This week's theme: Bookish Pet Peeves.
Here are some of mine...in no particular order.
👎 Overuse of the word smirk in romance and YA novels. Especially when the author uses it wrong. Smirk is neither cute nor flirty. It's an irritatingly smug or condescending smile; a sneer or a snigger. And when it's used ten or more times in the same book it drives me crazy!
👎 Love triangles. Enough said.
👎 When authors write dialogue without using quotation marks. What's up with that? Who decided that was a good idea? It's annoying enough to make me want to DNF the book. (Inane or badly written dialogue bugs me, too.)
👎 Stupid heroines! It drives me crazy when an otherwise intelligent character does something stupid like wander into an abandoned warehouse at night looking for a murderer without telling anyone where she's going. Honest mistakes are one thing; blatant stupidity is another.
👎 Manufactured conflict. Like when the two main characters in a romance novel end up in a long drawn out fight or angsty separation that goes on for pages and pages over some silly misunderstanding that could have been resolved with a simple 30 second conversation.
👎 Cliffhanger endings! Especially when the next book hasn't even been written yet.
👎 An unsatisfying ending to what was an otherwise awesome trilogy.
(Yes, I'm talking to you Suzanne Collins!)
👎 And don't get me started on people who borrow books but never return them!
There's my short list of bookish pet peeves. Can't wait to hear some of yours.
Happy Reading!
Brilliant!!! Especially agree about 'smirk', it is not a replacement for 'smile'! And stupid heroines. I like 'TSTL'... Too Stupid To Live. Heehee.
ReplyDeleteThis is silly but 'really' hate 'over-stuffed armchairs'! Far too many authors using that. Think of another way to describe comfy chairs for goodness sake!
Great post! (I think my comment has way too many exclamation marks. ;-))
TSTL is awesome. :D And 'over-stuffed armchairs' probably gets as overused as the dreadful smirk.
Delete"Stupid heroines" is a great one - when I need to roll my eyes too often that's a sign of a terrible book. Not a fan of "cliffhanger endings" either.
ReplyDeleteWhen I start rolling my eyes in the middle of a book it's usually a sign I need to just stop reading it. :)
DeleteI love your list, Lark! And I definitely agree with many of them. I don't mind reading about love triangles at times, though, provided if they're valid, lol.
ReplyDeleteBut are there ever valid love triangles? Can you really be in love with two people at the same time? I don't know... ;D
DeleteI think it's more like one party is fickle minded, haha. Anyways, it's fun to read them in fiction but in reality it's another matter.
DeleteFickle is a good way to describe someone caught up in a love triangle. :)
DeleteI agree with all of those, particularly dialogue without quotation marks - that's so annoying!
ReplyDeleteIt is annoying! Why did people start doing that? Use quotation marks, people!
DeleteI can understand all of them very well but totally agree with #3 and 8. I keep a list of the books and people I lend them to so I can remind them from time to time ...
ReplyDeleteMy TTT.
I've just stopped loaning out my books except to my sister, who's as careful with her own books as I am with mine. :)
DeleteI always hand them over in a zip lock bag so they know I want them to be kept in good condition. But my friends know that anyway. And yes, there are not many whom I lend my books to, either.
DeleteOh, and thanks for visiting my TTT earlier.
DeleteLOL! the nail struck dead center with the perusal hammer! those are all annoying...
ReplyDelete:D Thanks!
DeleteBig yes to manufactured conflict! Which kind of goes hand in hand with my most hated trope - miscommunication and/or lack of communication. It's such a cheap plot device! When your entire novel's conflict could be resolved if your characters would just have a five minute conversation... ugh, that's just lazy plotting.
ReplyDeleteIt is lazy plotting! And I hate it. For me it totally ruins the book.
DeleteOy, stupid heroines! When someone who seems like a smart person otherwise does something stupid because the author needed some tension.
ReplyDeleteOh, and book lending...
I get so frustrated with stupid heroines! And I no longer loan out my books. I've been burned too many times.
DeleteI agree with all of these. Stupid heroines are the worst. And I can't even tell you how many times I've raged over manufactured conflict. My biggest pet peeve is when one simple conversation, maybe even one sentence, will fix things between characters. Ugh, that's so frustrating.
ReplyDeleteYES! One simple conversation is all that's needed so many times. And instead, the author spends pages and pages on nothing. It feels like such a waste of time.
DeleteLove your list. I agree with all of them. But, now evertime I see the word smirk, I'm going to think of this post!
ReplyDeleteBeware...once you're aware of the word smirk (and it's misuse) you're going to start seeing it everywhere! ;D
DeleteYes, yes, yes. You nailed several of my own pet peeves in your list...especially the "dumb heroine" thing where the main character keeps walking into new hazards without learning a thing from her previous close calls. But my main peeve is the way that some authors decide to rush their endings after building the tension for three or four hundred pages. I HATE reading a "summary" of everything that happened "off camera." I hate it so much, in fact, that I seldom ever pick up another book by an author who wastes my time like that.
ReplyDeleteDumb heroines are the worst. But I agree with you about rushed endings! It can really ruin an otherwise good book. I wish I had thought of that one myself; I would have added it to my list. :)
DeleteYES!!! YES!!! YES!!! Especially the manufactured conflicts!! And dialogue without quotations, or breaks, especially on an e-reader!!!!
ReplyDeleteOoh...dialogue without quotation marks on an e-reader would be awful. It's bad enough in a regular book!
DeleteYou've got some good peeves here, Lark. I do agree with the TSTL heroines for sure. LOL
ReplyDeleteDon't you hate stupid heroines? It's not only annoying, it's insulting!
DeleteOne of mine is when a book promises to be "The Next (insert bestselling novel here)". At worst they disappoint, and at the best they are actually good books but have little to do with the book they promised to be similar to.
ReplyDeleteThey do always disappoint...or have nothing whatsoever to do with the book they're being compared to.
DeleteCliffhangers are my number one pet peeves.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of them either. I like my books to wrap up at the end, not leave you dangling.
DeleteYes to the lack of quotation marks round dialogue, I have DNF'ed books in the past because of that. It's not an artistic choice, it's just annoying!
ReplyDeleteMy TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/10/05/top-ten-tuesday-336/
It is annoying! I wish they would stop doing it.
DeleteWow that's a good list. I especially agree about unsatisfactory endings ... that's one of the worst ... if it ends abruptly and doesn't really go anywhere ... ugh!
ReplyDeleteA bad ending can definitely ruin an otherwise good book for me.
DeleteYes to all of these, especially stupid heroines. They drive me insane, lol.
ReplyDeleteThey drive me crazy, too!
DeleteI never thought about how often the word smirk is used as a positive or flirty description. It's one thing if it's the villain in a thriller who smirks, but please not the romantic lead!
ReplyDeletePam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/going-to-the-dogs-12-books-with-dogs-on-the-cover/
Exactly! A smirk is neither positive nor flirty, and I wish authors would stop using it wrong.
DeleteThis is such a great list. We both don't care for people not returning our borrowed books. Manufactured conflict is annoying.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing and for visiting my blog.
Love that we have so many bookish pet peeves in common! :)
DeleteOh my gosh yes when people go by themselves into a dangerous situation and tell NO ONE where they're going. Even worse now in the age of the cell phone. And yes to the manufactured angst. One of my biggest peeves...
ReplyDeleteThings like that in a book always make me roll my eyes and seriously considering DNFing the book.
DeleteBlushing every 5 seconds is a pet peeve, as well as the overuse of "I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding".
ReplyDeleteTSTL heroines almost always ruin the story for me. Manufactured angst and unsatisfying or sad endings are hard to swallow too. Yep, wasn't a fan of how the Hunger Games turned out. Or Divergent for that matter. I refused to read the last book in that series.
I didn't read the last book in the Divergent series either. I was good stopping after the second one.
Delete"The breath I didn't know I was holding" is one of mine too. So overused. :(
DeleteLack of quote marks! That totally drives me nuts too!
ReplyDeleteIsn't that so annoying? Why do they do it???
DeleteYes!! These are awesome. Smirking is not sexy. :) The artificial stupid conflicts drive me bonkers. If characters would actually have real conversations instead of making assumptions and jumping to conclusions, these dumb break-ups could be avoided. (But where's the drama in that???)
ReplyDeleteBut doesn't it feel a little lazy on the author's part to depend on some artificial conflict between the two characters to give their romance drama?
DeleteI can't stand smirks on anyone, and I certainly don't care to see them on someone I might fall in love with!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees it that way. :D
DeleteSmirk - it didn't bother me as much probably because I don't read a lot of romances. But I do seem to come across guys dragging a hand through their hair a lot - I'm guessing it's a habit but I just find it a bit annoying and don't quite get this.
ReplyDeleteLove triangles - Even the ones that are done well, I still hate them. Sometimes I don't believe in the triangle because we just know that third person is really only there to add to the drama and is not really a contender.
No quotation marks - I also find this a bit frustrating to read because I'm so used to seeing them
Stupid heroines - I think this one is more for cozy mysteries because I had read many of them which had the lady going to meet the murderer by herself but I think what makes it dumber is that she never gets kill even though she had a thousand chance of dying.
The old silly misunderstanding conflict - I don't like it either, although, it seems a little less annoying when it's a tv show because you can kind of fast forward
Cliffhangers - this is why I think all book series should be released after it's finished being written
Ending - another reason to not like book series, I rarely read book series with satisfying endings but at least we get to have a good book 1 or 2.
Borrow books - generally, I don't like people who doesn't return what they borrow, I suppose it's more annoying with books since I might want to read that particular book.
Have a lovely day.
Love your list of pet peeves. We have a lot of them in common, don't we? :)
DeleteAll of these. Especially the TSTL heroines, and the conflicts that could be resolved if people just acted like adults long enough to actually talk to each other. Great list!
ReplyDeleteThanks! :D
DeleteOh my goodness, yes, I HATE manufactured conflict! If you have to make up stupid reasons to keep the starring couple apart, you should rethink your novel's premise. There's plenty of legit conflict out there to write about.
ReplyDeleteExactly!
DeleteHeroines that are TSTL is such a pet peeve!
ReplyDeleteI hate stupid heroines in books. It's insulting to all women every where!
DeleteI also do not like when authors overuse the word "smirk". It isn't attractive at all - it just makes the character seem like a jerk.
ReplyDeleteBut I have to admit that I do enjoy a good love triangle. :D
Smirk drives me crazy! And I see it everywhere lately.
Delete