Romance Novel Tropes I Hate

Hello bookworms !!

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I got bored of doing tags and awards so thought of putting this up instead. Before I start this rant/discussion, let me say, if you’re someone who LOVES romance novels, good for you. I’m not judging you (I mean it !) and I have nothing against you or the authors. In fact, I think it’s quite difficult being a romance novel author. These are just my personal opinions based on books I’ve read or heard of from people around me.

As I’ve mentioned on several occasions, Romance is a genre I don’t like reading (trust me I’ve tried reading a few). The major reason for which is that most Romance books I’ve ever read are essentially the same and have one or multiple of the following tropes that I absolutely hate.

Dead/Terminally ill character/ character having memory loss

Yes ! I decided to start with the big one. I understand the appeal of this trope. Loving someone who’s terminally ill, loving someone who doesn’t even remember you, losing a loved one are emotions everyone either relates to or find “sweet”. But let’s be honest, it’s over-used now. I mean come on, is that the only definition of “TRUE LOVE” ?? Can’t two perfectly healthy individuals be completely in love with each other ? Is it really the only way to portray “UNCONDITIONAL” love ??

The Best Friend CAMEO

The main characters of EVERY romance novel are HORRIBLE “friends” really. They have so-called “best friends”, who are non-existent in their life until the point where they misunderstand their lover. The moment they have problems in their relationship, all of a sudden, out of NOWHERE appears the BEST FRIEND to listen to their problems and give them advice. If you call me your BEST friend and expect relationship advice from me, you better remember my existence when you’re happy in that relationship !! Otherwise, we’re NOT friends, you bitch !! I’m supposed to be a friend, not your fucking counselor !! Friendship works both ways.

Hate you only to love you later

Okay, when was the last time you ended up loving someone you absolutely HATE ?? You can go from disliking someone to loving someone. But HATING someone to LOVING them in the span of a few days/week ?? HOW ??? If the story takes YEARS in that transition, maybe I’ll buy it (maybe). But within week ? you’ve got to be kidding me !!

Love at first sight 

DOESN’T FUCKING HAPPEN. You might be attracted but “true love” takes time !

Lack of a personal/individual life

Dear authors, every person’s “love life” is a PART of their life. It is not their entire life. I understand it’s a romance novel and is supposed to focus on the love life but is it really that difficult to atleast give us a glimpse of their life OUTSIDE of that relationship.

Repeated Plots

Here’s the synopsis of most romance novels I’ve come across-

Girl meets boy, misunderstand each other and hence immediately HATE each other. Both of them are forced into dealing with a situation “together”, in the process they end up falling in love. Enters the second misunderstanding via jealous 3rd person/ one of them is dying so tries to push the other person away to avoid them the pain/ family/ they’re bloody stupid. The misunderstanding gets cleared and they live happily ever after or if it’s the dying/terminally ill story, one of them dies and the other lives on with the memory of the one who’s dead.

If there’s a different plot there, let me know. And don’t tell me the minor details vary and that’s the beauty of it. Honestly, the minor details aren’t different either except for names and the way they look. Even the clothing doesn’t vary much.

Edit (thanks to Grace): Girl & Boy are best friends who realise they love each other

I forgot to add this point until Grace from City of Novels commented. So thank you Grace for reminding me.

WHY ?? Can’t best friends remain best friends ? WHYYYY ? Not every best friend ends up becoming your boyfriend/girlfriend !! This one is also frequent in movies.

Extra : Naked or not naked people on covers

I hate people on covers (unless they’re illustrations or just a silhouette). This is also why I hate movie tie-in editions of books (any genre). I have no sensible valid reason for this, I just DON’T like it. Simple as that !!

The one romance novel I did like a bit is The Time Traveller’s Wife, which was mainly because there was the whole time-travelling thing in there that was new and thanks to that, a lot of the tropes were avoided or at least made sense (What I mean is, it wasn’t there just to move the story ahead).

If you know a romace novel that doesn’t follow the above trends AND doesn’t have a naked dude or any person infact on the front cover, do let me know in the comments below. I MIGHT (just a possibility not a guarantee) check it out.

If you feel offended despite that second para, well…

Thanks for reading through that rant !! Have a lovely day !

Also, in case anyone’s wondering, You’re right ! I don’t like Romcom movies either.

-Vrinda.