By Laura Honan
Silver Elite, an adult dystopian romance, recently took the book world by storm, with the book plastered all over BookTok, Bookstagram and Booktube. Chances are that anyone near the BookTok community has heard of the book and its surrounding controversy.
The book follows Wren, a ‘Modified’ with psychic abilities who is forced to join the elite military section of Silver Block. Wren must hide her abilities and infiltrate the General’s regime and help the uprising, while managing her growing attraction to her commanding officer, Cross Redden.
The book was marketed as The Hunger Games for adults, a cross of the X-men and Divergent and the new Fourth Wing. So what is it about this book that has caused such a controversy?
Firstly we need to look at the marketing. Heralded as a first of its kind- dystopian adult romance, Silver Elite is a romantasy at best. Many within the online book community have commented on whether it was marketed as dystopian to hop on the ‘hype’ the genre is experiencing with the release of Sunrise on the Reaping. Compared to dystopian hallmarks such as Margret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm, Silver Elite offers little social commentary and there are little to no elements that separate it from the fantasy genre. Even with all the criticism it receives Veronica Roth’s Divergent series fit the dystopian bill as she discusses themes such as corporate control and what happens to a society forced to live within strict limitations.
We do not learn any of Wren’s beliefs- we know she is working as part of the resistance but what are their aims, what type of society does she want to live in and how will she create this. In many early reviews Wren is likened to a “Katniss for adults”, yet it is abundantly clear from the beginning of book one how Katniss feels about the Capitol, her role in shaping the revolution changes but we know her core feelings on the Games, President Snow and the inequality faced in district life. The same cannot be said for Wren.
In a guest post for B&N Reads, the author shared her motivation for writing this story. She wrote, “I wanted a dystopian story that has all the grit and danger and tension but also turns up the heat.” She went on to say that “In a world where everything is on the brink of destruction, emotions run high, and desire can be just as powerful as fear or fury. I wrote this book for readers like me, the ones who devoured books like the Hunger Games but wished the romances were more front and center”. Booktuber Cari Can Read spoke in an hour long video about the book how this strong focus on the romance aspect takes away from the point that the story is trying to make, it distracts the readers from the bigger issues and misses the point of the genre.
Furthermore, there has been much discourse online on the author of the book. Many believe that Dani Francis is a pen name and that the novel is not a debut but rather the work of an already established author. Almost nothing is known about Francis. She chose not to publish a photo in the book and her blurb describes her as a hopeless romantic and a lover of breakfast foods. She has done no interviews and her social media accounts are run by two assistants. Although nothing is known about her, Francis’ book has enjoyed a mass campaign from its publishing company Del Rey, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Special editions with foiled edges were advertised before its release and it was a pick for the Book of the Month subscription, a thing that can be much harder to come by for newer authors.
Pen names are not unheard of in publishing. Established authors may use them to branch out into different genres or for authors making the jump from middle-grade to young adult or young adult to adult fiction. Some may use pseudonyms if they are controversial and are looking to avoid associating the work with their real name. Stephen King famously used a pen name Richard Bachman in 1977 for his novel Rage, ultimately seven novels would be published under this name. King chose the use of a pseudonym to avoid oversaturation of the ‘King brand’ in the market. Although it seems unlikely it has been suggested that the book is a work of AI, however as works of AI cannot yet be copyrighted in the United States it seems like a strange risk for the publishing house to take. It does pose and prompt interesting questions on the future role of AI in literature.
The criticisms seen of Silver Elite can also be seen as genre fatigue. Are readers tired of recycled romantasy plots that serve to fill a trope quota. The fantasy and dystopian genres are so rich and filled with amazing works yet it seems as though the same story with a different cover is constantly circulating on TikTok. Have readers grown tired of the morally grey male main character and the strong, independent female protagonist, who is underestimated by everyone with the exception of her love interest and is harbouring a secret power? Do readers simply want change? Or have the criticisms of this book come merely from its marketing as a dystopian?
Regardless of the negative attention the book has garnered online, overall it has proved to be quite popular, currently sitting with a 4.09 star rating on Goodreads.