It's been so long since I've done one of these! This is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where each week bloggers share a list of books for the prompt given. This week's topic is Top Ten Book Turn Offs- we get to rant a little!
1. "Dark and Light" - I'm looking at you, Beautiful Creatures. And Books of Pellinor. And even TMI (remember? Lilith gets to bring Sebastian back because Jace was brought back. 'One for the Light one for the Dark'). I mean, excuse me? Define 'dark'?? Wants to kill everyone and take over the world?? Please. Everyone, including the villains, think what they're doing is good . Who gets to say the main character's side is right? And why on earth does the the bad guy revel in being called the dark side??
2. Insta- Love- this one's gonna show up on everyone's list. Wait, why do you love each other? How long have you known her? A week?
3. Skinny and beautiful characters- I won't name specifics here, but I HATE how you can read an entire series of books and all the characters are good looking. When you reach the author's picture, you realize they are far from that themselves. UGH STOP IT
4. Being SPECIFICALLY TOLD something can't happen, and then it does- this, in my opinion, is a cheap tactic. You can't write something that the readers won't think of, so you have a character tell them the end as a possibility and explain why it can't happen with 100% certainty, then it does. Think Clockwork Princess. A certain favorite character's fate. Or a certain relationship in City of Bones and City of Ashes- makes perfect sense and has a whole explanation, but then it's wrong. THIS IS WHY HARRY POTTER IS SO GENIUS. EVERYTHING WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU AND YOU NEVER GUESSED.
5. Really sweet popular guy who is dating an evil cheerleader but then falls for the smart and sweet unpopular main character- if he is so sweet, why can't he see he is dating a devil? *cue exaggerated eyeroll*
6. SPIN-OFF SERIES- In 90% of the cases, A SPINOFF IS TOTALLY UNNECESSARY AT BEST AND RUINS THE FIRST SERIES AT WORST. The ones that do need spin-offs hardly ever have.
7. A LOVE TRIANGLE FOR THE SAKE OF HAVING A LOVE TRIANGLE- enough said
8. Absentee/ way too lenient parents- because it is TOTALLY OK for your kid to be doing all the crazy stuff he/she does.
9. Heroines who are called badass but aren't actually- Clary, Tessa (though she's not as bad), Nora.
10. Perfect love interests- Enough with the hot, smart, RICH, funny, sexy, strong, badass, forever-loving, etc boyfriends. They can't all be like that!!! Give them some flaws, people!
Ok, so maybe I ranted a little more than intended(: What are your turn-offs?
Love,
Esty
Awesome list. Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteGreat list. My TTT
ReplyDeleteFantastic list! You have a few I didn't even think about. I have love triangles on my list this week too. Thanks so much for sharing. Happy reading My TTT
ReplyDeleteOh jeez this was funny, I agree on practically all of them. Nora, Clary and Tessa are so NOT badass, eps. Nora. She annoyed me SO much, I couldn't deal with her and put the book down!
ReplyDeleteI love it when characters are flawed, it makes them so much more realistic.
The thing is with no.3, is that I think sales go down if the character isn't beautiful or people aren't as attracted to the book. (IKR?) But also, if the character describes themselves as 'plain' or 'ugly' I get annoyed b/c they don't value themselves or b/c every other boy thinks they're amazing and they insist they're ugly. It's a fine line.
Great post Etsy!
~Tilly @ Hardcore Heroines
I agree with you in all of these. Number 1 especially gave me pause. The Dark and the Light can't be really cleanly divided. There are many shades of gray in-between.
ReplyDelete