Reading peeves

Books where old men always have rheumy eyes.

Thrillers were the female protagonist is so dumb the mysterious new boyfriend/boss/roommate could practically stand there with a knife dripping blood wearing a name tag that reads “Hello I am a Serial Killer” and they’d still not consider the possibility they’re connected to all the strange killings in the area.

On the other hand I’m currently reading a thriller where a woman is nursing an elderly man with amnesia, on about page 5 she discovers a manuscript in his office (he’s a novelist), reads the opening paragraph which goes something like, “I looked down at the body of the woman I’d just killed, the only woman I’d ever loved” and gasps in shock because she immediately concludes that the man she’s caring for is a murderer and that he wrote his murder confession in the form of a novel which he then published.

Books where the main character steadfastly refuses to just have a conversation with somebody that would clear up all the misunderstandings/plot.

A sub-category of this is in mystery novels, where the detective rings someone who has a clue. “No”, says clue haver, “I can’t tell you now, meet me at midnight in the forest”, thus signing their death warrant.

You’re on the phone, you idiot. Just say the thing. The minute this trope appears, you know they’re dead.

I also have an aversion to constant references to hair; nobody in real life tosses their unruly locks or notices their russet curls.

For me it's books about coffee shops by the sea. (Don't read them, but the virtually identical pastel coloured covers with curly font titles really irritate me

Yes!

This and books where the woman is setting up a business, usually a twee shop of some sort and she meets a man who is great at diy and helps her to do up the shop. Hello authors, it's 2020 🙄

I didn't finish One Hundred Years of Solitude because of the ludicrous amount of characters called the same name. Makes books unnecessarily complex.

I'll add to my rant- authors who think they are clever and/or quirky by not using punctuation. I'm looking at you Sally Rooney.

The Stamp Collector of Auschwitz
The Stamp collector's ExWife's niece
OMG Yes!

For me it's books about coffee shops by the sea. (Don't read them, but the virtually identical pastel coloured covers with curly font titles really irritate me)

Also any thriller which claims to have the most amazing twist you'll never see coming, the best thriller I'll ever read. If the publisher tries to tell me that on the cover, it's a no from me. I feel like someone in the marketing dept of a publisher is trying to tell me what to read. They can do one.
Any psychological thriller with a three word title such as "He Saw me" or "You Came back". Dark cover, yellow (Or sometimes bright green) title font. Literally hundreds and hundreds of books like these on the market.

Overhyped books. These aren't necessarily bad, but the over-hyping irritates me. Eleanor Oliphant was OK, but didn't deserve anywhere near the attention it got. Likewise the Tatooist of Auschwitz.
I am steering clear of Crawdads for a while because of this.

Books where the main character steadfastly refuses to just have a conversation with somebody that would clear up all the misunderstandings/plot .

Books that start with a really cool premise, paint themselves into a corner and just fizzle out, or just make up something that makes no sense as a twist ending.