Booking Through Thursday #4 - Literary Pet Peeves (read: 'rants')

 

What are your literary “pet peeves”? 

 

What's that? You want me to rant about things I irrationally dislike? Well, as much as I hate doing that... go on then.

 

1) Sneaky vampires (or aliens/angels/zombie-tigers)

 

It seems I can barely go a post without complaining about this, but hey - Do Not Annoy Me, And I Shall Not Rant.

 

By this, I mean creatures that pop up in the middle of books when the blurb didn't even hint that they were invited to the party. Vampires are the most common offenders, and it was actually Black Swan Rising that kicked off my rant a few weeks ago, in a post kind of similar to this one.   

However, it's not just vampires. It happens all the time. I admit sometimes it's my own fault, like when I manage to completely ignore the informative subtitle and photo (*cough* Bound *cough*), but more often than not I'm innocent.

 

It's not just paranormal fiction either, oh no! Even classic fiction has its offenders. I recently picked up Slaughterhouse 5, expecting a fairly standard anti-war historical fiction. And what did I find? Aliens.

 

I rest my case. 

2) Angsty melodrama

 

Please dear God, just stop crying!

 

I can't stand books where the characters do nothing but wail, sob and desperately wring their hands. It's usually a teenage thing, all the more frequently where one half of the partnership is a vampire/werewolf/demon and he loves a human girl but he's too dangerous for her, and blah blah blah...

 

In Mercy by Rebecca Lim, I don't think any character utters a sentence that isn't sobbed or accompanied by some form of desperate wailing.

 

If you can't stop whining, I swear I'll give you something to cry about. 

 

3) Unnecessary love triangles 

 

I don't hate love triangles per se, although I do admit it's the kind of thing I normally would. Instead, it just annoys me when romance is shovelled in to a book when the plot would be perfectly fine without. Better, even.

 

It irritates me further when the ridiculous heroine makes the blatantly wrong choice. I know a lot of the time it's subjective, which is where the whole 'Team This' and 'Team That' thing comes from, but sometimes it's just... not. Take The Killables, by Gemma Malley. Yeah, I actually quite liked it. But... wrong boy. Seriously. Without Any Form Of Doubt. 

4) Insta-Love

 

In the real world, people don't usually suddenly catch sight of their childhood friend and realise they R in Luv 4Eva. In a lot of books, the couple declare their undying devotion after about five minutes of intense dislike.

 

It just doesn't work like that! I just think that it might be giving young teenage girls slightly unrealistic expectations - I've overheard a few that don't understand why their boyfriend won't act like Edward or Daniel from Fallen. Answer: They don't act like that, because people don't act like that.

 

It's also annoying when girls 'fall in love' with boys with no actual knowledge of said boy, just because they're told not to. Sigh. Hello there, Matched.  

 

 

I got a little carried away, I know. For the record, I do actually like books :)