What is your bookish pet peeves? Mine is cliche love triangles ?
What is your bookish pet peeves ?
Mine is cliche love triangles ?
177 Answers
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Loading Please wait
What is your bookish pet peeves ?
Mine is cliche love triangles ?
Interruptions
I guess something somewhat irksome is when the book takes you on a grand adventure that you become truly invested in and you can see the book is almost finished and then BAM! Sure enough it quickly and almost too easily resolved in the last 2 or 3 pages. Phfffftpt!
Mush, pure and simple. MUSH. I hate it.
Especially when it turns out that two parts of the triangle are brother and sister ?
@Dan which book? The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard had that….
I’m thinking of City of Bones in particular.
Too many unnecessary details and cliche love triangles, also cliche amazingly perfect woman who can do anything.
Interesting books that don’t end well…just end, fast after building the story page after page. It is like the authors don’t know how to wrap the story up. The story ends up anti climatic in the end.This happens more often than I like.
My pet peeve is when a law enforcement officer (usually detectives, FBI, CIA, etc.) follow the clues by flying around the world when it would be so much faster to pick up the phone and call. ?
@Kristie Omg yes!!
Well, what’s the fun in that? ? (And how else will they meet the exotic foreign beauty?)
@Kristie Especially since we all know there is no money in the department budget to get all those frivolous travel expenses approved.
Young woman suddenly inherits a house, usually in a far off place, from some distant relative she barely knew if at all. She uproots and moves to the house and finds letters/diary in the attic that reveals old family secrets. Can’t believe how many authors use the same old story line.
Young woman who never wanted children ends up pregnant and motherhood is just the thing she needed to change everything about herself.
Slow starts when nothing happens til page 50 or so. But I’m usually gone by then.
@Ann i agree life is too short so for me i wont waste my precious time
Cartoonish villains with no depth.
Often accompanied by cartoonish heroes who never have any moral qualms or doubts.
That badass character who’s so independent and hardcore and at times a little cold and closed off, but the moment something happens they start crying…. even though its out of character……. I’M LOOKING AT YOU ZENITH
The stubborn woman who is independent and alone gets wrapped up with a man who wants to help her. They end up falling in love. ALL THE TIME
A man having to save a woman. I mean, cant it be a woman comes to his aid? I love good romance but damn.
@Shana I think you would like The Widows War!
@Patti ill look into it!
@Shana it was written by Sally Gunning. Everyone in my book club enjoyed it so much. It’s one I’ll probably read again.
@Patti i love those kinds of books. Where you want to read them kver and over again.
Ok, put it on my tb list.
@Patti, thanks for the recommendation, it sounds like an interesting read.
I have two: One is when the main character changes personality after meeting “the one”. Ok, dude…you were a total quiet, closed off guy and now all of a sudden, you are an outgoing, loving extrovert because you met a woman? Seems plausible. Second is when the whole angst/drama of a book could have been resolved if the main character had just talked to the other characters. Why all the secrecy???
Using 18 pages to describe a love scene. Just write… and then they did it! Lol
This is gonna sound odd, but I hate those protagonists who are constantly reminding the reader “I’m not like everyone, I’m so different!” Or how tough they are. Show don’t tell, I hate it when there’s a lot of telling but no showing
YES! Or when they tell the whole backstory through dialogue..when does that actually happen in real life? When do you see your sister and say something like “I realize that you are sad because Brian, your ex-husband, cheated on you two years ago and you are just beginning to heal from that.”
@Kara oh is that not how you talk normally? I must be the odd one then!?
I dislike it more when its a first person protagonist and somehow they just know exactly what everyyyyooonee is thinking or just judges everyone based on petty stereotypes
“Wow, I know that cheerleading is a bitch because all cheerleaders are bitches and look now she is doing something bitchy and I’m never ever wrong”
When the author tells you the age of a child and then describes them in entirely the wrong way. Mr. & Mrs. American Pie, for example. The child is supposed to be 2 or 3 yet they describe her like an 8 month old.
Unreliable narrators. I will flame an author for pulling that!
Most romance novels are littered with people who are gorgeous and the main plot is about how they meet and fall in love. What about us normal flawed people? And what about the old married farts?
@Kirsten I’d love to read about the old married farts!!??
@Julia Please, you are talking about my husband and me!?
@Jean haha sorry!!! ?
@Julia You are forgiven! ?
I hate books written as if they were screenplays – with too much description of the scene.
I hate short chapters. Like 1-2 pages then the chapter is over. I doesn’t make sense! That’s not how chapters work! It’s just frustrating ?
It didn’t bother me 20 years ago, but dubious consent “romance” scenes are squicky to me now.
I also hate when authors shill products or use dialogue that is just completely unbelievable in real life.
I hate it when a main character doesn’t change at all in the story, they don’t learn anything, they don’t grow, they do the same things at the end of the book as they were doing at the beginning. Or, they do something really outlandish and out of character, suddenly at the end. I’ve been known to throw a book across the room when that happens. I feel so cheated.
I’m still mad at Catcher in the Rye and I read it an English class over a decade ago.
@Casey, yes, that is a classic example.
@Kelly and as if Holden’s bullshit wasn’t enough, we give it to teenage boys in their formative years who idolize him for way too long.
Yes exactly.
Switch back and forth in time periods. Just about every book I run across does this, very few without confusing the heck out of me.
It can be done seamlessly, but in most books, jumping back and forth between time periods is done poorly and is really jarring. I’ve been known to only read the chapters set in the time period where the book started!
Few authors do this well, I don’t like the switching time periods usually. I also read all of the first time period, then go back and read the second time period. It doesn’t ruin the story at all and I enjoy it more.
The woman always being a naive, innocent, little virgin and the man an untamed womanizer in a good amount of romance novels. That gets annoying and old.
“Clever” or “unusual” writing techniques that keep you from ever getting absorbed into the story because you are aware of the writing more than the narrative. Give me great storytelling over precious writing every time.
Amen to that!
Needless sex and Mary Sue’s. The one book I put down and never picked up again was guilty of both. Which is really sad because apparently it’s quite popular. It’s like, “Typical vampire girl going to vampire school… EXCEPT SHE’S NOT TYPICAL BECAUSE SHE GETS HER VAMPIRE POWERS EARLY AND SHE FINDS OUT BECAUSE THE OTHERS WE’RE TRYING TO HAZE HER. OH! AND HER TEACHER AND THIS OTHER VAMPIRE THAT’S LIKE A COUPLE OF YEARS OLDER THAN HER AND SHE KEEPS HAVING SEX WITH BOTH FIT NO REAL REASON AND THAT CAUSES DRAMA! And then it’s like HER FRIEND DIES EXCEPT NOT REALLY SHE BECOMES A SPECIAL VAMPIRE, AND MAIN CHARACTER HAS CONTROL OVER ALL POWERS! ” Not gonna name the series because spoilers, but the main character is just so above and beyond. Special and all of the sex is completely and utterly pointless.
@Erica I feel like I know the one you speak of…if it is that one, I totally agree. If not, jeez, there are more of them?!? ?
@Kris one I’m speaking of is a series. A really bad series. I think they also named every historical figure as, “Oh, they were vampires too!” Which was ridiculous
The one I’m thinking of is a series, as well, but I think we have two different ones here. Crazy! My problem with this series was totally adult situations with YOUNG teens, and it just veered into “oh, hell, no they did NOT just say/act like/do that! I get that fantasy is a thing, but if you are going so far outside the boundaries, maybe a little world-building is in order first!
I’m also sure I know which books are this and boyyy I just loooath them, seriously made me both annoyed and uncomfortable
@Kris no world building in my series either. Like at first they make you think there’s set truths in the world. You drink blood at this age. Develop magic (if you do) and this age. If you die you die. Then Mary Sue comes along and the rules don’t apply to her because she’s special, and her friend dies, but not really because she’s a special snowflake vampire and she’s special. THEN it starts getting into the REAL rules 3 books in, and I put it down because why? Why was any of that necessary? HP didn’t pretend to have, “Boy getting used to wizard school” plot and wait until the third book to be like, “Oh, the most evil guy ever is trying to kill him.” No, they start the series with, “Voldemort killed Harry’s parents because he’s a jerk.”
I think I know this series also. And I was just as annoyed. And yet I read about 4 of them. Hahaha
Foul language & gratuitous sex..
Mistakes in a book turn me off, if an author is using something in a story that isn’t invented yet at the time of the book or something impossible for the time turns me off the book, I usually throw the book, if I finish it it’s only so I can give it a bad review.
Word repetition. For example the book I’m currently reading has “murmur” in some variation on just about every page. The story is good, but the repetition really annoys me.
Modern words and concepts in times and places that they are unlikely. Neanderthal vampire feminist detective saves the dinosaurs because she is the first astronomer and sees the asteroid coming so she uses her dragon to herd them to an island and now she is the first environmentalist. Okay nobody steal my idea while I run to the store and buy a quill fountain pen and a pile of new notebooks.
@Gayle no lie, I’d buy that. If it’s that absurd, I’d buy it because it’s hilarious
Darn! I was going to ask you if I could have that idea!
Females who go back and forth about what they like and don’t like and if they are good enough for a man. Honestly, I just want to slap them and make them sit down to talk to their significant other. It can all be resolved if you communicate.
I hate an author using magic to pull the story out of the fire at the end, when the entire book was not magical. No that’s cheating, figure out a realistic ending.
Staggered plot lines… one chapter about this, the next chapter about that… and on and on. So un-creative.
Inconsistent rules in fantasy/sci-fi. You can make whatever rules you want but you can’t change them at your convenience partway through.
Yes! I call it internal logic – if the author creates a world, the story needs to make sense within that world.
Stories of beautiful, long-legged women who dress elegantly but are also incredibly successful doctors or lawyers or writers or – you fill in the blank – who have an affair with the male antagonist who is burly, rumpled, usually a detective or cop, and has some kind of history that keeps him from advancing in his career. Until they solve some kind of crime together involving several deaths. Then all is well. The End.
Insta-pregnancy, a.k.a couple meets has sex they both either comment on the fact that they can’t believe they didn’t use and condom or the h thinks about it in her head, then bam of course she is pregnant and somehow everyone is angsty but happy and everyone loves everyone
I hate those story lines. That and the “secret baby” ones.
Women who inherit money and buy a house in a fantastic place but her life is a mess and we are supposed to feel sorry for her.
@Bonnie Usually her life is a mess because she doesn’t do the easieat things to just solve her problems. Really annoying
Random characters inserted in the ending to wrap up everything.
I hate it when there is TOO much detail. I love some detail, but not when it goes on for pages. I read a book once and the author went on to describe the house the character lived in, right down to the gravel in the driveway. It had zero relevance to the story. It just made me angry and anxious to get back to the plot. If the book isn’t long enough add stuff, but at least make it interesting and relevant!! LOL
@Tammy Yeah, I also absolutely hate too much detail.
And just the opposite irritates me, like when the author chooses not to describe the character. I need a visual of who this person is so I can picture it in my mind.
Character visualization is important to me.
Idk maybe I’m getting more prude as I get older, but I cannot comfortably read through sex scenes anymore.
Especially when it’s absolutely not needed to keep the story going
I can if they’re written well. I roll my eyes at sex scenes that describe Thing ‘A’ going into Thing ‘B’… We all know how it works.
I love a good romance novel
I cannot stand stupid main characters who justify stupid behavior with half baked ideas.
I read one recently where a character said she used Jiffy peanut butter. It’s JIF, not Jiffy. Was she thinking of Skippy? It bothered me more than it should have.
Ridiculously neat and happy endings. Real life is a lot messier!
Gorgeous characters that do not possess a single blemish and are perfect in every way, hence why I typically avoid romance,it’s just too unrealistic and overbearing.
Perfect and perfectly hot women paired up with a flawed older man. Someone’s fantasy, but not mine!
Too much narrative.
Too much description for me, it detracts from the story.
yes!
Otherwise successful heroine suddenly goes stupid at the end of the book and has to be rescued by a man
I read lot of British historical novels and hate to see modern words and Americanisms in them.
Formulaic, emotionally manipulative writing.
It seems like there’s a lot of that out there right now.
Instead of having chapters flow, it is now the rage to alternate chapters between two characters as if every plot were “Gone Girl.” I’m almost finished with “The Silent Wife” by Kerry Fisher. It’s well written and holds my attention, but the chapters alternate between “Lana” and “Maggie” over and over and over again. Half the time when it’s Lana’s turn, Maggie is also thinking in it. Just let the chapters flow.
@Patricia or when the author retells the EXACT same part of the story for each person??
@Wendi Agree. And, Faulkner did that on occasion. None of these authors are Faulkner.
I hate overly descriptive writing.
Everything all tied up in a bow at the end. Oh, and poor grammar. And the female character that is totally comfortable being defined by a man and waiting for him to fix everything.
Characters who are introduced early on that are never heard from again. Why I stopped reading Grisham
Poor grammar, and movie posters on the covers.
Multiple POVs. I want to be in ONE person’s head, not a whole crowd!
Starting a mystery novel and then discovering that it is a romance novel, ick!
explicit descriptions of violence/torture or sex scenes
Mine is not finishing and letting us know what happens to the characters… leaving it like a cliffhanger with no second book. I wanna know what happens!!
When an author has done a relatively good job with a book then rushes the ending.
Weak females
Rahul Rahul Exactly!
Boring, non-descriptive writing. I need to feel like I’m there with a character, otherwise what’s the point?? Lol
Bad writing! I know it when I read it!
@Paula i so agree. I usually stop reading if it is not a book club book. But it is also relative, I do not enjoy the writing styles of Kristen Hannah or Jodi Picoult and thought Before we were yours awriting mess
no story arc
A book with no characters to like.
I’m reading one of those now. Ugh!
How come none of these women ever have periods or infertility or body fat or dental issues?
@Gayle That’s a great point!
A promising story line that is rushed at the end.
Or a death that is glazed over! I read a fairly popular book and the main character dies in the end. I. Didn’t. Even. Realize. It. Because the author blurred over it. All of a sudden everyone was at the funeral.
Sexist cliches. Especially ones that are trying to hard. I’m thinking of the kind like “Men are dumb and women are crazy” kind of thing. I had to stop reading Wheel of Time because of this kind of interaction between characters of different genders. It was awful. 🙁 I could understand if it was one or two characters who pulled that kind of stuff but all of them? Ugh.
*deep breath* okay. So you know how there’s always that dang moment in books (especially in the fantasy genre) where the protagonist is all, “ ohhh well this person (who has been obviously working against me and is 1 mil % trying to get me killed) told me not to trust my faithful advisor/companions. I better listen to them and do this horrible thing and betray all my loved ones. Der der der “
Blatant foreshadowing
Also! Anytime there’s a woman in fantasy who is “breathtakingly gorgeous” but all animals are terrified of her and the male characters are all “I’m sure that’s normal.”
Fat characters who only think/talk about food or dieting.
I will never forget this one book I started. It was a Christmas murder which I love and within the first two pages the character was all “I don’t know why I can’t lose these extra 20 pounds!” While walking around with gingerbread men in her pockets. I immediately returned to the library because I could tell it was going to be nothing but fat shaming weirdness
Only character I saw successfully get away with this was Choji from Naruto (the anime). And he only gets away with it because 1) it explains that his powers consumes a lot of energy and 2) his moveset includes size transformation. So his body is literally made to the moveset he gets from his family. Plus it stresses that you can’t bully him for being big because he’s actually a lot stronger than you think.
Pregnancy romanticized. Preggo woman is “glowing” etc. instead of barfing and crying over her stretch marks.
Stereotyping of characters that are archetypes, ie the cool and impersonal therapist (who of course wears short skirts), cruel foster parents who make their kids hustle, clueless social workers who never notice their own two feet, etc. Can you tell I am a social worker and therapist? Haha. The authors rely on really sloppy stereotypes when it comes to this stuff and it drives me bonkers.
A murder mystery where the author obviously pulled a name out of a hat to decide “who dunnit” 20 pages before the end. No motive. They were just evil.
The ones where a youngish, 30-something, beautiful woman who is running away from an abusive husband suddenly meets and falls in love with an incredibly sweet, handsome, understanding “savior” within weeks after escaping the horrible marriage. Blech.
Ugh, the worst!
I despise when the leading female character is ALWAYS in some la-la land of denial about said love interest. “I love you, i love you.” I saw him talk to another female. I guess that’s it. He’s changed his mind. Now I must act out some insane stunt to cause him to question my sanity so he can redeclare his love. (It’s like the author can’t come up with a conflict to resolve so they just turn the characters dumb and oblivious). If “I” can see what’s going on, then the character should ALSO know what’s going on.
Telling the story from too many different characters pov’s and then not naming the chapter so we know who is now telling the story. It gets so confusing
I read a lot of nonfiction and literary fiction (which is less predictable). My weakness in genre fiction is historical, and that’s where I run into pet peeves. When it’s a female protagonist, if she thinks like Scarlett O’Hara–“I’ll think about it tomorrow” instead of confronting challenges realistically, I toss the book. If the protagonist is male and indulges in the “I must do the right thing no matter what” attitude when a more real and possibly more successful attitude might involve some gray areas, that’s when I’m done. Especially when it involves errant knights.
I hate detective crime books. Which is like 30% of all books it seems.
Agreed!
I hate when an author writes historical fiction but it’s in modern-mentality, American first person. They attempt to write a ‘strong female protagist lead’ and use sarcasm instead of wit and behaviors that no woman (or man) would do or say during the time
Couldn’t agree more. Some of the most popular authors in this category write books that are extremely well researched but are ruined by this affectation.
@Angela, I started “The Yellow Crocus” and could finish because of that very reason; the way that book was written was so jarring, there was no way I even wanted to finish! I never understood the great reviews it got either.
@Barbara It sometimes seems that virtually every book that comes out gets great reviews, so I have stopped paying attention to them.
@Jean, I still read the reviews but I also look to see what else the reviewer(s) have read.
Post-Twilight fantasy. And I’m not talking “fantasy after twilight”. I’m talking the fantasy after Twilight that tries to ride that Twilight craze so hard it tries time be Twilight. Twilight was a bad enough series, imo. But anything that tries to mimic it is a thousand times worse. There are a million different things you can do with fantasy, vampires, and werewolves. That’s what’s great about it. If you aren’t going to create original ideas for vampires and werewolves then stick with one of the hundreds of existing myths. Don’t steal someone else’s crazy ideas just because theirs did well. The succeeded because they were brave enough time try something new
Mistakes where they shouldn’t be….
*Insta-love
*the abusive potential partner that turns into the love of their life
Repeated phrases or words
Yep! I started a book once where the main character “stiffened” every single time she got upset. I finally stiffened and quit reading it.
@Ellen Agree! Just finished a (very popular and highly rated) novel that had the main character biting her lip in angst so often it should have fallen off.
Oh yes….I cannot stand books like this either. “Licked her lips”, “wolfed down” and such seem to be immensely popular but really annoy me.
@Lynn I need to know which book you were reading ?
@Ellen **Warning** Most people love this book!! It’s Where the Crawdads Sing ?.
No communication between the characters. So much of the drama could be fixed if they make character who talk things out. How refreshing would that be…lets not make it like real life and walk around assuming everything. You know darn well in real life MOST OF THE TIME people will talk things out and get to the bottom of problems. I just hate how an author could make 200 pages about an issue that could be resolved. I’ve read books where the author gets the issue resolved and guess what it’s still a good book…..off my soap box 😉
Dog ears and no cover jackets on the books
Pretentious word choice or personality traits (John Green)
Teenage cliches. YA can be written better.
^ Am I the only one that asks where the heck the parents are in almost every YA I read? ?
No, you aren’t.
Probably dead
Mine is that thing where a character knows something vitally important but decides not to say anything because…Why? No one knows why and there is no actual reason?
This is one of the things that killed The Butterfly Garden for me.
Movie/TV promo covers.
I value good writing.
Characters who won’t just say what really happened… playing the victim and staying the victim. And submissive women who let people walk over them! Toughen up, you fools! I might also be talking about in real life too. Lol
bad grammar, immature adult female characters
Taking 200 pages setting the stage. I’m betting it can be done in less than 100. If you don’t get my attention pretty quickly, I may put your hard work down due to lack of interest.
Whiny characters – I don’t hang around whiny people in real life so why would I want to read about them?!?
@Karensa for real. Quit crying all the time.
Cliche anything. Like we have these minds and imaginations for a reason, let’s use them.
Fiction. There are times where I’d come across a (nicely disguised) book only to find out it’s fiction…
When i use to read the genre it was vampires dating 15y old’s and acting just as angst and bitchiness even if they were 400y old.
Omg the drunk but brilliant cop/detective who has been pushed out or retired and works the case on his own, ultimately to be pulled back in because nobody can make it without him. Horrible personality but somehow lovable especially by his female underlings. Always divorced at least once. Obsessed with said case.
Trite … predictable…
Over descriptive paragraphs, over developed characters who get killed off right after I take time to learn them but too soon to love them; repetitive language especially of unique words; mentioning the title more than once or in an unnecessary way; globe hopping with no reasonable funding; there are probably more but these are my top ones.
@Sarah globe hopping?
When one character asks a question, then 2 pages of what he was thinking, then the other character answers. I have to go back to find out what the question was.
Loose ends at the end of the novel!