This weeks question is: What is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to books? Maybe you don't like love triangles or thin plots? Tell us about it.
This is my first FF back in a while and I'm so glad this is the question this week. It feels like I haven't been able to finish a book in a month because they all seem to be cut from the same annoying cloth. Anyway, enough rambling and on with the pet peeves. I have so many but here are my top ones:
1. Star crossed lovers. I know it's a classic, but it's just so overdone.I'd love to read a book where two people fall in love and it's okay for that to happen.
2. Weak, selfish, stupid heroines. This category includes such things as: the heroine not knowing she has feelings for someone despite all the clear signs, the heroine believing her love interest to be infallible despite them not being old enough to even drink legally and disregarding their friends/family and the worst one, the heroine not having zero backbone and just letting things happen to her.
3. Heroes who are allowed to be creepy/stalkerish/controlling and somehow still get the girl. This just doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever. If it's not okay to stalk someone in real life, it's not okay just because you are supposed to be some kind of overprotective vampire/werewolf/angel.
Wow, I didn't even realise how many pet peeves I have until I started to write. This is a great question and I'd love to hear what you guys think! Have a great weekend all.
I have to agree with everything. Although I do love a forbidden love they are sooo overdone!
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Oh, if I need the full list it would be long!
ReplyDeleteBeth ^_^
Stalker-boys, OMG, that's one I completely forgot about. I get so mad at girls who go for those guys in books! Happy Follow Friday! ^_^
ReplyDeleteHi Lan. I agree in particular with your second point about passive heroines. I think it's long past time for more female protagonists to be shown as intelligent, independent-minded and self-reliant. I would hope that most young women would then recognize something of themselves in their fictional heroines.
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LOL! I didn't participate today but I know my list would have been so long it might have turned into a novel its self. ;)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about all of these, by the way.
Hehe I like your point about stalker characters - yeah just because they're some sort of hero doesn't make it ok, it's still creepy.
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Aw, I love my starcrossed lover's when done right. Maybe it's just me, but I've always loved the whole Romeo and Juliet aspect. It seems more realistic than insta!love and fatal attraction. rotfl.
ReplyDeleteBut, I definitely agree with you on the weak character's, those are just the worlds worst written and they do more harm than good.
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LOL! This is the perfect topic for you, Lan...
ReplyDeleteI, too, am SO done with heroes being stalker creepyish, and it being considered okay. I'm done with them being douchebags and it being okay, and that he can still win the girl! Just...no. It's NOT okay anymore.
And, the female protag is not worthy of all the great fortune to come her way just because she's the MC. I need the author to make her earn all the great rewards she'll get at the end, and I want to see what she'll do to earn it. Same for the hero. They must grow and change, or overcome obstacles in order to deserve them.
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I should have just linked to your post instead of writing my own! You hit the nail on the head with all three points! I think the third one is the most scary though. What kind of message is being sent when that type of behaviour is not only ok, but gets rewarded?
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I totally agree! Especially with the star-crossed lovers one. That drives me CRAZY.
ReplyDeleteGreat answer! Books with the whole stalker-ish main character thing are books that I definitely try to avoid :)
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I totally agree about the weak heroines and the macho man who has to make the woman do exactly as he says not that she ever complains lol, new follower, here's mine
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I think it might be hard to write a book in which the love wasn't forbidden if you want the reader to keep reading. :-) I mean, just imagine it, "Oh, okay, Juliet, you can marry Romeo, why didn't you say so?" The End.( Of course, there are other ways to do it; in my own novel, Wolfborn, the kids aren't forbidden to pursue their romance, but have other things to worry about for most of the book).
ReplyDeleteBut let's face it, the teenage girls with whom i work - and they're not blog-keeping teens, just ordinary girls who like books - like the flutter in their hearts of the Forbidden Boy. They want to cheer for the girl and boy as they find a way. :-) Last year, I started my teaching of Romeo and Juliet with, "Okay, who's brought home a boyfriend or girlfriend their parents didn't like?" and a voice from the class called out, "All the time!" [g) We all had a laugh and discussed it.
Passive heroines, I agree with you, and the stalkerish elements in Twilight make a lot of people uncomfortable, but hey, this is Gothic romance. It's a fantasy. I suspect that deep down the girls who borrow the books from my school library know this and don't really want to be stalked by a gorgeous hunky vampire/fallen angel/werwolf. They'd rather hang out with the real boys in their lives.
My own pet peeves? The teenage girl who suddenly realises she's a princess and she has to marry the gorgeous paranormal boy to save the world (well, perhaps I'd except Jessica's Guide To Dating On The Dark Side, which was hilarious). She's usually about sixteen, by the way. The girl who is the Chosen One who is there to save the world, usually with the help of the boy. The girl all the gorgeous fallen angels are fighting over. Oh, and fallen angels who are good guys. I mean, why did they fall in the first place? And why don't they at least say, "Whoops, I did something stupid!"? The only series I've read where it's implied the character did do something stupid way back when is Rebecca Lim's Mercy, and Mercy the fallen angel doesn't actually remember what she did, though there are hints in her flashbacks.
ReplyDeleteAs someone said - it might make a book if I go into all the pet peeves.
Ugh, yes, selfish heroines are a pain in my backside. I've read a few books recently, where, despite logic the book, the heroine knows the man friend likes her, but is kind of just using the guy's feelings to prop up her self esteem. It's cruel.
ReplyDeleteAnd the overly controlling 'alpha male' is lame. I read an eighties-era romance recently and it made feel sick for exactly that reason. Good answers.
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Jennifer: I've just read so many forbidden love stories that I think I'm drained.
ReplyDeleteBeth & Jenny: This is the shortened & very restrained version of my pet peeves!
Jessica, Becky, Cathy, Kelly, Kim: I feel so strongly about the stalker boys that I'm thinking of writing up a separate blog post about it!
Michael & Sarah: My sentiments exactly. Weak heroines just don't cut it. It's great to hear it from a guy too!
Soungunsung & Karen: I can handle a star crossed lover scenario if there's something of substance about the story. But not if it's simply there to make the romance a bit more tense.
Sue: I think I might be the only female on the planet who doesn't think Romeo & Juliet is romantic in the least. I think there is just as much tension in a relationship even if the two individuals aren't for some reason forbidden to be together. Maybe I'm finally growing up a little, but I worry many girls don't know that it's not okay to be stalked by good looking boys. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. I hope so.
Sarah: I cannot stand stories where the heroine knows a boy likes her but doesn't feel the same and then strings the poor guy along for ages. Not cool.
Great Post!! I hate selfish and especially whiny characters, they always gets on my nerves!
ReplyDeleteAnd I have to agree with the whole stalker issue, it doesn't sound that much different from Stockholm Syndrome, lol. But I don't mind over protectiveness though :D
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Wow, great choices; all of these really annoy me!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog; new follower!
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Meg @ The Book Addicted Girl
Ooh these are great pet peeves I totally agree! Stalked bf's especially!
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Thanks for stopping by - following back!
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