Things that annoy you in books

[M.D.]

I came across this topic in another discussion group (cozy mysteries), found it interesting, and wondered what this group thinks about it. I found it helpful as an indie author.

Is there something that particularly annoys or "bugs" you in books that you read?

[Lily]

Reading one genre and finding out it's a completely different genre in disguise. Makes me feel cheated.

[M.D.]

It annoys me when there is no follow up to the plot hook at the beginning of the book until well past half way into the story.

[Kat]

I hate it when in crime thrillers they hint in a not-so-subtle way who the killer is so you'll guess who it is by the time you're half way into the book.

[Courtney]

love triangles that serve no purpose other than flaunting how desirable a fickle girl/guy is to a pair of too-good-to-be-true hotties. I end up skimming until someone stops hmming and hawing enough to take te romantic plot seriously.

[Yzabel]

Two things mainly:

1) Romance for the sake of romance, when the characters' priorities should clearly be elsewhere. For instance, in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, I expect the characters to try and find ways to survive—not continuously daydream about which boy's butt is the cutest and who to choose in the love whateverangle.

2) The awful combination of slut shaming + slut shaming to make the heroine seem pure/virginal + double standards (a.k.a. every girl is portrayed as a "slut", but if the heroine behaves/dresses exactly like that, it's OK, she is not to blame... just because).

I have a few other pet peeves, but these are really the ones that bother me to no end, perhaps because I keep stumbling upon books chock-full of them. :/

[Lily]

Unnatural dialogue. That one actually makes me stop reading.

[Shari-amor]

@Lily. Yes!!! I've read a couple of books like that. You feel like you've just been set up.

[Lily]

Completely.

[Courtney]

Also "rape interests" bug me and I define that not by a character being a rapist (which could be relevant to the plot) but whether the character pretty much only exists in the story for the purpose of raping/attempting to rape the protagonist. Usually this is done only so some guy swoops in, saves her, likely falls in love, etc.

It's insulting in how it sets the protagonist up to be a victim who can't save herself and usually the offender doesn't go to prison much as has their ass kicked in. Plus its a backhanded way on emphasizing how desirabable the protagonist is.

[Lily]

Characters not finding ways to survive conflicts (that includes everything from rape to acne).

[Courtney]

Okay Shari and Lily, you got me all nervous about me characters rhyming periodically because the premise is Alice in wonderland on Nightmare fuel lol

[Lily]

Haha, don't worry about it, we're probably thinking of bad books, not yours ;)

[Shari-amor]

Well if I know going in that its more then it appears or I find out within the first few pages, I don't mind. I think the perfect example for me is I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells. A good book but a few chapters in, it switched up genres on me

[Lily]

What Shari said. I'm more so thinking of horror novels I've read that were promoted as oh-so-scary. I kept waiting. Reading. And by the end, find out that it was actually a cheesy romance in disguise and nothing was scary. So I am referring to total opposites.

[Wren]

An excessive amount of coincidences. Sure I know that the characters are fated to bump into each other, but when they live in a big city, like let's say Atlanta, and they see each other at a coffee shop, but don't speak, then they run into each other at an office meeting and they hate each other, then one almost runs over the other with their car and now they're interested but can't date, so they each go to a club to try to forget each other and lo and behold they're both at the same exact club! Cause of course there are no other clubs, offices or streets in Atlanta.
Hope you enjoyed the very long sentence ;)

[Michael]

When the main characters are just nonstop perfection no matter what but then oh look a convenient flaw. Or a flaw that has nothibg at all to do with the plot and mentioned only once to make him/her not perfect then never heard about ever again

[Lily]

Wren wrote: "An excessive amount of coincidences. Sure I know that the characters are fated to bump into each other, but when they live in a big city, like let's say Atlanta, and they see each other at a coffee..."

Lol!

[Courtney]

Yeah, Wren. Sometimes fate is a little too omnipresent in books. Not knocking if destiny is a plot point but everything else needs less funny co-inky-dinks and miraculous solutions.

[Wren]

Courtney wrote: "Also "rape interests" bug me and I define that not by a character being a rapist (which could be relevant to the plot) but whether the character pretty much only exists in the story for the purpose..."

Yes, seriously. Men in general should protest to this portrayal of their sex as incapable of seeing the amazing heroine without losing control and wanting to rape her. There has to be a better way to show the heroine is awesome without making every random guy who looks at her want to have her regardless of her interest. And yes, it seems that many of those girls should have taken a self-defense class.

[Harmony]

A complete lack of proofreading ... this is so basic. The number of books I've read lately that are bursting the seams with typos, missing words and incorrectly used words: this is assuredly one of my biggest pet hates.

@Wren ... lol --- yes, that too! The plot has to be believable, or it's a non-starter. :)

[Lily]

Consent is the key, in my opinion. I'm not a fan of promoting nonconcensual. If it's a part of the story, fine, that's the story. But to use rape as an excuse for a plot just because it seems easier than writing consensual relationships? Distasteful.

[Wren]

Harmony wrote: "A complete lack of proofreading ... this is so basic. The number of books I've read lately that are bursting the seams with typos, missing words and incorrectly used words: this is assuredly one o..."

Yes! And not just accidental typos. I keep seeing the word taunt used instead of the word taut. The hero's shirt is not taunting him, it's taut, unless of course maybe it's taunting the heroine. Or did I miss the new definition memo? Same with "hallowed" and "hollow". Definitely annoying.

Also, switching tenses ten times within one paragraph. I know sometimes we slip and miss a tense switch, but a single event shouldn't happen in the past, present and future unless there's some sort of space-time continuum issue.

[Lily]

'til. It's short for until. There is only one freaking L.

I digress...

[Courtney]

My bra feels like it's taunting me at times...

[Patrick]

Goofy names. And there are so many, many authors guilty of it.

[Yzabel]

Lily wrote: "'til. It's short for until. There is only one freaking L."

A colleague at my former company kept on editing our technical documents to add an -l to all -ful adjectives. I never managed to discover who it was, but I had to edit again at least 3 times to get him/her to stop. -_-

I'm digressing, too... Sorry.

[Patrick]

Lily wrote: "'til. It's short for until. There is only one freaking L.

I digress..."

As a professional proofer who has seen "till" way too many times, I thank you.

[Wren]

Courtney wrote: "My bra feels like it's taunting me at times..."

Lol, yeah, they have a tendency to do that!

[Lily]

lol@Courtney

What is it about 'til? It drives me nuts.

Great thread, btw, thanks for starting it, MD!

[[deleted user]]

Smashed bugs...

[Niklas]

Long, predictable and often completely unnecessary, dream-sequences/dream explaning.

They bug the hell out of me, as I feel I'm wasting my time when having to trudge through such sequences.
Often they are so predictable, that they add nothing of value to the story, or they are so ambiguous, that they yet again add nothing to the story.

[Lily]

Long dragged out flashbacks. Just write the damn story...

[Patrick]

Me, too. When I see "till" I think of a cash register.

[Lily]

Patrick wrote: "Me, too. When I see "till" I think of a cash register."

When I first saw till as a typo, I thought it was, sill. Are they referring to a window sill? That image is still stuck in my head and I've never written till by mistake ever since.

[Courtney]

Dream sequence are almost entirely unnecessary to me. I rarely feel like they contribute much beyond detailing a character's psychological state, which is cool if it's a paragraph or less. Otherwise I'm like "show me something really happening and relevant to the plot".

[Lily]

I don't mind a nightmare, though :)

But yeah, I agree, one paragraph and be done with it.

[Michael]

Dreams don't annoy me but I do hate when something important happens and that ends up being a dream. It's almost like a big f u to me. Although I shouldnt be talking cuz I probably pulled an f u somewhere sometime lol

[Lily]

It can be a terrible tease.

[Michael]

It can and sometimes it's done pretty good but a lot of the times I go all Hulk angry Hulk smash cuz it just irks me so much

[Lily]

Hulk speaks bad grammar (done pretty well).

:)

[Michael]

Hulk...damn I don't got a good one. Okay this round goes to you haha
Anywho, dreams aren't bad but sometimes they piss me off lol

[Library Lady 📚]

Courtney wrote: "Also "rape interests" bug me and I define that not by a character being a rapist (which could be relevant to the plot) but whether the character pretty much only exists in the story for the purpose...Plus its a backhanded way on emphasizing how desirabable the protagonist is.
"

Getting raped has little or nothing to do with how desirable you are, so I'd hate for a book to portray it that way.

[Library Lady 📚]

I hate, hate, hate dreams sequences! I've read two books lately where they had a dream that served no purpose whatsoever. Really annoys me. Also, the dream fake-out makes me walk away from a book. It's a cheap ploy that was overused so much for a while that it completely disgusts me to the point where I lose all respect for an author and won't read the rest of the book.

Did that sound as mean as I meant it? lol...

[Lily]

As much as I dislike dream/flashback sequences, I do understand why authors will use them. It can be so tempting to default to a dream or a flashback to show neccessary info, just because it seems easier.

As for dream sequences for no apparent plot-related reason... I have no explanation lol

[Library Lady 📚]

I don't mind either dream or flashback if it moves the plot. But the ones I've read lately were just completely random. Never mentioned again.

It's the dream fake-out that pushes my "off" button.

[Justin]

I'm annoyed when I see a characters name used over and over and over within a few sentences. Like we get whose doing the action or whose being talked about, no need to keep saying their name. On a more serious annoyance, I can't stand plots that get built up but then lead to no where. It's like the author had this great idea and then they got amnesia and totally forgot where they were going with it and just tossed it to the side rather then just leave it out of the book.

[Lily]

As a writer, I don't like dialogue tags. Even as a reader, if I see "said" every single line, line after line, it gives me the impression of reading Dick and Jane. I write action tags, but that's just my thing. I do, however, make sure the action tags go with the right character and related to the scence, otherwise even I get confused.

[Library Lady 📚]

Sarah wrote: "Really unnatural dialogue. Repeating the same thing over and over again ..."

Ditto. Takes me out of the story. Every time something reminds the reader of the author, or jolts one out of the story, it's a chance for the reader to walk away instead of getting back into it.

[Courtney]

I get bored with said/asked too. It's great when a different word choice pops up. Maybe it's not the classic opinion but I find something expressive about the occasional "assured", "noted" or whatnot that adds to the dialogue's message. Better than describing random facial expressions...