Rant ot Rave: The "Big Reveal" Trope

Time for Rant or Rave! This week the topic is a rave about the "Big Reveal" Trope. I love it.

You know that scene in almost every YA paranormal/Urban Fantasy book where a “normal” character meets some mysterious person, usually a hot guy, and they find out that that guy isn’t exactly human or that there is a whole other world out there they had no idea about? This is a trope that I will never get tired of.

I love having the big reveal, it adds so much drama and it’s exciting when you know something the protagonist doesn’t. It also says so much about the characters with how they react to this. Some characters take this in stride and others lose their shit. Either way, it’s extremely entertaining. If I could only read books with one trope for the rest of my life it would be this one. 

The big reveal can tell you so much from the authors writing style to the characters themselves. You can tell who the hothead is and you can tell who the wallflower is. 

Raven Boys Spoilers

Also, the big reveal doesn’t even have to happen during the beginning of a book. If it’s part of a series it could just be a plot twist that happens at the very end of a book. The one that comes to the forefront of my mind is the Raven Boys. If you haven’t read the Raven Boys yet skip to my end of Spoilers in bold. So we end off The Raven Boys with the iconic:

“I guess now would be a good time to tell you," he said. "I took Chainsaw out of my dreams.” 

This sets the stage for the rest of the series. We realize that there truly is magic in the world. Ronan’s abilities and big reveal tell so much about what we never understood throughout the series. 

End of Raven Boys Spoilers

Even though a lot of these are really well written and very revealing, I have to admit that my main fascination with this trope is that I find it entertaining. Not even from a critical standpoint, I just like to see characters lose their shit when they find out their love interest is a vampire or they’re actually a Shadowhunter. It’s a guilty pleasure.

Thoughts on the topic?

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