14 Bookish Pet Peeves That Make Me Rage Inside

Hooray for complaining!

I’m sure we all have our personal pet peeves regarding books, you know, like things you hate to see in books or annoying authors or unpopular opinions, etc. I’d thought it be fun to make an entire post dedicated to my bookish pet peeves, so I hope you enjoy!

Insta-love

If you’ve been around here for a while, you guys probably know how much I HATE insta-love. I’m personally a huge fan of relationships that take time, especially the ones where the development takes place over several books. Remember the days of Percabeth and Romione where it takes them a good five-to-seven books to get together? So do I.

Douchebag Love Interests

I’m looking at you, Jace Herondale and Noah Shaw. I’m just not a huge fan of those teenage boys who are total players and act rude and like they don’t care, but all that they needed was this ordinary girl that doesn’t  know she’s beautiful to come along and change their temperament. Barf.

Last Book Sex

I don’t know if this annoys everyone else, but I really hate how YA series seem to have this thing where couples kiss in the first book, go to third base in the sequel, and then have sex in the last book, and it bothers me SO MUCH. It’s probably why I appreciate Sarah J. Maas normalizing the idea of female characters not only not being always being virgins from the very beginning of the series and not being considered “sluts” for having sex before finding “The One,” but also that there’s not some weird “waiting period” where couples have to be together for some number of books to have sex.

Long Chapters

Okay, this makes me sound like I have a super short attention span (and I probably do, to be honest), but I just can’t stand long chapters. When your chapters are pushing past 20 pages, at that point, I’ve stopped paying attention to what’s going on, and more on wHEN WILL THIS DAMN CHAPTER END?

Love Interests Smelling Good

Wood. Pine. Cedar. Mint. Toothpaste. Man. Apparently, boys smell like this, and I’ve completely missed out on this phenomenon. Not to mention that this is AFTER these boys have gotten into a fight/been stabbed/been injured/run/literally any physical activity.

Overly Long Descriptions

You guys know that I LOVE Cassandra Clare, but, man, I could read one of her books, and it could be two pages later, and 90% of the time, I’d still be reading a description about the building Clary just entered! I mean, great description, but I’m the worst visual person on the planet. Unless there’s a movie adaptation of the book, all the characters look like shapeless blobs and all the settings in my mind look the same, so it’s just a waste of time, from my point of view.

When a Plot Twist Makes Zero Sense

As a huge thriller reader, this is a huge peeve of mine. Nothing annoys me more than when I read a YA or Adult thriller, and out of nowhere, there’s this huge plot twist that’s just there for shock value and has zero evidence backing it up or just straight up doesn’t make sense with the plot.

When Nothing Happens for 90% of the Book, Except for the Last 10%

It always seems like the books with the most awesome concepts always tend to do this or sequels fall victim to this. Nothing will happen a majority of the time during the book, but then we hit the last ten chapters, and ALL THE THINGS ARE HAPPENING AT ONCE. Like, at least have SOMETHING else happen besides boring romance angst or characters sitting around having disagreements.

When I Have to Sit Through 10 Exposition Chapters When the Synopsis Has Already Told Me What Happens

This isn’t really anyone’s fault, but I really hate it when a synopsis is like, “When Maria’s mother dies, a Grim Reaper arrives and asks if she’d like to die in place of her mother to save her.” (I made that up on the spot.) And then I start the book, and I have to sit through all this exposition for 100 pages even though I already know what’s going to happen and I just want to move on.

Ian Somerhalder Being Cast As Every Love Interest Ever

STOP DOING THIS. I swear to God, if a love interest is in any way angst-y or has a dark past or whatever, everyone will be like, “Ian Somerhalder for casting!!!” Stop ruining all of my book boyfriends! I’m probably the only person on this very earth that finds him unattractive, so it just bothers me.

People Hating on Adam Parrish

Again, this is more a personal thing, but when people hate Adam Parrish, it hurts my soul. I care about him so much and he deserves so many hugs, and, yeah, he makes some stupid decisions and says some mean things, but he is a human being who’s been constantly abused and is poor and just wants a better life for himself. HOW COULD YOU HATE HIM?

The Anxiety You Get When You Talk to People About What You’re Reading

I always get into a total panic when someone asks me what I’m reading, mainly because I suck at summarizing what in the world happens in the book. Like, if I explained a V.E. Schwab or Pierce Brown book to you guys, you’d probably get it, but if I told my mom, she’d probably wonder what the hell I’m reading.

People Judging What You Read

Okay, I’m horrible at this because I do it all the time, but I’m trying to get better at it! I personally hate it when someone judges any of the books I read, so I try not to do it at others (even though it’s hard to when they love a book you consider trash and hate a favorite of yours, but I’m tRYING).

People Whining About Harry Potter’s Kids’ Names

Anybody who is still whining about this a literal decade after the book has been published is bordering on being unhealthily obsessed at this point, in my opinion. Does it really matter what the fictional character named his kids? Does it really matter that the kids’ names are not Rubeus Remus Hagrid Lily James Sirius Dobby the Third? DOES IT REALLY?

And that’s it for all my bookish pet peeves!

I’d probably have even more if I listed every single one of them, but I’m going to refrain from doing so to make this post longer.

What are some of your bookish pet peeves? Do we share any of the same ones?

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