Rave: Antiheroes

It's been so long since I've done one of these and that's because I made this Rant and Rave platform to let out everything I'm angry about and everything I'm absolutely crazy about, but it just hasn't been happening as much. I'm not as angry as previously and I guess that's a good thing.

Everyone loves a hero. Or almost everyone, however, heroes can be a bit tiring. They're just such upstanding citizens and can sometimes just be unrelatable.

There's a reason that Deadpool was so popular when it came out. People found him to be relatable, and funny, and the lack of rules made his story exhilarating. Deadpool wasn't a completely bad guy, there was a reason for what he did, but he didn't ever try to save lives when negotiating with villains. He had skewed morality, but he still had morality which kept him from killing people he deemed innocent. He isn't full-blown evil like a villain, but he definitely isn't a hero.

This is also why people love V. E. Schwab's Vicious so much. We had two characters that could easily have been villains and pitted them against each other without a sense of which side was right and which side was wrong.

Whenever I think of Antiheroes and heroes and villains one quote from Karen Marie Moning's Fever series always comes to mind because I feel like it really captures different alignments.

People like heroes, but they are never quite as popular as the characters that are a bit morally grey. It's because people don't like perfect characters. Speaking from my own experience, I like characters that are a bit flawed, that have issues, that don't always do the right thing because they're more believable. It's all about relatability. It's hard to relate to a character who always does things because "it's the right thing to do" and much easier to relate to a character that does things because of something more personal.

Thoughts? Do you guys love or hate antiheroes?


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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 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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Rave: Friendships

Happy Chinese New Year to all my fellow Chinese out there! This post is going to be primarily gifs of Friends because I have an obsession.

Everyone loves to have friends. It doesn't matter who you are, you don't like being alone. Just as long as there is that specific person you like being around is there, you don't mind what you guys are doing. Connection makes people happy, and sometimes we have to get that sense of connection through novels as we can't get any in real life, therefore friendships in books are really important.

Friendships in books are probably the most important thing in the characters life. Not only is it good for the reader to see the protagonist making connections, it also makes the reader feel more connected to the characters.

When an author wants to make you and the protagonist feel sad and isolated they take away their friends and family, leaving them completely dependant on themselves and that in turn makes the reader feel how much those friends and family members are important to the protagonist.

I find that if I'm reading a book and the protagonist doesn't have many outward connections, it can make the story feel isolated and I know that sometimes that is exactly what the author is trying to do. they are trying to make you feel the isolation that the character feels. Whenever I read a romance I like to look for a friendship somewhere in there as I feel like a lot of the time the romance authors can just forget about building up any relationship that isn't part of the love story. I've read so many romances where the protagonist wither doesn't have any friends or just ditches their friends to hang out with the super hot guy they barely know. This makes the story feel really flat to me.

When you're reading a book and the protagonist is in a sticky situation and they don't know what to do and they feel very alone, there needs to be that perfect character to help them through it. Maybe they don't know what they're doing but they make the protagonist not feel so alone. They create a support system which infinitely makes whatever the protagonist has to do that much simpler.

Friendships are also important because I feel like without them characters can make really bad decisions, with a friend they will have someone to bounce ideas off of or have someone to tell them when something is a terrible idea. It adds another layer to the story because you know that the protagonist will probably be okay because they have a good friend standing by them.

It's really just the best aspect of a characters life to have those they love. Love interests will come and go, but as Phoebe Buffay says, friendship is forever.

Thoughts?


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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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Rave: Telling

In the writing and reading world, there is this known rule when writing books "Show don't tell". I, however, love when authors write telling books, just as long as the author is good at doing the telling. There are cases where showing just doesn't satisfy you as much as telling does. However, some books *cough cough* Twilight, aren't so good with their telling and should honestly have more showing. I'm here today to talk about how telling in books isn't always a bad thing.

To be more specific, when the book is in the third person. It feels like someone is sitting there telling me a story. I have nostalgic feelings of sitting in front of the fireplace on a rainy day listening to my grandfather telling me old tales. I mean, I've never actually had those experiences, but that's what those books feel like to me.

A prime example of this is Practical Magic and it's prequel Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman. These two novels have very limited dialogue, there's almost none at all, but the stories are still so rich and you don't even miss the dialogue. Rules of Magic was so full of emotion and characters that I loved and a plot that was very real despite being about witches. It was just so beautiful that I cried numerous times while reading it. The fact that it was mostly telling made it feel seamless when we went from one character to another, going along with their experiences and feeling their emotions. You can't get a lot of that through showing.

And then there are books like A Dog's Purpose where the author has almost no choice but to do most of the telling. Dogs can't talk unless they're Scooby-Doo. Even when the main character is mostly telling you what is happening around them it also creates an atmosphere for the character. You're seeing how they perceive these events int heir lives. Just look at Lolita, that's considered a classic and is critically acclaimed and most of that book is telling because that is the only way for us to see how truly unhinged Humbert Humbert is.

My point is I just like when I'm reading a book and it feels like someone else is reading a story to me. It feels so nice and especially works well for when that book is made into an audiobook. After all of my points, I honestly can't say that I agree with the saying "Show don't tell".

What are your thoughts on the subject?

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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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