This is a recurring theme but I wanted to feature it again: Pet Peeves.
I love reading and I admire authors. Truly I do. I’ve never wrote a book with my sweat and blood so I try not to judge. I always try to be positive and find readers who could be interested in the books.
BUT
As a reader I have pet peeves. Things I can’t stand in books and would morph me into a real she-devil. Proceed with caution when I’m in such mood because SPOILING MY READ IS CRIMINAL!
It’s the worst offense in my reader’s bible.
So I HATE when:
- The heroine is a doormat.
You know that kind of woman without any backbone. She is used and abused by others her boyfriend being one of them and she always excuses him because “he had a good reason”. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, just grow a pair would you! I always want to slap her myself and I’m not a violent person (well, not all the time).
- The hero (or heroine) is a cheater.
Sorry but I’m invested in my read. I BECOME the main characters. So cheating is a personal betrayal. As I hate dishonesty and duplicity as a whole I can’t stand cheating either. There have been very, very few exceptions to my no cheating rule. I need gallons of Ben and Jerry to recover from the treason. And what happens when a girl eats tons of comfort food? It gets on her hips and behind! So a big fat no no!!!
- The main character is killed gratuitously
I don’t speak of these books when you know upfront the hero is terminally ill. You expect he/she will die even if you pray for some miracle. We are prepared all along (I’ll still cry like a baby by the end). No I speak about books when nothing justifies the main character’s death. Two well- known dystopian/sci fi books embody such appalling thread (no, it’s not Game of Thrones). I’ve seen these characters grow, take blow after blow. I’ve walked in their shoes, nurtured my love for them. They’re my friends. When the author kills them whereas another outcome could have been chosen I’m destroyed! WHAT JUST HAPPENED????? Nooooooooooo. I can’t live with the ending and I make my own ending in my head plain and simple.
- You use sex to sell a book with no meat (pun intended)
Sorry but if I want only sex with no plot and shallow characters I read porn. I don’t speak about erotic stories, sometimes dark erotic stories because the good ones have plenty of sex BUT the author also took the time to build a plot and flesh out (yes, it’s always a matter of flesh with sex) his/her characters. Take the Dark Duet series by CJ Roberts as the perfect example of how you should write a compelling very hot and dark story. But sex with nothing else especially if the blurb promises something more, it’s only a loss of my hard won money!
- I want him/her but I can’t and still…
Endless back and forth, conflicted feelings and undecided hero/heroine just bore me to death. I don’t ask for insta love or insta lust and I like reading about conflicted feelings or taboo love stories…up to a point. When more than 80% of the book is filled with” I love you but I can’t have you and yet I try but then I reject you”, wash, rinse, repeat… I’m already asleep. The same about endless love triangles. Just make up your mind already for God’s sake!
- Trilogy becoming “N”logy just to make money
When something is sold as a trilogy I don’t like it when the author writes a fourth, fifth,… book about the same main characters. Sorry but I like to know what I’ll buy. Usually the other books become simple fillers and the author can’t keep the quality. I just feel conned.
Some authors do write long series about the same characters and the quality is upstanding from the beginning to the end but we know it from the start. Take Sarah J Maas, Cassandra Clare and GRR Martin as wonderful examples.
It’s just the same when authors write really small books, each ending on a cliffhanger and relatively pricey. If you put them all together you would just have a book of average length (say between 200 and 300 pages) but really expensive.
- Copycats
When I read a book I want to be surprised. I don’t want to be constantly reminded of just that other book that is so similar… Again it’s a waste of my money.
- We barely scratch the surface
If I can’t see the character’s world, I can’t connect with them because they are two dimensional or the plot is way too simple with many missed opportunities I won’t be a happy camper …errrmmm reader!
You have usually 200 pages or more so fill them in with something meaningful please! You don’t write a handbook or how to use the new washing machine (when the old one is crashing down in a family of four it’s a disaster! But I digress…).
I’m stopping now with my reader’s rant. I promise to post a “When I want to hug and kiss the author… and give her/him my first born” today or tomorrow.
Now, what are your pet peeves?
Pet Peeves:
In Books—(in no particular order of importance)
1. When it gets better and better and you’re really getting “into it” only to suddenly find out, the main character was simply having a dream and none of it was real.
2. When the hero/heroine always has to have a dog or other animal who is “their best friend” and that they confide in or rely upon. Nothing against animals, but let’s conquer evil through love and human ingenuity. Good stories don’t need “sidekicks” at all.
3. When the “one who saves the day” is always under 12 yrs. old. Regardless of gender. Its overdone.
4. Anything whatsoever that has anything at all to do with:
Swords, Castles, wearing Armour, Bow&Arrows has nnnooooooooo interest-AT ALL. Boooooorrrrrrrrriiiiinnnnnngggg. (i know, that one, is a personal taste thing).
5. When any book is REVIEWED by anyone and the complaint is about “a lack of character development”. OH. MY. GAWWD. I never have and likely never will, unbderstand the near-obsession with this. Further, i dont care if I’m “in the minority” on this one, but I give 1000 more “points” to PLOT! And INTERESTING, suspense-filled plot, far far more than whether the main character is thin or fat, has an accent. is having trouble in their marriage, is blonde, brunette or bald, has a tyrant boss at his/her job……seriously, this means almost nothing, almost every time. It’s the Plot! it’s the PLOT! and what the bad guys are doing, and how the hero overcomes. NOT whether or not they get back with their Ex by the end of the story.
6. too many Sub-plots. This is just trying-too-hard-to-be-too-interesting. Interesting is very good, but this tactic often backfires.
7. Books that suddenly have a very rushed/chopped/sudden ending….as if the writer/author had 40pgs. to go, 2 days before a writers deadline.
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Now for other, non-book, pet peeves:
1.Texting. All texting whatsoever. Seriously, do far less of them. Cut them by four-fifths. Send an email instead. Or even better, just CALL. Really! Wouldn’t you rather hear your sweeties voice anyway?
2. When you write anyone an email, ask 4 questions in it, and when whoever writes back, they answer ONE question (too briefly with hardly any detail) and dont answer three other things you asked AT ALL. Good God, is this person a robot?
3. when a friend is a passenger in YOUR car and they presume to tell you that the radio station that you have on and like “sucks” and to turn it off–or–to shut off your favorite CD you have playing and to “listen to it on your own time”–in your car! Who’s in charge in *their* car?
4. When you go out to eat, go “dutch” and they always have to make sure that they leave a bigger tip than whatever you did.
Thats it for now. Rock on!
Hahaha good point about the dream! Talk about massive let down LOL Thank you for your comment! <3
Totally agree..great post Sophie!!
Thank you Trisy! 😉
Love the things you pointed out in the post!
Thank you Darque Dreamer
Thank you Darque Dreamer!