Speaker 1: Going back to Mills and Boone, the romance genre has
Speaker 1: always been there in the background, but maybe it was
Speaker 1: more of a taboo, like, oh, I don't want people
Speaker 1: to see my fabio book cover on the train, put
Speaker 1: it inside my economics text and Daily Reader on m kindle.
Speaker 1: So really I can see.
Speaker 2: From The Australian, this is the weekend edition of The Front.
Speaker 2: I'm Claire Harvey, a literary universe allegion of fans and
Speaker 2: a steamy TV adaptation streamed by millions. Off Campus is
Speaker 2: the romance phenomenon sweeping the globe and making consent very sexy. Indeed,
Speaker 2: the Amazon Prime video series has been adapted from the
Speaker 2: best selling books by Canadian author L. Kennedy. Season one
Speaker 2: follows the budding romance between Hannah, a bookish but beautiful
Speaker 2: music student at the fictional Brier University, and Garrett, the
Speaker 2: school's ripped but tortured ice hockey jock. Today we meet
Speaker 2: the self described book girlies who've taken romance from embarrassing
Speaker 2: to enormous. Chloe Barr is The Australian's off platform editor
Speaker 2: and she is also a super fan as am I
Speaker 2: now of the biggest show in the world. Amazon's off Campus, Chloe,
Speaker 2: Why has this show taken off like nothing in history.
Speaker 1: I really think they're just giving the people what they want.
Speaker 1: We know that there was a massive fan base for
Speaker 1: this series which came out. The first book came out
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen. I'd read it a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: and I think romance is back, yearning is back, and
Speaker 1: we're not seeing enough of it. I don't think thinking
Speaker 1: back to the era of all classic rom coms like
Speaker 1: Nodding Hill and Ten Things I Hate About You just
Speaker 1: not really being made in the same volume because they're
Speaker 1: not big box office hits like Oppenheimer. I think for me,
Speaker 1: it comes down to the happily ever after or the
Speaker 1: ha that people call it in book communities. That's what
Speaker 1: I'm looking for is a strong female protagonist having her
Speaker 1: story be told and it all works out for her
Speaker 1: in the end, no matter the trials that she goes through. Oh,
Speaker 1: Garant hates my singing, but it's okay. Guess he loves me. Yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Love you, I Love you two.
Speaker 1: For me, we work in like the real hardcore stuff.
Speaker 1: Every day we're reading and writing about actual wars and
Speaker 1: actual murders and murder mysteries that this is why I
Speaker 1: love to read things with a happy ending. At the
Speaker 1: end of the day, when I go home, I don't
Speaker 1: need to read about fictional murders of.
Speaker 2: The same I go home and retreat to Jane Austen
Speaker 2: Absolutely so.
Speaker 1: I think it's a reprieve from fiction and real life
Speaker 1: of all dark themes.
Speaker 2: Off Campus is a romantic comedy, but it's got some
Speaker 2: very serious undertones to it, and maybe that's part of
Speaker 2: the appeal as well. I'm sitting there watching myself from
Speaker 2: across the room, do what is wrong with you?
Speaker 1: Nothing? Nothing is wrong with you? What if they What
Speaker 1: if I'm broken?
Speaker 2: You're not broken? Well, you just don't trust me enough
Speaker 2: to fully. I certainly found it really intriguing for this
Speaker 2: generation who has also grown up with the idea of
Speaker 2: positive consent to sexual encounters, to unpacking their own trauma,
Speaker 2: to being articulate about what they want in sexual relationships.
Speaker 2: It manages to canvass all of that without being preachy
Speaker 2: and kind of weird, doesn't it totally?
Speaker 1: It's probably still an idealized version of real life, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't shy away from those kinds of themes, which
Speaker 1: makes more appealing to the masses, and I think people
Speaker 1: probably have a conception of BookTalk and what that entails,
Speaker 1: which these books absolutely would be categorized by BookTalk. Just
Speaker 1: because something has that happily ever after doesn't mean it
Speaker 1: can't go there. It's just all wrapped up nicely in
Speaker 1: the end and everyone gets to win and have a
Speaker 1: good time.
Speaker 2: I was intrigued in the final episode, and of course
Speaker 2: season two has already been commissioned. That was a no brainer,
Speaker 2: I think, wasn't it that we get a very firm
Speaker 2: sense of resolution that all the great romantic comedies have,
Speaker 2: but of course their trauma still exists and there's still
Speaker 2: the same people who they were before. Do you think
Speaker 2: to have some credibility in having raised those very serious
Speaker 2: plot points they will have to continue through forthcoming seasons
Speaker 2: or can they just be resolved?
Speaker 1: Well? I think how this series is sort of laid
Speaker 1: out in the books and how it looks like they're
Speaker 1: going to lay it out in the show is quite
Speaker 1: common of romantic fiction series. Is that we see now,
Speaker 1: which is that it's sort of a couple per book,
Speaker 1: two people per book, but because they're all part of
Speaker 1: the same world and maybe it's the same family or
Speaker 1: the same hockey team. Those characters are recurring the whole
Speaker 1: way out. So in the same way that they were
Speaker 1: sort of sewing the seeds for Dean and Allie in
Speaker 1: season two, who are actually book three, we will still
Speaker 1: get to see Hannah and Garrett throughout all the rest
Speaker 1: of them. They're still there, They're still living in the
Speaker 1: same house together. So I think it's knowing that it's
Speaker 1: not the end of their story. And in the broader
Speaker 1: world of the el Kennedy universe, she's actually gone down
Speaker 1: generations now. So there's the off campus series, then there's
Speaker 1: a second series called Briy You that's all set on
Speaker 1: the same timeline. But now She's released and I'm not
Speaker 1: up to these yet, a whole next generation. So like
Speaker 1: Hannah and Garrett's children are having their love stories.
Speaker 2: Wow, So I think it's a very stay together and
Speaker 2: get married and have kids. Yep, I'm glad.
Speaker 1: I need to show you with chart.
Speaker 2: Oh, I want to see it.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of books in this universe, so I
Speaker 1: think it's probably I mean, for the book Girlies, it's
Speaker 1: knowing that their story absolutely doesn't end. There's like heaps
Speaker 1: more where that came.
Speaker 2: From this group of women. Book girlies are so powerful
Speaker 2: now and they're probably the most powerful cultural force in
Speaker 2: the world in terms of consumers. But you guys have
Speaker 2: created this. It wasn't publishing who created it for you.
Speaker 2: Why not? Why do you think publishing didn't see this coming,
Speaker 2: that your generation would want this. They thought you wanted dragons.
Speaker 2: Maybe you also do want dragons, and they maybe also
Speaker 2: thought you wanted a bit more fifty shades of gray,
Speaker 2: but as kind of you don't want that. You want reassurance, comfort, nostalgia.
Speaker 1: Going back to Mills and Boone, the romance genre has
Speaker 1: always been there in the background, but maybe it was
Speaker 1: more of a taboo, like, oh, I don't want people
Speaker 1: to see my fabio book cover on the train.
Speaker 2: But put it inside my economics text.
Speaker 1: Totally read it on my kindle, so really I can see.
Speaker 1: But I think through TikTok and BookTalk it's just boomed
Speaker 1: and people aren't afraid to talk about it.
Speaker 3: So you've just finished watching Off Campus and now you
Speaker 3: want to read the books. Welcome to the writing of
Speaker 3: l Kennedy. She's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1: Now, this was my first hockey romance series that has
Speaker 1: a very special place in my heart. However, I was
Speaker 1: You're going to eat it up.
Speaker 2: You're gonna cry, probably, but you're gonna eat it up.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I wish I could reread them for the first time.
Speaker 3: And I'm so excited to have you guys a part
Speaker 3: of this community.
Speaker 2: It is such a good fun time.
Speaker 1: There is cracking it. You can't put it down. I
Speaker 1: don't even know. But is it a good book. I'm
Speaker 1: personal opinion gonna say no. I'm so excited.
Speaker 2: And that's all she wrote for now.
Speaker 1: Again, as I said, for me, it's the fact that
Speaker 1: there is that happily ever after. It's that strong female
Speaker 1: protagonist where they get to own the story. It's the
Speaker 1: FMC or the female main character written by a woman
Speaker 1: with a romantic subplot in some instance. Sometimes sometimes it's
Speaker 1: more pronounced than others, but also men written by women,
Speaker 1: and they get to go through all their trials and
Speaker 1: then it ends happily, or it goes on for eight
Speaker 1: books in a multiverse, which is sometimes also the case.
Speaker 1: But it's something to propel you forward and keep you going.
Speaker 1: And I've always been into reading Harry Potter is really
Speaker 1: what got me the first time. And then probably through
Speaker 1: early adulthood. I was sort of in the realm of
Speaker 1: historical fiction, sort of modern litfic, and then when I
Speaker 1: found Romance, I started reading more than ever. Like, once
Speaker 1: you pick it up, it's like, I actually want to
Speaker 1: reach for this because I'm having such a fun time
Speaker 1: reading it. It's not like, oh, I better put my
Speaker 1: phone down and read my book. It's actually I'm choosing
Speaker 1: that instead of my phone because it's so immersive, especially
Speaker 1: when you go into something like fantasy.
Speaker 3: So what I help you study and you play my
Speaker 3: fake boyfriends.
Speaker 2: You got Justin's attention deal.
Speaker 1: Because I read so many books, I do quite a
Speaker 1: bit of library borrowing as well. We're talking. I mean
Speaker 1: I think last year I read about sixty books. So
Speaker 1: if I was buying all sixty every year and all
Speaker 1: of them hard copy, yeah, and also a bigger house.
Speaker 1: So it's a mix of that. And I have a Cobo.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows about kindles, but I actually got the Cobo first,
Speaker 1: which is a different company not owned by Amazon. I
Speaker 1: think it's Canadian. And the benefit of a Cobo is
Speaker 1: that it connects to overdrive software, which is what libraries
Speaker 1: all over the world use to lend e Publications, which
Speaker 1: means that you can read library books on your Cobo,
Speaker 1: which is awesome, and me and my friends in my
Speaker 1: book club will go on day trips around Sydney to
Speaker 1: different libraries because you can join unlimited libraries in your state.
Speaker 1: So I think I've got about twelve from southern Sydney
Speaker 1: to Paramatta to the northern reaches. Because the more library
Speaker 1: cards you have, the more library books you have access to,
Speaker 1: and then you borrow books on this app called Libby
Speaker 1: and then you just log into that particular library on
Speaker 1: your Cobo and you can read all these books for free.
Speaker 2: The other side of what the book girlies are doing
Speaker 2: is also writing fan fiction that they're publishing themselves. That
Speaker 2: is where you can be reading on your device, almost
Speaker 2: like a pay per view kind of deal. That's a
Speaker 2: really interesting development, isn't it too?
Speaker 1: Totally. I know people that have been reading and writing
Speaker 1: fan fiction for years and years and years, dating back
Speaker 1: to One Direction fan fiction back in the day, back
Speaker 1: in their heyday. But I think Kindle Unlimited and people
Speaker 1: self publishing through Kindle has really changed the game because
Speaker 1: you don't have to wait to be picked up by
Speaker 1: a publisher. You can just have at it, and then
Speaker 1: that's how people are sometimes now in many cases they're
Speaker 1: actually getting the book dealers because thousands of people are
Speaker 1: reading their books and loving them and rating them on Goodreads.
Speaker 2: You also don't need to be kind of a great
Speaker 2: social media creator too, because that's what BookTalk needs you
Speaker 2: to be. You need to be able to talk on
Speaker 2: camera right and probably look nice as well. That's not
Speaker 2: necessarily compatible with being a great.
Speaker 1: Right, and I think all it takes sometimes is one
Speaker 1: of the sort of bookish creators, whether it's on BookTalk
Speaker 1: or bookstrogram, to pick it up and be like, this
Speaker 1: is your next best read. If you like books of
Speaker 1: this genre, whether it's sport romance or small town romance
Speaker 1: or fantasy romance, this is your next best read. It's
Speaker 1: on Kindle unlimited, and just something as small as that.
Speaker 1: It doesn't even need to be your video that goes viral.
Speaker 1: It's these other bookish creators that can just send it
Speaker 1: off for you.
Speaker 2: Something that I think probably everybody who loves books worries
Speaker 2: about is ai. We all worried about the death of
Speaker 2: the bookshop, and I think that the jury is still
Speaker 2: out on where the bookshops can really can survive. Printed
Speaker 2: books certainly have survived so far, and especially in children's literature.
Speaker 2: What do you think about the prospect that AI could
Speaker 2: replace the kind of work that we see women doing
Speaker 2: in all of these forums now, book talk, writing themselves,
Speaker 2: fan fiction. Do you worry about that or do you
Speaker 2: feel like this is so human and so warm that
Speaker 2: a computer can never do this.
Speaker 1: I don't think it can, and I think there's been
Speaker 1: a few instances. Again, because kinderl unlimited, people can just
Speaker 1: upload whatever. To an extent, there has been a few
Speaker 1: instances of AI things coming through, but people can detect
Speaker 1: it easily, and you know, there's conceptions that again, as
Speaker 1: I said before, these books aren't highbrow or particularly well written,
Speaker 1: just because they're of this genre that people deem not
Speaker 1: intellectual enough. But to be able to replicate the success
Speaker 1: of some of these authors like their success is because
Speaker 1: of the especially in the fantasy world, the epic fantasy
Speaker 1: world building, timelines, multi versus factions. I don't think AI
Speaker 1: will ever be able to stand up to what some
Speaker 1: of these authors have managed to do. It's that deep,
Speaker 1: immersive world building that makes you feel like you are
Speaker 1: somewhere else that I think is what people are really
Speaker 1: drawn to. That's what I'm drawn to. You feel like
Speaker 1: you're part of it. When you're on your way to
Speaker 1: and from work, it's all you can think about me.
Speaker 1: You're like, what's happening next in this book or I've
Speaker 1: just finished this cliffhanger, and that the kind of space
Speaker 1: I want to be in when I'm not at work.
Speaker 1: It is such a good place to be.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Chloe.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Chloe Barr is The Australian's off platform editor. This episode
Speaker 2: of the Front was hosted by me Claire Harvey, produced
Speaker 2: by Kristin Amiot, and edited by Lee and Sammaglu. Thanks
Speaker 2: for joining us on the Front this week. Our team
Speaker 2: also includes Tiffany Dimack, Joshua Burton and Jasper Leak, who
Speaker 2: also wrote art theme