesn’t mean their feelings weren’t real or they didn’t really love each other. So if you wouldn’t invalidate someone’s real-life romance, why would you invalidate someone’s work that they poured their blood, sweat, and tears into? Just as not everyone ends with a HEA, not every Romance book ends in a HEA.
Branching Out
Fortunately, we’ve begun to move in the right direction. Now we have HFN endings that have been accepted as part of Romance novels as well as a new subgenre: Dark Romance. Though many still have a HEA/HFN ending, the journey the love interests go through isn’t your typical sunshine and roses story. Because some of us crave more than regular romance. We crave the tears, the emotional rollercoaster ride, the questioning of our own sanity, and the taboo.
So if we’ve been able to branch out for these stories, why can’t we branch out with a new category for No HEA stories? It’s unfair to tell authors to lump their books into the Women’s Fiction category because they don’t fit there. The storyline doesn’t usually follow a woman on a self-discovery or personal growth path. It follows a woman who falls in love and has a romantic relationship filled with sex before going their separate ways.
The whole “Romance is better than real life” reasoning is thin. Nobody reads the same thing over and over again without getting bored. Some days you feel like reading dirty smut, other days you want monster peen, and others you want all the cute. Same thing with endings, some days you feel like reading a guaranteed HEA, sometimes you want it super dark, and other times you may want something that hurts your heart. And a no HEA ending fits that void!
Just because your personal preference doesn’t include a story without a HEA doesn’t mean it should be excluded from Romance. Monster peens, alien smut, and Dark Romance are all clearly labeled so if they don’t float your boat you don’t read them. You can do the same with no HEA ending Romance. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.