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If you were around for Popverse's coverage of BookCon 2026, you probably heard us yammer on about two things in particular - romantasy and Veronica Roth. A couple of weeks after the con wrapped, we got to sit down with the Divergent Trilogy author - on tour for a brand new novel - and we couldn't help but to ask if there might be some overlap between the two. And while the YA best-seller is no stranger to including romance in her fantasy worlds, the answer is a definite no.

For this latest project, anyway.

That latest project is Seek the Traitor's Son, the first book in Roth's Burning Empire duology. The world readers will find therein is one besieged by a mystical plague called The Fever, which kills much of the population of Earth and, in some cases, also brings those dead back. Back and wielding powers they never had while they were alive, in fact. As you can imagine, one of the topics that came up when we got to chat with the author was: just what is Seek the Traitor's son, genre-wise? Well, according to Roth, that answer constantly changed depending on when she was working on it.

"This was such a different experience for me," Roth told us, "The process of writing this book, because there was so much experimentation in the early stages while it was taking shape. I wrote a high-fantasy version; I wrote a sci-fi version. I wrote a version where the genders were different of the main characters. That's actually where The Fever came from, was that draft. I was picking the things that were working from each draft, and you can see that in the final result because it's such a genre-blending work."

In case you don't already know, the main character of Seek the Traitor's Son is Elegy Ahn, who may or may not be at the center of a somewhat messianic prophecy, and is fated to fall in love with a man who plays an important role in it. So with all this talk of genre-blending and the promise of a love story, you can understand why we wanted to know if Roth considers this work romantasy.

"It does get shelved that way sometimes," Roth laughed, "But no, I don't, because I think you want to be respectful of the genre definitions from the people who have made and read that genre. Romantasy requires a primary focus on romance, not, you know, the world-building and the politics and all that stuff. They require a happy ending."

We thought the same thing as you, reader, 'That doesn't sound good...'

"I'm not saying it's not there!" Roth clarified, "I just can't commit to that as a part of the genre. Right? The highest priority of this book is not the romance."

Message received, Veronica. But I have to admit, now we're concerned about other things besides genre.

Seek the Traitor's Son is available now wherever physical books are sold, and as an audiobook from Macmillan Audio. Readers can also begin the newest Veronica Roth adventure over on Spotify, whose new Page Match feature allows for seamless transitioning between physical and audio storytelling. Happy reading!

Here's a list of all the major upcoming prose novels in our favorite genres.