Which YA tropes annoy you the most?

I have a fun question to ask: what are some tropes in young adult fiction that make you want to smash your head against the wall? As an avid reader myself, I know so many of those pet peeves right off the bat.

I know I'm going to get so much hate for this but...

I read the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare before and let me tell you, that series is a hotbed of cliches. I decided to give up after finishing the fifth installment because the cliches make me want to set myself on fire.

There is one trope in particular that makes me want to vomit: love triangles. In my opinion, that trope should burn in hell. It's so overused and predictable, it's usually pretty obvious that the heroine would choose the bad boy over the nice guy.

I despise that trope so much, it's been done to death so many times now. It's gotten staler than ciabatta bread left to dry in the Gobi desert for a week. At this point, the best way to subvert that trope would be to NOT use it at all. I honestly think stories would be better off without that unnecessary trope.

There are other tropes in YA fiction that make me want to smash my kindle with a hammer, but that would make this post unnecessarily long. So tell me, what are some YA tropes that make you want to chuck your book into the fireplace? I would like to hear your opinions on this topic

-Captain Rex

 

Oh gosh, there are so many. The one that currently annoys me the most is the "I'm not like other girls" trope. When the female protagonist is seen as special by the love insterest, or she sees herself as special because "she's not like other girls." Which usually means that she doesn't care at all about her appearance. doesn't wear makeup, doesn't like anything girly, etc.

Honestly, I'm just super over this attack on femininity and girls tearing each other down. If you say "I'm not like other girls," in that arrogant manner, then the implication is that you think there's something wrong with other girls for liking makeup or the color pink or caring about their appearance. And I'm just sick of that crap. First of all, because the amount of times this comes up is so insanely unrealistic. There are very few high school girls who don't care about how they look, or don't wear makeup. So the fact that every freaking female protagonist on the planet is some plain Jane who doesn't do anything to look attractive, is extremely unrealistic.

Another one that goes along with that, is girls who say how plain they are and don't think of themsleves as attractive, and yet every single guy in the book is tripping over themsleves to get a date with her. (*cough* Bella Swan *cough*). I'm done with that, too. I'm done with it being seen as honorable for girls to have no self esteem, and arrogant for girls to feel good about themselves and recognize that they are attractive. Like I'm sorry, but I know I'm an attractive person. I'm not arrogant about it, but I'm also not blind, and if I thought I was some plain Jane slob, that would mean that I have zero self esteem and have some serious body dysmorphia issues or something.

Another one, which should be obvious but sadly isnt, is abusive relationships. Emotional abuse, being super controlling and aggressive, etc. Yuck. Unless it's portrayed as a bad thing, I don't like that. Healthy romance, where both parties are fairly equal in most ways, is the best! Characters being so dang needy and co-dependent, while their partner is totally controlling them and telling them what they're allowed to do and not allowed to do, etc, is really offputting. Or characters who have no life outside of their relationship. They should both have their own lives and their own stories, and they should come together as a team. Two whole people teaming up, not two half-people coming together to make a whole.