Book icks

[butimamonstersaidthemonster]

I love hearing peoples biggest book icks.

I hate when plot holes are explained by characters being so rich that they have access to technology that doesn’t exist.
I hate when a character is paralysed and then it turns out that they were faking it - you can’t fake it for months or in some books years!
I hate when books are described as ‘the next gone girl’ like it isn’t a major spoiler.

I'm sure I have loads more I can’t think of right now.

The Dexy's vocalist has claimed that was a deliberate joke 😆

A title ick: "The [insert whimsical sort of profession]'s Daughter"

I have to admit I have never read any of them because the titles are so off-putting.

A title ick: "The [insert whimsical sort of profession]'s Daughter"

Yes, I really dislike book titles which describe women in terms of their relationship to a man.

You don't see The Dressmaker's Son, do you?

And "The Whimsical Hobbyist of Auschwitz"

Oh yes. Also prequels that don’t fit the already written books.

I was a huge David Eddings fan as a teenager & very irritated that when he wrote a couple of books about the earlier lives of two of his characters, there were several contradictions - like the sorceress Polgara having complained in the first book he wrote about having no experience of looking after children, then the prequels having her spending most of her long life raising a succession of small boys.

People never just wear trousers. Their legs are always encased in slim navy pants.

The main character catching sight of themselves in a mirror or a window as a device to describe their appearance.
The use of ‘with her/his’, for example’With her long blonde hair and her big blue eyes, she was really beautiful’ or ‘he gave off an air of authority with his manly moustache and well cut suit’

When people don’t go to the police with the piece of evidence that would solve the entire crime and instead head over to the murders house to confront them.
just random people solving crimes in general - and never involving the actual police
people confessing to a crime when the police have no evidence whatsoever.

Oh yes, or when instead of just coming out with ‘Fred did it!’ someone allows herself / himself to be put off or waffles long enough for the murderer to have plenty of time to shut them up.

All the books nowadays are either in the Sunday Times top ten, New York Times top ten, or Richard and Judy Bookclub.

Yes the whole trend of concentration camp literature- I gave that a big swerve. Reminded me of the late 90s/ early 2000s Geisha literature trend. Started with big success of Diary of a Geisha so others rushed in with their tales of eastern courtesans.

When the main character doesn't seem to work (or described as having some vague job but never seem to be doing it) but always has money for whatever they are up to in the book like travelling, staying in hotels, eating out etc. Also, to make us sorry for them, when they are living "all alone" in a big house somewhere like London described as "run down and dilapidated" but probs worth a few million in real life.

As much as I love Pride and Prejudice I was taken aback by Lizzie's confession that she fell in love with Mr Darcy when she saw his country house. Kind of off-putting?

Incredibly fake and unrealistic dialogue just to make an obvious and laboured point- recent worst offender - The Salt Path.

Media in general but I hate when a character is offered something they've always wanted at the end of a story and turns it down for some bullshit reason.

Self-published memoirs/autobiographies by people who have swapped an addiction to drugs and/or alcohol, maybe with a side order of antisocial behaviour or petty crime, for an addiction to ultramarathon running, cycling round the world or some other intrinsically pointless activity.

"Autobiographies" (usually ghost-written) featuring athletes and celebrities who are still at the peak of their career and so young that they need to pad out the story by wittering on endlessly about their childhood.

Recently, I discovered a visceral aversion to protagonists who are stoners. Max Cámara and Fiona Griffiths spring to mind, and it's annoying because both book series are set in locations I'm familiar with.

P D James shoehorning "exophthalmic eyes" into every one of her Dalgleish novels, at least until the point at which the quality of the writing fell off a cliff, the 95-year-old Dalgleish took up with a woman barely out of her teens, and I gave up reading them.

I'm really enjoying this thread 👋😂

Ha yes! Jane Austen was an offender but I like to think she knew the point she was making. Whereas a lot of "holiday read" type books since to genuinely see that as the ultimate romance - struggling young woman meets 2 dimensional man with very enormous bank account

When characters with no particular skills or abilities manage to sneak into an enemy lair and then hear a plan laid out from behind a curtain/column.

When a character is introduced and then suddenly disappears from the plot for no reason. Or for a reason, like they get injured but there seems to be no reason for that other than the author didn't know what to do with them past a certain point so decided to write them out of the plot.

American authors getting British details wrong, like calling jam 'jelly'. Especially annoying when they are pretty good 95% of the time otherwise!

As much as I love Pride and Prejudice I was taken aback by Lizzie's confession that she fell in love with Mr Darcy when she saw his country house. Kind of off-putting?

She was joking! Jane knew she wasn't serious:

And do you really love him quite well enough? Oh, Lizzy! do anything rather than marry without affection. Are you quite sure that you feel what you ought to do?”
“Oh, yes! You will only think I feel more than I ought to do when I tell you all.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why, I must confess that I love him better than I do Bingley. I am afraid you will be angry.”
“My dearest sister, now be, be serious. I want to talk very seriously. Let me know everything that I am to know without delay. Will you tell me how long you have loved him?”
“It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began; but I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.”
Another entreaty that she would be serious, however, produced the desired effect; and she soon satisfied Jane by her solemn assurances of attachment. When convinced on that article, Miss Bennet had nothing further to wish.

Also the constant pandering to self indulgent whiny fuckers who should be told to get a grip. 'Are you okay Jude?' 'lm sorry Willem'
Just give him a good shake Willem or let him stew.

Even looking at that phrase makes my blood pressure spike.

Yep! As @HelenaWilson 's quote above shows, Jane Austen was totally joking - that irreverent wit is a defining factor in Lizzie... another reason why she's so bloody brilliant... 😍

Books that have no chapters or overly long chapters. I like short chunks to keep the pace snappy.

Any book where the main character has full present day conversations throughout the book with a character from the past who in the end turns out to have died ages ago. I swear I read 3 books in a row that used this plot device. Has everyone run out of ideas?