Why is age gap EVERYWHERE? I cannot open a fantasy book – even if it is a high fantasy, and the romance is the tiniest of subplots that takes up less than 1% of the book! – and not end up with an age gap. Some books have an equality between their main characters in their romance but it seems so common even in popular books especially if they are non human.

NB: Some spoilers (light or as many as you could find on a blurb) will be present in this post for Poison Study, Order of Blood and Ruin, Lightlark, Throne of Glass.

I am going to break down human age gaps first then move on to paranormal and fantasy races etc.

One of my most recent reads, Poison Study by Maria V Snyder had an age gap. A huge one, 19 and 33. I have read it a few times before when I was younger but it always is something I wince at. It just seems so odd, and exaggerates the power dynamics between them – I have written another post on Equality and Power which talks about power dymanics outside of Age Gap – when honestly it isn’t fully nessacary. Yes, Valek was supposed to help the Commander to power and that had to be early enough that Yelena was in the country and the orphanage, but I really wish something had been done to age up Yelena or nudge Valek down out of his thirties because that is a gigantic age gap.

I am not blaming this book specifically, another book I absolutely adored and read over and over (title retracted because of spoilers) has an age gap which gets worse during the series. In the beginning it is sixteen and twenty, which was pushing it a bit, but I was willling to let that go. Then he gets trapped in a time warp in space and ages to twenty five, and she is still only eighteen. We have gone from four years (with her a minor and him an adult) to seven years with her barely an adult.

This trend of FMCS always being exactly eighteen is weird too, its like they decide to make them the age that they can say they are adults even if they essentially are not especially in comparison to the looonng lives of their love interests.

 I really loved a series by KM Shea which had an age gap that somehow circumnavigated all of the power dynamics that usually come with it in a really wholesome lovely way. In that Jade is twenty six, she has an established career, she has an apartment, she has a very supportive family whom she could return to if she wanted. She is not the lonely vulnerable eighteen year old that so many vampire novels are populated with and so when Connor the vampire (who’s age is old but never quite stated and it’s a spoiler so I wont say) comes along they have a relationship first as friends and then lovers that doesn’t fall into the toxic almost fatherly but sexual relationship which I find so odd in many fantasy books.

We’re on non-human relationships now so lets consider some more!

Lightlark (I’ve only read the first one!) has two love interests both of whom are old. Much older than our eighteen year old heroine Ida (again eighteen! And I honestly am not even annoyed at the author at this point, it is so so common its an industry problem and societal more than a personal thing as the trope is so easy to fall into.) They are fae like elementals and live for a long time and it works with the lore and the worldbuilding. But I refuse to believe that it isn’t possible to a) age up Ida a little bit. B) pop a few more rulers in the timeline so that Oro and Grim are younger or c) do both!  I would love a heroine who is several centuries old (if you have any recs drop them in the comments!) but it is so so rare.

A series I love and haven’t finished, the Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas (I’m trying to pick out popular examples but its so frequent I could do more) features a thousands of years age gap between Caeleana and Rowan. Lets not start on the power dymanics of her relying on him to control her magic or that he treats her so badly at the start, but the age gap itself is huge. I believe she is nineteen at this point, possibly even eighteen or twenty but either way she is a long long way from several thousand.

The Trope of the older mysterious man is so so common that I cant even hate the books that they are in (I adore some of these with my whole obsessive bookish heart) but I really think that it needs to stop. The occasional old fae is fine, but it is just so common and none of them acknowledge the difficulties of this like that they are from different generations and often cultures, with different expectations.

I digress to go read but what are your thoughts on this incredibly popular trope that is rampant in so many fantasy books?

Happy Reading!

XOXO

Lottie