Here is the only side of the coin for you all for my favourite tropes and cliches discussion post. This is where the tea is, the goss, the smear campaigns. Not really, but of course my opinions feature heavily in this discussion and a lot of what I will be including are popular tropes and very much so beloved, especially in some of the examples I will be giving to accompany my points. I don’t mean any hate or shade toward any author, book, or reader who loves these tropes. I am simply writing my thoughts and stating what i don’t like and that doesn’t have to impede or dissuade you from enjoying these things.

There will be more points in this than in my favourites due to the fact that I genuinely don’t like a lot of the current tropes that have oversaturated releases over the last two or three years. That is where most of my issues lie with these tropes – the fact that they are constantly getting used and reused and revamped and they never leave the scene. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but there is never an absence and my heart is going sick and tired of seeing these time and time again (and in no better execution than the last).

Toxic Love Triangles

This isn’t the typical love triangle, though that itself is such an overused trope but there is no getting rid of it. What I want gone from all existence is the toxic love triangle. The TLT is the supposed love triangle where the protagonist, usually a girl, has to pick between two equally bad and toxic people. Authors may purposely write one character to be better than the other, but in the wider scheme of things they are still not good for the main character. They aren’t incredibly horrible and self-centred and abusive, but they aren’t good with communicating, nor do they go out of their way to treat this person well. These characters are generally considered to be “the expectation” or to be “setting the bar” but if they were to really exist, they are doing the bare minimum, sometimes even less. I’m not listing examples, either because I didn;t finish the series and cannot truely state whether or not these characters create toxic love triangles, unnecessary love triangles, or just normal love triangles, but I’m sure there are a few running through your mind. Unfortunately, they tend to fall in the YA realm of reading, especially YA Fantasy or YA romance. Again, there is no hate or shade aimed at you if you enjoy these kinds of relationships. I personally just find them to be a poor representation of healthy relationships and I wish they weren’t promoted as such.

Unnecessary Love Triangle

Speaking of unnecessary love triangles, there is nothing I dislike a series more for than throwing in a relationship conflict in the form of a romantic interest for someone who is already in a loving, committed relationship. What is the point? There is nothing to gain from having your characters question their love for someone by dangling another person in front of them. Normally, these characters are only there for a short time anyway, or have been introduced later in the series simply as a wild card. It does nothing for the main relationship development (because in all honesty it just creates pointless arguments and fights because of the main character questioning themselves and getting too close to this new character) and it does nothing for plot progression. It’s a side plot created to sew discourse for the relationship line but if the end result is going to be that the main characters stick together, what was the point? If feels like the only thing I can say about this trope is what is the point?

“Strong Female Character”

This bothers me. I know my definition of what a strong female character is varies from what you may view as a strong female character, but more often than not these days the term “strong female character” is solely resting on its physical characteristics and has nothing to do with actually strength of a character. I value mental and emotional strength as well as physical strength when I look at these kinds of characters. Maybe they have one attribute of strength but throughout the book or series they up-skill themselves so that by the end of it they are truly strong in many areas. I don’t think I’ve read a lot of YA books with these “strong female characters” in recent years that have much character development in that field. They’re generally strong female characters because they grew up fighting or hunting or they “aren’t like other girls” where they had to have a more tomboyish upbringing in order to survive. Many of these female characters are quite passive in the plot progression. By that, I mean that things happen to them or others decide what will happen instead of them, which doesn’t exactly say “strong female character” to me. All in all, when a female character is actually a strong female character it is great to see, but when they are simply brought up having to fight or hunt or steal in order to survive, that doesn’t cut it for me.

Sexually Explicit Scenes/Pregnancy Trope

I’m going to try and keep this short. If authors are including sex scenes or sexual relationships in there books, especially books that are aimed at YA readers, there needs to be real life questions and consequences brought in the dialogue and discussions to make this story grounded and to give it a purpose. Sex or pregnancy with no consequences or repercussions or anything – no character journey or real-life considerations to factor into caring for and preparing for a baby – will teach young readers that there are no consequences to such actions. I know sex education is something taboo and often under-taught across the world, but having books with sexually explicit scenes without highlighting the repercussions and many layers of conflicts and questions and uncertainties is severely detrimental to a reader’s understanding of sex, having sexual interactions with others, and the possibility of pregnancy.

Morally Grey Villains

It’s always the same with this one, especially if there end up being the love interest. They’re generally dark haired, tall, muscly and probably have tanned skin too because apparently only dark haired, tall, muscly, tanned guys can be villains. There are a few exceptions, yes, but that doesn’t make them any better. I also think the term “morally grey” is losing its meaning these days. This terms, and many others popular on bookish social media, get thrown around a lot and the real meaning of it gets washed out in place of some blanket term that isn’t always right. Morally grey villains are neither good nor bad, they are self-serving and follow their ambitions regardless of what doing so means for others. What this “morally grey” addiction has also done to readers, in my opinion, is normalise or even excuse criminal or abusive behaviours under the guise of them being done by “morally grey men”. Looks don’t excuse someone’s murder. Forearm veins don’t excuse forceful control over someone or obsessive possessiveness. Please, dear readers, don’t fall into that trap.

Supernatural Romances

Is this a sub-genre or a trope, I’m not sure. All I know is that I’m over it. Unfortunately, supernatural romances are making a comeback because the mid 200s supernatural stories are nostalgic enough for readers to want to read more vampires and werewolves and fallen angels and demons and whatnot. It all because generic and almost too close to Wattpad 2013 for me (the dark days of supernatural Wattpad stories still haunt me). Often they read the same too which can be scary given one is fan written for funsies and one is a published book. Surely, after reading a few of these romances, the stuff all seems to roll into one big animalistic mishmash of interactions and occurrences? I guess there is a mysterious sensuality about supernatural creatures but you can bet I don’t want to be anywhere near it.

Senseless/Forever Ignorant Main Characters

The whole point of stories is to get from one point to another, to go from not knowing to knowing, novice to expert and so on. We start with characters who have one way of seeing the world, who have only needed to do things for themselves or those closest to them. They’re ignorant to others, to what’s going on outside of their little bubbles. They may also be ignorant about a good many things (as they should be as new characters at the beginning of the book). What I hate wth every fibre of my being is when they remain so by the end of the book. You mean to tell me, author, that your characters didn’t learn anything? That they were able to keep their small-minded, ignorant ways of thinking, that they didn’t have to do any with old beliefs and superstitions and prejudices in order to move forward, in order to survive in this brand new world that’s opened up to them? If there is no character development then there is no story. End of discussion. You can’t have a story and no character development. Something about their way of thinking or them as people need to have changed in order for your story to have meant anything. Not only that, your characters cannot remain the same and still be liked by the reader because no change makes for a bad character, especially a main character. Give us meaningful change in main characters. Give us main characters that lose their ignorance and naiveity and become cultured, mature, and reflective.

I’ll leave it there otherwise I will go on and on. If you made it to the end, thank you for reading and leave a comment telling me what one of your least favourite tropes or cliches are (I didn’t even get into cliches). I’m interested to see what other readers think is being overused and recycled too many times.