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Thursday Discussion : Least Favorite Tropes

The topic for this week is-

September 19: least favourite tropes

This Thursday Discussion book prompt is from Ally Writes Things, the original post showcasing the topic is here.

1.) Not Like The Other Girls

This is the heavyweight champion, forevermore. I have come to the point of DNF’ing books that have this trope or wishing I had DNF’d them. This trope seems particularly prevalent in the New Adult genre. I’m just not interested unless a protagonist is pulling the ‘not like the other girls~’ bit to try and do a more convincing version of this-

Basically if the protagonist is self-effacing about it or strange, that’s cool. I like standout protagonists. But usually this trope serves to make the heroine come off as better than other girls, more virtuous, more special than other characters. Not impressed.

2.) Insta-Love

I can totally believe two people being attracted to one another on sight and getting together quick. It happens all the time. But it just seems too convenient or unchallenging for storytelling. I like back stories, I like flashbacks to past events involving two characters and moments they’ve had together. I think there is some skill involved in creating a convincing passage of time and a believable bond between characters. Friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, protective robot companion to lovers, I don’t care. Anything but insta-love.

3.) (Romance) Billionaires

I won’t not read a book about a billionaire but having ‘billionaire’ in the title tends to conjure images of tacky 100 page little guilty pleasure harlequins, ugh. (I prefer the 400+ page overwrought guilty pleasure harlequins, personally. ^_-) Would read a parody though!

4.) Unimportant Side Characters Killed Off For Dramatic Effect

I’ve noticed this in multiple fantasy / YA fantasy novels. A character dies and everyone is shocked and horrified and I’m like.. who is that character again?

I end up asking Siri, do you know who on earth RandomSideCharacter from XYZ series is? And find a wiki page for that character that is maybe one line long, clarifying how pointless the character was. What’s funny is that there is no drama in killing off a character that no one cares about. It’s just a random diversion of little consequence.

And that’s about it for tropes I’m sick of. A pretty short list, fortunately. I think this list will be longer in 2-3 years after I’ve read voraciously enough to be more annoyed by certain cliches. For now, luckily, I like most things I’m reading and having fun with nearly everything.

Thanks as always for checking out this post. Do you agree with any of my selections or have some much-disliked tropes of your own? I look forward to reading fellow book blogger posts on this topic as well. Until next time~

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Kitty Marie's Book Reviews Blog

Eclectic Book Reviewer/Series Fangirl

21 thoughts on “Thursday Discussion : Least Favorite Tropes”

  2. Insta-love drives me crazy!! I’m so with you on that one, I will literally take any other trope over that one. And I used to be obsessed with the not like other girls trope when I was younger but now it just makes me mad, everyone can have their weird quirks (which half the time aren’t really that weird) but the way it’s written most of the time comes across really poorly now in my mind.

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    1. Now that you mention it I think I felt similarly about the not like other girls trope when I was younger. After noticing the pattern and how it contributes to girl hate and egocentric characters I’m over it. Thankfully most new YA I’ve tried has steered far from that. 😀 Thanks for your comment!

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    1. I’ve noticed that too. It’s an epidemic across multiple media. I remember watching a show with a friend and joking that they were going to kill off the new POC character since they had done that several times in previous episodes, she thought that sounded silly, lo and behold they killed off that character before the end of the episode. Very tired trope. And thanks for your thoughts. 😀

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  6. I get so frustrated when characters are only introduced so they can be killed dramatically a chapter (if that) later. Not to get all feminist, but it’s usually a woman too, probably the love interest of the male lead, and it only serves to motivate him to continue the story. You can’t make a character important to the reader just by telling them the character is important. A dramatic death in the second half of the novel has so much more impact–those are the deaths that break a reader’s heart.

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    1. About women/love interests being killed off for dramatic effect, MUCH agreed. I’ve seen that happen sooo many times across all media (tv and movies too) Also agreed on deaths toward the end and after great character development being heartbreaking and effective. Thanks for your comment!

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  9. Absolutely agree with your list! Insta-Love is the worst. It’s like you’ve just met, have you even had time to form an opinion because I certainly haven’t. A trope that I’ve seen lately that I just don’t understand is Bully Romance. Why in the world would you like someone who harasses you, belittles, or even mentally or physically abuses you. I like enemies to friends to love, but outright bullying is just awful to me.

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  10. I gotta be honest, when I first discovered the romances I didn’t mind the billionaires and insta-love tropes–I just mindlessly consumed without ever thinking about what I was reading, as long as it was more/less enjoyable. How that has changed though! 😂 I feel like so many of the billionaire romances come attached with insta-love too. Great post 🙂

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