Welcome to the brass-and-steam-powered future of young adult fiction, where the whir of clockwork mechanisms harmonizes with the heartbeat of adventure. For the gear-curious tinkerer—the teen who dismantles toasters to see how they work, sketches blueprints during algebra, and dreams in schematics—2026 promises a renaissance of stories that don’t just feature machines, but celebrate the hands that build them. These narratives understand that true magic isn’t casting spells; it’s watching disparate components click into perfect alignment through sheer intellectual willpower.
The landscape of YA steampunk has evolved far beyond its Victorian London roots. Today’s adventures reflect a generation of readers who see engineering as a creative superpower and invention as a form of self-expression. Whether you’re seeking tales where pneumatic pistons drive both plot and character development, or narratives that explore the ethical tightrope between innovation and responsibility, the coming year’s offerings are engineered specifically for minds that never stop asking, “But how does it actually work?” Let’s explore what makes these stories tick.
Best 10 YA Steampunk Adventures for Gear-Curious Tinkerers
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Understanding the Steampunk Tinkerer Mindset
What Makes a YA Reader “Gear-Curious”?
The modern gear-curious teen doesn’t just consume stories—they reverse-engineer them. They read about a fictional airship and immediately calculate lift capacity. They encounter a clockwork automaton and wonder about its escapement mechanism. This psychological profile craves narratives that respect their intelligence, rewarding mechanical literacy while remaining accessible enough for newcomers to catch the brass bug. The best 2026 adventures treat engineering not as window dressing, but as a language the protagonist uses to solve problems, express emotions, and navigate social structures.
The Intersection of Mechanical Aptitude and Narrative Engagement
Stories that resonate with tinkerers embed problem-solving directly into plot structure. When a protagonist must recalibrate a steam engine’s governor to escape pursuers, the technical details aren’t exposition—they’re dramatic tension. Look for narratives where the mechanical challenges mirror emotional arcs: a character rebuilding a broken device while simultaneously repairing a fractured relationship. This parallel construction creates satisfaction for readers who understand that real engineering is iterative, messy, and requires both logic and creativity.
Essential World-Building Elements for 2026
Alt-History Foundations That Feel Authentic
The most immersive steampunk worlds don’t just slap gears on existing history—they reimagine causality. What if Babbage’s analytical engine had been built in 1833, sparking an information revolution a century early? How would global trade routes shift if airships made oceans irrelevant? The 2026 crop of YA adventures increasingly draws from underexplored historical periods: Qing Dynasty China’s relationship with industrialization, the Mali Empire’s hypothetical mechanical revolution, or Indigenous American engineering traditions merged with steam technology. These settings challenge the Eurocentric steampunk default while offering fresh mechanical paradigms.
The Role of Anachronistic Technology
For the tinkerer reader, the joy is in the almost-possible. The best stories feature technology that feels simultaneously advanced and primitive—like a difference engine running social media algorithms via punch cards, or aetheric communication devices powered by Tesla-inspired principles but built with Victorian-era materials. The key is internal consistency: if brass is scarce in your world, characters should struggle with copper alternatives. If steam pressure limits are a plot point, those limits shouldn’t be conveniently ignored later. This rigor transforms speculative technology from mere decoration into a believable system readers can mentally model.
Urban vs. Wilderness Steampunk Settings
Clockwork cities with their vertical factories and pneumatic tube networks offer different tinkerer satisfaction than wilderness adventures where characters must MacGyver solutions from salvaged parts. Urban settings typically feature guild politics, patent wars, and the tension between mass production and artisanal craft—perfect for readers fascinated by engineering ethics. Wilderness narratives, conversely, test practical application: can your protagonist build a functioning water purifier from a busted dirigible’s condenser? The most compelling 2026 releases blend both, forcing characters to adapt city-learned skills to untamed environments.
Character Archetypes That Resonate with Young Inventors
The Protagonist Tinkerer: More Than Just a Wrench-Turner
Forget the lone genius stereotype. Contemporary YA heroes are collaborative makers who document their process, fail publicly, and iterate. They maintain sketchbooks with crossed-out calculations and coffee-stained notes. They’re as likely to be materials scientists as they are gadgeteers. The evolution we’re seeing in 2026 manuscripts includes protagonists who code in binary via mechanical computers, biohackers who merge organic tissue with clockwork prosthetics, and community organizers who use engineering to solve food deserts through automated hydroponics. These characters reflect the real-world maker movement’s emphasis on open-source knowledge and social impact.
Mentor Figures: From Eccentric Professors to Rogue Engineers
The mentor-mentee relationship in tinkerer-focused fiction has shifted from master-apprentice hierarchies to peer-learning networks. Modern mentor figures might be YouTube-equivalent machinists broadcasting tutorials via phonograph cylinders, or retired engineers with dementia whose fragmented memories contain crucial design secrets. The most impactful mentors don’t have all the answers—they model how to ask better questions. They demonstrate that expertise is a continuous journey, not a destination, often learning from their students in genuinely reciprocal relationships.
Antagonists Who Challenge Technical Ethics
The best villains aren’t just evil engineers building doomsday devices—they’re ideological opponents whose methods force protagonists to examine their own values. Maybe they champion planned obsolescence in a world of heirloom craftsmanship, or weaponize open-source designs the hero shared in good faith. These antagonists create genuine moral ambiguity: is it wrong to patent life-saving technology if patents fund further research? The 2026 landscape favors villains who represent systemic problems rather than individual malice, making their defeat require societal change, not just a clever gadget.
Mechanical Plot Devices: What to Look For
Inventions That Drive the Story Forward
In tinkerer-centric narratives, the MacGuffin should have schematics. Whether it’s a perpetual motion machine, a difference engine oracle, or a pneumatic message network, the device itself must generate plot complications beyond simple possession. Does the invention require rare materials that force moral compromises? Does its operation depend on social cooperation across class lines? The machine should be a character in its own right—with quirks, maintenance needs, and unintended consequences that create ongoing narrative friction.
Mystery and Puzzle-Solving Through Engineering
The whodunit of 2026’s steampunk mysteries isn’t who stole the diamond, but how they circumvented the vault’s thermodynamic seal. These stories embed puzzles in mechanical systems: a locked-room mystery where the key is understanding pneumatic logic gates, or a conspiracy unraveled by analyzing coal ash composition. The joy for tinkerer readers is arriving at the solution through the same deductive process the protagonist uses—by understanding principles, not just following clues. The best authors provide enough technical information for readers to solve puzzles alongside characters, rewarding mechanical literacy without requiring an engineering degree.
The Ethics of Innovation in YA Narratives
Contemporary steampunk doesn’t shy away from the dark side of invention. Stories grapple with environmental costs of coal-powered progress, labor exploitation in factories, and the digital divide analogized through access to pneumatic communication networks. Protagonists must navigate questions like: Should I build this weapon if it might fall into the wrong hands? Is it ethical to automate jobs when families depend on that work? These narratives teach critical thinking about technology’s societal impact, preparing readers for real-world STEM ethics dilemmas.
Literary Quality Markers in 2026’s Market
Prose That Balances Technical Detail and Pacing
The tinkerer reader wants to know how the gear train works, but not at the expense of narrative momentum. Masterful prose uses technical description as characterization: a character who notices bearing wear patterns is different from one who appreciates brass filigree. The sweet spot involves precise but concise mechanical descriptions that serve multiple purposes—revealing character expertise, foreshadowing failure points, or establishing stakes. Look for authors who use active verbs for machines (“the escapement clawed forward”) and sensory details beyond just visual (“the ozone tang of overworked commutators”).
Dialogue That Crackles With Industrial-Era Wit
Victorian-inspired banter shouldn’t feel like a Dickens pastiche. Modern steampunk dialogue blends historical cadence with contemporary directness, creating a timeless quality. Characters might trade insults about each other’s “sloppy solder joints” or debate philosophy using machine metaphors: “You’re thinking like a governor—always reacting, never anticipating.” The best dialogue reveals technical competence through jargon used naturally, not explained for the reader’s benefit. It assumes intelligence while remaining comprehensible through context.
Pacing for the TikTok Generation
2026’s YA readers consume content in fragmented, high-impact bursts. Effective steampunk adventures mirror this with short, dense chapters that function like engineering sprints—each solving a specific problem while contributing to the larger project. Cliffhangers often involve mechanical failures with countdown timers: “The boiler had ten minutes before pressure exceeded the rivet tolerance.” This creates urgency while respecting readers who might only have fifteen minutes to read between classes. Yet these books also reward binge-reading, with Easter eggs hidden in earlier schematics that only make sense once you’ve seen the full system.
Visual and Tactile Storytelling Elements
Illustrated Diagrams and Blueprints Within Narratives
The most tinkerer-friendly books of 2026 integrate visual elements that function as narrative devices, not just decoration. We’re seeing protagonists’ actual sketchbook pages, circuit diagrams that hint at plot twists, and cross-sectional views of inventions annotated with the character’s handwritten notes. These elements should be integral enough that missing them creates plot holes—requiring readers to engage visually as well as textually. Some advanced titles even use marginalia that evolves throughout the story, showing the protagonist’s growing expertise through increasingly sophisticated technical drawings.
The Rise of Augmented Reality Companion Content
Forward-thinking publishers now offer AR apps that animate mechanical concepts described in text. Point your phone at a page describing a kinematic linkage, and watch it assemble and move in 3D. While not essential to the core story, these features transform reading into a hybrid experience—part novel, part engineering visualization tool. For the gear-curious, this bridges the gap between abstract description and concrete understanding, making complex mechanisms accessible without dumbing down the prose.
Cover Art That Signals Tinkerer-Friendly Content
A book’s cover is its first schematic. Effective steampunk cover design for this audience features cutaway views, exploded diagrams, or blueprints rather than just characters in goggles. The typography itself might incorporate gear teeth or piston strokes. These visual cues act as a filter: readers know immediately whether this is a romance with brass trim or a deep dive into mechanical world-building. Publishers are increasingly commissioning covers from actual technical illustrators rather than traditional fantasy artists, resulting in designs that could hang in a maker space.
Themes That Matter to Modern Young Makers
Climate Consciousness in Steam-Powered Worlds
2026’s steampunk adventures confront the coal-powered elephant in the room. Stories explore carbon capture via mechanical forests, renewable steam from geothermal vents, and the social upheaval when clean technologies disrupt fossil fuel economies. Protagonists might be teenage climate engineers retrofitting legacy infrastructure or activists sabotaging polluting factories. This environmental awareness resonates with readers who’ve grown up with climate anxiety, offering both escapism and constructive problem-solving models.
Social Justice Through the Lens of Innovation
The maker movement’s ethos of democratizing technology finds its narrative parallel in stories where protagonists design open-source prosthetics for marginalized communities or hack pneumatic postal systems to circumvent censorship. These adventures explore how access to tools—both physical and educational—creates inequality. The gear-curious teen sees themselves not just as an inventor, but as a potential agent of social change, making these stories both empowering and ethically grounding.
Mental Health and the Pressure to Create
Contemporary narratives finally acknowledge that genius-level tinkering has psychological costs. Protagonists grapple with burnout, imposter syndrome, and the obsessive focus that alienates friends. Some stories feature characters with OCD whose compulsions align with precision engineering, or anxiety disorders managed through the meditative repetition of assembly. By normalizing these struggles, 2026’s steampunk adventures create space for young makers to see their own challenges reflected, offering healthier models of productivity than the tortured genius archetype.
Diversity and Representation in Contemporary Steampunk
Global Perspectives Beyond Victorian London
The most exciting 2026 releases decolonize steampunk settings. We’re seeing Incan-inspired clockwork astronomy, Swahili-coastal trading cities powered by solar steam, and Polynesian navigation aids enhanced by pneumatic computation. These stories don’t just swap cultural window dressing—they reimagine technological development through non-Western epistemologies. A Chinese steampunk world might prioritize harmony over efficiency, resulting in radically different machine aesthetics and ethical frameworks. For tinkerer readers, this expands their conceptual toolbox, introducing engineering philosophies beyond the Western industrial canon.
Gender Diversity in STEM-Focused Narratives
The “girl inventor” trope has evolved into something more nuanced. 2026’s characters exist across the gender spectrum, with non-binary protagonists whose relationship to engineering challenges binary thinking about machines themselves. Stories explore how gender identity intersects with access to technical education, guild membership, and recognition for inventions. The best narratives don’t treat gender as a problem to overcome, but as a lens that shapes how characters approach design challenges—whether through collaborative community-based making or disruptive innovation that challenges patriarchal guild structures.
Neurodivergent Protagonists and the Tinkerer Identity
The overlap between neurodivergence and intense system-focused interests makes this representation particularly resonant. Characters with autism spectrum disorder might experience the world as a series of interconnected mechanisms, using this perspective to solve problems others miss. Those with ADHD hyperfocus on projects for days, then struggle with maintenance routines—creating realistic tension. These portrayals, when done authentically (often by neurodivergent authors), validate the diverse cognitive styles prevalent in actual maker communities, showing that there’s no single “right” way to be an inventor.
Series vs. Standalone: Making the Right Choice
The Appeal of Extended Universes for Deep Dives
Multi-book series offer tinkerer readers the satisfaction of watching technological systems evolve across narrative time. A character’s first book invention might be a simple difference engine; by book three, they’re running a municipal computing network. This long-form development mirrors actual skill acquisition, where each project builds on previous knowledge. Series also allow for deeper exploration of failure—seeing how a prototype’s flaws cause problems books later teaches the iterative reality of engineering in ways standalone stories can’t.
Self-Contained Stories for Satisfying Weekends
Not every tinkerer wants to commit to a five-book saga. Standalone adventures deliver concentrated innovation: a single, complex problem introduced, engineered around, and resolved within 400 pages. These are perfect for readers who want to experience a complete design cycle without waiting for sequels. The best standalones still feel expansive, often including detailed appendices with fictional patents, material specifications, or guild regulations that satisfy world-building hunger without requiring sequel hooks.
Companion Novels and Shared Worlds
An emerging trend in 2026 is the “shared blueprint universe”—multiple standalone novels set in the same world, where characters’ inventions appear as background details in other stories. This creates a collaborative feel, as if all these fictional engineers are contributing to a shared open-source project. For readers, it means each book provides both a complete story and puzzle pieces for a larger technical ecosystem they can reconstruct across titles.
Age-Appropriateness and Content Considerations
Navigating YA Sub-Categories (YA vs. Upper YA)
The “gear-curious” audience spans ages 12-18, and publishers now differentiate between “Maker YA” (12-14) focusing on invention competitions and school projects, and “Tinkerer Upper YA” (15-18) tackling industrial espionage, labor organizing, and weapons development. The distinction matters: younger readers need clear ethical frameworks and triumphant resolutions, while older teens can handle ambiguity and systemic failure. Check publisher classifications, but also read reviews from maker educators who assess technical complexity and thematic maturity.
Violence and Peril in Mechanized Worlds
Steampunk adventures inherently involve dangerous technology—boiler explosions, toxic chemical leaks, and industrial accidents. The key is whether violence serves the tinkerer theme. A character losing a hand to unsafe machinery teaches about workplace safety and drives them to design better prosthetics. Gratuitous factory disasters that don’t inform character development or technical ethics are just spectacle. Look for books where peril arises naturally from system failures, creating teachable moments about redundancy, safety factors, and responsible design.
Romance Subplots: When They Enhance vs. Distract
For the gear-curious reader, romance works best when it involves collaborative making. Two characters bonding over a failed 3D-printed (in brass, of course) prototype feels authentic. Love interests who respect each other’s technical expertise, challenge design assumptions, and contribute complementary skills enhance the story. Red flags: romances that pull protagonists away from their workshop without narrative justification, or partners who don’t understand why the main character would choose calibrating a chronometer over a date. The best relationships model healthy boundaries between passion and partnership.
The Role of Community and Fandom
Online Tinkerer Communities and Book Discussions
The post-reading experience now extends into Discord servers where fans share CAD files of fictional inventions, debate thermodynamic plausibility, and collaboratively build working replicas. Books that spawn these communities offer ongoing engagement beyond the final page. Look for titles with official or unofficial maker challenges: “Build the protagonist’s grappling hook using only 19th-century techniques.” This transforms reading into a gateway for hands-on learning, with community mentorship replacing solitary tinkering.
Fan Fiction and Speculative Engineering
Gear-curious readers don’t just write alternate endings; they write alternate schematics. Fan fiction platforms now host “technical appendices” where fans document how they’d improve story inventions. This meta-creative engagement is so valuable that some authors incorporate fan-designed mechanisms into official sequels, creating a feedback loop between creator and audience. When evaluating a book’s tinkerer appeal, check if its fandom produces more mechanical speculation than romantic shipping—it’s a reliable indicator of where the story’s true hooks lie.
Convention Culture and Cosplay Integration
The ultimate test of a steampunk adventure’s technical depth is whether its props can be built and worn. Books that inspire cosplayers to create working gadgets—beyond decorative goggles—have lasting impact. Some 2026 releases even include “maker’s notes” in their back matter, suggesting materials and techniques for building key devices. This practical approach transforms literary fandom into a maker community, where wearing a character’s invention to a convention is both tribute and proof-of-concept.
Evaluating Author Credibility and Technical Research
Spotting Authentic Mechanical Knowledge
You can tell when an author has actually built something versus researched via Wikipedia. Authenticity shows in the details: describing the smell of cutting oil, the frustration of a stripped thread, the satisfaction of a perfect gear mesh. Look for author’s notes that mention specific mentors—blacksmiths, machinists, or engineers—who vetted the manuscript. Some authors include photos of their own failed prototypes, establishing credibility through shared struggle rather than expertise.
The Balance Between Fantasy and Feasible Physics
The sweet spot is “speculative but solvable.” A story might posit aether as a power source, but then rigorously apply conservation of energy within that framework. The test: can you identify which physical law is being bent, and is the bending consistent? Books that include “design constraint” sidebars—explicitly stating their fictional physics rules—help readers suspend disbelief while maintaining intellectual respect. Avoid stories where technology functions as pure magic with brass plating; the best adventures let you almost believe they could work.
Author Backgrounds That Inspire Confidence
While not all great steampunk authors have engineering degrees, many have trade experience or collaborate closely with technical experts. The 2026 market features former jewelers who understand precision work, watchmakers who’ve mastered miniature mechanisms, and software engineers who map computational concepts onto mechanical systems. Author interviews often reveal whether they’re “system thinkers” who understand cascading consequences or “surface designers” who just like the aesthetic. The former group writes the books that tinkerers return to for deeper understanding.
Digital vs. Physical Formats for the Modern Tinkerer
Enhanced E-books With Interactive Schematics
The e-book format finally transcends being a cheaper paperback alternative. Interactive editions now include tap-to-rotate 3D models of key inventions, embedded videos of mechanisms in motion, and expandable footnotes that detail material properties. For the gear-curious, these features transform reading into a technical deep-dive. However, the best enhanced e-books keep these elements optional, ensuring the core narrative stands alone for traditional reading while offering layers of mechanical exploration for those who want them.
The Tactile Pleasure of Illustrated Print Editions
There’s something irreplaceable about physically flipping to a blueprint insert or feeling the debossed gear pattern on a hardcover. Premium print editions for tinkerers feature lay-flat bindings for easy reference, heavy paper stock that feels like drafting vellum, and spot-varnished diagrams that catch light like polished brass. These books become workshop companions, surviving coffee stains and oil smudges because they’re designed to be used, not just displayed. For many gear-curious readers, the physical object itself is part of the maker experience.
Audiobooks and Sound Design for Immersive World-Building
Don’t dismiss audio formats for technical narratives. The best steampunk audiobooks incorporate diegetic sound design: the hiss of steam, the clatter of typewriter keys on a telegraph, the rhythmic tick of a massive clockwork mechanism. Narrators with engineering backgrounds often instinctively emphasize technical terms correctly, adding subconscious credibility. While you can’t study a diagram in an audiobook, the format excels at conveying the feel of a workshop—the ambient soundscape of creation that visual media can’t replicate.
Budget-Friendly Ways to Build Your 2026 Reading List
Library Systems and Digital Borrowing
Your local library’s maker space likely stocks the best steampunk adventures because librarians recognize the genre’s STEM appeal. Many systems now offer “maker book bundles” pairing fiction with non-fiction manuals on related skills like metalwork or pneumatics. Digital borrowing through apps like Libby frequently includes access to enhanced e-book features, and some libraries even loan augmented reality devices pre-loaded with companion apps. Don’t overlook interlibrary loan for out-of-print technical manuals that deepen your understanding of fictional mechanisms.
Subscription Services and Steampunk Imprints
Several 2026 subscription boxes now specialize in “maker fiction,” delivering quarterly books alongside materials to build a simple device from the story. These curated experiences, while pricier, provide hands-on context that pure reading can’t match. More affordably, publisher imprints focused on STEM fiction often run first-in-series promotions, letting you sample new authors at reduced cost. Following these imprints on social media alerts you to flash sales and free ebook weekends, essential for building a digital library on a teenager’s budget.
ARC Programs for Young Reviewers
Advanced Reader Copy programs aren’t just for professional critics. Many publishers now offer “Youth Tinkerer Reviewer” initiatives, providing free early copies to teens who commit to posting video reviews demonstrating a story’s mechanical concepts. This creates a win-win: publishers get authentic feedback from their target audience, and readers get free books plus portfolio-building experience. These programs often include author Q&As where you can ask about specific design decisions, offering insights deeper than any finished book’s author’s note.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if a YA steampunk book is technically accurate enough for my skill level?
Look for author’s notes that explain where they deviated from real physics and why. Books that include a “technical reading level” indicator (similar to Lexile scores) help match complexity to ability. Preview chapters for mechanical descriptions—if they use specific terms like “involute gear profile” or “Laplace transform” naturally, it’s likely advanced enough. For beginners, seek stories where characters learn skills progressively, allowing you to learn alongside them.
Are there steampunk adventures that focus more on software than hardware?
Absolutely. The 2026 market includes “algorithmic steampunk” where characters program mechanical computers using punch cards, cams, and logic gates. These stories explore early computing history through fictional lenses, featuring protagonists who debug clockwork code or develop programming languages for difference engines. They appeal to coders who appreciate seeing their craft’s origins reimagined.
What if I want to build something from a book but don’t have a workshop?
Many modern steampunk novels include “apartment-friendly” project guides using cardboard, 3D-printed plastic, or digital simulations. Online communities often create “budget build” challenges where participants recreate devices using only dollar-store materials. Some books even partner with browser-based CAD platforms, letting you design virtual versions of story inventions without physical tools.
How can I tell if a book’s steampunk elements are culturally appropriative versus appreciatively diverse?
Check whether the author includes cultural consultants in their acknowledgments and whether the technology reflects authentic traditions from that culture, not just Western designs with exotic aesthetics. Respectful books show how different cultures would develop different mechanical paradigms based on their values, materials, and needs. Reviews from cultural sensitivity readers in the maker community can provide guidance.
Do I need to understand real-world engineering to enjoy these books?
Not at all. The best YA steampunk operates on multiple levels—surface adventure for casual readers, mechanical depth for experts. They explain concepts through action rather than lectures. If you can follow a cooking recipe, you can follow these stories’ technical elements. The joy is in watching characters solve problems; the how adds richness but isn’t required for enjoyment.
Are there steampunk books that address failure and iteration realistically?
Increasingly, yes. Look for stories where protagonists maintain “failure logs” or where success comes after multiple exploded prototypes. The most realistic portrayals show engineering as 90% debugging and 10% inspiration. Some books even structure their chapters around design sprints, with explicit “retrospective” sections where characters analyze what went wrong.
How do I find steampunk adventures with LGBTQ+ protagonists who are engineers, not just side characters?
Search for #QueerTinkerers on bookish social media platforms, and follow LGBTQ+ maker groups that maintain reading lists. Publishers increasingly highlight queer STEM protagonists in their marketing. The key is finding stories where the character’s identity and engineering passion are integrated—not where one exists to justify the other.
What’s the difference between “steampunk” and “gearcore” in YA marketing?
“Steampunk” typically implies alt-history settings with Victorian aesthetics and social structures. “Gearcore” (a 2025 coinage) focuses purely on mechanical systems without historical constraints, often set in secondary fantasy worlds. Gearcore appeals more to readers who want pure engineering puzzles without cultural baggage, while steampunk offers social commentary alongside invention.
Can steampunk books help with actual STEM learning?
Many educators now use steampunk as “stealth physics”—stories that motivate learning real principles. Some books include supplementary material mapping fictional devices to actual scientific concepts. While you shouldn’t use them as textbooks, they can spark interest in thermodynamics, materials science, or mechanical design that formal education later builds upon.
How do I avoid steampunk stories that are just romance novels with brass trim?
Read the first chapter’s focus: if technical problems drive the inciting incident rather than a social event, you’re likely safe. Check reviews from maker community members who specifically comment on “gear-to-romance ratio.” Covers featuring characters alone rather than devices are red flags. Sample passages should contain more discussion of pressure differentials than lingering gazes.