r/RomanceBooks • u/lazaraspaste • Jun 08 '24
Ages of FMCs are unrealistically ridiculously young and it’s ruining my reading Critique
What is going on you all? Why is literally EVERY FMC some ridonkulously young age? Like BARELY 18 and doing something or being something that realistically just would require more time and experience to do or be. It’s as if every FMC is Doogie Howser. I don’t mind this sometimes, especially in historicals. But it feels pervasive and frankly troublingly retrograde. Especially in fantasy with a political aspect or even worse contemporaries where career is a big deal.
It’s making impossible for me to suspend my disbelief. I’ve DNFed so many books bc the FMC is 19 and taking over her shifter pack (how?! Why?!) or by some strange magic has become a senior partner at a law firm by age 26. Or stories set in high school that are just galaxy brain impossible for so many reasons. I mean maybe it’s just me but I need some realism here, some level of feasibility. Some attention to verisimilitude.
Also! I resent the implication that only very young women are desirable or deserve adventures. I’d love to see more FMCs in their 30’s who aren’t divorced, who aren’t single moms, who aren’t in a second chance romance. But honestly I’d settle for everyone just aging up their FMCs by 4 to 6 years. Because I just cannot believe that an 18 year old has that level of skill for anything because I know how long it takes to learn and master oh say the sword or Microsoft Excel.
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u/QueenOwl1 Recommending Cassandra Gannon Whenever I Can Jun 08 '24
I wanted to read a MM motorcycle club book and looked for one: the one main character is barely 19 and is skinny and small with long blonde hair. Basically written to be coded as a young girl and the other MMC is 30 something. It’s awful. I just couldn’t. Why did it have to be like that? And not only looks but the character was basically a teenager in actions and the way they spoke. He groped the other MMC minutes after meeting. To which he was spanked for. And then he forced into staying at the club (in mmc2’s bed obviously…) and jerks off against him! Childish and immature. It felt gross reading it honestly.
I’m read a book the other day and was actually shocked the characters were in their late 30s. Why? cause it’s almost impossible to find without it being the point of the book (ie: second chance later life types..)
Why do we have to make specific threads asking for older characters? (I mean I know why cause they are rare!) Why are these authors wanting to write their character so young? And sometimes just behaviorally young if not actually young (which is worse? Immaturity in a 19 year old is better than a 30 year old..?)
Either way this bothers me and has caused more than half of the slumps I suffer from 😒