Top Ten Things That Make Me Instantly NOT Want to Read a Book

Hello my bookish friends. What time is it? It’s Top Ten Tuesday Time! (Yeah I used to be obsessed with High School Musical. Give me a break.) Anyways Top Then Tuesday was created and is hosted by The Broke and Bookish. Today’s Topic was “Things that would make you instantly not want to read a book.” I put down books.. a lot. As a mood reader I could almost say my mood and be done with it. But I looked deeper and found ten things that I’m opposed to.

10. Overly Flowery/ Descriptive Writing

I love me some world building. But when you’re stopping the story every third sentence to describe the flowers you’re passing or using paragraphs to create an image of the main character’s eyes… I get bored. I continue to try these types of books but ultimately end up having to stop and move on to something different.

9. Books Marketed as Sad

It’s weird because I love books about abuse, rape, and mental illness. But books where the main character has cancer or their brother died and they still can’t process their grief… I’m over it. I read too many Lurlene McDaniel books as a tween and just got my fill of these super sad books. It’s like they are written , not to tell a meaningful story, but to punch at your emotions. It’s like if you would just write a good book then you wouldn’t have to TRY and make me cry. I just would!

8. Inescapable Graphic Content

This is a personal preference thing. First let me say that by graphic content I mean either a) sexual writing or b) gore. Lets start by saying I don’t need to be reading clean christian fiction. I just don’t want to be overwhelmed with the graphic writing to the point where I feel like I can’t keep reading without being bombarded with images I don’t care to have. As for part a, a sex scene here and there doesn’t not bother me. When you can’t talk about the love interest except in a sexualized way it becomes something grates me wrong and honestly isn’t what I came to read.  Now for b. I have never really liked gore. I love thrillers and mysteries but usually draw the line at horror because I don’t want to see/ read about people being mutilated or all the blood pouring out of them. It gives me nightmares and I’m not here for that.

7. Victorian Era

After reading quite a few regency novels I’ve found that they just aren’t my cup of tea. I still have to read the Gail Carriger series, mostly because I own it. But just as a general rule of thumb I no longer blindly pick up books that take place in this era. Especially steampunk ones. I’m glad if this fad worked out for you. But for me personally it was a no go.

6.  Bad Boy is Your Selling Point

Let me just that 80% of the time I’m going to root for the best friend or the geeky guy. There are times when the geek fails me and times when the “bad guy” seems swoony. As a general rule I’m more of a Cory type girl than Shawn. But when your love interest is really just a big ass hole and his redemption is that he LOOOVES the main character I automatically put the book down. This is not the message we should be sending teens. Your boyfriend can abuse you and treat you badly but if he loves you then its A-OKAY! No….NOOO!  Bad boy with a heart of gold? Give me a break. I honestly expected to hate Rhys for this very reason. But I found out he wasn’t really bad to begin with so I gave in.

5. Romance without a solid plot

I’m looking at YOU New Adult. I find so many romance books to be purely about sex. Like is there even a real story going on here or are we just here to see the two characters bang. I mean almost all books say they have a plot. But where is the focus in the book? If it’s always on the girl and guy trying to get together and then into each other’s pants then you can bet that I’m out.

4. Unauthentic Characters

When your characters don’t have a little consistency, especially book to book, I get real frustrated REAL fast. Like the author built this character and we know them so well and then they make a choice that completely goes against everything that they are about.  A girl who is all about safety and staying away from stranger deciding it’s a good idea to follow some strangers into the woods and track them down. You JUST said…. I can’t stand it.

3. Fat/ Slut Shaming

I have felt ashamed of my weight my entire life. I don’t to read a book where the character is condescending to everyone for their body type or what they choose to wear. It’s one thing if it’s idea that is going to be challenged through out the book. But when it’s ingrained as part of a character’s thinking and into the world building and characterization I get this awful feeling in my stomach and 8/10 times will just put the book down.  And the thing is, writers keep doing this because these words and phrases have been normalized. I hate it!

2. Too Much Hype

One of the main thing that kills a book for me is too much hype. I mean I was hesitant to pick up THUG because it was getting praised out the wazoo. I still don’t want to read Caravel. Like I just don’t think I can trust a book that is so widely praised without some reasons behind it. It’s like the marketing got a hold of the book and plastered advertisements everywhere. It makes me want to run and hide.  This hype sets up unrealistic expectations and then I’m disappointed by the books reality 95% of the time.

1.  The Miscommunication Trope

*Shudders* I can’t tell you how many YA Contemporary books I’ve put down because the main characters wouldn’t just talk to each other. When the whole plot revolves around one character not sharing enough information with the love interest or not correcting false information the love interest has then I just can’t do it. I understand that teenagers aren’t always able to express their feelings. But when it drags out I just can’t deal with it. There has to be a very good reason for withholding information for me to continue reading. And I’ll tell you, that’s happened once that I know of.

Well this has been a list of the the top ten things that would make me not want to read a book. Comment down below and tell me one reason you would put down a book. Or let me know if you can relate to any of my reasons. I hope your day is positively nerdy!