BOOK TROPES: WHICH DO WE BURN OR EMBRACE?

I like complaining. Don’t get me wrong, I love books. But, sometimes, they can be pretty damn annoying. 

I’m pretty sure that everything is now becoming a book trope, and “trope” automatically seems to mean “thing I hate” and that is sad. WHY DO WE HATE BOOKS?!

(also, who is super bad at blogging consistently? MEEEEE!)How can we not love books? They’re amazing, right??? They’re AMAZING, right?? I mean sure, you can love something and find them annoying, right? I MEAN OF COURSE. I love blogging, but WORDPRESS, OH YOU FRUSTRATE ME SOMETIMES. And so now, because May already said why WordPress is so annoying sometimes*, I’m just going to talk about why books annoy me.

I know, I’M SO ORIGINAL. 

There are a lot of basic things that everyone I automatically list in my head when I think “THING I HATE”:

• Chosen Ones
• people who hate cake WHOAREYOUAREYOUHUMAN
• Insta-love.
• SOULLLL MATES.
• BICKERING / DRAMA.

*check out that amazing non-self-promo

(Little heads-up: this is mostly me just asking “how?” a lot)

1. Unqualified Protagonist Succeeding Above Overly Qualified Supporting Characters.

OHHHH THIS ANNOYS ME. I mean, HOW THE HELL DOES THIS EVEN WORK? This is actually the most mind-blowing plot twist. How do these really well-trained people just let some amateur swan on in and do what they’re supposed to do, without a care in the world?

How. How does this recently-average-person even keep up with these amazing kick-ass people? I couldn’t, you probably couldn’t (no offence). I mean, just HOW. HOW. FREAKING HOW??????????????2. You Have Powers but Didn’t Know It!!! 

This is similar to the one above, but I just want to rant, ok?

How can this person just have NO IDEA? HOW? I’m dumbfounded. Okay, yeah, it must be pretty damn cool, but honestly, how did they have no idea? Just. How. SURELY YOU WOULD HAVE NOTICED BEFORE.

Examples:I guess City of Bones?

• Percy Jackson.
• Harry Potter 100% (He figures it out, sort of? BUT HOW DID HE NOT KNOW BEFORE?)
• Alia(is that her name?) in Shadow and Bone.

3. Girl’s-Life-Changes-Because-of-a-Boy. 

This could be a girl changing because of a girl, a boy because of a boy, it doesn’t matter. It annoys me anyway it happens.

This is literally one of the most annoying ones to read. Watching a someone change because of who they’re dating is actually painful and makes me want to cry. How can the other person be okay with the fact that they are making another person change? HOW.

4. The Love Triangle. 

This can actually not make me want to impale myself, surprisingly. There are sometimes when I think that it’s actually done okay/well. For example:

• City of Bones,
• The Infernal Devices.
• this isn’t just Cassandra Clare, I promise.
• The Raven Boys.
• Dreamology.
• Love, Rosie.

Times where it’s not done so well:</big>One Memory of Flora Banks.

• Throne of Glass.
• There are probably some more that I can’t remember.

5. The Naive Martyr / Nonchalance About Death. 

Ohhhh this one annoys me a lot. I don’t get how people. are. so. naive. It really annoys me, because I don’t get it how they can say “oh yes, I’ll just die to get you this bracelet back”. I get that they want to save the world, but I don’t get why they’re just so willing to die. Or, they just won’t even consider another option.

Can they just not be so silly? Mate, please?

It legitimately makes me want to gouge out their eyes with a spork because, well, they deserve it ok?

6. Society Is Dying Omg!!!!!!! 

this one is just overdone to the point where I can’t deal sometimes. Sometimes, I love it, sometimes I like it. Most of the time, I don’t. I find it pretty damn overdone to the point where I can’t even read it. I don’t even want to think about it sometimes. I like it a lot of the time, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not even that much of a fan of futuristic things.

Where I liked it:Illuminae / Obsidio (these kinda count??)

• The Pursuit of Zillow Stone.
• Warcross.

Where I was meh about it:Divergent (it actually started out okay but went downhill)

• Replica (I couldn’t get more than 100 pages in)

7. Do They Even Go To School? 

I get that, yeah, school probably isn’t that interesting to write about, but is there not homework, or assignments, or clubs? DO THEY EVEN HAVE HOBBIES*????? Seriously?

They don’t even bring it up sometimes? They don’t even think about it? For example, City of Bones—A BOOK I LOVE SO MUCH—even has this. I love that book, but the first time that I read it, my thoughts were, “why the hell doesn’t Simon just go back to school? Does Clary not care about school?”

I get it, BUT I DON’T GET IT AT THE SAME TIME. 

*says a really lethargic person. . . 

8. The Unambiguously Bad Bad Guy / Brooding Bad Boy / Mr Tall, Dark, and Perfectttttt! 

Okay, I can be a realllllll sucker for this one, but I’m a little tired of it?? I love that there are less “perfect bad/popular boys“, for example in The Upside of Unrequited, there’s a geeky, normal, guy and he’s lovely and!! SO SWEET!! and it wasn’t all about someone falling for a really popular guy for once!!

And urgh the “Perfect” character. . . SURELY YOU CAN’T DO SOMETHING???? And I find that they’re really arrogant sometimes?? literally all the time. And they’re 6732% self-absorbed and most of the time I just want to stab them in the back with a twig… off of a cliff*.

* I’m not violent ok?

Because I’m super lazy, here’s a list of the remaining tropes I’d like to mention:

• 9. The Heroine’s Dreaded Role of Queen!!: I mean… I guess they don’t have training… but they don’t need to be all “JGNJKRNGJKRSNG I DONT WANT TO BE A QUEEN!! When, really, couldn’t you just like, get someone to help you?
• 10. A “Strong” Female Character: The ones that literally NEVER allow anyone to help them??? Get a little big for their boots? Get a little bit annoying?? URGH no, I don’t like them. I’m all for being a strong, independent woman and being amazing, but sometimes, the way it’s done is just dfkgnkgn. OR, when the books are meant to be about a strong female character, and she never does anything for herself!! 
• 11. A Guy is Unreasonable Because of Personal Trauma:Seriously. Stop. Putting. Your. Problems. On. Everyone. Else. Stop being mean to people because you’re not okay!! They!! Don’t!! Deserve!! it!! 

What book tropes do you love? Which do you hate? What other tropes are there that I didn’t mention that you like/dislike? What are some of the most frequent tropes you come across in books? Let me know! 

Luuuuuu