Romantasy's inevitable lasting legacy

The “romantasy” subgenre of YA literature has become influential for its novel combination of romance and fantasy as well as its popularity on Booktok, the book-based subsection of the popular social media app, Tiktok. This connection has become somewhat infamous in popular culture and has been underresearched due to how recently both concepts became significant forces within the publishing industry. This thesis argues that romantasy is a novel and lasting YA subgenre that is not dependent on Booktok to maintain it. The analysis of Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015) and Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing (2023) reveals how romantasy is an original subgenre because authors are able to reinvent the hero’s journey through presenting new ways for romance to impact the hero's development. Romantasy’s connection to Booktok does not diminish its impact on YA literature because Booktok is a legitimate book recommendation platform that encourages participants to clearly and succinctly construct book reviews and analyses. Romantasy’s connection to Booktok exhibits how social media has changed the relationships between readers, authors, and publishers which allows all parties to almost instantaneously respond to the others’ demands in ways that have established at least one new YA subgenre.