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Comment by Nicky Wells on December 19, 2011 at 15:07

I totally disagree.  There's no way chick lit is dead.  It may be reborn once again under a new name... but it's a sub genre of romance, and it will survive.  Especially now!  I do think people want REAL characters, characters that might be people going through all the same stuff everybody else is experiencing... but they want those characters to have happy endings, fairy tales, you name it.  They want to dream and escape.  At least, that's what they tell me.  And also being a reader myself, it's what I want.  If I want realistic and depressing, I can always watch the news.  Apologies if I'm being crass... It's just that I'm a great believer in chick lit, whether it'll be called chick lit or something more 'serious' sounding in the future.  Wouldn't be the first time romance rebranded itself.... XXX These are my rambling thoughts, anyway. :-_

Comment by Debbie Viggiano on December 14, 2011 at 23:38

Having had feedback from readers that they loved my first novel because it was 'real' as opposed to glitz and glamour, I wrote my second novel in the same vein...and yes, was rejected for not providing escapism (and in rejection letter funnily enough it was because the novel lacked tragedy, not glamour).  So I guess your 50/50 finding was spot on!  I like escapism in a novel but not with characters I cannot relate to...so for me Ms Lucinda Campbell-Bright, heiress to Filthy Rich Fortune Ltd but down on her heel in love just isn't going to get me flipping the pages, whereas Mrs Someone-Like-Me, always short of cash, who lost her rose-tinted glasses years ago but is suddenly having heart palpitations because a hot guy is throwing her hotter looks in Tesco's frozen food aisle....well now the writer has my interest.  I guess readers can probably be divided equally into the glamour/reality groups too though!

Comment by Susan Bergen on December 14, 2011 at 21:44

Hard Times (thanks, Charles Dickens) are when I like Historical most. Whatever we think now, the past was always so much tougher. Those guys make us seem soft. Imagine, not being able to pop down the supermarket when you run out of toilet roll! And as for having to make your own underwear...

I agree with what some of you have already said: the overcoming of hardship is aspirational.

That's not to say chick-lit has had its day. We all like the wry humour and what better way to forget troubles than to laugh? I think it will continue to evolve, like all good fiction does. Instead of laughing at designer or domestic foibles we may yet be laughing at life as a bankrupt!

Comment by Francine Howarth on December 14, 2011 at 13:45

Hee hee, Rhoda, I'm so with you on stepping out in fairly realistic shoes whilst airing exotic or at best exciting. I'm sick of memoirs unless the author has done something exceptional in their life. As for all the celeb books, usually minor celebs: I've never purchased one, not one.

Marie: ooh yes, when hero's and heroine's have some hardships to overcome for an eventual HEA it can make a book a tad more meaningful.

    

Comment by Marie Laval on December 14, 2011 at 13:06

I agree. I want to read and dream about other places, other times, exciting and intriguing people and events... On the other hand, novels where the hero or heroin overcome hard circumstances to find happiness can also be hear-warming and make you dream as well.   

Comment by Rhoda Baxter on December 14, 2011 at 12:48

Escapism - that's what I look for in a good read. I don't want to read about people living lives like mine. I want to be in the head of someone thinner, taller, more attractive than I am. I'm not that fussy so long as the people and the book world feel real enough to get lost in.

In happy times I love reading dark books. When times are hard, fun and frivolous books win. 

I've noticed there are a lot of superhero films coming out at the moment. I reckon that just shows the increased demand for escapism. 

 Rhoda