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Folks are dragging this ‘Hood River Hoodlums’ gay romance series, but it gets so much worse

By · Updated on January 26, 2024

The rabbit hole that starts with this white author’s “Hoodlum” series being called out goes so, so much deeper.

USA Today Bestselling author K. Webster is in hot water after people outside of her immediate “Booktok” audience caught wind of her Hood River Hoodlums romance series.

The series begins with Hood River Rat, a gay romance novel between a teen guy new to Hood River, Oregon and his bully, the leader of the “Hoodlums” gang.

With Webster being white and “hoodlum” being a highly racialized term, the optics were less than stellar:

The optics continue to deteriorate.

The above TikTok shows the author excitedly displaying the most recent series installment, a prequel titled Hoodlum Heat featuring a Black member of the gang on the cover.

Black Twitter was not feeling this at all:

K. Webster has since posted an apology, saying that she will be re-evaluating her covers and titles alongside new sensitivity readers:

@authorkwebsterIf you’ve tagged or messaged me, I am working on getting through those messages. I appreciate your words and am listening.♬ original sound – authorkwebster

Unfortunately, the newfound attention on this series from folks outside of her usual stratosphere also draws attention to the rest of Webster’s catalogue, which is… extensive.

She has well over a hundred romance titles under her belt, most of which deal in darker, smuttier, and more graphic subject matter. Many of her books have been pulled from other booksellers like Amazon and can only be purchased directly from her site.

She euphemistically refers to them as “filthy, taboo, and forbidden.” In the cases of many of her titles like The Wild and Hale, these translate to explicit child abuse, incest, and pedophilia as “romances”.

These aren’t written as side plotlines or cautionary tales, but as the entirety of the wildly work-unsafe stories. The Wild particularly makes Flowers in the Attic seem like a rom-com.

The bulk of her writing makes it clear why she would want to get any and all unexpected eyes off of her stories as quickly and efficiently as possible.

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