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Original poster

I don't want to ruin every book you're going to read from now, but have you noticed they all have the word

239 replies

Cify · 28/03/2018 09:06

Detritus.... in therm?

And now I've noticed it I can't stop seeing the word in everything I read.

And yet I've never heard a single friend complaining about the detritus in their kitchen.

Please tell me I'm not alone? Do you notice certain words or phrases (that people don't actually say in real life) being used over and over again in novels?

OP posts:
SatsukiKusakabe · 28/03/2018 15:37

I shuddered reading that scribbly

Irishfeminist · 28/03/2018 15:21

Biting their lip. People always bite their lip. Just the one, mind.

ScribblyGum · 28/03/2018 15:14

The killer clown waited patiently at the kitchen table alert to the unmistakable sounds of his victim slipping on her dressing gown and padding down the stairs. As she opened the fridge the light cleaved the darkness, illuminating the attacker easing out from behind the table. Narrowing her eyes she surveyed the detritus of the broken window on the floor. “Fucking killer clowns” she muttered, slamming her fist into his solar plexus and flinging the hot liquid from her thermos of bovril into his face.

SatsukiKusakabe · 28/03/2018 13:41

The solar plexus is in the Milky Way, I believe.

Yes narrowed eyes. My eyes are regular fat ones.

I hate any description of hair - looking out from under a fringe, twirling it round a finger, flipping it over shoulders.

CaptainCardamom · 28/03/2018 12:00

Ooh Times amazing x-post!

I'm not even really sure where mine is...

Andante57 · 28/03/2018 11:43

I find the description 'sleepy village' or 'sleepy town' extremely annoying and lazy.
Every village and town that I've ever known have been far from sleepy - they've been full of people having affairs, rows, feuds, fun and every other vice and virtue of human nature.

HollowTalk · 28/03/2018 11:43

If it's a romance, the heroine's hair always has caramel highlights - though of course they are natural.

The thing I hate most is when they say someone (usually the heroine, who, of course, can't have an appetite) nibbles food. Makes me think of a squirrel.

BelindasRedPlasticHandcuffs · 28/03/2018 11:39

I'm a fan of the 'narrowed eyes' that so many people seem to look with.

TimesNewRoman · 28/03/2018 11:24

Sorry CaptainCardamom, cross post!

TimesNewRoman · 28/03/2018 11:24

You never hear anyone talking about a "solar plexus" only in books.

CaptainCardamom · 28/03/2018 11:19

Oh and I tried to read Sleepwalking by Julie Myerson once, but it was about someone who was pregnant and she was constantly going on about her "solar plexus" and it got really annoying.

DontFuckingSayIt · 28/03/2018 11:12

I once read a few books one after the other where all of them used the word "poleaxed" a few too many times. It was really noticeable and distracting.

MorrisZapp · 28/03/2018 11:12

I read a book in which three different characters used the word apercu. But with a weird accent thing under the c.

I googled the word because I'd never heard it before, I'm still none the wiser.

YesILikeItToo · 28/03/2018 11:07

There’s a book where one of the characters is a novelist, whose work is analysed by software which shows which words they use disproportionately. They’re told that the word ‘greasy’ and its derivatives permeate their work. Sends them into a spiral of decline. I often think of it when Reacher Says Nothing.

ScribblyGum · 28/03/2018 11:06

There’s a lot of cleaving going on in the books I’ve read of late. I don’t mind the occasional cleaving to, or even cleaving from, but I sense cleave(age?) creep is occuring.

DonkeysDontRideBicycles · 28/03/2018 11:03

A lot of sighing goes on in literature.

SatsukiKusakabe · 28/03/2018 10:52

I see your hot liquid, and raise you cold drinks “sweating”.

Also people are always shuddering.

Doofenschmirtz · 28/03/2018 10:46

There seems to be a lot of slipping going on. People are always slipping into dressing gowns, slipping down corridors and stairs, and even slipping into slippers.

So many books appear to be in need of a big yellow "Slipping Hazard!" sign.

Original poster
Cify · 28/03/2018 10:41

I'm going to keep seeing all of these now...

Another one that annoyed me (I think it was in The Breakdown) "she shrugged on her dressing gown". Who shrugs on a dressing gown? What's wrong with just putting it on?

OP posts:
CaptainCardamom · 28/03/2018 10:40

Oh and the other facial expression one is "A smile played across his lips." What does that even mean?.

CaptainCardamom · 28/03/2018 10:38

:o I have now cursed you all. You will never read a novel again without the "HOT LIQUID" jumping out at you every three pages.

BlancheM · 28/03/2018 10:30

I love it when a character's facial expression is a 'mixture' of emotions.
'His face was a mixture of utter relief and seething rage' or other such bollocks.

afrikat · 28/03/2018 10:24

Eyes flashing with anger. How the fuck do eyes flash??

ScribblyGum · 28/03/2018 10:22

But never mention the phrase in the book.

It’s allegorical.

ScribblyGum · 28/03/2018 10:21

You do know that the title of your first (Sunday Times best selling) novel now has to be ‘Hot Liquid’ don’t you?

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