The Fictional Men Red Flag Scale: How Dangerous Is Your Book Boyfriend?
Kimberly ElliottReal-life red flags are a dealbreaker. Fictional ones? A personality trait we actively seek out. Here's the official scale — from pale pink to deep crimson — for rating exactly how much trouble your current book boyfriend is.
Pale Pink — Charming
The gateway red flag. A little too smooth, a little too good at getting his way. Harmless on the surface, but you already know he's setting something up.
Blush — Complicated
He has a past, a reason, a whole tragic backstory you weren't prepared for. Complicated doesn't mean bad — it means you're going to spend the next 300 pages slowly finding out why he is the way he is.
Rose — Dangerous
Now we're getting somewhere. Dangerous means he's capable of things you probably shouldn't find attractive, and yet here you are, rooting for him anyway.
Wine — Devoted
The turn. Underneath all that danger is a loyalty so intense it borders on obsessive. Devoted is the flag that makes you forgive everything that came before it.
Crimson — Unhinged
No more pretending this is a slow burn. Unhinged means he will do something reckless, extreme, or completely irrational — and somehow it still reads as romantic.
Deep Crimson — Absolutely Not Safe
The final form. This is the book boyfriend you'd never actually date, but will happily read about at 1 a.m. with zero regrets. Deep crimson is the flag every dark romance reader secretly hopes to find.
Where does your current read land on the scale?
Books, cherries, chess pieces, and roses aside — the real question is how far into deep crimson your favorite character actually goes. Tell us in the comments.