Investigated – Pet Peeves in YA

Posted December 2, 2013 by Emily in Investigated / 2 Comments

investigated

Pet peeves or certain continual annoyances are pretty common. A lot of people have them. I happen to have a few when it comes to YA or fiction in general. So, in no particular order here are some of my pet peeves that occur in YA…

Love Triangles
Love triangles are probably my biggest pet peeve. They are just so urgh, so frustrating to read about. At least to me they are. When done right, love triangles can be a nice addition to the story, but sometimes it just wasn’t meant to be. Sometimes it feels like the author had no purpose to introduce another love interest besides to create a love triangle. Also, in a lot of books, about a love triangle becomes apparent, the whole book seems to revolve around it and the romance behind it instead of the story itself. Love triangles are just more trouble than they are worth. They make you pick a side, and you are on the loosing side, you are often left disappointed which usually ruins your view of the book.

Character Deaths
Character deaths are another pet peeve of mine. Like love triangles, when they are done right, when they add on to the story, when it has a purpose, they are generally okay. In fact, it would seem weird if in a book about war or some other violence related storyline, that all of the characters make it out alive. That being said, it is not okay when the author appears to kill of characters because they feel like it. So really, the pet peeve in unnecessary character deaths.

Spoilers
I hate spoilers. I hate them! I hate them! (And for a period of time, I hate the person who leaked it too). Spoilers just ruin the book for me. I guess hearing about spoilers before you read a book is okay. That way you have some idea of what you are getting into and also if it is worth it to read that book. But if you are in a middle or even worse, near the end of a book and someone tells you a spoiler… No. Just no. You spend so much time reading and building to the climax and the conclusion just to have someone ruin if for you. UGH!!!

Predictability
Like spoilers, this kind of ruins books for me. Sometimes the book is just so cliche and predictable that I already know what is going to happen next and where the characters will go, what they will do, that it feels like I am wasting time reading the book. What’s the point of spending time (which I’m very short on nowadays) reading a story I already know? Unpredictability is usually what keeps me reading a book, so why wouldn’t predictability stop me from reading one?

Long Series
Okay, this one is less annoying than the others, but still a pet peeve nonetheless. Do you know of the series that contain so many books and just seem to keep going? Yeah, well to me, those start to get boring after awhile. They become too predictable (see pet peeve above). A lot of times long series feel like the author has stretched out the story too much or that he/she has ran out of ideas and is just repeating previous ones with different circumstances. Still, there are a lot of good series that contain a LOT of books and are still enjoyable to read. But what sets those apart is that they aren’t that predictable.

Over-hyped Books
This one is a big one. It’s when people (or marketing) have put a book on really high pedestal, but it doesn’t meet expectations. It’s like some of them are saying “Oh, on a level from ground level to the highest peak on Earth, this book is on the moon.”, but to you, it only feels like it might deserve to be on your living room couch (maybe the kitchen table or the floor…). Because of the “hype monster” you start reading a book with impossibly high exceptions that are not met, or even close to being met. The worse part is that looking back on some of the books, I feel like the hype has ruined some of them for me. I feel like I would have really liked some of them had I not paid attention to the hype.

So, those are some of my pet peeves in YA.

What are some of your’s?
Emily

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