My Five Bookish Dislikes

What I’m missing in my life lately is ranting. A good, ol’ fashioned Sit Down and Listen To Me rant. Of course, it has to be about books. Aside from writing, my primary hobby and the love of my life are: books. *Dreamy face engage*  Books, right?  Right.

So, I’m going to talk about five insignificant, really silly things that I strongly dislike when it comes to books. I guess I should have started with my likes but, like I said, it’s Rant Time.

Number One

Love Triangles: Ah, love triangles. Love bloody triangles. If I can mentally eviscerate a specific surprisingly recurring, internally imploding, annoyingly popular trend in the Young Adult genre- it would be these triangle made out of love (and I’m not talking about nachos). Frankly, I don’t get it. The world could be ending, the Apocalypse could be nigh, Armageddon could wipe 60% of humanity off the face of the Earth, Dean Winchester could die (again) yet the protagonist would find two sizzling hot, soul shattering guys out of nowhere and there’s your bleeding love triangle.

I kid you not, there are so many books and series that I couldn’t bring myself to start because I know there’s an LT in the plot. So many highly recommended, interesting books with intriguing plots and badass heroines that I cannot read because I don’t have the patience to read through the drama and heartbreak surrounding the three characters. For example, I loved Delirium by Lauren Oliver but I haven’t read the next two books in the Trilogy because of the emerging LT- go figure, a book set in a world where love is a crime and yet she finds two guys to fall in love with and here I am- struggling to talk to someone normally without fumbling and making up words. Sigh.

Other books include- Throne of Glass series, A Court of Mist and Fury, Infernal Devices and so many more.

My problem with Love Triangles is that- aside from being unrealistic and extremely unnecessary- so much of hurt is involved in the whole plot. In most cases, even if you know which ship you are going to jump on- does not mean that you don’t like the other guy. And he is going to get hurt in the whole process. Also, one of the most important things in a book for me is a good connection with the protagonist and when you read about the protagonist having second thoughts and feelings for both the guys…. It makes them annoying thereby ruining the whole joy of reading!

So, even though I’ll try to give these books a try in the future, let’s just say Love Triangles are a big, fat no for me.

Number Two

Epilogue: I don’t really know why but I do not like epilogues. I remember reading Rick Riordan’s Q&A on Goodreads a while back where he mentioned that he never writes Epilogues because they cut off a reader’s imagination as to what happens after the book ends. That’s exactly it! Epilogues just make me irrationally sad. It’s hard to explain but I like to imagine what happens with the characters after the book ends and if there is an epilogue- whether it’s after 1 year or 10 years- it acts as a barrier. As if, the story and the characters have fast forwarded and they are no longer the age and the way there were before. It’s kind of silly, I know. Sometimes, authors might feel compelled to give the characters a happy future so it’s understandable. Don’t kill me but I… might have liked Harry Potter without the epilogue too. *Cue gasps of horror* I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but it was sad for me to let go of all of the characters and to think that they were now adults. And so many other books- LUX (even though the epilogue was after 11 legit months), Sweet Trilogy, Hunger Games (though, let’s be honest, Hunger Games fandom deserved a happy epilogue).

Let’s just say if I were to write a book, y’all probably wouldn’t get a fast forward into the future.

Number Three

Insta-Love: If there is one thing in the history of romantic Literature that is a goddamn damper for The Feels, it would be insta-love. If you are someone who follows book reviews or booktube, then you would probably be familiar with the term “insta-love”. As the name suggests, it means instantly falling in love. Now, I am someone who likes a slow burning romance. I like it when there is a story behind a relationship. I really hope that love at first sight is not real because that’s just…empty. There’s no story, tension or history behind it. I’ve mostly experienced this scenario in Contemporary books and it doesn’t suck that much- as compared to Love Triangles- but it takes away a huge part of the story that I crave. Obviously, it’s not as bad of a case as a Victorian play, but it’s not the same as a slow burning romance where the tension slowly builds up and the characters get to know each other first and then fall in love. In contemporary novels, you can still count on the author to make us love the relationship further in the story- like in It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover- but when it comes to YA Paranormal Romance or Fantasy, that’s when insta-love can ruin the entire book.

*Boy meets girl*

*Girl meets boy*

*Instant Romeo & Juliet and they fall in love*

Me:

Instead of talking about some of the worst insta-love cases in books, I’ll talk about the ones which are exactly opposite to them- like, Bloodlines by Richelle Mead: I won’t say a lot about this series because once I start, I swear to God, I will not stop. Trust me when I say this, I’m Obsessed with a capital O with Adrian Ivashkov and the ship that is Sydrian. My point is that this is a perfect example of a perfect romance. The main characters, Sydney and Adrian, start off as complete strangers, reluctantly become partners in crime, then friends and then slowly realize that they have feelings for each other.

Other books with slow burning, non insta-love plots are Obsidian (another series I cannot stop talking about once I start. Man, so much angst), Angelfall, An Ember in the Ashes, Nevermore, Burn Mark etc. All of these books are so much more realistic and enjoyable.

Number Four

Thin Pages: Okay, I realize that this one is really stupid but I’m kind of whimsical and, man, thin pages are just not the stuff made out of happiness. What… why are thin pages even used? I’m scared to reread my copy of Son of Neptune or Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince because if I turn one page hurriedly, I might accidentally tear off the entire section or something. While reading a book, the feel is necessary AND I LIKE THE FEEL OF THICK, YELLOWED PAGES INSTEAD OF THIN, WHITE ONES, OKAY?! Okay.

Number Five

Third Person POV: The last thing on my list is reading from the point of view of the third person. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily dislike this but I find it less engaging while reading. I’m not proud of it at all because this is no reason legit enough to find a book not interesting but, ugh, I’m more easily drawn into a book when I hear the direct voice of the protagonist. Usually when an author writes in the third person then that means we get different POVs of different characters- that’s the main reason to write in third person; but, for some reason, it takes a lot out of me to keep reading the book if the point of view keeps changing.

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So, these are my Five Bookish Dislikes and I quite enjoyed ranting about them so passionately. I don’t do book reviews on this Blog as its main purpose is  writing and, also, my reviews are on Goodreads- but, being the bookworm that I am, future book related posts are absolutely inevitable.

*mic drop*