400 girls and boys crowd into a hall in a central city.
The vast majority of them are holding merchandise, products such as notebooks, diaries, books or mugs - all designed, branded and bearing inscriptions.
At a certain point the lights dim, and after brief opening remarks by the organizer of the event, a female figure steps onto the stage and is greeted with shrieks, screams of enthusiasm, cries and declarations of love that are fired in her direction at a frequency of once every 15 seconds.
Her embarrassment is evident on her face.
She is also not so successful in containing the surreal situation she has fallen into, when every sentence that comes out of her mouth, every gesture - even the most symbolic, or waving a hand for peace - is received with applause.
If this were a standard fan meeting, one that often takes place between a pop sensation and a horde of fans controlled by hormones and yearning for an object of admiration, it would not be a particularly unusual scenario.
But on the stage of Beit Zioni America last week, a place known mainly for the stand-up shows it hosts, and in the not coincidental timing of International Valentine's Day, there was no Meet and Greet of Taylor Swift with a swarm of Swifties or a convention of ardent Justin Bieber fans.
Loud screams after every sentence.
The event in honor of Walsh last week in Tel Aviv, photo: Efrat Eshel
The character on the stage is Chloe Walsh, a bright-eyed and innocent Irish writer, an avowedly introverted woman who herself has not yet internalized the fact that she is a huge star in the sky of the romantic literature scene - mainly the one aimed at girls and teenagers.
She wrote more than 20 books - an unimaginable amount of titles for someone who started her writing career a little over a decade ago.
The highlight of her work is the "Toman's Boys" series of books - a literary epic full of drama, youth romance, sub-plots dealing with topics such as bullying, addictions, broken homes and yes, also sex.
And quite a bit of it.
The series was published in Israel in 2020 by the "Literature that Touches" publishing house, after the publishers Inbal Almozenino, Nicole Kidar and Michal Chen-Assulin recognized the need for romantic and erotic literature among the readership (and mainly female readers) of the books in Israel. Since then they have been publishing Walsh's books (along with other female writers) and maintain close community ties with the target audience of those books, and organize writer-reader meetings characterized by tears and high decibels. Just like the one described here, which celebrates the release of Walsh's new book (in Israel as well as around the world).
Before she goes on stage, the song "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac from 1977 is played on the speakers of the Mayrhof Hall, the largest of the halls in Israel. Not the first choice that comes to mind when asked to put together a playlist for an event where most of the participants were born in the years when Facebook was already a fait accompli. But the introduction of this generation with the British band's classic stems from the exact same place where Walsh's books became the hottest thing among young men and women who love literary romance. A social network that sort of defined Generation Z (and displaced most of its predecessors) - Tiktok.
Groups that deal with the plots of the books, Tiktok aesthetics, dances and songs that include sentences from them and reviews - all these (and much more) are dedicated to Walsh's work on the network.
The particularly prominent presence of Israeli TikTok content producers led Walsh to do something she rarely does - she left her home on a farm in Ireland and traveled all the way to a country she had never visited (in general, she says, the furthest she had traveled in her life was to England).
All this to meet her readers face to face.
Not before she encountered, of course, a loud opposition on the net, which called for her to boycott her planned visit.
"I wanted to meet my Israeli readers because I was so grateful, and then I was attacked quite aggressively online," she says.
"I was shocked, I was emotionally overwhelmed and I wasn't sure what to do. Suddenly, details about my children started to be published and a lot of things that I had never heard about before. I had a long conversation with my husband, family and publishers, and I decided to come.
I felt I had a lot of responsibility not to let these girls down.
I'm not interested in politics and I don't want to know about it.
I'm here to thank my readers."
Toman's boys, photo: none
As someone who hasn't seen too much of the world, you probably didn't think you'd end up, of all places, in Israel.
"I don't do many meetings like this. Over the course of a decade I held a total of four book signing meetings, but so many female readers from Israel contacted me, so I said we'll do it. I still can't believe everything that's happening here. I come from a small town in Ireland whose population There are about 800 people. In my city I walk down the street and no one notices."
It is customary to call the current generation of young people "the TikTok generation" and assume that they are only interested in social networks. Were you surprised by his engagement with your books?
"I think it's amazing. They have a great culture. I don't understand much of it because I'm older, but I think it's great that they talk about literature in places like 'BookTalk' and that young people are returning to books. It's great. Maybe because of the corona virus and the long lockdowns, they suddenly had time, and books have become a popular form of entertainment. They are incredibly intelligent. They understand books and they mean a lot to them."
You chose to write in a very specific literary genre, and your books also include scenes that some would argue are not necessarily suitable for stupid teenagers.
"I also write books for a more mature audience of 20 and over, but with the 'Toman's Boys' series I am really more careful. I am aware that there are young girls and boys who read these books and I try not to 'spice' them up too much. I would not include in the book The descriptions are too blunt for the youth. But at the same time I also have to stay true to the story. I try to give children hope in my books. These are books that deal with personal growth in the shadow of a broken family life more than they deal with romance."
Have you ever encountered a parent who objected to the books you publish and found them inappropriate for their target audience?
"No, luckily it hasn't happened until now. It can happen, but I haven't come across it yet."
Why go to text?
Between the noise of the enthusiastic youth and the stands of the accompanying products stands out a character who seems to be from another story.
A man in his fourth decade of life, bearded and wearing a kippah, a resident of Afula and the father of four children, who apparently got into the situation by accident.
But this is nothing more than an appearance, because Shay Sandik, the man under the religious facade, is in fact a romantic literature writer, entrusted with the task of translating Walsh's book, along with other romantic novels.
And he himself didn't think it was a very reasonable scenario either.
"I entered this world at first for a living," he tells of how he plunged down the rabbit hole.
"I have been translating literature for 16 years. Six years ago there was a slowdown in the market and I was looking for other avenues. Then I said, 'Well, I see that romantic literature is flourishing, we need money.' Sex scenes up until then, there are also in beautiful literature, but the level of bluntness and anatomy - it was new to me. I remember calling Anabel and saying to her, 'Listen, I don't think I'm suitable for this.' She told me, 'No, no, you are suitable, it's OK'. Over time I found out how wide this world is and it has everything. There are issues like rape, domestic abuse, there are intelligent books. True, there is also trash. There are books that 80 percent of them are porn, I'm not saying they aren't, but It's not the majority. In the end, in today's age if you want to watch porn, you have the visual thing, why go to the text? What's happening here is on Harry Potter levels,
Only Walsh's books are published six times a year.
Readers have no patience, it's a very warm, loving and demanding audience."
refuse to be ashamed
In Israel, in the forums and discussion groups of one of the most vibrant communities in the field in recent years, there has been a heated debate surrounding the issue of the quality of the strain.
There is a lot of passion there, in the discussions surrounding a literary genre that was previously considered a bibliographic quirk, a guilty pleasure to be hidden or a hobby no less despicable than watching soap operas broadcast in the morning hours.
But the current generation of teenagers refuses to be ashamed of what they see as a completely legitimate field of interest, even if there is a debate in their circles over the question of how adapted it is to their soft souls.
One school of thought claims that this is a problematic pastime, even corrupting.
A literary genre that brings its young readers together with subjects they like to call "stimulating" and exposes them to blatant sexual content that they are not yet mentally and emotionally formed to contain.
Another school of thought claims that the secret is mediation.
They themselves, and this shouldn't be particularly surprising, believe that they deserve to be given a little more credit and that there is nothing in these books that they don't have access to anywhere else today - assuming they haven't already been exposed to it before.
Walsh in a selfie with a fan, photo: Efrat Eshel
"This may sound like a problem, but we don't come and read only the erotic parts," says Lee, 16 years old from Tel Aviv, at the fan meeting, which included gestures of affection for their favorite author - from T-shirts bearing quotes from the books to nail polish gel paintings of their covers the difference
"There is always a story around, and we can identify with the main character in it - let's say if she went through a certain trauma like rape, or the loss of a family member or a close person. The focus is not on the sexual parts. There are erotic parts, that's right, but not the whole book is focused in them. There are many points of identification with the characters."
"I think these books really have added value, far beyond erotica and sex," says 15.5-year-old Daniela from Bnei Brak.
"When you choose to focus only on these things, then yes, you make the whole subject of these books really cheap. But I don't think anyone comes to buy the book just to read it. I don't think there is anyone here who can say that this is their favorite book because of the erotic part ".
But you are able to understand the criticism and concern of parents around the subject.
Amit, 16, from Eilat: "We understand the criticism, but people need to expand their vision for a moment. It's a very big genre and it all depends on the author. Let's say, Chloe Walsh's books are crazy and there's almost nothing in them, there's hardly any eroticism there. What I Personally, I look for the love story in them."
Daniela: "I also think it's quite naive to think that we'll find it for the first time in books. As a 15-and-a-half-year-old girl, I've been quite aware of the whole situation since the age of 10, maybe 11, at best. Criticism will say that the books will destroy us and that children should not be exposed to such issues, but children are exposed Even when the parents don't know. It already starts at school or with friends on the Internet. Not allowing a book to be read is a mistake. You have to open the discourse before that. In Chloe's books, the whole subject of sex is exposed in a very healthy way. The characters are teenagers, the 16-year-old girl, Most of the relationships there are very positive, healthy and supportive. Parents would actually be happy to know that this is the way their children are exposed to these things, and not through questionable places."
When they are asked about their parents' initial reaction to the hobby they have cultivated, most of them tell of reservations.
"I started reading the books at the age of 12 or 13," says Amit.
"My mother read them and she was really shocked and a bit taken aback. But we had a conversation about it, and now she's completely fine with it."
"My parents actually encouraged reading and told me it was better than watching pornographic films," says Shaked, 16, from Netanya.
"I think the erotica is an added value. And in general, the whole beauty of books is that they have descriptions but you don't really see anything. You actually imagine everything."
The bookseller test
There are those who are not comforted by the fact that this is fiction.
In the Facebook group "All this romance", which has more than 54 thousand members and is considered one of the most popular communities dealing with the genre, the issue of exposure to youth is a topic that refuses to leave the headlines.
A post published a few months ago by a member of the group, who identified herself as an employee at Stimatsky, provoked quite a few echoes and illustrated how divided the opinions are on the subject.
"Recently I've come across situations that are a bit difficult for me, boys and girls aged 12-13 come to my store and ask for erotic romance books like 'Toman's Boys' and 'The Fighting Lioness'," she wrote.
"Sometimes they come alone, sometimes with their parents. I try to ask if the book is intended for them, or if they are buying it for someone else. In 90 percent of the cases, they buy the books for themselves, when one of the parents is right there with them in the store and is not even aware of what they are reading and the content of the books As the seller, I really try to ask what the age is,
And if I understand that the age is 16 or younger, I inform the parent (if he is in the store).
If the parent is not found, I often hesitate whether to sell or not.
The situation in which I have to take responsibility and sell/not sell a book is unpleasant to me, when I know that the descriptions in it are extremely rude and the situations there are not easy at all and sometimes include rape and controlling relationships."
Tiktok aesthetics based on Walsh's series, photo: Efrat Eshel
The same seller wants to draw the parents' attention to the content their children consume - even if they are tempted to get excited by the mere fact that their children show an interest in the written word.
"There are parents who, as soon as they realize that this is erotic literature, are simply shocked," the post further states.
"There are quantities of high-quality books suitable for the target audience of these ages. If the book is bought consciously - then great, at least you know what content your son/daughter is exposed to and that's your choice. That way you will perhaps know how to make the book accessible to them in a proportional way and explain that a relationship should not look like this in real".
The responses to the post range from support and sympathy to opposition and accusations of exceeding the seller's authority.
"I wouldn't want my daughter to read this genre at the age of 12. To me, it's like sending a child to watch porn," reads one of the responses.
Another reads: "For me, it's like selling alcohol or cigarettes to minors. You don't need a law to prevent them from selling things that are not appropriate for their age."
"It's a debate that goes on for a long time and refuses to calm down," says Shani Wiselberg, 29, one of the forum directors (along with her partner Dana Lederman Azoulay) and herself a big fan of the genre.
"This is a conversation that has been burning for a year. In my eyes, teenagers have access to everything, it's not that they won't be exposed to sexuality. Reading is a great habit for teenagers, and it's not possible to prevent them from knowing these things. When I was 13, the sources I had to consume the information This one was much more dubious. Teenagers are curious people by nature. If they are told about something that is forbidden and told that it has difficult scenes - they only become more curious."
And the classic role of the parents is to try to stop them on the way.
"It is important for me to say that the girls today are ten times more mature than I was at the age of 13. They also have self-confidence. Until two years ago, I did not want people to know about this hobby. Today, 13-year-old girls proudly say that this is what they read and love. We were told that this Literature for maids, 'It's not literature, don't call it literature'.
"When we would call publishers and ask for certain books to be translated, the men who spoke to us from the publishers treated us dismissively. Today a 13-year-old girl holds a book that everyone knows what's in it and she's proud of what she's reading. She has criticism about relationships and she has something to say about it."
Careful, sugar ahead
The need for parental supervision over the content the children consume was recognized by the women of "Literature that Touches" during Book Week.
"There were a number of things that bothered us and we made sure that the readers would not drift into niches that are less suitable for them," says Almoznino.
"Then we began to brand the books according to niches and put stickers on them, because we wanted to steer them correctly. There is no law that comes and tells stores that it is allowed to sell the books to those 18 and older. There is a recommendation on the back of the book, but it is not conspicuous. That is why we issued stickers, to give Warn the youth and tell them: 'Listen, this is a book that has content that can be dark and trigger triggers. This is your or your parents' responsibility.'
"In the beginning, teenagers initiated a very large petition against us on the networks, so that we would remove the branding. But we also opened a WhatsApp group that has thousands of teenagers and we update them about which books are more suitable and which are less. It works great and they are attentive to us."
How are the stickers branded?
"For example, when it says 'Opel' on a sticker - it may be murders or trafficking in women. These are things we do warn against, not only by a sticker but also by a warning in the opening of the book that says 'This is a book that contains content that may trigger triggers and includes explicit language.' etc. We don't want them to open the book and find out only then. There is a sticker that says 'Hot', meaning books that have too much sex. We want them to really understand that this is what the real stuff looks like and we direct them to the softer stuff. We have a sticker of 'High Amount of Love' and that's where we direct them. That's not to say that these books don't have content that is difficult at times, but they are written in a much less detailed and sensitive way. It's completely different than something that is hardcore and can really hurt the soft heart of the reader".
Jenny Shneidman and Ayelet Savitsky, the publishers of "Nos" publishing house, also recognized the need of the market for the romantic genre. For three years now, they have been publishing Hebrew translations of the best international offerings. Schneidman also believes that literature has no age. .
"Our essence as publishers is to appeal to readers, not necessarily to look at their age," she says.
"In any book that has something that might bother some people, if it has rape or self-harm triggers, we make sure to mention it. Girls turn to us and say, 'These books help us overcome boycotts.' that she helped him become a better man. It should be treated as literature for everything."
within the limits of fantasy
And maybe age is an individual matter, and the judgment should be left to the readers themselves.
Difficult descriptions and heavy themes are nothing new, certainly not an invention of the current generation.
There are those who would even argue that this is, as is customary in the age of pretended morality, self-righteousness.
"I don't think age is the main barrier, and in my opinion one should consider the person himself," asserts Sarit Haim-Shiram, a writer in the genre and editor at "Melody" publishing house.
"When I was a girl, I read books that were not suitable for my age. The librarians would always tell me 'it's not suitable for your age', but as a girl I felt that it was suitable for my age. To generalize and say about something that is 'not suitable for girls'? I don't agree with that.' The Cave Bear Tribe' was not my age when I read it, unequivocally, neither were 'Secretly Dead Birds' and 'Flowers in the Attic', or books by Harold Robbins, but no one made a story out of it.
"As a girl, at the age of 6 I had already read 'The Elder to Beit Avyi', and there were very difficult contents there.
No one came and told me 'don't read this' and I came out normal.
Today, the romantic genre was caught because it has explicit sex scenes.
But the young women see and are exposed to much more than that - in movies, on Instagram, on Tiktok.
And here I say - maybe in the book, with the whole plot and the love story, there is something better about it.
I am sure that today's youth know that these are fantasy books and that these things do not happen in reality.
You have to give them that credit."
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