Most of mine are admittedly quite frivolous in nature, but I’ll start:
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Constant flashbacks that interrupt the flow and current time plot of the book. I can tolerate a few, especially if they’re intentional in the way they illuminate on a decision or scene that just took place. That said, flashbacks featured every other chapter drive me mad. Personally, if necessary it all deserves to go into an extra long prologue at the start of the book. It’s not that I don’t want to read it, it’s that you’re breaking up a juicy moment to tell me what happened « 5/10/100 years ago »…
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Characters that have far too similar names. Take Keenan and Kieran as a light example, or what I often see in fantasy books: those extra long names that seem to start and end in similar styles. Lol this one really might just be me and my forgetful nature, but I spend the whole book flipping back and forth through pages to make sure I have the right character in mind. A romance author I really love is guilty of going as far as giving the same name to different characters across her series…this wouldn’t be too much of a problem, except she often publishes special releases where she intermingles characters from across these different worlds, and it just gets confusing to say the least!
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Epilogues that don’t stay consistent with the plot that was established. I love a happy ever after as much as the next person, but if the characters just spent a million chapters battling each other, or with one character rejecting the advances of another… I’m going to need a few “transition” chapters before you tell me that there’s suddenly peace across that universe, or that the two characters are now married with kids. I don’t see this one too often, but I’m always left in a bit of disbelief when I do.
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Cover art or models that don’t match the description or “vibe” of the novel. This one is silly and definitely subjective, but that’s just not how I imagined that character and so I’ll avoid looking at the cover from now on lol!
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One that I’m sure we can all relate to: books that end on a cliff hanger, with sequels that take years to be published. Or even worse: are TBA. We all have one author in mind.
I’d love to hear some of your “book pet peeves”or your thoughts on the ones that I shared, do you agree/disagree?
by Lilis_Throwaway