Here are five book tropes that we are all tired of reading by now:
1. The Love at First Sight
I know I don't need to tell anyone just how tired readers are of reading about love at first sight. I'll admit that some books might have done an okay job at making this relationship type appealing and believable, but these books are in the minority. There are so many other more interesting and complex paths to romance that it's a wonder that authors continue to use this lazy romance stencil. If I have to sit through another "girl meets boy and boy is the most amazing thing in the world and now they're in love", I'm going to lose it.
2. The I hate you - I love you
The opposite of "the love at fist sight", but just as annoying and predictable. Anytime that a girl in a book meets a boy and they immediately dislike each other, us readers know that by the end they're going to be so in love that they forget all of the insults they traded in the beginning. "The I hate you - I love you" was probably created because readers were so tired of "the love at first sight", but now it's become overused.
3. The Hero's Journey
Don't get me wrong, I love reading about a hero on her path for justice, but if their journey is formulaic - which many seem to be - it just gets boring. If the hero is a white, straight, teenager who is the epitome of all things good and pure and somehow the smartest or the best swordsman and is surrounded by ethnic and LGBT friends who are all irrelevant to the plot, I'm just not that interested in reading. These hero's journeys often take away from he personality and the uniqueness of the hero and usually about halfway through, I find myself bored.
4. The Source of all Evil
Just like the perfect character is boring, the pure evil character is just as boring. I'll admit, many books are moving away from this trope, but it's still pops up every once in a while. It's very rare to find a person who is completely evil or completely good, so finding these characters in books just makes the whole thing seem unreal and forced, not to mention that those characters are flat and one-sided. Give me complex characters, please.
5. The Chosen One
I am not ripping on any chosen one books (especially not Harry Potter). All of these tropes can be done well and many books do this one well. My beef is with the books who use "the chosen ones" as a cheap cop out and lazy excuse to not have a plot. It's especially annoying when a completely unqualified character finds out they're the chosen one, suddenly becomes the best at everything, and never really faces any issues.
Please, please, please, just give me some interesting plots and characters. We're all tired of reading the same thing over and over again.
