(comment re-created by permission)

See, I'm not certain that books-that-happen-to-hit-kinks ought to be classified as emoporn, if only because stuff like Tolkien and Dunnett, which is actually quite mentally demanding, would end up in that category. Dunnett in fact taxes my brain, although I never was quite enthralled by the characterisation.

I'm also willing to bet that a good proportion of the teenage girls who adore Pride and Prejudice, say, read it for emoporn reasons. It's a story that delights on the surface read, and it takes a closer look to feel all of its bite. Incidentally one of the reasons I've always loved Ellen Kushner is that when I first read Swordspoint at fourteen, it might as well have been emoporn for all I could read into it; but it's held up to every subsequent reread.

So maybe it's more interesting to think about levels at which a story is working; some stories function as emoporn and as nothing ese. (Some books fail even as emoporn; we do not mention Ayn Rand.) I don't think Dunnett's characterisation is top-notch, but on other levels, her books are wondrously comple.