Hello everyone! Today’s post is another Top 5 Tuesday! The prompt for today is the top 5 tropes that I dislike. This is a difficult one for me because there aren’t any tropes I really dislike, per se. However, there are plenty of tropes that make me wary because they are often executed poorly. Check out my top 5 list below, in no particular order, of the tropes I often find myself disliking while reading a book. Top 5 Tuesday was created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, and is now being hosted at Meeghan Reads!

Love Triangle

Love triangles are something I come across in my reading all the time, and most of the time they are absolutely cringeworthy. I think part of it is I hate making decisions, and the stress of the character having to choose makes me uncomfortable. lol. Even once they do choose, I always feel terrible for the person left out. I especially hate the love triangle with a girl and two guys where one of the guys is the pinnacle of toxic masculinity and the other is the emotionally available friend type. I just hate both of those male stereotypes and ultimately feel let down regardless of the choice. I find myself thinking why didn’t you just keep looking for someone who is masculine and emotionally available since you clearly like both traits. Problem solved. lol. Recently, I’ve read some love triangles where three characters become a throuple, and I have loved that spin on this trope. So, maybe there is hope for it after all.

Miscommunication

This is another trope that I often find incredibly annoying. When I read this particular trope, I usually keep thinking just talk to each other! It becomes distracting, and I tend to lose focus on the larger story.

Instalove

As I mentioned in last week’s Top 5 Tuesday post, I really like a good slow burn romance. The flip side of that is instalove, and I very rarely enjoy it. To be clear, I don’t mean attraction at first sight because that is often an important, and good, element of a story (or real life romance). I mean the instant unending obsessiveness where the character is incessantly pining from the moment they first lay eyes on their love interest. It usually makes the obsessive character feel pretty one-dimensional and makes me wonder why the love interest is into them in the first place.

The Quest/Journey

This is a common trope in fantasy. It can be done well and lead to fantastic world-building. However, I’ve read several books recently where the traveling component really weakened the story with its meandering. I just find hopping from place to place to often be incredibly boring unless something exciting is happening or the travel itself serves some purpose. Otherwise, I just want to get to the destination and do the thing. What can I say…I’m impatient and have a short attention span.

Good Vs. Evil

This is another trope that is compelling when done well, but I often dislike because of how it is handled. Too often, the good and bad characters are like cardboard cutouts. I prefer there to be more moral flexibility, such as a villain with a tragic backstory or a hero who struggles to do the right thing. It just makes for a more interesting story.

So, there you have it. The five tropes I dislike the most (sometimes)! Do we have any tropes in common? What tropes do you despise? Let me know in the comments!