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Finally starting to listen to the Fated Mates episode on Fifty Shades of Grey and the thing that continues to be so tiresome is that mainstream outlets covering romance novels, to this DAY, can’t seem to refrain from mentioning this book even in passing when discussing the genre.
For context, this is a book that initially came out almost a DECADE ago and yet still continues to get namedropped. One outlet made a Fifty Shades reference in the intro to a list of their most anticipated summer romances JUST last week.
Imagine if, say, every piece about horror movies in a mainstream publication had to make references to films that released 10 or 20 years ago, when we all know the genre has moved so far beyond that. This is why romance readers are sort of goodnaturedly rolling our eyes.
Fifty Shades was a cultural *moment* as much as it was a watershed title in romance (thanks to the advent of the e-reader, among many other things), but fingers crossed for the day when we can move on from its inclusion almost every time an outlet shines a spotlight on romance.
Anyway, this piece by @JenReadsRomance remains one worth reading for all of these reasons and more, and I hope we aren’t still playing romance thinkpiece bingo five years from now. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/caught-between-fabio-and-fifty-shades-grey/
And this is a great episode (but the whole pod is terrific too, let’s be real)! https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2020/9/1/s0303-fifty-shades-of-grey-by-el-james
