Exactly what it says! I’m going to bring up tropes that I don’t see mentioned a lot, but that I think about a lot. Edit: It’s come to my attention that these are very YA tropes, so how about it? What YA tropes annoy you? Or just tropes in general.
Here are some tropes that I get annoyed with:
1. The main character always LOVES to read. Like not just loves but “Ah yes, here’s a book, my whole world is now okay, I want to waft into a book…” and so on. It’s probably more in YA than anything but come on, they don’t always need to be that character that loves to read, or is an expert at literature, can’t there be more main characters that aren’t? Idk, it just feels like the author has to project that feeling and Idk, I find it annoying.
2. The Male love interest is super attractive. These stories are typically from the perspective of the girl but sometimes the guy and it’s usually directed to a female audience. I know these stories can also feature super attractive Female Leads too, but often it’s not the case. In those stories you can get away with the Female Lead being less attractive, but the guy just HAS to be beautiful. Like… why?
Things I’d like to see more of:
1. Romance stories where the girl is after the guy. I want more stories where the girl is more of the flirt than the guy. Or trying to date the guy. I know I have read a couple but they had tropes in them that I didn’t like (like the ones above and they try to make the female lead too quirky and the guy is too smolder-y, I don’t know I want a more natural relationship but still the girl is after the guy). Maybe it’s the girl who confesses and the guy is shocked by it and didn’t see it coming or something instead of the guy, idk, I just want more of that.
2. In YA stories can there be more characters that don’t want to be different from the people around them? I didn’t realize how starved I was of this until the Cruel Prince story, where the main character doesn’t want to be different from the people she’s with (in spite of how insufferably awful they are)
3. How about books about people who are middle-aged or older? I’d love to read a fantasy story about an older person getting to go on a quest or something. And I want it all to BEGIN when they are older, not referring back to unfinished business.
4. Gay characters that aren’t stereotypical and aren’t shoehorned in. Specifically GUYS. I once had a dream about a story. It was about a girl who had a father who was strict and tough. He winds up dating this guy who immediately creeps out the girl. Turns out the guy is a freaking mafia boss and the girl tries to tell her father but the father knew all along, and now the girl is stuck in a dangerous world–all I know is, where are stories like THAT?!
Okay, maybe the last two I’ve seen more of, but idk, are there any tropes or plot elements that just don’t butter your croissant?
by insannatea
14 Comments
I would like to see less of the main character being some kind of writer. I’ve already read so many of these that it’s gotten stale. And it makes me suspect that the author either lacks imagination or doesn’t want to do research. Worst case scenario, the main character will just be a cringy self-insert of the author.
I would like to see more of deep and meaningful friendships that are never forced into being romantic relationships.
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I don’t think that every single person needs to end up as part of a romantic couple in order to be happy.
Making sure all the friends/side characters end up in a relationship
One of my favorite books is Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Cruisie, but man did she shoehorn in a third, poorly written, unbelievable love story. You read more about this side character and her relationship than the secondary romance (the FMC’s sister gets a romance, but it’s kind of vague and I’m glad of it)
More non-romantic male/female partnerships (e.g. *Dark Places*), more non-traditional main characters (e.g. *Holly*), and I’d love to see a return to weird genre fusions circa early 1980s Dean Koontz but without the mandatory romantic subplot.
Less shoehorned romance, fewer too stupid to live main characters, fewer FBI agents who are just turning 28 while in their third year in the bureau, and more fact-checking in non-fiction works.
I brought this up in another thread but I’m annoyed with the unreliable narrator in the form of a female that was drunk or medicated the whole time but you don’t realize how bad until the end. It’s such a copout and people always refer to it as this big plot twist and I’m like no, that’s not a plot twist.
I love novels with a good detective and especially an underestimated one that figures it out in a way that only they could figure out or like they were the only ones that saw it and no one trusted them type of detective stories.
I’m over the vampires r sexy thing. actually I was never un-over it. to put it bluntly: I just don’t get the appeal of a cold dick. and no author has ever adequately addressed that because … they can’t.
apart from the dick thing, just vampires in general. I don’t really get why they’re inherently interesting.
edit: typo fix.
Male love interests in YA novels don’t have to be sarcastic/mean/annoying/abusive/stalker like. You are allowed to write someone that is likeable.
deep male/female friendship!!
I agree with you! I am begging the universe for a MMC whose looks are rough around the edges! Perfection is just not sexy.
Perfection. I can’t stand characters that are perfect.
It’s boring. I need imperfections. I thoroughly enjoy characters much more if they are relatable or realistic.
Maybe this is only a big thing in the kinds of books I tend to be drawn to (more literary fiction with sci-fi or fantasy elements), but I’m a bit tired of books where it seems like every character is designed to “challenge stereotypes”. It just gets predictable—there’s always a soft, caring male character and a hard, alpha female. Every once and awhile you might find a male protagonist that is tough, brave, into engineering, or y’know…conforms to any other positive male stereotype….only to find out 50 pages in that (surprise!) he’s gay.
I’m not saying that it would be better if all characters rigidly adhered to stereotypes, but…idk, it becomes predictable when every character has to be the opposite of a stereotype in some way. These books also rarely have any characters that I can identify with, which kind of prevents the books from ever prompting introspection from me. I’ve also always felt that these kinds of characters were designed to manipulate my worldview, and I don’t like to feel manipulated.
I know I’ll get downvoted for this…but it’s just my honest take. It’s not cool anymore.
As a big reader of thrillers, I want to see less of:
1. Dual time lines, where the lead-up to an important past event is laboriously drawn out among chapters set in the present that are a consequence of that event. It means the present-day storyline can’t advance until the past storyline is revealed, and it makes the book BORING.
2. The main character carrying on for 300 pages, “I did something terrible in the past and no-one can ever know!” while never saying what it is they did, and it turning out to be something mild and stupid that nobody would blame them for.
3. The narrator at the end who goes, “It was me all along!”
4. Insipid, simpering, hand-wringing female protagonists who act like complete morons at all times to ensure the plot can keep going.
Less of :
1. Quirky, I’m not like other girls, bookish, stumbling through life while making cute mistakes female characters
2. Wild child free spirited men who don’t understand that actions have consequences
3. Extremely wise and prescient characters whose sole purpose is to spout wisdom and knowledge at the MC and the MC uses that to push their story forward
Want to see more of
1. Middle aged people who are absolutely delighted to be middle aged because of the sheer liberty that comes from income stability and knowing oneself
2. Casual and kind human-animal relationships without that being the whole story