Jane Austen once wrote about the tension between sense and sensibility — the tug-of-war between reason and emotion, protection and passion. I’ve been thinking about that balance a lot lately, especially when it comes to the popular books in the world — “spice and sensibility,” if you will.
Recently, I visited my beloved Barnes & Noble, browsing the aisles for the latest trendy reads — and noticing how much my favorite store has changed since I was a book-obsessed teenager.
As I glanced at a table near the “romance” section of the cozy bookstore, I did a double-take. The table was filled with about 20 popular, seasonal romance books, all sporting whimsical, colorful, cutesy covers, without much differentiation among them, despite eye-popping differences among their content.
That included the popular “Pumpkin Spice Café” by Laurie Gilmore which, with its harmless cozy coffee-shop exterior, is notorious for its explicit sex scenes. Next to this was a Gilmore Girls-esque fall romance, “If It Makes You Happy,” by Julie Olivia, with an adorable small town autumn illustration on the cover, but is also known as an open-door romance. Next to that was Misty Wilson’s “Falling Like Leaves,” with a cover that is nearly identical to “If It Makes You Happy," but harbors no, as the kids say, “spice.”
But how could the average book shopper know that?
I watched a group of young teenaged girls browsing this puzzling table of Barnes & Noble for cutesy autumn romances, unaware of what kind of content was in each book they cheerfully took home. Their parents, who are probably thrilled that their teenagers are sticking their noses in a book, rather than on a screen, likely have no idea what’s in their books either.
With no “Warning: Contents May Be Spicy” label, how can parents or educators help this young generation make wiser decisions about the books they are consuming?
Judging books by their covers
There is nothing wrong with teens being aware of sex and talking about it openly — something that can lead to them making better, more healthy decisions around sexuality. However, there is a difference between normalizing sex, and allowing young teens full access to erotic literature.
With the rising popularity of TikTok, (which, according to recent studies, now has over 1 billion users — the largest audience landing between ages 10-19) many teens have gained an interest in “BookTok,” which rose to popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued to grow continuously.
Here, influencers discuss, review and recommend books to their followers. BookTok has done wonders for self-published authors, allowing them to gain recognition, and boosting success and revenue for the whole publishing industry.
However, some of the most popular hashtags trending among readers include the word “smut.” Many, if not most of the books trending on the app are filled with sexually explicit content. Spicy books (often rated with a scale of one to five red chili pepper emojis, not unlike Buffalo Wild Wings entrees) are a sensation.
While once upon a time you would have had to reach for erotic literature in its specific area of bookstores or libraries, now the lines between romance and erotica are becoming increasingly blurred.
Look at any of the comment sections of the most popular BookTok channels and you will likely see a slew of questions regarding the levels of spice each book contains (with many readers asking for high levels).
Smut also isn’t just limited to the romance genre these days, other areas like science fiction, fantasy and even thrillers are now joining the ranks. ”Romantasy,” a new extremely popular genre came to fruition because of the rapidly growing audience for romantic fantasy books like Sarah J. Maas’ “A Court of Thorns and Roses," or Rebecca Yarros’ “Fourth Wing” where the plots of dragon-riding and glittering fae take a back seat, allowing the smut to outshine the story.
A recent survey suggests that 53% of American and Canadian TikTok users are reading more because of BookTok’s influence, which in many ways is fantastic in this screen-dominating age. However, books that include sexually explicit content are now topping book lists for the young adult audience that is marketed for teens as young as 12.
A top young adult novel of 2024 that dominated Amazon’s “Best of #BookTok” list is Kristen Ciccarelli’s young adult fantasy, “Heartless Hunter," which was an instant New York Times bestseller. This book was marketed to readers between 12 and 18, and although it’s more plot-driven than sex-driven, it includes multiple steamy scenes that depict the teenaged protagonists entangled in sex scenes that used to be limited to adult romance books.
What’s more concerning is that these young adult books also have innocent covers and premises, only to surprise young readers with detailed sexual encounters hidden among the pages.
Mature content is increasingly being marketed and recommended to young teens every day — with many a steamy romantasy series encountered in the young adult section of my own favorite bookstore lately.
Adult books sporting adorable covers like Ali Hazelwood’s “The Love Hypothesis” or Hannah Grace’s fiery hockey romance, “Ice Breaker” have also been labeled as BookTok favorites in the book section of Target and Amazon, and are being recommended to the youngest TikTok users. These books are two of thousands that appear to be wholesome romantic comedies with innocent cartoonish covers — yet are filled with descriptive sexual material, explicit language and mature themes.
Effects on young minds
Pornography may seem a strong word to describe all these spicy trending books. However, pornography is defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary as “printed or visual material containing an explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.”
Although some argue that the rise of smutty books is empowering and liberating for women, there is concerning evidence otherwise. A 2016 survey conducted among 11–16-year-old teens concluded that 53% of boys and 39% of girls who had indulged in pornography believe that porn is a realistic depiction of sex. A 2023 study revealed that women who consume written pornography are more likely to put themselves into submissive and even detrimental roles during sexual encounters.
Fight the New Drug reports that pornography in any form alters brain chemistry, summarizing: “(Pornography) can take our brains’ natural stimuli — our desire for intimacy and connection, our longing to feel solid or desirable in our relationships, our interest in a particular feature or activity — and give us more quantity, more exaggerated, and more ‘supernormal’ versions of that thing until it can override what we think is normal, warp what we perceive as exciting, and make real intimacy seem less interesting by comparison.”
Studies have repeatedly confirmed that teenagers who are learning about sex through pornographic material are at higher risks for unrealistic expectations of sexual intimacy, unhealthy behaviors and toxic relationships in their future. Passages in even the most popular books can also be full of harmful messages about objectification, manipulation, violence, consent and more.
“Alchemised” by SenLinYu, for example, which began as an immensely popular Harry Potter fanfiction, was recently traditionally published under this new name. The book has been rampaging through BookTok feeds and depicts explicit sexual violence, a relationship that could romanticize Stockholm syndrome, rape and other dark themes in young minds that don’t understand the full meaning behind the work. Though this book has received controversial criticism, it was still a bestseller and marketed simply as “romantasy.”
Looking beyond censorship
I’m not arguing that teens should have full access to smut, and I’m certain most parents agree. But not all books that contain sex need to be locked behind censorship’s unyielding bars. Blanket bans are removing books from shelves if there is a mere mention of sex, even if it’s for educational purposes.
This is counterintuitive to studies that show teens who are given informative sex education are more likely to make better decisions around sex in the future, and for many, literature can be a positive resource for healthy information.
Being informed about these issues can help readers recognize sexual violence, which is also rising problem. According to recent studies, 27% of 17-year-old girls and 5% of 17-year-old boys reported that they had endured sexual abuse. And books can potentially start conversations about the issue, helping teens find resources, further protect themselves and make a difference in their communities.
Unfortunately, books that tackle issues like these are being banned anyway. Nineteen percent of all books cited for censorship between 2021 and 2023 included themes of sexual assault.
While some of those likely also include other unhealthy explicit themes, there are examples of books that help victimized teens allow themselves to feel seen, heard and validated. For instance, Amy Reed’s, “The Nowhere Girls,” a young adult novel that revolves around three teenage girls who take a stand against rape culture in their high school.
Yet this book, among hundreds of others, has been banned and challenged in multiple states and school districts since its publication in 2017 — labeled simply as “obscene.”
Removing educational opportunities about consent and assault is creating a whole new problem, and isn’t the answer to this puzzle between spice and sensibility. Exposing teenagers to books designed to educate readers about sex and rape (in an age-appropriate way) can discourage, rather than lead to more sexual violence or risky behaviors.
Speaking of consent, what is more nonconsensual than allowing spicy scenes to jump-scare unsuspecting readers? Just like in real matters of sexuality, the solution isn’t to banish sex from the world of books — but to give readers the ability to make informed choices about content.
Reader informed consent
The real problem in the publishing industry is that young readers, parents and educators have few ways to determine what sort of content is in the books being recommended to and written for the youth (and honestly, to the many adults who want to keep their reading spice-free) of the world today.
Apart from some heaven-sent Instagramers and Booktokers who share content warnings and red chili pepper scales, there is no official system that allows readers to know what kind of material is in a book or what ages it is truly appropriate for.
Aside from compartmentalizing books into genres and making recommendations and marketing plans for certain age groups based on such, there is no set expectations or rules for listing content warnings in published books — nothing to allow teens or parents to know what’s hiding underneath carefree covers, or within the pages of their latest Kindle Unlimited read.
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization that rates and reviews media and gives age-appropriate recommendations, including for books. However, such a small group can only review a fragment of the literature being released into the world.
There have been an increasing number of books being published that include trigger warnings for specific topics in the front pages, allowing readers to know what sort of themes will be discussed throughout the novel, which is a start, but there is so much more that could be done.
Movies, television and video games have content warnings and an overall rating and age recommendation regarding the material portrayed. Even social media sites like Instagram have also introduced age filtering and sensitive content warnings, specifically for teenagers.
Why not books, which have been a source of entertainment for thousands of years?
If a rating system was designed to offer not only an overall age-appropriate recommendation, but also listed specifics about what kind of content is within, parents, educators and teenagers would have the information that would allow them to make educated decisions about the literature they read.
Even if a full rating system couldn’t be implemented, adequate content warnings could do wonders for everyone who reaches for book recommendations.
I’m hopeful that with more focused attention and exploration, a helpful content warning system can be implemented in the future, and that the world of books will be able to provide clear information so we can all make more informed decisions about the type of content we consume.
Jane Austen was right, balance is the key to having both the reason to make wise decisions and the heart to feel deeply. In this case, we don’t need to ban books or strip out spice for anyone, but we also don’t need to hand out explicit stories to kids without realizing it.
What we need is a little more transparency, a little more sense to guide, a little more sensibility to respect a reader’s consent and ability to choose, and a love of reading that still makes room for both protection and freedom.