And you thought love triangles were complicated?

Even if you think love triangles are simple (or passe, or tedious, or whatever), this is still a fun post.

Over at Epic Reads, a “study of love triangles and other emotional shapes.”

Formula: Person A likes Person B + Person C likes Person B + Person B is torn = Classic Love Triangle

Yes, that’s simple enough, right?

Well, how about this one?

Formula: Person A likes Person B + (Persons C through Y can see they’re meant to be together) + Person Z likes Person A = Vanishing Cone

I read this several times and still am not sure I have it figured out. Who’s Person Z again?

Actually, all of these are (triangle, shattered triangle, vanishing cone, selection sphere, half-remembered trapezoid) are illustrated with diagrams and with examples from YA fiction, so that makes them easier to sort out. I really enjoy the names the most! The “half-remembered trapezoid”, who came up with that, right?

I will say, of the examples give, I’ve only read THE HUNGER GAMES.

I think my own books tend to include maybe a Half-Visible Straight Line With Slight Hints of a Triangle. Mostly I think my characters are too busy saving the world to really figure out whether they’re falling in love with anybody. Not invariably, granted, but still.