I love books. Frankly, it’s because I’m done talking to people. I’m all set on friends, and would rather skip the small talk with strangers.
Books, though, offer a direct connection to someone trying to communicate with me, a person ready to listen. Hopefully, the author cut out all the B.S. that comes with actually interacting with people.
It’s a perfect way to communicate. One person writes down their most important thoughts, another person reads it, likely without too many distractions. The best part is: you can make it all up!
Sadly, some authors are better than others. In fact, some writers are just plain hacks. Readers have caught on, and can tell what they like and don’t like.
A Reddit user went to r/books with a simple question: “What are some common tropes in books that you hate?”
The Internet had many, many responses.
Here are the best answers to the question: “What are some common tropes in books that you hate?”:
1. Just talk to each other!
“Miscommunication leading to conflict.
Especially when the characters point blank refuse to utter another word to each other, even when a simple sentence of explanation could resolve the entire problem.
Forced drama like that makes me hate a book.” –MyVeloute
2. The bad guy who never gives up.
“Bad guy/group who never gives up. Like ever. Even right before imminent death, not a shadow of hesitation.” –that_one_isnt_taken
3. Let us guess who is who!
“I love urban fantasy books, though they often fall into paranormal romance, which I don’t care for quite as much. I can always tell when it’s going to get romantic and who the protagonist is going to be romantic with because it will always describe the guy’s pants.” –gothichomemaker
4. You don’t know you’re beautiful and that’s what makes you beautiful.
“When the main character is a Plain Jane and dogging herself out throughout the entire book until the snarky blonde boy says she’s beautiful/like a firecracker/not like other girls/Sooooo unique.” –TheSilverCrystal
5. “My secret shame is that I… I… poop.”
“The main character carrying a terrible, horrendous, shameful burden that is alluded to constantly. Turns out to be something very common.” –zeropercentsurprised
6. Accepting who you are no matter what.
“How about the ” I’m just an average teenage girl…who has superpowers….three love interests….always getting into trouble and then miraculously saved. Blame everyone for my problems and never take responsibility. And by the final book in my series I will not have learned or grown in any way but I’m still somehow the heroine” trope.” –eriebee
7. Double the fun!
“As a twin myself, I hate pretty much every twin-related trope you can think of. No, we’re not creepy or psychic, we’re not two halves of the same coin, one of us is not the evil one, and we both don’t want to have sex with you.” –IndytheIntrepid
8. An entire genre, really.
“Beautiful young ingénue (who is incredibly attractive and somehow doesn’t realise it) meets older, emotionally damaged man, and fixes him. A la 50 Shades.” –magical_elf
9. Hard-boiled P.I.
“Hard-drinking, heavy-smoking, emotionally-disconnected, gruff-rough-and-tough, rumpled-trench-coat-wearing, middle-aged, wife-left-me-because-I’m-a-shitty-husband, blues/jazz-loving, I’ll-do-it-my-way, hang-the-consequences, lone-wolf detective that manages to always get-their-man. Yawn.” –Finiam
10. The Sorting Hat… FOREVER!
“People getting ‘sorted’ in a specific group. After the success of HP every fantasy book I read as a teen had some sort of ‘you are part of this group thing’ going and damn it was annoying. You can‘t all copy the Hogwarts houses. Get some new ideas.” –gizmuo