When it comes to books, there’s something for everyone. You love romantic relationships with an emotionally satisfying ending? Romance is for you. Love adventures in space or epic tales of elves and fairies? Give sci-fi or fantasy a try! Love a little crime and investigations? Maybe mysteries are for you! Love non-human creatures/objects with some spice wrapped in romance and a human as the object of their affection? Maybe monster romances or sentient object romances are for you! That’s where Graciella, known as Grapie Deltaco comes in.
The 25-year-old queer and Puerto Rican book content creator has become that girl you think of when it comes to monster romance and sentient object romance. And personally, the first time I crossed paths with her was when she was explaining the plot of Pushin’ Cushions by Vera Valentine, a political sentient object romance about the Vice Presidential Candidate Dennis J. Rance and his couch. Ever since then, I’m glad I hit that follow button. If not I would’ve never known about Pounded by Produce by G.M. Fairy, Railed by the Easter Bunny by Dalia Davies, and the indie game Date Everything.
Graciella sat down with Queerly Not Straight to talk about where she got started, when this monster romance and sentient object romance thing got serious, and how it feels being known as the “it girl” for these kind of wild card romances. We also throw in a couple recommendations and talk about the classic monster romance: Beauty and the Beast.
Where It Started
Graciella’s online journey as Grapie Deltaco started during the pandemic. She was in art school, doing online classes, and felt pretty isolated. “I became a content creator in 2020 when the pandemic started because I am also a yapper, like I’m an extrovert. If I cannot leave the house and talk to another person, I will wither away and die. And so the pandemic was really hard.”
She turned to social media while also getting back into reading. But it didn’t start with monster romances from the jump for Graciella.
Before she became known for Monster/Sentient Object Romances, her account… was a Percy Jackson account. “I remember the exact moment I picked [reading] back up, because my cousin sent me a text. And he was like, “Hey, me and my [now wife], we’re watching the Percy Jackson movie. Is it any good?” I said, No. I said, Oh, absolutely not. And I texted him for like, two hours the differences, and all of the ways that those movies ruined the books.”
That led to Graciella re-reading the books, becoming obsessed all over again, and making content online for it. “I started making like making meme posts about Percy Jackson. And genuinely, I was a Percy Jackson content creator for a good six months to a year-ish for my time on TikTok. And I remember when I was getting really into BookTok, I really wanted to start making BookTok content.” So she asked her followers and they resoundly said, “Do it.”
The Turning Point for Grapie Deltaco
From Percy Jackson, Graciella started going through trending book lists that allowed her to give her opinion. And the first monster romance she read… well it started as a joke. That’s why she remembers it so vividly. “I read it as a joke. And then I was like, “Wait, it’s kind of good.” And it was Morning Glory Milking Farm [by C.M. Nascosta.” The book is about a down on her luck millennial who gets an unconventional job that leads to a HEA romance with a minotaur.
Right off the bat she started noticing that this book was having some really important conversations she didn’t usually see in mainstream genres. “I was like, wait a minute. [It had] really meaningful, like important things to say about the validity of sex work.” And when you threw in the fact that the minotaur was a gentleman and that the cover wasn’t really beautiful, and Graciella was sold.
That led her to Railed by the Easter Bunny by Dalia Davies. In Graciella’s words, “I lost my mind with that one.” It’s the first novella in a series about holiday inspired humanoid creatures. For her, the world building was fantastic, the magic system was really cool, and the chemistry between the leads was amazing. “I was reading it and I think seeing the author’s genuine care put into the work was really doing something [for me] and also seeing legitimate romance effort put into the chemistry between characters.”
When It Became Serious
As a 90’s kind I still remember watching Beauty and the Beast. I loved Belle and how independent, fierce, and creative she was. But I also loved how her and the Beast got to know each other for who they were inside. And when he transformed back into a human, I was like, “Uhmmm I kind of prefer the Beast.” It should’ve been my first clue that monster romances were for me. And it was this movie that helped Graciella get over feeling weird over liking these books.
“Once I sort of thought about it in the context of Beauty and the Beast, where it’s these stories where you’re falling in love with someone with an unconventional physical appearance and truly loving who they are on the inside, it sort of just became less weird to me,” Graciella said. And it helped her understand that people do have non-human crushes, like Simba from The Lion King. Or in this writers case, Kovu from The Lion King II.
The more she read these monster romances, the more she saw monster romance authors who were big on consent, women empowerment, and just generally being respectful to their partners. And it turned even more serious for her when people became dismissive about these ogre romances, werewolf romances, or other wild card romances. That’s when sentient object romances entered the chat.
The Road to Sentient Object Romances
When it comes to sentient object romances, one of the first books that Graciella read was Unhinged by Vera Valentine. “It’s about a sentient apartment door. Who is also the son of Zeus. And then in order to gain a human body and be with the tenant that lives in his apartment that he’s in love with, he has to talk to her in a dream and convince her to have sex with him in his door form. And also like he saves her from like her predatory landlord. It’s crazy.”
From there she’s gone through romances about sentient pillows, tetris blocks, s’mores, crocs, and so much more. And while some of them are inherently silly, Graciella stands by sentient object romances having some of the most well-written stories she’s ever read. “I just did a review for Pounded by Produce [by G.M. Fairy,” Graciella explained, “It’s VeggieTales fanfiction with two priests and one woman. And the priests turned into a cucumber and a tomato. And I sat down and I was like, this is genuinely one of the most beautifully done explorations of Catholic guilt and a fantastic polyamorous romance. I’m obsessed with these characters. I was moved to tears.”
Like the monster romances, Graciella got more serious about these books the more people brushed it off and called her things like “god’s strongest soldier” because they could “never read that.” For Graciella, people were missing out on “the genuine, high quality [sentient object romances], the ones that were really, like, well done, really well written, with legitimate romances that were so flawlessly executed with, like, beautiful tension, and these great conflicts.”
How It Feels Being Known for Monster/Sentient Object Romances
Five years later and Graciella is the creator people think about when it comes to monster or sentient object romances. And it’s opened doors for her in many ways, including being contacted by authors about their books. “I always giggle when a sentient object romance author knows to contact me. I’ve become that person,” Graciella said. “One of my favorite things ever is when I’ll get an email from an author who will be like, “Hey, I’m friends with this other author and I saw that you’re a really big fan…” or “Hey, this other author told me to reach out to you. I think you’d really like my book. And those have been some of my favorite books ever.”
Being known as Grapie Deltaco has also bled into her real life. And according to Graciella, her family have been “super chill” about it. “Every once in a while when I get packages sent to the house made out for Grapie Deltaco they’re like, “Ooh influencer package,” Graciella said. And her mom, who is super active in the book community, is a great support. “Whenever she sees something trending or whenever something go viral she’ll send me a message and she’ll be like, “You should talk about this on your TikTok. You should make a video about this. And she’s just so funny. We have a joke that she’s like the Kris to my Kim.”
Graciella is also super grateful when followers point her in the direction of new monster/sentient object romances. Case in point, the video game Date Everything! At the time of this interview, Graciella loved that people thought of her when it came to this sentient object romance game and was super excited for the release. She said, “I’ve been getting tagged left and right these past couple days because there’s a new video game being released called Date Everything. And it’s, oh, it’s fantastic.”
At the end of the day, Graciella has created a safe space for readers to have fun, dig deeper into what they’re reading, and explore new genres. She’s left her mark as that girl that’s willing to take a chance and explore what mainstream books like to ignore. And if this is where she’s started in her BookTok journey, and what people know her as now, it’s going to be interesting to see what she conquers next.
Follow Graciella on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Queerly Not Straight posts Saturdays with opinion pieces, listicals, reviews, and more focused on the LGBT community (and occasionally about the Latine community since I am Latine.)
For Pride 2025, I’ll be posting more throughout the month.
