Top 5 Wednesday | Tropes I Hate

There are a lot of tropes in books. Character tropes, plot tropes, you name it. Sometimes, even if a trope is extremely overdone, I can still enjoy books that use it if they are done well and keep me excited (see: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard). Other times, tropes that I see a lot of other readers getting tired of (the main character as the Chosen One, for example) don't really register as a problem for me. More often, however, overused tropes drive me up a wall. Here are my top 5 hated tropes in young adult books (and, yes, I do realize a lot of them have to do with how female characters are written):




5. Girl on Girl Hate

• Ugggggh. Why? Why is this necessary? Oh wait, your main character is just so "not like other girls" that all of the other girls hate her for no apparent reason besides being really annoying because she keeps reminding us that she is NOT. LIKE. THEM. I'm all for girls being friends. I'm for girls loving girls. I'm all about that girl power. Obviously, it's not realistic that all of the girls in a book get along - teen relationships are so complex and varied and messy - but, come on. If you have no other female characters that your main character gets along with, reevaluate why that it is and fix it. Please.
• Examples include: The Fill-In Boyfriend (Kasie West), Red Queen (Victoria Aveyard) (yes, even though I mentioned this book as one trope-filled mess I really enjoyed, the lack of female friendships really irritated me)

4. Absent Parents

• This trope can take a variety of different forms. The parents in these books can be, as the descriptor suggests, absent - rarely making an appearance, if they ever do. In other examples, parents would show up once at the beginning or pop up to make some sort of comment about their child only to disappear back into the shadows. In yet another iteration, the parents may be present but, for reasons unbeknownst to me, they will be written as completely oblivious and aloof. While there are reasons for some teen characters to have this kind of parents, it is more often than not that those legitimate reasons just aren't at play.
• Examples include: The Conspiracy of Us (Maggie Hall), Dare Me (Megan Abbott)

3. Manic Pixie Love Interest/Faux Action Girl

• I combined these two ideas into the same category because, at their basis, characters like these are coming from the same origin: the idea of the perfect girl (or guy, I suppose). With Faux Action Girls, readers are told that they are amazing at fighting, at outsmarting their opponent, at pretty much everything. Throughout the course of the book, though, this character may end up doing nothing. When I'm told that a character is amazing, I kind of want to see that happening. Manic Pixie Love Interests are pretty straightforward - characters written as perfect counterparts to the main character when, in fact, their personalities/looks/total package/whatever are probably completely unattainable in real life. The Cool Girl.
• Examples include: Alaska in Looking for Alaska (John Green) (Manic Pixie Dream Girl), Ginny Weasley from the Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling) (Faux Action Girl)

2. The "Not Like Other Girls" Girl

• How many times do you pick up a young adult book only to discover that the main character is only average when it comes to her looks, kind of shy, maybe a bit of a loner, and - oh - not like other girls? Probably pretty often. I can't stand it. What is so wrong with being like other girls? I can't stand when books that have girls like this are held up as some bastion of feminist young adult literature. What is feminist about shaming the choices that other girls make? I could go on and on.
• Examples include: Katsa from Graceling (Kristin Cashore), Blue from The Raven Boys (Maggie Stiefvater) (note: I have only read the first book in this series so her character development may get better as it continues).

1. Instalove and Love Triangles

• The ultimate ugh. I am almost at the end of my rope regarding instalove. I just can't do it anymore, guys. Lust at first sight? Sure! Soulmates at first sight? Hang me upside down by my toenails. There isn't even that much more to say about it. Give me a slow burn and make me want and understand and yearn for the romance. Finally, the problem with love triangles is that, usually, the author already has their endgame pairing in mind. As a result, the love triangle comes across as heavily skewed. A lot of times, it is almost as if the third character (destined to be rejected) isn't given their fair chance; in others, it is so amazingly obvious who the main character is going to end up picking that the romance isn't even enjoyable.
• Examples include: Darcy and Imogen/Lizzie and Yama from Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld (note: I did not read this as a satire like some people did - reading it as such would certainly affect the way you read these romances), Alina/Mal/Nikolai/the Darkling (a love square perhaps) from the Grisha trilogy (Leigh Bardugo)