It is really nice to take a day off from blogging. I know that’s frustrating to other people participating, but y’all it was nice to just relax with my books and also to take time to try cooking a new to me recipe, which FYI turned out awesome. Today’s prompt is all about the things that turn me off from a book. If you’re doing day 15 because you are not a slacker like me, you can link it here too, but I will have the linky for that one up tomorrow at some point. This post is part of a 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge that I started because I was feeling burnt out and then inspired. Check out the challenge here.
Tell Us Your Deal Breakers.
There actually are not a TON of things that would totally turn me off from a book, but there are definitely things that would make me think less of the book. Here we go:
Controlling and abusive love interests portrayed as being romantic.
Y’all, I just can’t with those sorts of love interests. When I read a book and there is a romance, I do not mind the alpha sort of hero, even though I prefer the beta types. However, I just can’t abide the sort that tells their partner what they can and cannot do, who control them and come across as awful people. NOTE, this has nothing to do with love-hate stories, which I LOVE.
Characters who give up EVERYTHING for a conventional sort of life and have no life outside their boyfriend.
Huh, that’s kind of a familiar story, but yeah the one book that I ranted over, the main character starts off at college with a future, but then she basically drops her whole education, gets preggo and married before she turns 21, which is fine for some people. For me, though, I just like it when a character has an identity outside of other people, if that makes sense. When I read a book and the character gives up every little thing that makes her unique for her boyfriend, I am totally turned off from it.
Cop Out Endings.
Oh you guys this is the worst, I can get all the way to the end of a book thinking hmmm that was a nice sort of read THEN THE ENDING COMES. And usually a cop out ending is one where there is no ending because the author cannot make up their mind on the issue, argh. OR there’s a random cliffhanger inserted where the story in the book does not seem like it’s enough to cover two books or more. I just hate endings that do not make any sense, that feel cheap or tacked on — like many cliffhangers.
Animal Death.
I fricken HATE it when animals die in the books that I read. I get so pissed off when a dog dies, like come on author, figure out how to make me sad and upset without manipulating my emotions. Now, there’s like one exception to this where the dog dies and I was still like BEST BOOK EVER(I bet you can guess, I’ll tell you it’s the first book in a trilogy where the title of the trilogy is similar to anarchy strolling). Anyways, I just feel so manipulated when I read about dog death, and to another extent, cat death and horse death.
What Not To Wear.
Ughhhhhh I love reading, truly I do, but I hate it when there are pages and pages and pages of description of what every character is wearing right down to the brand. Now, I do not at all mind when it’s something like the character is going to a ball and they have a fairy grandmother who made them a magical dress and that’s described for like a page. YET, when it just continues on and on, for no reason, I get irritated. Same with name dropping of various brands, because as a reader, I start to get judgmental, now that I know the cost of various things.
What are your deal breakers?
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I think we (the participants) had different interpretations of what “deal breakers” you were referring to, so I know at least a couple of us went with book buying ones. Hope that is alright! Oh, and I am SO with you on the Controlling/Abusive love interests as well as the cop out endings. The first can turn the book into a DNF if it is bad enough but likely won’t ever get more than 3/5 from me and the latter usually drops the books rating a point or two by itself.
Cop out endings are incredibly frustrating because when you go to review the book do you focus on how irritating the ending was (a tiny fraction of the book but sometimes the most impactful) or the bulk of the book (assuming the rest is good, the vast majority)? I had this come up when reviewing Beta, went with the latter.
I absolutely loved that book with the dog which shall remain unnamed to prevent spoilage.
Cop out endings are so annoying. I also can’t stand unnecessary cliffhangers.
Cop Out Ending that I HATE? “Oh, it was all just a dream.” WAIT WHAT? NO. Sons of BITCHES!
Also THAT DOG DYING – it still gets me. I can’t even talk about it without tearing up.
I have to agree totally on the dream ending being a complete cop-out. I read one of those recently and while it was a story I’d been enjoying (in fact I’d read a couple of chapters in some anthologies), I skipped to the ending for some reason and discovered the dream aspect. Needless to say, the book got abandoned.
I fully suport you abusive/controlling love interests and the lengthy descriptions if clothes and make up. The first one can make the book DNF for me and the second one is rather annoying.
Seriously, animal death! I hate that, too! And I cannot take it. Have you ever read the middle-grade/YA book No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman. I think you might like it. It’s not my favorite book of all time, but I completely understand where the main character is coming from.
Also, it’s soooo annoying when the hero is a jerk to the heroine. I’m okay with a little misunderstanding at the beginning, but then it needs to stop, and people need to apologize, and I need to see that the hero is a nice guy.
Thanks for the awesome challenge! It was so much fun to participate. I absolutely hat cop out endings. It ruins the entire book for me. I also can’t do animals. I refuse to read a book about animals regardless of the plot. My heart is just too sensitive when it comes to animals.
Oh I can’t stand when they kill off animals. Or name-drop. And I hate pages of descriptions of outfits. Do we really need to know each item of clothing a guard is wearing that we will never read about again?
I actually like cliffhangers if they make sense. But I’ve been so disenchanted with epilogues to series-ending books lately. They’ve been feeling tacked on, added after the fact. Maybe because the real ending didn’t play well?
I don’t know that I’d want to read a book where the character sat at home doing not much else but cater to their boyfriend/husband’s every need. I know enough people like that IRL. I don’t think I’d want to read about their story in a book.
Great dealbreaker list!
I couldn’t agree more about animal death! It just pisses me off; I can excuse if (sometimes) when it’s crucial to the plot, but usually I can’t abide it. In fact, I recently watched an early episode of a popular show where a pet was killed and I turned it off, right then and haven’t checked it out again.
oh and the over describing of clothes seriously gets on my nerves too. In fact, I’d say over describing in general is a pet peeve of mine. Yes, make me feel like I’m there. No, dont take so long to describe the setting and the people that I’ve forgotten why I care! (I’m a day behind you on this, but I think this is definitely going in my post lol)
Controlling/abusive love interests are HARD for me to deal with in books. Like sometimes, I know they’re supposed to be a legitimate part of the character’s story but oh my gosh, it can be so frustrating and maddening and I just can’t do it!
I agree with you completely about animals dying! When something bad happens to an animal in a book, I find it very hard to get through and often end up angry at the author.
I hate over description too! Just convince me they’re reasonably clothed and I’m good with it lol