Unpacking the Depiction of Relationships in Books
By Crystal Best
Every reader at one point in time has read something with romance in it. If it’s only been a small sub-plot or the main genre of the book. Romance is in everything; what you watch, what you read, and what you see around you. Romance in people's personal lives is there or not there at all.
In books however, romance thrives, but not after they meet in the most awkward way or with hate as they slowly become lovers. Some relationships, even if they are trying to be enemies to lovers or bad boys turned good, are just not meant to be and can be toxic to each other.
Some people know books for their unhealthy relationships while others know them for always showcasing a perfect one. Neither are correct, not all books have unhealthy relationships and not all of them are rainbows and sunshine, most aren’t rainbows and sunshine.
In this article, I’m going to talk about some books that have healthy relationships and some that have unhealthy relationships and how close or unclose I think some of them resemble to the real world.
(Photo taken from Amazon.com) The covers of the first two books in the Maple HIll Series created by Hannah Grace.
Hannah Grace Books
Hannah Grace is a new and upcoming romance writer, as what it says in her author bio “known for fluff,” fluff in this context means a soft and light hearted story that makes you feel warm inside. Grace has written the Maple Hill Series which, in a simplified explanation, is multiple love stories about college girls who fall in love with hockey players all on the same team.
In the first book you get introduced to Anastasia, an ice skater, and Nathan, captain of the hockey team, who never even knew each other until an accident happened at the ice rink which closed down the one the ice skaters were using causing them to share one. They eventually fall in love with each other and make each other better by working together through the multiple issues they face.
They started the series and then it keeps going on to the next hockey player, which in this case is Russ and the next book that’s supposed to come out later this year called Daydream which will be focused on Henry, the hearthrob.
In both books, there are healthy relationships and continuously when they are together, they grow and become better people. Not just for themselves but for each other. Not to be that person but it’s adorable.
Compared to real life, it’s pretty realistic on how they meet and especially on the issues they talk about relating to people who may have family issues or anxiety. In the books some do fix their family issues while others just couldn’t and that’s real life. You can’t always solve all the family problems you want and sometimes they are just not solvable. And anxiety and mental health in general is a real thing and Hannah Grace talks and acknowledges them all, so that they aren’t just picture perfect, but like real people with beautiful flaws that make them them.
(Photo taken from Amazon.com) The books written by Colleen Hoover.
Colleen Hoover Books
Colleen Hoover is the queen for some millennial readers with her amount of books published, that are reasonably small or average in size. There is a clear side of you either like her or you don’t. Some people can get with her writing style while others find it somewhat uncomfortable.
For our generation, Gen Z, she is not seen as much popular. For us, she is known for her very unhealthy relationship in her books and some of the most weirdest situations or issues happening.
For a disclaimer, I have never personally read a Colleen Hoover book, I’ve only read snippets of some and the back of some of her books. I’ve asked around and I haven’t met any high schoolers that have actually read her books.
The facts I have found and the little I read showed that her relationship that she makes is very toxic. In one of her books, they were playing with poop. Playing with poop! And the woman in the book was supposedly turned on by that.
That is not normal. You don’t just rub poop on someone, which brings on how realistic Colleen Hoover is. She is not very realistic with any of her books and the way she describes these relationships they are super unhealthy for each other. The issues some of them have aren't real issues that the average person would have in real life.
(Photo taken from BigLittleReads.com) All the books by Ali Hazelwood.
Ali Hazelwood Books
Ali Hazelwood is a brain scientist who shockingly writes science romance books. She's been publishing romance books for a couple of years now and has a good firm place in the romance community.
The book I am specifically talking about in this one is The Love Hypothesis. An upcoming scientist, Olive Smith, is trying to get a grant for her research and after already being scorn, doesn’t really want to mess with love. But when she sees her ex, to prove to him that she has moved on, she kisses the first guy available. It just happens to be Adam Carlsen, a professor everybody hates, especially Olive. While both fake dating each other to get something done, they end up starting to like each other and date for real.
In terms of a healthy and unhealthy relationship, I won’t lie when I said I’m surprised they had a good healthy relationship. It didn’t look that way from the beginning but slowly but surely their relationship grew and it became healthy, with him helping her gain some confidence and her breaking him out of his shell some.
In terms of realism the first part of the book is pretty out there with someone just trying to kiss a random person. I don’t think that’s an everyday, normal thing. Everything else in the book was really closely similar to how it is in the real world. Especially sadly when they talk about womanizing a scientist and discrediting them just because they didn’t like another person back. It’s not justifiable to take away a grant for something life changing because someone doesn’t like you back, but that is just how it is sometimes. Overall it’s pretty close with realism.
(Photo taken from Amazon.com) The After series books by Anna Todd.
Anna Todd Books
Anna Todd has written only romance and has been around for a while, but she is most popular for the After Series. She is also a producer and screenplay writer for her movies which are based on this popular series.
After is another series that is really popular, having a New York Times Bestseller and more than twelve million copies sold, that almost everyone knows about like Colleen Hoover. Just like Colleen Hoover it’s pretty out there with some of what it does.
After is about a girl, Tessa, going to college where she basically has a perfect life, but with a strict mother. She meets a boy, Hardin, a bad boy who is mysterious and hates pretty much everyone, especially Tessa for no apparent reason. She finds interest in him and tries to dig deeper into his past while in the process of trying to find more and falls in love with him. Then he falls back for her, but is it for the right reasons?
This book is something. The way they met each other was the cliche innocent girl bums into a dark brooding bad boy. Then, the way she fell for him even though he was clearly bad for her the whole time, it was like a child touching a hot bowl and then deciding to keep touching the hot bowl. Their relationship is very unhealthy with the love being one sided. Tessa loves Hardin, but Hardin doesn’t love Tessa. It seems like he loves the idea of her, and her body rather than love her like he wants a serious relationship or future with her. It seems like she puts effort into the relationship while he just does whatever and throws fits when he doesn’t get his way. No, just that’s now how life works. They hurt each other more and never truly grow as a couple, by repeatedly doing the same toxic things to each other.
For a disclaimer, I’m not a college student, but in terms of realism, it is not that realistic with it using so many cliches and it somewhat says how college life is. I don’t think college is just straight whatever type of relationship that is and parties.
This is all subjective on the person. Some people may think that the After series and Colleen Hoover books aren’t unhealthy relationships at all and are just unorthodox. Some may say that the Maple Hill series and that Love Hypothesis are unhealthy relationships that aren’t beneficial for either in the relationships.
This just shows that everyone has their own way of seeing things, especially in books where things can get interpreted differently. Romance is a genre that is very popular and gets interpreted in so many different ways or gets the same normal patterns or cliches like for example a Hallmark movie.
Though romance or love is the same for everyone, books try their best to make it as realistic or what’s realistic to the author as possible.
Love is kind. It’s rude. It’s beautiful. It’s messy. It makes some feel good or it stings some badly. Love, or romance, is different for everybody and is a unique experience for each person. The average person won't always have the same feelings or experiences with romances as the person next to them.
That’s the beauty of it all, and why people would want to read romance or have it as their little subplot: To see how romance is going to be interpreted this time around.
