This week is bookish pet peeves, and I wasn’t sure if that meant peeves in the care of books or peeves in the plot choices.  I decided to go with plot choices… for no particular reason. It’s just what popped in my head first!

I originally had this idea that I would include ‘when it works’ books, and ‘when it doesnt’ books.  Then, as I was picking them, I realized I’d be alienating some people if I put down books they loved.  I don’t want to do that.  Instead, you’re just getting a blurb.  No book covers this week.  Sorry if you like the pictures!  😀

Also, I may get kinda adult on you guys.  I can’t help it.  I am a 38 year old woman, mothering a young teenager.

Top 5 Tuesday was started by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm!

Being Flayed from All the Angst!

Oh my gosh, there’s almost nothing that makes me roll my eyes as hard as overdone, unnecessary, angst in a book!  I hate it.  Clearly there are going to be problems.  That’s what makes reading entertaining.  Obviously sometimes those problems can’t always be fixed by talking.  BUT, when the problem is ONLY caused by refusing to have a conversation, that’s when I want to scream!  It’s like, I feel impressionable youth may start believing that’s how a relationship should be, and I hate that.

Characters who are excessively shallow!

Again, this is one of those things that bothers me as a mom, but I have a problem with books written about shallow main characters.  I don’t mean all books, obviously.  Sometimes a character is supposed to be shallow, and her being shallow is part of the plot, and that’s fine.  Plus, let’s be real, sometimes we are a bit shallow, and we learn from it.  I’m talking about books that take it to the extreme.  It’s more about the books where the character is supposed to be ‘nice’ and ‘perfect’.  She’s ‘sweet’.  Yet, all she can talk about is her hair, her clothes, her boyfriends chest, or put down other girls.  It’s infuriating.

Character castration!

This one is all adult.  I can’t stand when you read a really long, really slow burning romance, and you’re seriously loving it only to have one of the characters personalities completely flip the moment they admit they’re in love.  Suddenly, out of no where, you (as the reader) don’t feel like it’s the same book anymore.  Like, the idea of love means you’re no longer recognizable as yourself.  A good writer stays true to their characters first, not alters them to make the romance easier.  Drives me insane.

Blatant disregard of your own series history!

I know I said I wasn’t going to point fingers at a particular book, but I just can’t help it here!  I have to talk about Iced and Sweet Valley Confidential.  I’m going to scream it from the mountaintop: The only Fae Prince with wings in the Fever world was Cruce as he was created in the image of the KING!  Cruce did not die, therefore Christian should not have had wings!  It’s a HUGE part of your own world building, KMM, how did you miss it!?  And Francine Pascal, you can’t suddenly erase Elizabeth and Todd’s love story just because it makes your stupid adult book more interesting.  There is no way, not on God’s green earth, that Todd secretly lusted after Jessica the whole time.  That’s blaspheme!
…Whew, okay I’m done.

Writing an accent so strong is not decipherable!

I’ve read books before where there were liberties taken with the dialect, or writing style.  Downside Ghosts, there’s a whole slang vocabulary created the Downsiders use and I adapted quickly.  Or in Chaos Walking, Patrick Ness purposely wrote words wrong, as a stylistic choice.  However, sometimes an author goes so overboard that I truly can’t comprehend what the they’re trying to convey.  I find that I eventually just get a headache and I feel like reading, my favorite past time, is a chore.  I shouldn’t feel like reading is homework, so I always end up quitting.