Thursday, July 26, 2018

This Or That Tag (The Stressful Edition)



This edition of the This Or That Tag was created by Cait @ Paper Fury. It’s stressful because most of the choices are terrible. I hope you enjoy watching me make difficult bookish decisions. Some of these are painful.









This Or That Tag (The Stressful Edition)





Series or Standalones?




Standalones. I don’t like “middle book syndrome” or waiting for the next book in a series to come out. I usually lose interest in the series while I’m waiting for the next book. I have a short attention span and get bored easily. That’s why I rarely finish the series I start.
















Magic Earned or Magic Born?



Well, I don’t like the “chosen one” trope that often comes with magic born. I also don’t like sitting through tedious, cliché “learning to use magic” chapters. Let’s go with magic born because if the character is already part of a magical community, we can get right to the interesting part of the story. Skip all the “OMG, I’m becoming magic!” training montages.
















Enemies-To-Lovers or Friends-To-Lovers?



I know that enemies-to-lovers happens in real life, but it often comes across as forced in fiction. The pacing of a book moves faster than the pacing of real life. In my experience, authors don’t give enemies-to-lovers enough time to develop realistically. I choose friends-to-lovers because it takes less time to develop. 
















Hilarious Banter or Emotional Ruin?



I don’t like humor books because most of them aren’t funny, but if a story has depth and can make me laugh, I’ll love it forever. I choose hilarious banter.
















Love Triangle or Instalove?



Love triangle. I like to see relationships develop slowly. With instalove, I usually don’t understand why these characters are instantly in love with each other. Love triangles are cliché, but at least I get my “why” questions answered.















Keyboard-Smash Names or All Names Start With The Same Letter?



First, why can’t authors give their characters pronounceable names? Some names really do look like the author just smashed their hands on a keyboard. Keyboard-smash names also make book reviewing difficult. Do you know how many times I’ve had to Google how to spell Daenerys Targaryen? Way too many times! (Don’t get me started on Rhaegar, Viserys, and all the other Targaryens. This family requires way too much spell-checking.)




I choose names that all start with the same letter. It might be confusing at first, but I won’t stumble over the names every time I see them.














Mean Parents or Dead Parents?



The problem is that so many children’s books have both! The birth parents are dead and the replacement parents are mean. I’ll go with mean parents. Mean people are more interesting than dead people.
















Supermodel Looks or Constantly Complaining About How “Plain” They Are?



I can’t stand complaining. It gets on my nerves immediately (in real life and in fiction). I’ll happily take the non-whiney supermodel, please.
















Face On Cover or Typography On Cover?



Do you really want your book to stare at you with human eyes? This one is easy: typography. I like looking at pretty fonts, and I don’t like looking at people. What’s worse is that it’s often obvious that the cover designer didn’t read the book. I read one novel where the narrator is described as “chubby with frizzy hair.” The girl on the cover is thin with straight hair. Just . . . what? Why? Who is this cover girl?! She’s nobody in the book, that’s for sure.
















Villain Turning A Little Good or Hero Turning A Little Bad?



Ooh, I like both of these. A villain turning good could be interesting. It would throw everybody off and make you wonder if the villain is really a villain. On the other hand, most stories focus on heroes. The villains get much less page-time. Since heroes get the most attention, I want them to be complex and flawed. I choose hero turning bad.








Do you want to do this tag? Consider yourself tagged.
















36 comments:

  1. I don't like the insta-love either. It seems more like lust. Or people just desperate to not be alone.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don’t think I’ve ever read a magic-earned book. Granted, I don’t read a lot of fantasy but the ones I have read have all focused on magic-born characters. I’ve never been a fan of the enemies to lovers trope. But I’m all about friends to lovers. :) Keyboard smash names... gah! The #1 reason why I rarely read fantasy. (Not really.) OMG give me supermodel every day in every book over a girl whining about how plain she is (especially when every other character describes her as beautiful). Instant reader rage!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don’t read a lot of fantasy, either. I don’t like the keyboard-smash names or all the tropes.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  3. These are good to know, Aj. I'm going to use random generators for a lot of my stuff on my fiction. But I do like ironic names, like someone named Joy who is troubled, or the like. Overall, I like clumsy characters, who sometimes ride momentum and see it crash around them and try and figure out what the hell is up with the universe.

    You know, like us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you write characters like that, I’d read your book. I spend about 97% of my life trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  4. I agree with you on almost everything–the thing I don't agree with is that sometimes dead characters can be fascinating. I thought of Rebecca, by Daphne DuMaurier. Rebecca is dead, but she's certainly interesting!
    Anyway, I'd rather take the dead parents.
    Great post, I enjoyed it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was the hardest question for me. Rebecca is a fascinating dead character. I wish more authors wrote dead people like that.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  5. I have to agree with you on the magic born one, it's definitely nicer when you can just sort of get into things and not deal with being shocked and learning everything. Hilarious banter is probably one of my favorite things and usually makes a book 100x more entertaining for me (assuming it is incorporated well, of course). Insta-love needs to stop, also. And typography all the way! Great post! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YES! If the banter truly is hilarious, it’s the best thing ever.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  6. I love series, but I always hate it when middle books drag! I definitely enjoy a good standalone. And I completely agree that instalove is worse than love triangles. And absolutely typography! I hate when they put faces on covers. :/ Great tag!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think I’d be more okay with faces if the faces actually looked like the characters. A lot of times, they don’t.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  7. Fun tag! I think I would pick emotional ruin over hilarious banter. 99% of books will not make me laugh, but it's very easy to make me cry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most of the books I read are sad. A book has never made me cry, and making me laugh is difficult. Basically, I have no emotions and am hard to please.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  8. I have been mostly avoiding starting new series (except companion series, no real commitment). I just don't want to be tied down right now. One of my chief complaints about fantasy books is that I cannot pronounce anything. Keyboard smash = bad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I avoid series, too. There are so many of them, and a lot of them are way longer than they need to be.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  9. My NaNoWriMo novel that I'm planning for this fall has something of a Russian theme to it... Russian words often sound like a keyboard smash... zdravstvuitcha is I guess the way you would write hello in Russian (I'm terrible at writing Russian words without the Cyrillic alphabet). Sorry if you ever read it, the names will be a little keyboard smashy because that is how it is in the culture my fic is kind of modeled on... Dostoyevski, Tchaikovski, etc.

    Great post though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good luck with your project! I wouldn’t consider real words and names to be keyboard-smash. English probably looks like keyboard smash to people who can’t read it.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  10. I normally would say series but I'm getting kinda tired of waiting too (cough George RR Martin cough) and standalones are nice. Plus by the time a book 2 or 3 comes out I hardly remember the story anyway. I kinda like magic born too, if I had to pick. I like it when there's something special about them, that allows them to do things.

    I'll take hilarious banter too- too much angst can be a downer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. George RR Martin needs to get his butt in gear. I have 2 more books to read in that series, and then I’m going to need the next one.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  11. I would do the tag but too many of the choices where I don't like either option!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, I think that’s the point. All the choices are horrible!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  12. Wow this IS stressful! I would prefer dead parents I think because I'm over the storylines where the characters have to go against their parents to save the world. And help me God if one of them works for an evil corporation!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was the hardest question for me. I hate mean parents and dead parents. Why can’t kids just have average parents? Not perfect, but not dead or dreadful.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  13. I haven't seen this tag, but it was interesting! There were some where my answer would be neither. I dislike love triangles and insta-love (though I loved the GIF with the pizza). I don't like mean or dead parents. It's a rarity with a character has both. The audiobook I'm listening to is about an adopted character, and one of the physical books I'm reading is about a child from foster care. Hilarious banter--you should read he Age of Legends series by Kelley Armstrong. Ohhh, wait! Silver Silence by Nalini Singh.

    𑁋 Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I haven’t heard of those books, but I need more hilarious banter in my life. I'll look them up.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  14. I can deal with standalones as long as I'm not too emotional invested in them. Or else it'll kill me (which would not be pretty). Great post!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I’ve definitely read a few standalones and thought, That’s it? I need more!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  15. Ooh, the last question is amazing - I would gladly take both! I love when a character's development can shock me, but still stay realistic.
    Tbh, I feel the same way about most of these as you do, with the exception of love triangles, which is something I detest. Generally I *hate* drama in books, and love triangles usually cause a loooot of unnecessary angst and tension. With that being said, I don't like insta love either, so...
    Great post!

    Veronika @ The Regal Critiques

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Love triangles are a huge turnoff for me. Most of the time they just seem cruel. I want the character to pick someone and stop leading the other person on.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  16. You're right, these are tough choices! I think I'd choose a villain with hints of good rather than a hero turning bad. Villains like Loki or Magneto or even Gollum/Smeagol are more interesting than a Sauron or a Voldemort, whose villainy is all there is of them. (OK, we do get some background with Voldemort, but he's still a Dark Lord through and through, even as a child.)

    Oh, and I love your Daenerys Targaryen meme; it made me laugh. And I haven't even seen the series!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was one of the harder questions. I like complex villains AND complex heroes. I don’t want to choose one!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  17. This tag wasn't stressful at all lol, just full of your opinions. I don't like love triangles though, because 9 times out of 10, I've never known anyone who was ever in one, so I don't take them that serious in fiction. I know it's supposed to dramatize the story and characters, but if you look closely, you can easily tell who the female (or male) MC ends up with. Great blog post! I caught this from the Spread the Love meme from As Told by Tina.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, love triangles are awful. You’re right that it’s usually obvious who the character is going to choose.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  18. This is such a fun tag, I loved reading your answers! I'm with you about standalones, I much prefer these to series and, whenever I start a new series, I tend to forget about the next books or get to them only years later, so... standalones it is aha. I also prefer friends to lovers! :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Why can't I choose both? I love heroes going bad and villains going good! I want a series that does both at the same time!!

    I just wanted to let you know I nominated you for this award tag: http://literarylion.ca/2018/07/29/the-sunshine-blogger-award-book-tag/

    ReplyDelete