They say, “Romance is in the eye of the beholder.” And according to the pages upon pages of results from a super-scientific Google search: They say it a lot. We sort of even said it here on the site in our
recent post about the many different kinds of books which fit under that dark umbrella called “Noir.”
DON’T JUDGE!
Sadly, romance novels too often
get a bad rap, lumped into stereotypes described as cliché, sappy, unrealistic, lady-porn, or (SMH here…) “women’s fiction.” The why’s of that and gender politics are a whole other can of worms and not the point of this article. Like the cool kids say: It’s 2019. People can just read whatever they like. Period.
So how can a romance novel be considered “Noir?” Don’t these stories have to follow the
rules and always end in
Happily Ever After (HEA)? Technically: Yes. But do real-life romances always end in HEA? Actually: No. They do not. So where do readers go to find books written around realistic and flawed (read: human) characters? The answer is Noir-Romance. The answer is
HERE (That’s your hint to click there…).
RULES ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN
And yes, at the risk of creating a new genre of fiction, I mostly just made that up. I had to, because to find these honest stories, we usually have to go digging through ALL the genres: Literary fiction, romance, crime fiction/detective/mystery, fantasy/paranormal, and (often) psychological thriller. Ten-Sixteen’s own
SMAFU series is technically filed under romantic comedy, but the protagonists do, as my grandma used to say, “lean toward the miseries.” In other words: These characters are Noir.
GET IN THE MOOD
Like the prior blog post said, Noir is more of a mood than a genre or type.
And these are just the kinds of moody books (of many genre) we read over at
Lamplighter’s Lounge, our Facebook Group-based book club for readers. And no surprise here: Most of our noir-ish book choices have elements of romantic entanglement in them, for better or for worse.
In the meantime though, here are five good articles that explain Noir-Romance. If you only have time for one, pick the one from The Daily Beast. Appropriate for Marriage & Romance Noir, right? 😉
All of the authors and books mentioned above are lovingly categorized for your perusal at the Lamplighter Lounge board over on
Pinterest. Check them out. Happy Reading!