The trend around reading for “vibes” has been ebbing and flowing for years now, and romance author Jess K. Hardy remembered hearing about it as far back as the release of The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood (September 2021); Kirkus reviewer, editor and Fated Mates co-host Jen Prokop remembered being struck by a reference to the desire to “write a book that’s 100 percent vibes” from Talia Hibbert in a Kirkus feature in February of the same year. Broadly, there is consensus that the trend first gained traction in correlation with the pandemic.
But what’s a vibe? Don’t all stories have plots? “If you’ve got a story, you’ve got a plot,” as Hardy put it. “It might not be a really deep plot, or a very active plot, and your story might center more on emotional connection between romance between two people. But all books have plot. All books have vibes.”
When authors discuss the “no plot, just vibes” trend, other key phrases that quickly follow include low stakes and cozy. Generally, readers who seek vibes over plot are looking for a highly emotive reading experience that captures an aesthetic or feeling and keeps the tension minimal. Third-act breakups are rejected outright.
Author Georgina Kiersten, who also writes different romance subgenres under the names Jasper Hyde and Rian Fox, put it most succinctly in a TikTok post (now gone, as Kiersten deleted their account), explaining that in low-stakes vibes romance, the external plot is minimal, while the internal character arcs are the primary focus. They added, “You want them to concentrate on … the stuff that only just gives you all the feels.” In their own cozy romance stories, they make a point to take their time with the “lovey dovey” moments and emotional intimacy, while they keep points of tension brief. Because they are always seeking the most simplified version of a story that will still be rewarding, their titles tend to be novelette length, about 13,000 words.
While the rise of vibes has hit other genre spaces, the demand in romance has been more intense. The reasons for this appear myriad: As social media has become more visual, both readers and authors have gravitated more toward ways of sharing about books that channel aesthetics and moods. Younger generations of readers may be bringing their real-world aversion for conflict to their reading tastes. Both of these observations align to the trend’s rise via BookTok. Further, romance has long been a genre readers turn to for escapism and comfort. As the pandemic dialed up the tensions of the real world, the demand for vibes reads reflected a downshift in the amount of conflict readers were willing to engage with in their fiction.
Prokop observed that the rise of the no-plot trend correlated loosely with the rise in popularity of fan fiction in recent years, and that there is a lot of crossover between voracious readers of romance and fanfic readers (and also authors, many of whom start in fanfic before writing their own books). “One of the things I think is a hallmark of fic is, you love this character and now you just want to see them doing their thing … like going to the dry cleaner and getting a cup of coffee with a friend or whatever,” she said. “So I think that there’s a real call for, hey, if I can get this in my fic, why can’t I also get it in romance?” For readers of fanfic, the idea of a story where the plot is minimal was already familiar.
For people from marginalized groups, vibes romance can be a needed break from tensions. For example, people of color or people who are queer or trans—for whom tensions have escalated in recent years due to the political climate—can find the low stakes of vibes romance to be a space where they can escape that lived tension. “As a black author, sometimes the vibes over plot—there’s a desire for heroes and heroines that don’t experience a lot of friction in the world. … You want a hero, heroine in a body who doesn’t have any of society’s external fears or pressures. And oftentimes, when people think about low-angst, all-vibes, no-plot, they think of our cotton-candy-sweet romance. Oftentimes these are white cis het bodies, just because of the nature of the genre. So sometimes that all-vibes, or that cozy aspect, or that no-angst aspect, is also about bodies that don’t experience any friction in the world,” Payne said.
“I cannot take the component of race and of queerness, of trans-ness, out of my formula for creating cozy romance; it was the leading reason I wrote Fall into You in the way that I wrote it,” Kiersten said. “Black, LGBTQ people need a space that is clearly their own to just rest, without having to worry about if they’re going to fit in, or are they going to be outed, or face violence or poverty.”
Additionally, the unique voraciousness of romance readers and prolific nature of romance authors has an effect. When the options are so bottomless, it becomes realistic to get picky about which specific microtropes (such as a third-act breakup) one will or will not read. It can even be a practical way to navigate through all of the options available to them. “You can say ‘I only want to read mafia threesomes’ and still read for the rest of your life,” Payne said.
Authors are observing and adapting to the trend. “I’m not sitting down imagining an A plot, a B plot, a C plot, because I don’t feel like that’s appreciated right now,” said Hardy. Further, authors are leaning into the vibes concept in their marketing by using visuals that reflect the mood of the story, paying close attention to covers, and highlighting key tropes in their stories that are defining reader preferences.
However, authors must exercise caution when it comes to pitching agents and publishers. “I see a lot of people trying to pitch books that way, with lists of tropes and vibes, and it’s really hard for me to figure out how to place and sell the book from those alone,” said literary agent Sarah N. Fisk. “I think this type of framing has its time and place (Instagram, for example) … but that can’t be the only way a book is pitched.”
Bottom line: The demand from romance readers for “no plot, just vibes” stems from a perfect storm of factors related to technology; world events; generational shifts; and intense, personal real-world experiences. Expectations for these books can be contradictory from one reader to the next, and are subject to tastes—one reader’s “great vibes” is another reader’s “too much plot.” As the US enters a second Trump administration in divisive times, some speculate that this will prompt continued demand, and not just in romance. Cozy fantasy is another high-vibes space, along with cozy mystery, as well as weird literary fiction. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh appears to be among the most common titles for such lists, perhaps because the plot structures of books in this category are so unusual. “It’s a catchword that everybody’s using, because when you are on social media and you’re trying to get your point across, your message has to be really short and succinct,” said Hardy.
Related reading: Why the best queer writers are throwing plot out of the window (Walrus)
Emily Wenstrom is a freelance writer and platforming expert and writes award-winning speculative fiction for teens and adults as E. J. Wenstrom.
E. J. Wenstrom believes in complicated heroes, horrifying monsters, purple hair dye and standing to the right on escalators so the left side can walk. She writes dark speculative fiction for adults and teens, including her new release, a young adult dystopian novel titled Departures (August 10, 2021). When she isn’t writing fiction, E. J. Wenstrom is a regular contributor to DIY MFA and BookRiot, and co-hosts the Fantasy+Girl Podcast. Learn more at her website.
