The São Paulo International Book Biennial is Brazil’s biggest book event of the year, bringing together international and national publishers, both large and small. The event takes place in a huge venue and lasts for ten days. There are lectures, book launches and autograph sessions. In recent years, increasingly Instagrammable spaces and other marketing strategies, such as bringing in actors or models to portray book characters and interact with readers.

This year, a rather unconventional situation stood out at the event. A man dressed as Ghostface, the character from the Scream film franchise, appeared at one publisher’s stand. There, he posed for photos with readers sitting on his lap, pretending to choke them or kiss them. How did the literary market get here?

The answer may lie in a rapidly rising romance subgenre: dark romance.

This relatively new romance subgenre shares characteristics of gothic romance, romance, horror and erotica. Its plots usually involve a morally grey love interest who, more often than not, operates outside the law and unleashes violence, coercion or other forms of transgression. Some of these stories also incorporate BDSM, kink or consensual non-consent fantasies. The settings may vary, from the mafia and big corporations to supernatural realms, but the core remains the same.

The genre began to establish a stable readership in the 2010s, but grew from a niche into a popular phenomenon during the pandemic. Lockdown led to an explosion of the BookTok phenomenon, with influencers and independent authors promoting books and specific genres. Amidst this, dark romance was one of the genres that made its way into the mainstream and, most recently, into the Biennial itself.

Romance readers are usually women, and dark romance readers in particular seem to be predominantly young women, or at least they appear to be the most visible online. Although there is still no reliable data on the demographic profile of dark romance readers. So why are they drawn to fantasies involving violent stalkers? Some might attribute this to pornography or patriarchy, but the answer is not necessarily that simple.

Nowadays, people advertise a cleaner, more polished version of themselves, whether on social media or even in day-to-day interactions. Everyone is supposed to be successful, happy and grateful at all times. There is little room for doubt, fear or sadness, let alone anger. Combined with the growing loneliness epidemic, this may help explain the appeal of the kind of fantasy dark romance offers.

Maybe it has less to do with violent people and more to do with characters who have the space to be human. Flawed and damaged, but still capable of love.

Often, social niceties get in the way of real connections, as seen in the recent public discourse suggesting that one needs to be “done” with therapy before being ready for a relationship. But psychotherapy is not a certificate of completion, and mental health is an ongoing process. Relationships are built between human beings and made more challenging and beautiful by their flaws, not in spite of them.

Public displays like the one that happened at the Biennial are misplaced. But perhaps they will keep occurring as long as society insists on suppressing the parts of human experience that make us uncomfortable.

Bibliography

FOLHA DE S.PAULO. Walter, Isadora Laviola; Porto, Victor. Bienal do Livro notifica editora Fruto Proibido, que teve beijos em mascarado. Folha de S.Paulo, 9 set. 2026. Folha de S.Paulo – reportagem sobre o Ghostface na Bienal

DEANE, Katie. Dark romance: an introduction. Porn Studies, 2026.

MONIER, Mel. Reading the dark romance: exploring audience engagement with sexual power dynamics in dark romance novels. Porn Studies, 2026.

KVISTAD, Erika. Happily Ever After?/Happily Ever After! Negotiating the Gothic in Contemporary Dark Romance. Journal of Popular Romance Studies, 2026.

BALLING, Gitte; MARTENS, Marianne. BookTok Helped Us Sell It: How TikTok Disrupts Publishing and Fuels the #Romantasy boom.

DERA, Jeroen. BookTok: A Narrative Review of Current Literature and Directions for Future Research. Literature Compass, 2024, 21(10–12).

DEPEXE, Sandra; FREITAS, Marina Judiele dos Santos. “Tá, tá movimentando”: a indústria editorial e o TikTok no Brasil. Comunicação, Mídia e Consumo, v. 20, n. 58, 2023.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION. From loneliness to social connection: charting a path to healthier societies – Report of the WHO Commission on Social Connection. Geneva: WHO, 2025. Relatório da OMS.

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