Now, if you've been following me for a while now you've probably noticed how much I hate instalove. Just thinking about it just annoys me to no end. I just have so many problems with it.
First of all, it's just so unrealistic unrealistic. I know a lot of romances aren't exactly realistic, but at least the relationships feel real. The characters need to bond for a period of time before they're all in together forever. They need to have that time to get to know each other and then decide they want to spend the rest of their lives together, not five minutes.
Second of all, it takes all the fun out of a slow burn relationship. You know, all the sexual tension, the two characters stealing moments together and you get so excited every time they're alone because you want their relationship to progress more. It's half the fun of reading a book with romance in it. You want to see these characters together in their truest form. You want to see the characters grow together instead of just falling in love right at the moment. Some of the best romances include two characters not even liking each other at first.
Third, it usually has everything to do with physical attraction. Who cares about a brilliant mind when you have a smoking hot body, right? Wrong. Whenever I read a book where the characters "fall I love at first sight" I can't help but think about how shallow those two characters are for "Falling in love" within minutes or even days of meeting. They don't know anything about each other and supposedly it's meant to be. I can't stand behind these occurrences.
Fourth, it's bad writing. I feel like showing the progressing of the relationship between characters is really important. You get to see them grow as people and become better aquatinted with each other. The way I see it, the better an author can write the development of relationships the better their ability to write is. Writing natural characters bonds is hard. I can't see how good an author is at writing relationships if the two characters fall in love right after they meet and have none of that get to know each other stuff. It just doesn't work.
Well, anyway, what do you guys think about it all?
I agree completely, and I find that those Insta-love romances are usually just one more manifestation of lazy (or even bad) characterization. It's in the same vein as other tropes like The Chosen One, the Evil Overlord, etc... Where's the fun in that? I want to read about someone's journey, see how they learn/unlearn things, how they meet people, how they lose them, things like that.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I think that to care about the romance, I have to fall in love myself with the characters in a way. That's very badly explained, but it's all I've got right now :)