Views On Love Triangles

[Emily]

Love triangles are great if there done right.....and a waste of time if there not. They really have to be done so that you literally can't choose between the characters or if it adds an actual dimension to the plot that's blows your mind, other-wises it can get tedious. There great for some character development though, and always good for a spin-off for the loser out of love-though they are quite predictable, it seems authors hate to make a girl loose out twice :P
thinking about it however, has anyone read a love triangle with a male lead and two females? I just can't think of one of the top of my head

[Marla]

actually has a wimpy male and 2 females.

And had a love triangles and a square? A guy who had 2 girls liking him, but he only liked one (the other was his ex), girl he liked had 2 other guys that liked her (but she mostly wanted to be friends with one and didn't care for the other).

has a male admirer but the hero is straight but his wife notices.

has another male in love with the straight hero and jealous "friend" tries to get rid of the wife.

Is it really a love triangle if 2 people like the same person, but the person isn't torn between the 2?

[Maggie the Muskoka Library Mouse]

A very common thing not just in YA, but general fiction as well. It's a recognizable conflict, and depending on how the author handles the situation, I find them par for the course and don't mind them.

[Crystal]

hate them especially if its forceddd and last the whole seriess...you can have a good book with a love triangle

[Bonnie]

I do NOT like love triangles.If I see a book that's interesting to me and the blurb even hints a at love triangle I get completely turned off that book...
Maybe its because of previous reading experiences where they last 1/2 of a book series.

[Melissa]

There may be good books with love triangle but please keep them away from me. This dislike of mine started with The Hunger Games (view spoiler)[when Katniss choose not Gale but Peeta. It was like i knew she would choose Peeta (It was so predictable) but I hoped she wouldn't until the very last page. (Ok Prim is dead but where is Gale?) (hide spoiler)] Then with the other books my "Can we skip the part you will choose him/her" turned to "Oh, no!! Another love triangle. Close the book and pretend you never heard of it" I tried to give love triangles aother chance with Existence because i really wanted to read it. But no!! Definitely NO! They just make me angry and the worst part is i can't get into the characters. How am i supposed to feel the character's sadness when all I can think is "Well you were the one who didn't break up with him/her. Now you don't have a right to be upset when the other couldn't wait for you forever".

[Jaina]

I think if the love triangle serves the plot, it can be really cool, but if it just makes everything more difficult and distracts the reader from everything, it bothers me. A LOT of people who do like them though, which is probably why they keep selling. :P

[Marla]

Melissa wrote: "There may be good books with love triangle but please keep them away from me. This dislike of mine started with The Hunger Games..."

I agree Melissa, but could you hide the Hunger Games plot spoilers. It would be sad to ruin that series for someone.

[Melissa]

Marla wrote: "Melissa wrote: "There may be good books with love triangle but please keep them away from me. This dislike of mine started with The Hunger Games..."

I agree Melissa, but could you hide the Hunger ..."

Sure, sorry. I always assume like everybody has read or watched them.

[L.S.]

I'm obviously in the minority (of commenters here, if nothing else) in this respect.

Love triangles, to me, are far more realistic than the alternative (the one true pairing where they only have eyes for each other.) As a teen I was almost constantly interested in multiple guys, interested in guys other girls were interested in, and sometimes more than one guy interested in me.

Exploring the relationships and the changing dynamics in those situations can be really interesting.

Most, if not all, of the love triangles I read about impact me differently. Because so many details about the characters or situations are different, I don't get tired of them in the way others seem to.

That's not to say there aren't terrible examples of love triangles. Like anything, they can be poorly done, particularly when the characterisation is weak, or when you know the outcome and the book tries to pretend like there's a chance it will go the other way.

[~Liz~]

Personally i find love triangles to be quite annoying. I would prefer if the protagonist have a one and only true love as opposed to switching back and forth between the two lovers.

[Marla]

L.S. wrote: "I'm obviously in the minority (of commenters here, if nothing else) in this respect.

Love triangles, to me, are far more realistic than the alternative (the one true pairing where they only have e..."

LS, you make a solid argument, and I agree that it might be realistic, but like fairy tales, it's nice when a story represents the ideal situation, in this case true love. But since one unswerving love doesn't have conflict, hence the popularity of the love triangle.

I find the love triangle where the attraction is mutual and based on more than physical attraction the most disturbing, since someone will get hurt. Most people like this love triangle's complexity but I feel bad for the injured party and the person who has to make the tough decision.

[Michaela]

To be perfectly honest, I'd prefer if the romantic subplot of a book had even less focus - I'd take a driven story-line, good character development, and some witty repartee over "they finally hooked up" any day.

Truly though, one thing I can't stand about love triangles is that they are almost ALWAYS portrayed as two guys like one girl and she has to choose - but instead of doing the right thing and taking a step back from the situation to decide what's best for her, more often than not she leads them both on until nearly the end of the book. And if that's not bad enough, we had to sit through several hundred pages of watching the 2nd male lead try in vain to win her affections when we know all along she's gonna pick 1st male lead.

It's tired. It's cliche.

It's sexist. Hear me out - in all of these scenarios the female protagonist can be counted on for one very important thing - not knowing what she wants. And while that's not inherently a bad thing, it's treated like a normal thing in YA love triangles. Like....this girl can't possibly know her own mind, her own desires, and what she needs from a relationship - it's up to these two dudes to tell her what she should want or need most.

Ideally....a female protag would tell them both to take a flying leap and work on herself. /rant.