#ShelfLove Challenge 2016
We’re co-hosting the #ShelfLove challenge again this year so join us and read more of the books you already bought!
What is one book trope that gets on your nerves? What do you wish the publishing world would STOP doing?
Julie’s Challenge Update:
Bookish tropes, sometimes they are interesting but other times they just need to stop. Here are a few tropes that I wish authors would just stop doing.
- “I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.” I swear every time I see this in a book I deduct stars. Annoying much? What to do instead: “My breath escaped in a loud whoosh as I reminded my body to resume the task of breathing.” Isn’t that better?
- Heroines, who are special snowflakes but don’t know it until half way through the book, and then spend another 100 pages denying their specialness. STAHP! What to do instead? How about more characters who are already familiar with their special gifts, and instead spend the book showing us why they kick ass and prove themselves worthy of their awesomeness. I believe I’ve mentioned this before…
- Love triangles. When you’re too busy trying not to die in a crazy-ass world, maybe it isn’t realistic to be fawning over two different boys?
Challenge status: I’m doing a little bit better this month. I’ve “hugged” 3 books from my Shelf Love shelf and am up to 5 total.
Lynn’s Challenge Update:
I’m totally with Julie on the snowflake heroines and the love triangles trope. Especially in dystopia. Personally, I think I’d be too busy surviving to worry about boys. I would add:
- Lack of adult figures (at least in YA): Why are there never any parents, teachers, or councilors to help guide these teenagers? Are kids these days expected to figure everything out themselves?
- The virgin and the player: I guess it’s society’s puritanical views showing – but how do all the players out there get experience, but then expect the loves of their lives to still be virgins?
- Instalove: InstaLUST, sure. But Instalove? I don’t think so. How can you “love” someone you don’t even know? Ok, sure, if you are locked in a cabin during a snow-storm, you might learn enough about someone over 5 days to love them. But just meeting an hour before? I don’t think so.
- Pregnancy / Secret / Sudden baby: I see any of these and I am out before I start. SO OUT.
This month I read 4 books I own. I think that’s a record for me! I also bought the new Sophie Jordan book for a book signing I’m attending. Stay tuned for that review next month!
Here is my shelf:
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Instalove. Ugh! I just can’t. As a reader it makes me want to throw the book across the room. And as a writer if my characters are starting to talk HEA after 2 weeks, with no pre-existing relationship, it makes me work extra hard to find ways to make them suffer! LOL
I also can’t do love triangles. I mentioned in my post about it that I think I’m just too old to enjoy the idea of two men fighting over a heroine. It’s exhausting! LOL
I’m with you, two men don’t fight over a chick in real life. Especially when the world around them is falling apart.
Yep, yep, yep, and yep! There are phrases used that irritate me. And I’m tired of heroines who don’t know anything about themselves or their talents. I also tire of absentee and/or terrible parents in YA. That’s a big one for me. My post goes up next week. Y’all are always so much more on top of things than I am! 😉 LOL
Bookworm Brandee recently posted…Review ~ Real ~ Katy Evans
LOL we try to get things up early so people can link up all month.
Oh, all of these!!! Definitely! The holding your breath thing is something that I notice all the time and it always bugs me. Why does this happen so often in books?
Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction recently posted…The Fine Line Between “Inspired By” and “Copycat” – Let’s Discuss!
I know, right? It’s like everyone in books is breathless constantly?
InstaLove & Love Triangles – hate ’em
Players who are “reformed” by the Virgin – yeah right
Parents (and other important guardians) of the “special snowflakes” who don’t bother to tell them anything, even though their lives are in danger!!!
When authors repeatedly use the “oh, I didn’t know I said that out loud” thing.
HAHAHA yea that’s right, players are not reformed by a virgin, nope. Rolling my eyes when I see that!
Yes yes so agree on the special snowflakes! Like, why can’t those heroines just embrace their power? If I were them, I’d probably show it to everyone xD Also agree with insta-love! If a book show any hint of insta-love, I don’t think I will read it.
Tiffany @ The Bookish Thought recently posted…Review : The Young Elites by Marie Lu
Ha I think I’m with you and I would show off my special powers too. Or, at least use them often, not deny them.
I love all of these! I want to send it out into the world and tell everyone to pay attention~ because these really are so genuinely tiring.
Interesting pet peeves! I only picked one, though I share some of these too.
Nikki recently posted…ShelfLove March Update
Good point on the lack of communication, Nikki. And very true!
I can’t stand love triangles. Nope, don’t want them. It will almost make me DNF a book, I dislike them that much. I do agree with all the others, just not as much as love triangles.
Billionaires are another one that I’m sick of reading. I get that we don’t want to read about people on welfare because there nothing exciting about someone working two or three minimum wage jobs to get by. But I don’t want to read about Donald Trump either. I like reading about people who have interesting jobs; cops and PIs are the two I read I love of. I even read a series where a heroine works in the morgue. Some run their shifter group or have a security business, Mercy is a mechanic. There are many ways to make them working class or even upper middle class without making them bleeding money.
Melanie Simmons @mlsimmons recently posted…Marked in Flesh Audiobook by Anne Bishop (REVIEW)
I’m totally with you on love triangles, Melanie. Especially when they are contrived for no real reason.
I get tired of Alice in Wonderland references. Why does every character who is in an unusual circumstance have to compare herself to Alice, mention a white rabbit, or fall down a hole?
I never thought about the holding breath thing, but I can see your point. But, to a certain extent I think people do that in real life.
Jen @ Books That Hook recently posted…An American in Scotland by Karen Ranney ~ tour stop with excerpt
I agree with you on falling down a hole for sure, Jen!
SPECIAL SNOWFLAKES EVERYWHERE! EVERYWHERE! 🙂
I never thought about it, but people in books hold their breaths a lot. I’m not sure I do it as often as they do in books. Perhaps I’m not put in live threatening situations enough or I don’t see enough pretty boys in a single day. 🙂
Terri M. recently posted…#ShelfLove Challenge | What I Hate About Reading
They really hold their breaths all the time! It isn’t normal haha.