I read a lot of genre fiction, especially romance and mystery/thriller. A lot. Consequently, I have become very picky and will now reject books based upon what some might consider to be trivial factors. Whatever. While I don’t consider genre fiction to be some sort of “red-headed stepchild” to literary fiction ~ both can be excellent or terrible ~ most writing of any kind is merely mediocre, and I don’t want to waste my time on it. Or if I have to, for a book club discussion, you can bet that I will bitch about it! Following is an open-ended list of peeves that I never want to read again:
- any story that involves twins or god forbid triplets
- a twist that involves babies being switched at birth (or shortly thereafter)
- multiple POV narration in first person present tense
- the woman who ignored red flags and is now trapped in a horrible abusive situation because she agreed to move to an isolated house in the countryside
- anything about WW2 or WW1 or heck even any war whatsoever because I read fiction to escape reality not to become depressed over the fact that everything is as awful as it ever was
- any setting other than contemporary or the 1800s or possibly the future if it isn’t clichéd and/or doesn’t involve a dystopian society which can only be fixed by a band of rebel teenagers
- teenagers in general
- snarky first person narration by a woman who whines about her job/family/friends/lover or lack of same
- science fiction or fantasy worlds with strange names I can’t easily pronounce
- ordinary men who can suddenly outwit cops, the FBI, the CIA, and/or trained assassins
- any story that uses Jewish stereotypes or obviously outright antisemitism even if the writer has a Jewish name (especially then)
- protagonists who are writers
- hater daters or grumpy x sunshine
- fake dating/sham marriage
- awkward meet cutes where someone trips, falls, and/or spills a drink or food on the other person
- the stressed out media star who has to don a disguise and go into hiding to chill out
- plots that hinge on misinterpreted snippets of overheard conversations
- vampires, witches, and shifters, oh my!
There will be more…
Dammit! My book has ALL of those things! Luckily I was able to use time travel to tie up all the loose ends.
ReplyDeleteRoy! Yay! Good to see you here 😀
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of these. Well, all of these. And I don't read romance. I'd also add psychopaths who manage to stay 5 steps ahead of law enforcement and rig elaborate traps, hack VPNs, etc. First of all, how do psychos that kind of time, energy, money and intelligence? I also want to know what software they're using to execute their projects so well!
ReplyDeleteGood one, Keera
ReplyDeleteThe first one made me think of "Sherlock": "It's NEVER twins!"
ReplyDeleteI find it weird how many writers write about main characters who are writers. It's just lazy and implies they went straight from university to writing or possibly journalism without ever having a real job, which is annoyingly privileged. It is occasionally justified, but really is a cliché that needs to be laughed out of existence.
If Hollywood gets wind of you list then it'll be the end of the Lifetime Movie Network! How about characters that get into fights that would land someone in the hospital and by the next scene their broken nose is ok and they just have a little cut above their eyebrow that's almost healed?
ReplyDeleteHaha, that’s a good one, Michael!! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
ReplyDeleteThis is a fun list! How about switching POV from 1st person to 3rd person within the same chapter for no discernable reason (one reason why I couldn't finish "Margo's Got Money Troubles")? Oh, and using present tense for an entire novel - I tried to read "Red White and Royal Blue" because I enjoyed the movie on a flight, but the book is in present tense and it was so painfully annoying to read! - Ms. Anon
ReplyDeleteI HATE PRESENT TENSE! Omg, why are so many books, esp mysteries, written this way? It's so awkward :(
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