Noncon and Dark Romantasy

To start, this is NOT a shaming post. Instead this is an advice post — for people who like dark romantasy but don’t like noncon — detailing how you can more successfully pick up Dark Romantasy without noncon in it.

First, my simplified definition of NonCon: noncon is when Person A says, and means, “no” either verbally or through their actions, but then Person B continues anyways. Body betrayal (where you say, and mean, “no” but your body gets aroused anyway) is not a valid excuse for Person B to persist, and if Person B does persist, then that’s still noncon to me.

Definition aside, here’s how I weed out most books likely to have noncon between the main characters. When picking up a dark romance book, I always do 2-4 things:

(1) I read the 1-3 star reviews to see what people say about consent in the book. I have noticed the majority of dark romantasy readers leaving 4-5 star reviews enjoy noncon. So I ignore what they have to say about the book when I’m specifically trying to figure out if the book has noncon. Instead I look to what 1-3 star readers say, because often the reason a person is dissatisfied is because the book had some form of noncon that they didn’t like.

(2) I read the trigger warnings in the book. If I see dubcon or CNC, I circle back one more time to the reviews to see if anyone says something along the lines of “the dubcon wasn’t dubcon. It was noncon.”

(3) Further, if I see “noncon” coupled with “groveling,” I’ll either (a) not read the book or (b) jump back to the reviews. But this part gets a little more involved.

(a) If the book is a standalone and I see “noncon” coupled with “groveling,” and I’ve already read the 1-3 star reviews and know the noncon is irredeemable, then I don’t read the book. I know 9 times out of 10 there will be an MMC who sexually assaults the FMC and then his “groveling” consists of “Sorry, but I’m sexy, so let’s hump.”

(b) If the book is part of a series where it is possible the man who did noncon redeems himself in later books, then I will jump to the reviews in the later books in the series and read through them to see if anyone mentions the noncon Perpetrator being adequately repentant. If I instead see people complaining about the noncon Perpetrator never properly repenting, then I skip the series.

(4) If still unsure, I go and look at the content tags on StoryGraph. Usually I don’t reach this step, as I’ve already made a decision before I get to here.

This method helps me weed out almost all dark romance books with noncon. Some will fall through the cracks, but it still helps tremendously.