Eye-rolling book tropes

It’s been like two months since my last eye-rolling book tropes post! 

How is that possible? With all the clichés running wild around the world!? 

Here’s a new round of book tropes that make me roll my eyes. Delight yourself with Part 1 and Part 2, there’s a lot of eye-rolling to enjoy!

Extremely weird names

If I’m not reading a cheesy Dungeons and Dragons novel (which I love in small doses) I don’t expect to find names like Celaena, Katniss, Chaol, or anything with more letters than it needs.*  These names instantly break the immersion every time I pick a new book. Because I’m there, soaking in a new world, a new fascinating story… only to brain-stutter when my brain-mouth can’t pronounce the words my eyes are trying to transmit. I’ll go like ‘Celaena?’, ‘Selena?’, ‘Calina?’, ‘Celina?!?’. Until I decide it’s not worth it, and I’ll spend the rest of the book brain-babbling something like ‘Casdfglna’, every time I encounter the name.

*Extra hate-points if said name has two or more vowels in a row.

Unnecessary Romance

I do like reading cute romance stories, even if they tend to distract from the main plot sometimes. What makes me roll my eyes back into my brain is when the romance feels completely forced and adds NOTHING to the story. A lot of books could do very well without the whole love-triangle subplot. And another bunch would be infinitely better if they got rid of the love interest and focused in the main character and their main, more important problems. I felt this way when I read Replica, by Lauren Oliver. One of the characters was really interesting to me and I loved seeing her grow and discover the world… but she had to fall in love with the first guy she met! 

 Tomboys who hate everything ‘girly’

I like tomboy characters. What I dislike is the current trend to make all female characters extremely anti-conventionally-feminine. It seems like modern female protagonists must distance themselves from dresses, hair-care and makeup. And also avoid hobbies and situations that are considered ‘girly’. And I mean, that’s okay that different girls have different interests. But… what’s so bad about liking pink, floral dresses and lipstick? Why is always the protagonist a nerdy tomboy with glasses and the main antagonist (which is a bad/spoiled person) a girly, fashionable girl with contact lenses? These authors are only provoking an eye-rolling reflex every time I read a sentence in a book about the protagonist being a unkempt tomboy.

People who literally talk with their eyes

Guessing someone’s feelings by looking at their eyes is possible to some extend, but there’s a limit to that ability that should not be crossed, even in literature. And still some books go like ‘I saw through his gaze and discovered what he didn’t want to say, that he loved me. But his eyes also hid something from me, something very dark, and that’s when I discovered that the truth was written deep inside his eyeball: he was an alien from Mars.’**. Is it that book characters have really developed interpersonal skills? Because I’ve never been able to guess someone’s desires and feelings so easily. 

** Now I should definitely include this fragment in a book. Working title ‘The deep gaze of the alien from Mars’. Soon to hit your favorite bookstore.

Absent parents

This one bothers me because I would like to read about a loving, supporting families that stay nearby during the protagonist’s adventure. It’s kind of obvious while most authors decide to write absent or dead parents. Because it’s easier for the hero to embark on an adventure, and because having parents might be of so much help that protagonists wouldn’t try to do things by themselves. But that looks to me like floppy writing. And anyway, how awesome would it have been to meet James and Lily Potter? Or Katniss’s father? I just want more adult mentors and loving families, to be honest.

What book moment made you roll your eyes? Tell me in the comments! 😀