The Great Literary Fast Food Nation: Why U.S. Bestsellers Feel Like Book-Flavored Cheeseburgers

 

America: land of the free, home of the brave, and also apparently, the proud inventor of the copy-paste plot twist. If you’ve wandered into a U.S. bookstore lately, or scrolled the Kindle Top 100, you might’ve noticed a trend: everything kind of tastes the same. It’s like going to a buffet where every dish is just variations of mac and cheese. “Thriller with a traumatized female protagonist?” Check. “Romance with emotionally unavailable billionaire who’s somehow still a feminist?” Yup. “Fantasy where the chosen one has a birthmark and trust issues?” Served hot, three times a week.

Meanwhile, over in Europe, or the mystic literary land of “Not America,” novels are doing something weird and unexpected: being original. The UK drops books with sentences that actually go somewhere. France still writes books where nothing happens, but it happens in such a brooding, existential way that you feel like you’ve grown as a person. Scandinavia? They’re writing crime novels that make U.S. thrillers look like Mad Libs.

So what gives? Why is the U.S. literary machine stuck in Groundhog Day with a marketing budget?

Let’s face it: U.S. publishing is a commercial meat grinder. It’s not about art; it’s about velocity. Got a hit? Crank out the sequel before readers forget your name. Get blurbs from other bestselling authors who probably didn’t read it. Slap a moody face on the cover, call it “gritty,” and pray for a Netflix deal. It’s not a novel, it’s a content package. It doesn’t need to say something new, it just needs to not offend too many people. Literary innovation? Please. That doesn’t test well with the 25-54 female demographic.

Europe, on the other hand, still tolerates books that are weird, slow, or philosophical. You know, the kind that wouldn’t survive a single American focus group. British writers might actually sit down and think, “What haven’t I said yet?” while across the Atlantic, the dominant question is, “How fast can I sell this to a streaming service before the trend dies?”

And let’s not forget the writing itself. British and European prose occasionally dares to be, what’s the word: good? U.S. bestsellers often read like the author speed-ran NaNoWriMo and called it a day. Character depth? Symbolism? Subtext? No time. We have TikToks to make.

So what’s the difference? Europe still sees books as art. The U.S. sees them as intellectual vending machines. Press button, receive plot twist. Repeat until brain melts.

But hey…at least we’ve got plenty of merchandise. Want a tote bag with your book-shaped cheeseburger? It’s already in your cart.