Book icks

I know what you mean but ‘juggernaut’ specifically isn’t a modern word. It used to mean anything huge and unstoppable - it’s only recently started to be used for motor vehicles. Centuries ago, I think it originally referred to some kind of massive chariot.

But yes, anachronisms are annoying. I once read something where a character’s POV mentioned ‘time ticking away’ in a book set before anyone would have heard of clocks, for example.

I also read an otherwise excellent fantasy series where a character quoted Shakespeare a couple of times. Famous quotations, too, not the kind that have entered the English language in a way that means we don’t recognise them as Shakespeare any more. I’m talking along the lines of “Alas poor Yorick” or “What light from yonder window breaks” Unclear how Shakespeare was supposed to be familiar to people in a world where he didn’t exist.

When the amount of money/beauty/ figure of the character is expected to increase their likability/importance.
When the villain is revealed anew it’s either-
a background character that bears no relevance to the story
or
it requires that the character has been lying to the readers and themselves throughout the book.
When police work with amateur detectives and have nothing else to do but chat the small stuff.
When consultants behave like health care assistants.

Different fonts for different narrators - how dumb do you think we are that we won't be able to remember it's Lizzie now not Paul unless Lizzie writes in Arial?

And teenage slang - read an appalling one by Adelle Parks whose 20 year old narrator kept saying things like 'literally all the fam were in the pub, no cap' and described her mother's response to a younger sister being in a coma as 'having a full-on menty b'. Yuck - and dates so quickly!

I don’t think the poster was denying that lots of authors do it - hence mentioning it as a general annoyance. I assume Sally Rooney was merely an example she gave for illustrative purposes. That sort of thing personally doesn’t bother me at all; I find those sorts of authorial decisions very interesting.

But I think you’re fundamentally misunderstanding the point of ‘icks’. They can’t really be argued with; they’re innate irritations that people can’t help feeling. Telling someone their ‘ick’ is wrong or irrational is like telling someone they’re wrong not to like a certain colour.

Also, using figures of speech that don't fit in the time period. If your characters are battling with swords and shields, the enemy is not going to run you down "like a juggernaut" as you wouldn't know that phrase!

Yep it doesn't matter what the age group or period of the piece if a whole batch of names are 'wrong' it jolts me out of the setting. As I say I can live with one because there always are people with unusual or a-typical names but especially now when it's some easy to goggle a list of popular names in X decade or Y period there is no reason for it.

Lazy research for books set in another place or time period. I have a long rant about abook set in Bethnal Green in 1942-4 where a character sees that a shop has bananas, comments that theyhaven't seen them for a while, and casually pops in to buy a few. So many things wrong, but they had also paused a conversation because church bells were ringing loudly, so I shouldn't have been surprised.

Then there was the book where someone sheltered from an air raid in a Jubilee line station...

You only pad if you’re in your dressing gown on the way to the kitchen or bathroom. Everyehere else you’re walking.

@KitchenColourandstyle also vice versa. There is a crime writer whose plots are very good, but insists on giving contemporary characters in their twenties names like Samantha and Brenda. Really jarring.

I always think of that spoof of men writing from a woman's point of view where it describes her waking up in the morning and ends with "she breasted boobily down the stairs". 😁

I hate it when dialogue is completely unnatural and over-explains what is going on in a way that real people would never speak. It really jars.

Yes I was thinking that - don't try War and Peace...

Books set in the UK but using 'sidewalk' or 'elevators' and the like....

I hate this particularly within one page e.g. 'Andrew put the book down. The sergeant then walked across,the room'. Etc. They are the same person, it's annoying and can throw you off to think they're not the same person.

Too much 'tell' and not enough 'show'.
The word grinned, winds me up so much e.g. 'Yes I agree' he grinned.

Maybe I'm getting old(er) but I'm finding it difficult to read some paperbacks with grey print on not quite white paper. I don't want my reading to be restricted to a table with a bright light.
Printers please use BLACK.

Wuthering Heights is the worst for repeated names!

• 'Orbs' instead of 'eyes'.
• Americanisms that should have been picked up.

Some of these things would be bad enough in fanfiction.

One of the main characters being a young male billionaire

Male writers will often shoehorn rock references (their own favourite ones clearly) to try to make their male protagonist look ‘cool’ but it just makes me cringe. Reminds me of Steve Coogan’s Tommy Saxondale character. Not cool.

Also these same tragic men are ALWAYS paired with an ‘achingly beautiful’ female. Never a woman who is funny, or a great character. Just always beautiful. So dull.

While I love that HP got kids reading, the writing itself is so bad I couldn't manage to read it. I've read better crafted (admittedly very short so easier to manage) Y11 creative stories.

Russian literature is like this!

When the woman is introduced as having "tumbling locks of unmanageable curls". Don't get me started when they start describing her "tresses"

Another one - I'm Scottish and often find that Scottish characters don't come across as authentically Scottish. They are often just bog standard any English speaking characters, with a bit of Scittish dialect randomly thrown in.

Oh dear 😂
Similarly: any Uk-set book where the characters are worrying about how they're going to to pay their medical bills

Oh lord I did not know that.

In a similar vein, I’ve heard a podcast where the American narrator was describing the discovery of a crime scene in rural Wales, and apparently the first police to arrive (presumably local bobbies) ‘drew their weapons and moved carefully through to clear the house’ like the bloody FBI 😂.