Trauma trend at heart of romance research
She’s used to penning a perfect plot-twist – but romance writer Alicia Kindleysides found more than true love when she tackled her PhD with CQUniversity.
The Ipswich-based author uncovered a new subgenre within trending 'trauma romance' titles, like hit novel and film It Ends with Us.
Her research also coined a new psychological trauma-response, adding 'fade' to the existing 8-F model of 'fight, flight, fright, freeze, flag, fawn, faint and flood'.
Dr Kindleysides, who has published 22 romance titles under her pen names AK Leigh and Leigh Hatchmann, began her PhD in 2021, analysing romance novels that feature characters who live with trauma.
“Over and over, trauma would come up, and then be dealt with by the idea that ‘love heals all’ – and as someone who’s lived through trauma, I know that’s a very dangerous idea,” she said.
As she worked on her own book, The Love Healer, Dr Kindleysides realised the alternative – that a character could seek therapy and go on a healing journey to “deal with their demons”.
After analysing 25 romance titles for her thesis, she dubbed the emerging subgenre 'post-trauma romance', and says it’s set to boom in the next decade.
“It’s not just a romantic ‘happily ever after’, but a personal recovery journey that isn’t only tied to a relationship – it’s the new happy ending!” she said.
While trauma and relationships have been literary bedfellows across generations of storytelling, from Wuthering Heights to Fifty Shades of Gray, Dr Kindleysides said the modern awareness of trauma impacts and the need for recovery are motivating authors.
“To fit the post-trauma romance subgenre, there needs to be a conscious attempt on the part of the character to go on a recovery journey,” she explained.
“The book has to include the cause of the trauma, post-trauma effects that impact the relationship, and post-trauma recovery as part of the plot.”
Dr Kindleysides identifies herself as a complex trauma survivor and says bibliotherapy and scriptotherapy, or therapeutic reading and writing, helped her own recovery.
“My lived experience does inform the books I write, and it does make my trauma-themed romances more authentic, than for an author who is purely going on imagination,” she said.
As part of her thesis, Dr Kindleysides applied the psychology-backed Trauma Response Model to character behaviour and also devised a new theory: that 'fade', or wishing to be invisible, was a recognisable trauma response distinct from flight or freeze.
Next month, she’s sharing her findings via a podcast interview with Oxford University – and there’s big things ahead for her publishing career, too.
This week, she’s presenting at the Australasian Association of Writing Programs annual conference on post-trauma romance, and next year at the international Popular Culture Association annual event in New Orleans, USA.
Dr Kindleysides' PhD was supervised by CQU School of Education and the Arts academics Dr Nicole Anae and Dr Jan Cattoni, and she paid tribute to their enthusiasm for the experimental.
“My thesis is printed on pink paper, it includes a poem that I actually composed in a dream – and every meeting, my supervisors were so encouraging and really pushed me to follow my interests and break new ground.”
Dr Kindleysides plans to keep writing post-trauma romance, aiming for storylines that make a difference.
“Most romance readers are women, and I hope many of them will see their own experience and know that what they feel is normal, and talking about trauma can be normalised,” she said.
“While healing, relationships can happen, and it’s important to be able to rely on people around you – but romance doesn’t mean recovery. I want readers to see my characters go on a journey of recovery and know it’s also possible for them.”
The Love Healer is now available in both print and eBook through all good online bookstores - learn more at Dr Kindleysides' website.
