Feature & Follow

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another Feature & Follow hosted by Parajunkee’s View and Alison Can Read.

Every week, bloggers get to answer a different question and of course you’re free to answer it as well!

If you’re interested in participating, have a look at the rules.

This week’s question: What writing device or trick most irritates you when reading a book? For example, if an author employs an omnipotent narrator that is sometimes considered bad form.

There are a few things that bother me when I read a book. Some make me want to read back to make sure that just happened, and sometimes I’m pretty sure I read something similar (or exactly the same thing) happened in another book I read.

  1. Characters who fall in love almost instantly. I mean, there’s no build-up and suddenly they exchange “I love yous” and as a reader that makes me wonder how I missed it. When did they start falling in love? And why do they love each other? They only just met.
  2. The complete opposite: characters who hate each other and end up falling in love. If executed well, this can make for an interesting love story, but really, I’ve read a lot of books where it’s obvious that the two of them are going to end up together and they just can’t seem to get along. And then at one point in the book, suddenly they realise they love the other person. Well, duh.
I’m sure there are plenty of others (such as writers who use the same adjectives over and over), but most of them don’t bother me that much (except the two mentioned above).

What writing devices bother you when reading a book? What do you think of books where characters fall in love instantly? Or characters who can’t stand to be around each other until they realise they’re in love with each other?

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