For What It's Worth


Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Tell Me Something Tuesday: Bookish no-nos that make me want to hurl a book across the room

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post where bloggers discuss a wide range of topics from books and blogging to life in general. 

It is co-hosted by (Linda from Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell, Roberta from Offbeat YA, Jen from That’s What I’m Talking About, Berl's from Because Reading is Better than Real Life  and me) 

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Question: What are book no-nos that make you figuratively want to toss a book across the room?

Answer: I'm sure I have a lot of no-nos that I can't think of right now, so I'll add them in if your comments remind me of any lol

CHEATING: No, nope, nada I don't like books with cheating

LOVE TRIANGLES: I  know they can happen but very rarely are they written well and they just piss me off and hurt my heart to read. 

CHARACHTERS THAT DON'T LEARN: We're only human and we're all flawed so I don't expect perfect characters but...I don't want to read 300+ pages of them screwing up, saying they learned and screwing up again. 

OVERLY CONFIDENT (without reason to be): I just finished a book like this. The MC thought they knew everything and the experts knew nothing - despite being wrong again and again. I really did want to throw the book in this case. 

VIOLENCE OR DEATH TO AN ANIMAL - I feel like that's self explanatory 

TORTURE OR BULLYING: I'm ok with violence and I know some characters are hurt at the beginning of a book and healing is part of the journey so I'm ok reading about that...but continued, gratuitous violence - nope. Even if it's not gratuitous, lately, my heart just can't take it. 

NOSY FAMILY: I know a lot of people love stories with big families, or small towns where everyone knows everything but it drives me nuts. I'm an only child so that's probably why but it drives me off the deep end when characters don't tell families/neighbors to back tf off already lol 

BAD EDITING: I don't run into this very often and I don't count arc's because they haven't gone through a final editing process but rampant typos, continuity issues and things like that.

MISCOMMUNICATION: (thanks for the reminder Tanya!) As a catalyst for the story, I'm ok with it. But when it comes down to a one minute conversation that could resolve everything and it doesn't happen until 300 pages in and is resolved in the last chapter...GRRRR

That's all I can think of atm...

What are book no-nos that make you want to throw the book across the room?







32 comments:

  1. I had to laugh at the nosy family one. I hate a similar pet peeve. It's when there's a small town setting and everyone seems to know everyone's business (which, okay), but people also feel comfortable (and within their rights) to butt in and offer opinions. Ugh.

    My biggest one is the dreaded miscommunication trope. I steer clear of that like the plague. When a plot hinges on a misunderstanding that could be resolved in two minutes if only the MC's actually TALKED, it just screams of lazy writing to me. It's like, that's all you've got? That's your plot? Nope, not having it.

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    1. I never understand why they don't tell them to back off lol But I guess that's just me and because I don't have a big family to answer to.

      Thank you for the reminder about miscommunication!!! YES!!!

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  2. I JUST added cheating to my list as I had forgotten it and I 100% agree! As much as I don't LOVE love triangles, I've had too many books I actually really enjoyed with them (even favorites) so I guess that's not one for me lol. Great list! Nosy family has me laughing!

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    1. I think I'm more love triangle adverse since there became *teams*. Before blogging, I didn't even notice them lol

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  3. I have to be honest, most of these are situational. I have read love triangles, cheating, etc that I was ok with. Bullying is always in YA, but I never understood bullying romance. The whole concept is weird for me. Not sure if this is the same thing, but I hate when a character does grow and then regresses at the end of the book. So frustrating.

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    1. There are just certain things, like cheating and triangles, that make me so tense when I'm reading that I can't enjoy the ride.
      Bullying is a bit trickier because, like you said, so much YA has it. And as a starting point, I'm ok with it - I mean more where a MC gets bullied throughout the whole book and no one stands up for them. It just hurts me heart and again...not a fun reading experience for me.
      The grow the regress is a good one!!

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  4. Cruelty to animal, anything verging on being too erotic, lots of unnecessary swear words, characters that seem too modern to be in a historical novel, books that lead you to believe there is going to be some BIG reveal only for the reveal to prove itself a major disappointment, the ''sexually confused'; the oh, wait a minute, I'm actually gay', character {I'm sooo over this} ... I could go on but won't. What a great discussion point, I'm sure many of the things mentioned will show up time and time again on other reader's list of things that make them want to hurl a book across the room.

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    1. Oh I forgot the lame *big* reveal. That is annoying.

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  5. Miscommunication is a big one for me as well. If a simple conversation could solve the problem but they spend the whole book not telling each other- nope. And yeah I didn't even know love triangles were a thing before blogging, then I discovered they were EVERYWHERE lol. At least in YA...

    Bad editing irks me too because so many authors go unpublished, and we always hear how competitve/ tough publishing is, and yet then we have books by all these vaunted editors where they couldn't even proofread irt or edit it properly???? :)

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    1. An entire plot cannot hinge on one sentence not being uttered lol

      I never even saw love triangles when I read before blogging. I read them, but they didn't even register. Once I started blogging though, everything became "teams" and they just stress me out. And there were too damn many.

      The editing situation is getting bad even with the big pubs.

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    2. Exactly.

      I have to watch the last ObiWan tonight :)

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    3. We'll be watching the last two tomorrow night. We finished Vigil.

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  6. Great list and I'd missed Characters That Don't Learn. That one makes me want to scream in frustration! I can do a small amount of cheating if it is relevant to the plot - though I hate where the partner cheats with their best friend at the beginning of the book as it's so overused. I'm not a fan of love triangles either.

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    1. It's SO frustrating, or like Sam said - they learn, then regress again.

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  7. Like Sam above, some of these are situational for me... Like cheating and love triangles. Generally, I'm a "hell no!" kind of gal but I've read books with them both - have known about them going in - and they were written in a way that worked (even though they hurt my heart, lol).

    The nosy family/town/always up in their business type books I'm with you 100%! Just tell people to bog off already!! I get proper ragey about those... I'll never understand letting other people dictate your life and actions. *sigh*

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    1. I don't like being hurt when I read bahaha!
      I'm very upfront when people are being pushy (can you tell? Lol), even family, so it's hard for me to read pages and pages of people getting pushed into things they don't want to do, or getting everyone's 2 cents on things. Butt out already lol

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  8. I completely agree with on the cheating, love triangles, death/violence of an animal, and bad editing. Those turn me off too.

    I had a hard time with the beginning of The Midnight Library because a cat dies. At first, I thought it was a violent death (run over by a car), but it ended up being much more humane than that and I really appreciated how Haig handled it.

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    1. That's good to hear. Since I plan on reading lol

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  9. Oh gosh, miscommunication drives me insane! I also don't like when bad things happen to animals either.

    Lauren @ www.shootingstarsmag.net

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    1. It's ok to start something but if you go an entire book and the whole plot hinges on that - NOPE

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  10. Animal deaths or abuse are just things we don't need in a book.

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  11. I think the biggest thing with me is the animal abuse. I always put a warning in my Goodreads reviews for others. 😔

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    1. I don't even like reading about those wacky misbehaving pets* plots lol I google tv shows as soon as a pet shows up too.

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  12. YES to the miscommunication one. It drives me nuts, especially if it's built upon and lasts for an entire book. Another similar thing that is bad if not done right is the "I'll not tell him/her to protect them."

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    1. YESSSSSS Jen! It could be solved by one sentence but takes over 300 pages. Then it gets resolved in two seconds on almost the last page.

      The protection thing annoys me too. I haven't read a book like that in years. I've gotten good at detecting characters like that from the summary lol

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  13. Interesting question! I can't stand when a book ends with it being a dream or the characters somehow making the whole book not happen (going back in time and changing something etc.). When you get to the last 20 pages and then it is like the whole book didn't happen it is frustrating. ~Jess

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    1. Oooh. I haven't seen that Hakeem in books very often (more movies/ TV) but yeah that's book throwing level lol

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  14. Good list!
    Put alpha aholes on mine too
    Ugh I just cant

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    1. That's a good one. I haven't read any in so long that I didn't think of it,

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  15. It can be frustrating when a character just never learns. I'm not sure how much it bothers me in books, but I definitely can't stand nosiness in real life and would absolutely hate to live in a small town with everyone in my business.

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  16. Totally agree with you and Tanya about the miscommunication/lack of communication trope. I hate it SO MUCH. I also hate when a character decides like "I am not going to tell him I love him because he's better off without me" like no you don't get to make decisions for other people! I don't actually mind cheating necessarily? I mean- I don't LOVE it or anything, but there have been books I have read where it's like, handled okay? And I am not automatically turned off from a book because of it I guess? Ditto love triangles, tbh. Dying kids really gets me. Which is hard because I read some really bleak, awful books. And sometimes it makes sense, but a lot of times I feel like it is for shock value and then I get way too upset to keep reading.

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