Rant: Random Fainting

The occasional fainting spell is a normal occurrence in real life so I wouldn’t be that angry if it just happened once in a while, but the amount of times it’s used in books drives me crazy. Often times an author will use being knocked out or fainting as a way to move on to the next phase of their story. They’ll end off chapters with that to try and add suspense and let me just tell you it drives me up the fucking wall.

The book that comes to the forefront of my mind when I think of pointless fainting is The Fallen Star by Jessica Sorensen. I love Jessica Sorensen and I love her books, but my god, there had to be at the very least, 5 chapters that ended with the protagonist fainting. This bitch just could not stay awake. She might as well have been named Aurora.

I know I say this a lot but this trope, to me, feels like lazy writing. Instead of getting the character through the difficult situation they are in at the moment, the author chooses to glaze over it. 

There is definitely a time and a place for a character to pass out. I just hate when a character passes out for no apparent reason. If you’re going to make a character pass out you should explain why the fuck they are passing out. Not just having the character pass out because they were overwhelmed.

This is a shorter rant, but it’s still something I feel pretty strongly about. What do you guys think? Do you have issues with characters randomly fainting?

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Rant: Awkward Girl and Popular Guy Trope

This is different from the rest because I do actually like it sometimes, but that's only to a point. I can't be reading all these books that are exactly the same.

I understand the awkward girl trope, I mean, us bookworms are a lot of the time, awkward. So I can see where that comes in, but I feel like oftentimes authors forget that there are actually some confident people out there in the world. I don't mind having awkward main characters, but when it's always about an awkward girl meeting a hot popular guy and her life getting better because of that, it just bugs me.

To me, the entire idea seems wrong. Most of the time when a book has this trope it's as if they re saying, "Oh look how much of a special snowflake my character is! She isn't like all those other popular girls and yet she can still get the guy!" Now while I have enjoyed books with this trope, I just don't appreciate the actual trope. It makes it out to be like we are shaming those other girls for being extroverts in the same way society seems to shame introverts. And making it as if an awkward girl should feel lucky for being able to snag some guy who's really hot and extroverted seems wrong to me.

I wouldn't mind it all that much if it wasn't so overdramatic like "Why does he like me? Of all those beautiful popular girls he could have? Why would he choose me?" and then they actually go on to ask him why he chose her. Why does he have to have a reason other than he likes you more than them? I don't get it. Why does there need to be some life-altering reason as to why he likes you more than them. Seems pretty ridiculous to me.

While I'm at it, let's just discuss the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. I don't think it's healthy for the readers to be reading about how someone is putting someone else on such a high pedestal building them up to be like a god to them. It isn't healthy for the reader to want to become that unattainable MPDG or the Hot Popular Guy. I feel like it sends the wrong message to the readers. As most of this is in YA there are a lot of younger readers who are still really impressionable and may not understand that this isn't how real life works.

My point, I like when it isn't used as a tropy plot device. If that's just who the characters are, the bookworm and the sports star, then that's who they are. I just hate when it's made to be this huge deal where characters feel like they are unworthy of being with that other person.

Anyway, thoughts on the topic?


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My Irritation Towards Perspective Changes

Perspective changes are probably one of the most common things in literature. Which is why it is incredibly important that they are done right, however, some people haven't gotten the memo, which is why I'm here to spell it out.

There are two things I hate in books, when the author writes the exact same book in another character's point of view and when the author changes perspectives halfway through the series, say adding a second perspective or just transitioning to a different character altogether. 

Books that are rewrites of another book but in another character's perspective are very hit or miss with me. Usually, I hate them.

I feel like a lot of these stories don’t add anything new to the original novel by having these new perspectives. For example, I love Jennifer L. Armentrout’s books, but she decided to rewrite Obsidian in Daemon’s point of view, and it was just that, Obsidian from Daemon’s point of view. There was nothing that we didn’t already know or any secret revelations that lead us deeper into Daemon’s inner workings, it was just him telling us what happened and I honestly could have gone without reading it. 

However, I do have to admit that Colleen Hoover’s Losing Hope was a rare exception as I think it gave us a lot of what we didn’t and couldn’t get out of Hopeless. It showed Dean’s side of things, the years he went without Sky, and in that case, it was a completely important part of the series. Also, I would like to add that if Richelle Mead ever decided to write the Vampire Academy from Dimitri’s point of view I would be the first in line to read it. What these two examples have in common is that these other characters are not open books, they have lots of secrets and a lot of the time you aren’t quite sure what they are thinking or what their motivations are, in these cases I would definitely love a book written from a separate point of view. However, most books aren’t like this. 

As for when the perspective changes halfway through the series it just doesn’t flow that well. I can understand if that book is another character's story all together but is just part of the same series, but if the book is just shifting over to say, the love interests point of view just for their input, I can’t stand it. Unless I hated the original protagonist, which I rarely do, then I don’t want a shift in character perspective.

Thoughts?

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Why I Dislike the Chosen One Trope

This is different from the rest because I don’t actually completely hate the trope itself, I just hate when the trope is written badly. When done well, this trope can be really amazing.

(Harry Potter Spoilers)

Case in point: Harry Potter. Harry Potter was the chosen one, but he wasn’t the only possibility. There was another choice for the chosen one It was the circumstances that led to him having to step up to it. It wasn’t just him being “awesome” and doing everything himself. He had outside support, there were people who loved him and cared for him that wanted to help him succeed. There was also his love for his friends and family that propelled him into this position where he wanted to protect them. Harry had no added bonuses to help him get through it unless you count him being a Horcrux, but I would say that that one is just as much a burden as it is helpful.

(End of Harry Potter spoilers)

A lot of books have the chosen one with all these added powers and they are just so awesome and can never be beaten because they are the chosen one. Who could possibly be better than the chosen one? The Chosen one trope is like sticking your character onto a pedestal. The thing about Harry Potter is we know he is incredibly flawed and we don’t always agree with what he is doing. He’s just trying to do his best to get through it all in one piece. 

I just finished a book where the chosen one trope just felt sort of tossed in to make the protagonist's life a bit more interesting. It didn’t really fit into the story and felt more like the author was just trying to make her character more special. It really annoyed me when this happened.

The chosen one trope also ties into the Mary Sue trope. Authors are trying to make their characters more likable by using superficial things like special abilities and high levels of importance based on the character's usefulness.

(House of Night Spoilers)

A really bad case of chosen one/Mary Sue is Zoey Redbird from the House of Night Series. We start off the series thinking she’s pretty cool, relatable, but as the story progresses she just becomes this slut-shaming holy than thou character who somehow gets all the cool powers. She is the only character to have control of all the elements, therefore, she is better than you. As I was maybe 12 or 13 when I started reading this series I didn’t realize how awful she was until I got older and realized she was honestly the worst main character ever because she couldn’t seem to see her own flaws and the author made it out to be like she was the saviour of the vampire world. Honestly, this series could have been so much better without her in it.

(End of House of Night Spoilers)

Just, if you plan to write a book using this trope, don’t just throw it in because it seems cool, use it if it really means something to the story

What are some of your thoughts on the trope?

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Rant: Mary Sue

At first these rants were like a stress reliever because I like to not yell at people in real life, but it's actually gotten to the point where it is a bit exhausting being so angry. But I persist because I'm not  a quitter. Also, it starts discussions and those are good, for the most part.

Let's get into it, so this week I will be talking about why I hate the Mary Sue character trope. If you are new to this reading and writing thing and don't know what a Mary Sue is, then I shall explain. A Mary Sue is a flawless female protagonist. They never do anything wrong and have no problematic character traits.

These characters are "relatable" while not actually being relatable at all. There is all this justification that you can get behind, because most of us would like to be able to believe that we are always in the right and that we're perfect. This is never the case in real life, we all have problematic traits or do things that are wrong.

These characters are usually what the author wishes they were. Basically they want to create the perfect character because they have some undeniable desire to be perfect. Now, maybe some authors don't actually mean to reflect any of this into their characters, maybe they are really problematic themselves and they want to create a character who has none of those issues, maybe they have gotten into the habit of writing characters who are perfect and don't even realize that they're doing it. Either way, I would suggest working on that.

The very idea of a Mary Sue is pushing girls to believe that they have to be perfect to amount to anything in life, they have to be the prettiest girl to get the guy, they have to have perfect grades and perfect social life but most of the time they don't realize how "perfect" they are which makes them seem like they deserve all this good stuff more than anyone else. The real kicker being that they have no flaws which makes people envy the shit out of them and sad that they can't be as perfect as those characters. I just don't think the idea of a Mary Sue is healthy.

Also, when reading about a "perfect" character, it starts to get annoying because despite how "relatable" they are, they stop being relatable after a certain point because they don't have flaws like the rest of us do. Maybe the characters even critic some of these flaws that us human beings do have in their quest to prove how perfect they are.

Anyway, thoughts on the Mary Sue?

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Why Romeo and Juliet Made Me Angry

I had to read Romeo and Juliet for school in the tenth grade. Let’s just say I was a little unhappy by the whole play. By unhappy I mean I hated everything about it, it was just such a stupid play, so I decided to rant about why I think it was a stupid play.

Also, if you haven't read or heard the story yet then SPOILER ALERT!

1. Juliet did not have to die

Friar Lawrence went to her and said something along the lines of 'yo, I can bring you to a convent, you can be a nun. You don't have to marry Paris.' And she was like “nah, I'm gonna stay with Romeo” and then she kills herself. It was so f*cking ridiculous I could not handle the levels of stupidity that this girl had. I was so pissed at her, and then the nail in the final nail in the coffin was the Friar just left her there. He knew what was going on and he just left!

2. Marriage

They literally got married after knowing each other for a day. A fricken day. This is absolutely ridiculous, I mean she didn't even know she was supposed to marry Paris yet. She saw him and was like 'He is so hot! I need to marry him' and fucking did exactly that. I can't deal with this, it makes me want to rip my hair out.. They are just so stupid. Plus, if they had lived through the play they probably would have ended up resenting each other so much. I mean what future did they have? He was an exile and she was 'dead'. I don't understand.

3. Friar Lawrence

If Romeo had just went and talked to the Friar about Juliet's death and all that jazz, he would have realized that it was all just a ploy. And, the Friar should not have given a 13 year old a potion to fake her death. 13 year olds don't make good decisions. He should have made sure that Romeo had gotten the message too. You can’t just help a girl fake her death so she can be with a guy and then not tell the guy about it.

4. Paris (guys Paul Rudd played him in the Baz version of the movie)

Honestly, Juliet should have just married Paris. She didn't even know Romeo more than she knew Paris. For all she knew she could have fallen in love with Paris and lived happily ever after, but no, she had to choose the rebellious teenager route and marry a guy her parents hate. Juliet is such a frustrating character.

5. Rosaline

Romeo was 'heartbroken' over Rosaline literally the day he met Juliet. Juliet was just the rebound. Does anyone else see the flaw? Romeo is such a player, literally anything to get into a girls pants. Romeo was the original fuckboy.

Did you like Romeo and Juliet? Did you hate it like I did? Tell me your thoughts down below!

Rant: The "Token Gay" Character

You may or may not have noticed this, but in most YA and definitely most romances, there is always the "token gay" character. The character placed specifically in the book to be a quirky side character or to show how open-minded the characters are. Usually, the token gay doesn't have much substance, pretty much all the author gives them is the fact that they are gay.

I'm honestly just pissed off because LGBTQ people should not be used as plot devices. Something to just add a little variety to the story. This has in fact happened in books that I do love, but this happens so often that it's become another trope that I can't stand.

Some authors do a great job with their LGBTQ characters such as Cassandra Clare who has about as many gay characters as she does straight. They all have their own plot lines and tragic back stories that will rival any of the straight characters and it feels very natural. She didn't just throw in one gay character and then call it a day. It might have seemed that way in City of Bones, but the lack of gay characters did tie into a plot line, so I forgive her.

It has become a trend not only in books, but in movies for there to be the gay best friend, *cough cough* GBF (it's on Netflix) that movie is great by the way, totally calls the gay best friend trope out. The gay best friend is just here to spur on the main character who isn't sure about hooking up with the hot popular guy who's totally in love with her and then he goes and does his own thing and we don't hear much else from them. The gay best friend always just seems so one dimensional and overall just bubbly.

This "trend" has gotten a lot better within the past couple years with a lot more representation and character depth, but there are still those few books with the "token gay" that just make me resent the book as a whole.

It's not as much of a problem recently, but please, if you are writing a book, try not to have a "token gay" because they honestly don't feel like people anymore.


What are your thoughts on the subject?



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