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Pet Peeves

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Post by Patricia Sun Sep 04, 2011 7:08 pm

A friend of mine and I were talking about pet peeves and she said: "Yuck, I hate vampire-human-relationships. They are so creepy! And everyone swoons over the hotness of [Edward Cullen] or whatever when he is a pedophile!" and then she was completely freaking out because of Bella and some girl I've never read about and how they are Mary Sues and Goody Two Shoes - which got me thinking about Sascha I like to give you blowjobs Duncan. And then we talked about some other things that often feel wrong or forced or are annoying|stupid|whatever.

So, I wondered: What pet peeves do you have AND would you read a book with eg a second Edward, even if you hated him, just because you like the author or want to give it a chance etc pp. ? Because, after she pointed out something else I noticed how I often read a novel and don't think about what the book's message is. D:

(And I'm not only talking about content-related pet peeves, but.. for example.. I hate it when authors talk down to their readers *cough* Clare *cough* or when mature authors write their young adults naive, because it's a bit offending after a while (especially if ALL the young adults in the book are like that and you can't even give the author the excuse that he or she simply wanted to make ONE hero/heroine naive) or if readers feel insulted because you don't like a book they liked etc.)

Smile
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Post by Katherine Tue Sep 06, 2011 3:44 am

I don't like when an author lectures me. Tom Clancy is really bad about that. Its like he's got to show off everything he knows. The guy who writes the Sword of Truth series is even worse. He didn't start off this way but by the tenth book he not only lectures his readers on morals, he frequently repeats.

Info dumping is another petpeeve. While in moderation it can be fascinating, David Weber takes it to extremes. In one of his books, Ashes of Victory, there is a 20 page info dump on small space craft and the names they are given.
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Post by Nina Tue Sep 06, 2011 2:59 pm

Ugh, moral lectures. I can't stand it when an author does that. It's really unfortunate but it seems to happen a lot in Uf/PNR, especially PNR. I swear, if Lily Yu (World of the Lupi, Eileen Wilkes) gives me another PC speech I will... grrrr.... Mad

Seriously, I feel like some authors don't get it that not everyone agrees with their worldview. I'm okay with reading books with different philosophies from my own but when an author takes on a holier-than-thou tone I just want to scratch eyes out. Eileen Wilks does it, JR Ward does it nowadays, and lots of contemporary romance authors do it.

But what really gets me is when children's book authors do it. It feels more sinister - some random adult I don't know telling my kid what to believe? I don't trust this person why should they have my (hypothetical) kid's undivided attention? Ew. That feels creepy to me...

But yeah, I'll have to think on this topic more. My other pet peeve is harder to explain...

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Post by Sycorax Wed Sep 07, 2011 7:27 am

Destined, Epic romance annoys me. This doesn't need to have a mystical element to it - often it's just an attitude - but the worst offenders are plots involving things like reincarnation and mates. Oddly enough, Nalini Singh has never really raised my ire over the mate issue, but in the Psy/Changeling series I am least interested in the books where there is an instant holy-shit-you're-my-mate moment upon meeting. I prefer the ones where it feels like an ordinary relationship that just happens to culminate in a supernatural bond rather than a marriage service.

I don't like books with slut shaming or gender double standards, which is why Clay and Tally's is my absolute least favourite NS book. I know I'll have to reread it along with the others for the sake of the external plot, but I'm not looking forward to it.

I agree with what the rest of you have said, too. Lectures - moral or otherwise - are intensely irritating and get in the way of a story.

My RSI is playing up right now, but I'm sure I will come back to the thread and rant some more at some point. Wink

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Post by ferdy Wed Sep 07, 2011 7:49 pm

All of the above especially gender double standards and mary sue's. I used to love Sascha in the first couple of books but she's just too damn perfect and everyone loves her and she can come across as judgemantal at times..ugh I prefer Tally and Sienna who have been through so much and have become strong, loving women despite their past.
My biggest pet peeve though is how 99% of YA books (and the majority of adult UF/PR) I've read is how the heroine is a good little virgin and the hero is a notorious manwhore.. and if the heroine doesn't happen to be a virgin she's had no more than 2-3 lovers (to the heroes hundreds) or she's had a bad experience (raped, ex boyf was a cheater/liar/betrayer or some sort). It's just ridiculous it's come to point where I don't even want to read a lot of books when I know this is the case. It's like the authors can only show character growth for the heroine if she loses her virginity to the manwhore hero and/or it's because they can only show the heroine's love for the hero by giving her virginity to him. For me that shows that the author isn't very good because they haven't got the skill to show character growth or how much the heroine loves the hero in any other way.
I don't mind virgin heroines when it makes sense e.g the psy or in historicals. I'm not saying I want the heroines to be sleeping around with everything that moves but it would be refreshing to see a heroine that has had a healthy sex life prior to falling for the hero. If authors are wary of doing this because it might send the wrong message to their younger readers why not make both the hero and the heroine virgins.. sorry for the rant it really bugs me that there's no balance in the sexual experiences of our hero's & heroine's.

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Post by Sycorax Sat Sep 10, 2011 8:12 pm

Another one - because I just encountered it in Kristina Douglas' Demon, is where the guys is all 'I am inexplicably attracted to you... therefore you must be a giant slut using feminine wiles on me and I can treat you with complete contempt'. It's most often used in Mills and Boon, but unfortunately makes its way into a lot of other romance. For a start, your body is your responsibility. Don't go blaming other people for the way it's behaving. Secondly (and I'm repeating ferdy here), if you treat a woman like shit because she's promiscuous you're a hypocrite as well as a bastard. Most romance heroes have spent years boning every woman available, after all. Grrrr...

Another thing (also in Demon) is when the hero behaves like a bastard for most of the book, and then doesn't apologise/grovel as much as you want him to.

Ferdy I agree about wanting heroines with previous positive sexual experience. The rule seems to be that for the hero, sex with the heroine has to be the best ever, but for the heroine it has to be either her first sexual experience, or at the very least her first orgasm.
[/rant]

I do think we're getting there, though. Romance has changed for the better over the last forty years, and more and more books are being written that break the pattern in one way or another.

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Post by Patricia Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:14 pm

The lecturing-thing is what I meant before.. It really pisses me off, too! Double standards, too.

Sycorax - Can you explain that a little more? I don't recall reading a book where the hero says the woman's a slut / to be blamed because he's attracted to her. Do you mean like.. victim blaming / slut shaming?
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Post by Nina Fri Sep 16, 2011 5:20 pm

Arrogant authors bother me. Ones who think their untouchable because they have a fan base. Ew.

A sub-peeve (lol) of that would be authors who are so conceited/sure of their sales that they contradict themselves from book to book - Laurel K. Hamilton, JR Ward, etc. Usually these authors give off the vibe of "I take myself waaaaayy too seriously."

Another thing that annoys me is when authors make fun of other authors when they aren't that great themselves. I mean, if Mark Twain or Georgette Heyer or Oscar Wilde wanted to come back from the dead and critique something candidly, they've earned the right. John Grisham or Amy Tan could, too. They'd do it properly and carry lots of professional weight.

For example, I read an interview where (sadly) Nalini Singh made fun of some PNR author who liked to make a certain piece of male anatomy prehensile (O_o). That's weirdish, yeah, but it isn't like NS's writing/love scenes are stellar either. Something about the way it was phrased made it seem petty. It felt like the picked-on kid who teases some other picked-on kid to make themselves feel better/less of a target. Hunting the wounded gazelle or something.

You just shouldn't do something like that publicly. It's bad business. Ew again.


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Post by Patricia Fri Sep 16, 2011 5:38 pm

"Ew again" - :'D

What does prehensile mean? The translation I got doesn't really make sense to me right now.. Or I'm way too innocent. oô

(And do you have a link?)
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Post by Nina Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:54 pm

Prehensile basically means something that thinks/moves on its own. O_o indeed.

I don't have the link, I read the article ummm... a year ago? 2 years ago? Stupid memory.
Actually, it might have been on twitter... If that's the case it's probably lost in internet ether (I am not twitter-savy. I don't even have a facebook anymore... Bad Nina, no treat.)

I'll look for it though.


Last edited by Nina on Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:59 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : because my spelling abilities die after 12 am)

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Post by Patricia Sat Sep 17, 2011 10:14 am

O___o

Oh, well, you don't need to look for that, then. :'D
(Facebook sucks anyway)
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Post by TheFLuff Wed Dec 07, 2011 4:58 am

Too many to count.

Overprotective brothers/fathers/cousins/whatever:

Yes, I don´t like it. It´s ok in some measure with Shifters in PNR, because it can be explained as some form of instinct.
Normal romance? No! Never! If one of my male relatives would get his dirty fingers into MY romantic relationships, I would simply chop them off.
As a grown woman, I have a right to decide for myself, who I want to be involved with. And I´m sorry, I don´t want my romance heroines to be 6 year old girls, who still need older male relatives to make decisions for them.

Whiny women. Whiny women who hate their mothers, whiny women who don´t have relationships because of the way men treated their mothers, or their mothers treated their men, or their fathers their men or WHATEVER!
I have a truly bad mother and my father left her for another woman (not necessarily in that order). Do I hate men? No. Why? Because that wasn´t my relationship and my man isn´t my father.

SSTL. Nuff said.

Overly emotional women who make stupid decision in a matter of seconds and then stick to them for years.
Like: OMG, he was in hospital with two broken arms and didn´t call for my birthday. He doesn´t love me anymore. I will break off with him.
(Just a little healthy sarcasm)

Men who treat their heroines like sluts, because they had sex.
Men who are not sluts, no matter how they behaved.
Men who whine about their lower education/lower regarded job/ missing university education/lower salary/ being NOT above the woman.
(Hello Martin! Yes, I still hate you and I hope, Adria shredded you)

The magical, sudden mental soul healing plot, where hero and missus talk about the evul abuse in his childhood/his wartime trauma/PTSD/ missing hamster and suddenly all is well and healed and he will never have any problems anymore.

As someone, whose partner has PTSD this is just the total insult.

Sloppy editing, missing scenes (Lora Leighs have those in abundance)

and so on and so on and so on...

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