Is spicy and genre literature only for teenage girls?

Reading creates, shapes, molds, questions, and responds, it stirs. It’s only natural, in theory, to be interested in the books passing through the hands of those who will become the adults of tomorrow. But there’s a big difference between that and tearing down the tastes of Gen Z and Gen Alpha. In today’s cultural discussions in Italy, there’s a lot of talk about "spicy" or erotic books, classic canon versus BookTok, serious literature, and light reads. Rankings are made, people bemoan why no one reads while, in the same breath, they mock young women and trends like Young Adult novels, just to name one example. In short, something seems to miss the mark in contemporary discussions about genre literature in Italy. To understand more and to gain an insider's perspective, we went to the source and interviewed Chiara Reali, publisher of Ne/oN, an imprint of edizioni e/o dedicated precisely to this branch of contemporary literature.

Genre Literature Today According to Chiara Reali and Ne/oN

"The project," she explains, "was born in the fall of 2023 from an idea by Eva Ferri, editor of e/o, with the aim, essentially, of addressing the shift in the Italian publishing market over the past five years. Genres related to speculative fiction and genre fiction, after a long period of commercial and cultural marginalization, have finally (and deservedly) entered the Italian mainstream publishing scene. Through the publication of new and reissued works that share a commitment to celebrating the value of genre fiction and highlighting the connections between books traditionally considered separate (yet chosen and placed together by readers on their bookshelves), Ne/oN Libri will bring translated texts to Italian bookstores that explore various realms of speculative fiction: Fantasy - both classic and contemporary - Light Novel, Romance, Romantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror, including also Queer Fiction, Historical Fiction, and Literary Fiction."

With this mission, the target audience can only be the new generations, "those who, thanks to social media, have the opportunity to connect with other readers and make reading a collective experience," Chiara explains. "These are readers who have grown up surrounded by books, who fell in love with sagas at a young age, who love diving into stories and even inventing new ones for the characters they adore," in other words, simply put, (also) those on TikTok. Naturally, the next question centers on the powerful BookTok phenomenon, which drives trends and discussions.

BookTok in Italy Today and the Debate on Girls’ Reading Choices

"Sometimes, Marco (Rana, the other publisher of Ne/oN) and I joke that we feel more like anthropologists than publishers," Chiara tells us. "We spend a lot of time on BookTok (and on BookStagram, and Book Twitter, when it existed, and so on), and the effort to respond to its demands has been a part of us from the start. Some of our choices in shaping Ne/oN’s identity are tied to this: for instance, the early announcement of release dates (we’ve already shared all of our 2025 releases, as well as those for 2024), transparency in decision-making processes, and using NetGalley for collaborations (we’re the first, and so far only, ones in Italy to do so).

Spicy Literature Meets Natural Curiosity

As for BookTok, beyond popularizing genres, as we mentioned, this corner of TikTok also brings scandals and accusations, especially surrounding spicy, erotic literature, which seems to be especially popular among young women. "It seems to me that social sharing has brought to light something that’s always been there," Chiara reflects. "Books – at least for certain people – have always been a place to seek answers to our curiosities, uncertainties, and questions. And some of these curiosities, uncertainties, and questions, especially during adolescence, revolve around sex and relationships."

"You know those TikToks where readers show off the color-coded tabs for the most beautiful quotes, but also the ‘spicy’ sections? I find it so endearing because, in a way, I used to do the same – only, so I wouldn’t get caught, I memorized the page numbers to reread when I was home alone," she laughs. "What I see now, though, is a lot of confusion about sex and feelings. Perhaps also because of the Internet, younger generations have access to a lot of information (and a lot of pornography), without anyone taking the time to explain what they’re looking at. In this highly sexualized world, being able to read an erotic story is a way to control what you read and how and when you read it (also thanks to the intricate system of tropes and content warnings that accompany these readings)." Makes sense, right?

Valuing Women’s Literature

Of course, much of this criticism also stems from the fact that it’s often erotic and genre literature written by women, for women. "If a book is written by a woman and read by a woman, it’s automatically ‘inferior’: just think of the reactions when Ferrante was named number one on the NY Times list of the best books of the 21st century, or the periodic criticism of book influencers, often dismissed as mere ‘showgirls’ or not reading ‘real literature’. Ok boomer!" Ne/oN directly addresses this intersection of erotic and genre literature without prejudice, with (among others) Santuario dell'ombra by Aurora Ascher and Rapsodia by Laura Thalassa, a pointed response to those who belittle this genre, its authors, and its readers.

Our last question, as always, is about the future - of genre literature, primarily. "Right now, I think there are interesting developments happening in the horror genre – very similar to what happened with fantasy about fifteen years ago. And when I say ‘interesting,’ I mean that marginalized authors are beginning to use the genre (fantasy back then, horror now) to tell fascinating, diverse stories that, in my opinion, capture the present better than many so-called ‘literary’ books, which tend to be a bit navel-gazing, to put it elegantly," says Chiara Reali. And what about the future of spicy literature? It’s hard to say: "I don’t want to make predictions, because what’s great about this kind of fiction is its unpredictability, the constant emergence of grassroots trends, its vibrancy, and the ability to tell stories for all tastes."