When I first started thinking about this story back in the late 2000s, I was certain about two things: it would be categorized as a dystopian novel, and I wouldn’t write it until I was in my 50s.
At the time, I was in my mid 20s, and 50 seemed so far. I figured I’d have time to hone my craft and write the perfect novel/series (clearly, I was very naive lol). As far as genre, dystopian was the best way I could describe it. But then Hunger Games (the book) was published, and a few years later, Divergent, and ISLE OF WRATH was neither of those things, so I had to re-think my genre. (This story was born out of conversations I grew up hearing. I’ll share more about that in a future post.)
For years, while I published my romantic suspense, sports romance, and contemporary novels, I tried to chip away at this story, but never got very far before I scrapped it. In 2018 I decided to try again and ended up writing Fables & Other Lies. I also wrote a mermaid story that I’m not sure I’ll ever publish lol. I guess I was testing myself to see if I was ready. Both of those stories have curses, magic, and Caribbean lore, but they’re not ISLE, and in the end, I shelved it (again).
In 2022 I decided to try again. By that point, fantasy romance was a bigger thing, and soon enough, “romantasy” blew up. It should have been my sign to go for it, but I’m a contrarian and loathe doing “what everyone else is doing” (it’s a serious problem). Thankfully, my husband was tired of my crap and convinced me to “just write the damn story!”, and I finally took the plunge. The issue was that despite all these “new” subgenres, I still didn’t know how to describe what ISLE was.
I asked myself the famous, “Where would this book sit on the shelf?” and in true Claire fashion, my response was, “The entrance table, the end caps, and at the center table that sits between fantasy, romantasy, and sci-fi”. 😉
Before I started querying agents (also a story for another post), I started doing my research on the three categories I was torn between, and this is what I found:
Dystopian: an imagined, nightmarish society characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian control, serving as the opposite of a utopia.
**Isle of Wrath takes place in a fake utopia, where people trade their memories for asylum, so I thought, maybe this is it.
Fantasy romance: a subgenre combining fantasy and romance, where the plot hinges on a central romantic relationship set within a magical or mythical world.
**Isle of Wrath takes place in a fantasy world and has a slow burn romance between two people who are soul-bound together. The romance isn’t central to the plot, though. If you take it out, the story would stand (I’d have to kill you for doing that, but the story itself would hold up lol).
Romantasy: It is defined by equal importance given to the romantic plot and the fantasy setting, where removing the romance would cause the story to collapse.
Based on this, I quickly eliminated romantasy (sorry!). Mal *could’ve* been a warrior and not the love interest. I personally wouldn’t have taken that route because, well… I love romance and I can’t imagine not having written theirs.
So, what is ISLE OF WRATH? It is a gothic, fantasy romance in a dystopian setting with morally gray characters, meddling gods, an arrogant warrior hero (who I’m obsessed with) and a heroine who is perpetually annoyed by him (who I’m also obsessed with).
Someone put that on a shelf 😉
I’ve said this before, but if you like the dark academia and mystery of Half Truths + the curses, magic, and lore in Fables, add more fantasy elements and you’ll get this <3
