spicy books with cartoon covers & the tiktok-ification of classics

This is such an amazing video essay! I 100% think that spicy books need a visual indicator on them for children - rated R on the corner makes sense. I never would want my kids reading this because it has cartoon friendly covers!

Jack being so eloquent always has me pointing to these videos instead of trying to explain things myself 😅 because yeah, people can buy other book versions. there's a ton for books like this.

Personally I really disliked the new covers cus the Same Face issue is just... Mhnnn. But if this gets new and young readers to pick up classics ❤❤ then it's worth it 👌🏽

No because format is everything ! I’m reading Crime & Punishment on my kindle because the words are so tiny on the physical book😭 I loved this video so much! I would love more deep dive videos like this.

i agree with what you said about the yana thing the poor girl wasn’t wrong at all

Jack! This is unrelated by I think you should read Cousin Bazilio by Eça de Queiroz.

May I ask where can I find the cartoon about the circulating library???

As a bookseller, the struggle is real. It is impossible to know the content to every book that arrives daily to the store and it gets difficult to recommend books to a younger reader just by looking at the cover, or the synopsis (that are mostly ambiguous as well).
And the dirty looks I get from kids when a parent asks if that books is adequate for their age and I tell them that...indeed, they are not, that they have explicit sexual content....damn. Some of the kids don't know the content, but some do, and they rely on the cute book cover to get their unknowingly parent to buy them.
The worst part: in Portugal, the concept of YA is quite new (less than 10 years), and most of the bookstores, or libraries, don't know where to draw the line between young adult and new adult, leading to books with explicit sexual content being in the YA sections.
The fact that most people don't know exactly where to draw that line (which includes editors), because its not a linear one, doesn't help.

i fear i am an awful person because i love those covers. the forewords, not so much.

I agree with your take on the new Austen covers - but one thing I think they really should have done is paid a bit more attention to the character's personalities.
Sure, there aren't many covers where I can clearly tell Elinor and Marianne apart, but those show them far off in their bonnets, or use paintings that weren't made with them in mind. Now we have them as modern girls, free to express their personalities and - nothing. It seems like a waste and like a disregard for the original text here.
Same with the other covers - that Catherine reflects not a single aspect about the girl I read about. And that's just kinda sad.

Oh. My God. I just started loving you even more. I hadn't noticed how much you pay atention to being fair and objective. I had only seen the short clip of the "too many words on a page" girl and I'm ashamed to admit I was one of the people judging her. Not publicly, but I really thought she was dumb or something. I never looked her up and I didn't know there was more to this. You just opened my eyes how ignorant I've been, thank you for that! I hope I'm not the only one realising this. Good job on your part. Literally the first content creator I've seen that's telling more of her story. And I've seen many using her clip.

I remember seeing a book recommendation video where the person recommending a YA novel on mental health mentioned how there was this era of YA books that focused heavily on mental health. She said something along the lines of how it was a good era for YA, and how YA these days are mostly just smut. And I agreed with her to an extent, but after this, it makes sense how the smutty books might just be marketed for a larger bracket of audience these days. This is like book cover clickbait and as a person who loves a pretty book cover, I'd fall for this ngl 😭

I've been well out the loop, I been seeing Icebreaker around when I stop by in WhSmiths and assumed it was Young Adult book - what do you mean it's filthy?!??! I was fooled lol

Can I vomit on all these covers ?

Video idea- you read 5 different books with Fabio on the cover too see how different the books are and the Fabio character

I have real bags and a lot of them. I have a friend who buys the kisluxs we put them side by side and guess what ?! Itâ s unbelievable!!! I am at the Chanel boutique with her and no one can tell she has a fake

These subjects really ain’t that deep. Gender norms aren’t oppressive, Book Tok is filled with smut and many of them look down on other forms of pron. People clown on each other for all kinds of reasons. Stop putting yourself out there on public forums if you can’t stand the heat.

you forgot about sexy fabio being the only person ever to be hit in the face by a bird while riding a roller-coaster

I get that the new covers are meant to expand the reach of the audience of these books to younger readers. But like you said yourself they’re not YA books, you’re not gonna see phrases like freaking legit in them. So giving them a YA cover is in a sense false advertising. These books have withstood the test of time and they are just as relevant today as they were when they were first published. So why not avoid the false YA advertisement in changing the covers because that’s not what you’re buying and instead just add a book sleeve with the YA material (synopsis by a YA author) to attract young readers while still keeping the cover more in line with the source material.

Dead!

we already have ratings on film/tv. just put a section of small text on the back of the book with the rating & basic reason — ie, rated R for sexual content or rated R for gore, etc. if it’s on every single book and small enough that you have to hold it close to read it, it won’t out anyone

edit, maybe this is coming off as america-central though. I have never seen a dvd from another country.. do yall have ratings on yours? in the usa the rating is usually in tiny white text on the back & at the bottom!

Omfg those covers are so hideous 😭😭😭💔💔💔

You need to have trigger warnings for those book covers. My feelings are hurt.

We need more of the retro mills and boons covers where its painted and dramatic. Love how ridiculous they looked and it was easy to tell what they were about lol

I remember Fabio from Big Time Rush and him going on a date with Kendall’s mom on the show. I had no idea about his correlation with romance novels until I watched this video and said “Wait, Fabio from Big Time Rush?” Definitely have learned something today 😅😂

I remember Fabio from Big Time Rush and him going on a date with Kendall’s mom on the show. I had no idea about his correlation with romance novels until I watched this video and said “Wait, Fabio from Big Time Rush?” Definitely have learned something today 😅😂

I think the new editions of the classics could have had "booktok style" covers but have the cartoon characters dressed in visibly historical clothing. Its a bit ambiguous and thats what could cause incorrect assumptions

Can't wait for every ytbr sponsored by them to say they just came back from a trip to France.

As a librarian checking books for age range in a school, we have a 2/3rds or 3/4s rule of thumb.
Flick to the back third and read a little of those pages, and 9/10 spicy reads will have smut on those pages :D

Although demand is definitely up for romance as a genre, and it really is difficult to consistently find and recommend appropriate stuff to younger readers

Are you telling me that a part of the premise from the movie The Lost City with Sandra Bullock was based of Fabio's career and the history of romance books?! Because that sounds sooo similar to Channing Tatum's character in the movie, Sandra Bullock being the author of the romance books he models for. Even the look with the long hair and visible chest! Wow, this is fascinating.

I think tv type ratings on books would be fun. Like on the inside of the cover or on the book. That way it doesnt yell its explicit but it gives you an idea of what youre in for. Like rated R could mean youre in for gore, or sex. But it definitely says not for kids.

❤️‍🔥 📚

I think the change of covers going from mainly raunchy to now only a few choosing to have more scandalous covers, is due to the rise of conservatism, which is being reflected in book covers as well as most other things in our lives. Conservatism is on the rise and has been since around 2022, I believe Jordan Theresa has some good video essays about this.

Crazy lore: my friends roommate at uni was Fabio’s sugar baby

"The Road of Yellow & Brick" The new spin on Dorothy's journey to Oz. 😂

I don’t mind illustrated covers but as an artist myself I know there are so many talented illustrators who could make romance covers look so cool and not the generic ones that have been coming out

i'm honestly not entirely convinced that the new jane austen books weren't just a marketing stunt all along. all publicity is good publicity, right? especially since i've read A Lady For A Duke and it's pretty good, Alexis Hall clearly can do historical research and write a compelling story (it's also not YA, there's a sex scene). these authors aren't stupid, so the introductions sort of feel like they were coached on writing something that would get people's hackles up to drum up attention.

The idea of young people picking up raunchy books is concerning and I think some sort of maturity rating could be beneficial. Maybe on the inside cover instead of the outside to avoid being the person with sex book sticker 😂

I don’t really like this editing with the random clips in here

So great :)

I fully hear what you're saying about false marketing in book covers. Many modern books have trigger warning pages at the very beginning. I think smut should be listed similarly. On cartoonifying classics, it's an interesting phenomenon but I'm not too concerned with it. I think it could be a good thing too. We judge books by their covers. If someone who'd never pick up Jane Austen picks up Pride & Prejudice because the cover appeals to them, they read the blurb and decide to read it, then that's a win. The more Jane Austen fans in the world the better, right?

I took an immediate disliking to romance books because of their covers. I was heavily biased against them until recently. I grew up with the ultra-sexy covers and they just viscerally repulse me if I'm being honest. They're so overdramatic and objectifying. I'm glad that era is over personally.

Great essay Jack.
It does annoy me that all books look the same. Although that also used to be the case back when book covers didn't exist and all books were blank except for the title and author on the spine.

It does worry my that the line between YA and erotica is so blurred by this. Didn't there use to be like an erotica section in book stores? Or have it always been just the romance section?
Anyway I would want explicit books (and horror or gorey books!) to have some sort of sticker that said meant for adults.
Also I do think we need to move romance and YA shelves in stores further away from eachother to easier distinct them from eachother.