A couple of days ago I took the Book Blogger Test and one of the questions was “What are your top three book pet hates?”
My answers were:
1. I really, really, really hate it in romance novels when the girl doesn’t want to do something (for example, go somewhere, kiss the guy, go on a date etc) and the guy insists that she does want to do it (and hey, maybe she does and is playing hard to get) but no means no. It bugs me to no end that the guy can’t take no for an answer and will insist until she gives in. HUGE PET HATE! She said no! Respect her decision! Argh! Rant over.
2. When you read a book and it’s awesome, but then you have to wait a year for the second book to come out, then another year for the third! I generally wait until the whole trilogy is out to start reading a series now. I’m way too impatient.
3. Female characters who are indecisive. I really dislike characters who just can’t get their crap together. Like, seriously, make a decision! It isn’t hard.
What are your top three book pet hates? What bugs you? I’d love to know.
Words Read & Written 
1. When I get inundated from the outset with a gazillion characters whose names I’m expected to remember.
2. When I start to encounter lengthy asides of blah-blah-blah about something I don’t care about that is in no way important to the story.
3. When I reach the end of the novel in #2 and realize that 90% of it was blah-blah-blah and that, if I were to excise those portions, I would be left with same story, but it would be a short story rather than a novel.
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1. When I get inundated from the outset with a gazillion characters whose names I’m expected to remember.
2. When I start to encounter lengthy asides of blah-blah-blah about something I don’t care about that is in no way important to the story.
3. When I reach the end of the novel in #2 and realize that 90% of it was blah-blah-blah and that, if I were to excise those portions, I would be left with same story, but it would be a short story rather than a novel.
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I have some similar pet peeves as yours:
1. When books are released in series and having to wait a while for the next book to come out before completing the story.
2. Cliffhanger endings or abrupt endings.
3. Errors and typos–to the extent that they are a distraction.
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I have some similar pet peeves as yours:
1. When books are released in series and having to wait a while for the next book to come out before completing the story.
2. Cliffhanger endings or abrupt endings.
3. Errors and typos–to the extent that they are a distraction.
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I love your pet peeves…. meaning, I hate your pet peeves, also. I would list my top three as:
1. Stereotypical characters who are included for “what” they are, not “who” they are.
2. When a character is oblivious to the obvious and never asks questions normal people would ask.
3. When the political or religious agenda of the author slips into the story in a forced way.
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Good question. Here are my favourites.
1. Abrupt endings, like someone hit me in the head with the rock. Come on, it could be more gentle!
2. Female characters described and presented like my school teacher, tied up, indecisive, and usually with few girlfriends who are quite the opposite. And she gets married first, or she gets involved in some absurd story about the prettiest guy around who falls for her because of her inner beauty. No way, I don’t buy it.
3. Books of trillions pages in which the real story gets to the point somewhere at the end of the book, and the rest is just foolishness without the real meaning, full of never ending adverbs. Shorten up!
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Reblogged this on THE BORDERLINE PERSONALITY BLISS AND MESS and commented:
Good question!
I have replied in the comments, sou you are welcome to give your tribute too. 🙂
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My pet hates about books are:
1. Being able to pick the ending. It’s so much better for there to be a twist in the book at the end.
2. But, taking the above into account, books that introduce a new character at the end to provide the twist. It seems like cheating.
3. Books that leave the plot and characters up in the air with no resolution and no sequels.
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Jeez, guys, what’s with all the kvetching about having to wait for the next book in a series? The author has to endure the same gap, but has to actually work on the manuscript, instead of sitting and whining. Read something else. My three peeves:
1. Expository material that isn’t about the story, but is a didactic dump of the author’s personal political and religious beliefs, or their lack of same.
2. Expository material that tells the story from narrator’s POV, instead of as experienced by the characters. Show, don’t tell!
3. Egotistical, little auctorial quirks: a. Not providing attribution of lines of dialogue, so the reader has to guess who is saying what. b. Dialogue in another language with no translation. c. Worst of all: characters doing extremely stupid or incompetent things, like police staking out a suspect’s home and not covering the back door, failing to question all residents of a compound where a body is found, and so on. These are all inexcusable.
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1. Movie poster covers.
2. Characters I can’t relate to.
3. Excessive descriptions, especially excessive descriptions of feelings.
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Great question! My top three would be:
1. Gary Stu or Mary Sue characters: characters who are too well-loved, too perfect and too skillful, to the point that it’s not believable. They have to have a flaw, something that makes them relatable.
2. Overuse of description, where the author rambles on and doesn’t get right to the point. Description is great but so is a reasonable pace.
3. Repetition of a word or phrase throughout that has no significance on the plot or story at all. It’s really just the author’s favorite word or sentence.
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I’m with you on the first one and the third one, though I’d extend that to ANY characters who are indecisive. My third pet peeve is characters who show no growth over the course of the book(s). Drives me nuts !
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1, Characters who use CAPITAL LETTERS to shout, it is just annoying
2, People who are on the curvy side, being written as pathetic, desperate and lonely. People who are shaped like Vikings have lives too!
3, Characters who wear glasses or who are geeks, written as once again pathetic losers who never want to try anything and are immersed in geek culture to the point they can’t relate to anyone. And characters who wear glasses being depicted as super smart genius, because wearing glasses can make you more intelligent, and the moment said character takes them off, they suddenly become “attractive”.
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1. Cliff hanger endings with no sequels – they make me feel like I just wasted my time.
2. A premise where there should be clear life and death consequences but everyone even minor characters live to tell the tale. Ie, don’t tell me it’s life or death and then show me it was actually no biggie (ahem, twilight series).
3. Too much description – I just skim and skip and typos. Please proof your final copy before printing.
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1. Movie poster covers. I specifically look for covers that do not have the movie depicted on the front.
2. Main characters who don’t grow. “A Respectable Trade” I’m looking at you. Even Bella from Twilight grew as a character. The only story where I’ve seen this work was in “A Handmaid Tale” and I think that was because it was focusing more on the structure of the society not on the person as a character.
3. Repetitiveness. I’ve read numerous stories where there were board meetings, council meetings, meetings of government and they all have to hail the leader or some such nonsense. I understand doing it for the first time you show said meeting but all the subsequent meetings you can just infer that it is happening. You don’t have to take up another three pages of then the financial adviser said, hail the great leader. Then the agricultural adviser said hail the great leader and so on and so forth after all 26 council members. We got it that this happens when you showed us the first meeting.
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1.) When they use vulgar terminology to describe “waste” or, um, body parts in third-person narration. I like euphemisms, what can I say.
2.) I also hate waiting forever for sequels.
3.) Mary Sue types. Argh, real flaws and distinct characteristics are necessary.
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I saw that you took the book blogger test a few days ago and like you, I also liked the questions addressed. This is what I put down for my three pet hates (peeves):
1. I hate cliffhangers, especially when it’s from a book that’s part of a popular series. Why do authors do that when they should know by then that their readership will come back for more? It’s practically a quick trip to being institutionalized from the suspense and such.
2. I hate when books are so cliche, that you can already tell what direction it’s going in. I experienced that while reading J.K. Rowling’s The Cuckoo’s Calling last year and it was so obvious who the killer was, that I stopped about 1/3 of the way into the book. I later looked up a general overview of what happens in the book and it turns out my suspicions were correct.
3. Why does every YA novel have to have a romance element in it? Can I please read one for once without the heroic girl winding up with the guy in the end, and vice versa? Is there something wrong with them just being friends? The same can go for adult books too, and maybe even more so, especially in regards to the five million sex scenes I’ve read (and most of them are generally very randomly placed).
If you want to see what else I said throughout the remainder of the test, here’s the link to the post: http://lolabythebay.wordpress.com/2014/06/15/special-sunday-post-the-book-blogger-test/
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1. When characters switch from one emotion to the next and back again with no real reason except to cause a fight to escalate or something like that.
2. A wonderful, flawless, extra-cooper-amazing premise…paired with a book that does not deliver.
3. Excessive grammatical flaws. I don’t mind a couple, but after a certain point I just start cringing, waiting for the moment that I find the next one.
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What a great post and question.
1. What I call Hollywood endings where everything gets wrapped up and put in a shiny little bow. Yes, more frequent in movies, but I have come across it in books as well. Someone earlier mentioned the Twilight series and this, for me, was a prime example of it. Okay, YA fiction can’t have the same limits as adult fiction (that’s why none of Harry, Ron, or Hermione were allowed to die in Harry Potter), but young adults are dealing with things worse than death in real life – they can handle it on the page as well.
2. Distracting typos bug me as well.
3. Not necessarily about the book itself, but book buyers. People who only buy books on some celebrity’s book club or list. I hate that. Okay, popular authors are popular because they can write prolifically, but a lot of them write drivel. For half a dozen years in the 80s and 90s, Stephen King wrote drivel, but he admitted it. Lumped in with this is people who have only seen the movie or tv series based off a book and they hit you with the statement, “I didn’t know it was a book?” and then you see the book the next day with a new Hollywood poster cover. Grrr.
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1. When a death is said not to mean much. I mean, like when the MC’s brother dies or something, and they just shake it off.
2. Let-down endings. Like, when the bad guy gets struck down at the last moment as he’s about to kill the MC, by nothing more than an arrow gone astray. Come on!
3. Not exactly a BOOK pet-peeve, but in response to what most other people are saying: getting mad when someone has seen the movie but not read the book. If they think they therefore know more than an experienced reader, then fine. But that’s like saying to someone with dyslexia, “You can’t possibly know anything about this because you haven’t read the book.” True, people calling on Gus’ cigarettes is stupid, but just because someone doesn’t know who Edward (Divergent) is because it wasn’t in the movie does not make them an idiot.
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Love your pet hates. Mine would be:
1) Narratives that are repeatedly interrupted by descriptions of what the characters are wearing. I don’t want to know about every costume change a character has. I especially hate it when the central character notices and judges other characters by their clothing – it’s so shallow that I can’t bring myself to like that character.
2) Characters with no character (bland or predictable characters, stereotypes).
3) Poor quality writing for children – a lot of series books produced for young children are utter rubbish, eye-catchingly packaged – sparkly covers, puppies, kittens, horses, princesses and fairies etc – but the content is excruciating. No wonder so many kids are turned off reading. I hate to see young kids exploited as an easy market, especially when there are so many writers ‘out there’ who want to write engaging, quality stories for children (not simply make a load of cash).
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1. Love triangles. This one isn’t something I dislike 100% of the time, but 90% of the time they feel completely unnecessary. In The Hunger Games, for instance, there’s interesting romantic tension between Katniss and Peeta over the fact that she pretended to have feelings (and thought the pretence was reciprocated) to keep them both alive, only to find out his feelings were real. Adding another love interest detracts from that, and makes the boys seem more like symbols than people. Likewise, the implication is often that the only reason the girl has for turning down a guy is that she’s already with another one.
2. Romantic plots that take over the story. I find this happens most often in YA novels, especially ones from the last decade or so. The worst example, for me, is The Selection, by Kiera Cass. Maybe Cass always intended the story as a romance first, but when you’ve got a dystopic society with rampant sexism and inequalty, with rebel forces attacking the palace in your, /that’s/ what I want to be reading about, not whether the main character wants to be with the prince or her ex.
3. Cliffhanger endings. I don’t mind it when I have to wait for the next book in a series if the previous one tied up its main plot, but left some loose threads or hinted at further plot points. I don’t like it when either a) the author introduces a new plot point in the last chapter, just to make sure you pick up the next book, or b) stops halfway through a plot that spans books two and three (which makes me feel like I only got to read half a book).
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I’m not really big on waiting for second books in series either, I am very impatient 😀
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1. The virginity/hymen myth getting perpetuated in romance novels. It’s bad enough to keep telling the people reading them (many of them young women who may not have sexual experience yet – it’s certainly where I got plenty of my early sex ed from) that a woman’s first time should be painful, but the fact that these female authors don’t even seem aware of the basic anatomy of the situation just drives me up the wall.
2. First person present tense. It takes a *lot* to get me to stick with a book written that way.
3. When the climax and denouement are all crammed together into the last three pages of the book. (Looking at you, Mercedes Lackey). I have no problem with it taking a while to get there, I like backstory, I like world-building, I don’t mind tangents if they’re interesting — but once we get there, I want my investment to pay off.
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Totally agree on 1 and 3! For 2, it frustrates me some times because I forget the details of the first so I feel like I need to re-read it, but we both know that’s not going to happen!
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1. When I can predict the actions and outcomes of the characters by the second or third chapter.
2. When the boy and girl who kind of dislike/hate each other end up together by the story’s end. Seriously, can’t two people that don’t get along just not get along? (Applies to all media)
3. Deus ex machina, even when done well. As much as I love certain book series *cough* HP *cough*, this always bugs me.
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I posted your answers to the questions on my Library of Cats blog because they’re the same as mine. (with a link back to your blog) The Board of Review loved it!
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1. When reading something that supposedly has a “strong female lead” who ends up falling for (and ending up with) a jerk unlike all other jerks who have come before him and who puts her down at every turn. And he doesn’t change by the end of the book. And the strong female lead is in constant need of being rescued because of poor decision-making skills.
2. Writing that looks like it came from a slow sixth grader.
3. When a character talks to his/her best friend like they are not best friends as shorthand for characterization. (ex: “You know, we’ve been best friends for ten years, ever since kindergarten.”)
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1. Chapters that have recipes in them, a gimmick that’s been thoroughly, er, overcooked.
2. Any books with recipes that aren’t cookbooks.
3. Cookbooks.
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1. Jacket copy that is full of blurbs from people who don’t tell you anything about the book. Wasted space.
2. PoC characters, particularly black characters, who don’t have any other PoC friends, family, or significant relationships and seem to have no awareness or historical context. It’s the Bonnie syndrome from TVD season 1, or the Green Mile/ Monster’s Ball effect.
3. Contemporary horror stories where the characters behave as if they have never seen a horror movie before.
4. Books marketed as non-genre that take a thin science fiction or fabulist concept from a great sf/f short story and then stretch it out for three hundred pages. Usually to much praise from reviewers who aren’t well read in the field. Generally someone in Sf/f has been there and done that better already…
5. Jacket copy bios of writers who bore us with the 500 crappy jobs they had before they published the book. Seems a bit of a cliche. Or the ones where they thank everyone, every dog and cat except the s.o. who kept everything flowing while they were writing and/or going nuts. And no, I’m not naming names! 😉
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