Urban Fantasy Isn’t A Guilty Pleasure 

There’s a negativity, not to say a snobbery, that works against certain genres. I write speculative fiction, including urban fantasy, and it’s subject to a degree of disdain from some types of readers (and maybe writers), who perhaps see it as less “intellectual”, or “sophisticated”, or maybe see the subject matter as “childish” or “immature”. 

I get caught in this sometimes, and find myself apologising, not to others but to myself. To the part of me that still thinks serious literature means dinner parties and quiet desperation, not demons and exorcisms. 

Urban fantasy gets dismissed as escapist fluff. Popcorn fiction. Something to read on the beach when you're not engaging your brain. 

For sure there’s a certain quantity of writing in the genre that doesn’t reach a very high standard. But this is true in every genre. High-brow genres are not judged by the worst writing in their wheelhouse, but by the best. For science fiction, fantasy and urban fantasy, the genre is often judged by virtue of its setting rather than its content, and even the best content is overlooked as “oh... but that’s fantasy.” 

For heaven's sake, go read Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash or Anathem or Seveneves, Iain M. Banks's The Player of Games, and then tell me speculative fiction can't handle complex themes. 

Genre is setting, not substance 

Nothing prevents urban fantasy from tackling the same themes literary fiction does. Grief, power dynamics, moral complexity, the cost of choices, what it means to be human in systems designed to break you. 

The difference is the genre uses demons instead of dinner parties. Magic instead of adultery. Exorcisms instead of faculty politics. 

The setting changes. The substance doesn't have to. 

When Emily confronts a demon, she's confronting her own past mistakes. When she struggles with the binding to Ahazu, she's struggling with agency, autonomy, what it means to be trapped in a relationship you can't escape. When she takes money from clients who aren't actually possessed, she's wrestling with ethical compromise and economic survival. 

These aren't simple good-versus-evil stories. They're stories about flawed people making impossible choices with incomplete information and living with the consequences. 

That's not escapism. That's just life with better special effects. 

The "guilty pleasure" trap 

When you call something a guilty pleasure, you're apologizing for liking it. You're saying "I know this isn't real art, but I enjoy it anyway." 

It's a defensive posture. And it's damaging to the attention you pay to what you’re reading. 

I spent years thinking Past Mistakes was lesser work compared to Erasure, my literary science fiction thriller (unfinished at this time, some salient details here). Emily Voss was the commercial project. Erasure was the serious one. The one that mattered. 

But here's what I've figured out: Past Mistakes is entirely worthy of the same degree of respect and attention as Erasure. 

Not because urban fantasy is superior to literary fiction. But because I stopped apologizing for the genre and started trusting the story. The themes emerged naturally because the story earned them, not because I was forcing literary credibility. 

What we shouldn’t have to defend 

We shouldn’t have to defend urban fantasy as "actually complex." 

We shouldn’t need to preface recommendations with "I know it sounds silly, but..." 

We shouldn’t conflate commercial success with evidence of artistic failure. 

Emily Voss fights demons in New York. She's bound to an ancient entity she can't escape. She makes morally questionable choices to survive. She drinks too much and uses gallows humor to cope with trauma. The magic costs pieces of herself she can't get back. 

That's the story. It doesn't need to be anything else. It doesn't need validation from literary gatekeepers or awards committees. It just needs to be honest about what it is. 

If you're reading this newsletter, you probably already know this. You don't need me to justify why urban fantasy matters or prove it's as sophisticated as literary fiction. 

But maybe you've caught yourself doing it too. Qualifying your genre preferences. Apologizing for what you like. Treating entertainment as lesser art. 

Stop. 

Read what you want. Write what you want. Don’t judge the story by its genre. 

Nick 

P.S. What's the book you're tired of defending? The one you love but feel like you have to justify to people who "don't read that kind of thing"? Hit reply and tell me. I'm curious what we're all apologizing for. 

 P.P.S. And if it is a "guilty pleasure", you can find more of it here: http://nicklavitz.com !