So you know the trope of the girl who falls in love with the magical dangerous boy and she just can’t help it, because there’s some sort of magical or destined compulsion going on? (The trope that Twilight embodies, but probably didn’t even begin this round of?)

Suddenly it seems I’m seeing pushback–stumbling upon books that are looking, in various ways, at what magically-ordained romance really means, and what it doesn’t mean, and how it can potentially be problematic. blackholly‘s Red Glove, Nancy Werlin’s Extraordinary, metteharrison‘s forthcoming Tris and Izzie (a terrific retelling of Tristan and Isolde).

It’s hard to even talk about any of these books and the different ways in which they handle this without being deeply spoilery, but they each come at it in a different way and have different things to say about it; and they all also find the idea of magically-compelled love problematic in the end.

I think that’s pretty cool, partly because I think it’s a conversation very much worth having, and partly because it’s always fascinating how writers do wind up in conversation with each other, without even intending to be.