We all have our pet peeves when it comes to books, and I’ve certainly shared a bunch over the years. Most recently, I’ve been noticing two plot points that keep cropping up in fiction, and I say:
I mean, really…
Ready? My two most recent plot peeves are:
1) Killing the old people: Can we please have a book with a heartwarming intergenerational connection where the older person doesn’t end up dead? It’s gotten to the point that it’s utterly predictable: Introduce a wise / sassy / artistic / ahead-of-their-time / crotchety-but-secretly-nice / awe-inspiring older person — usually with a phenomenal sense of style and/or glamorous past — and I can pretty much guarantee that we’ll be attending their funeral by the end of the book. I can think of at least three or four instances where I’ve come across this plot within the past year, and more beyond that. STOP! Let them live!!
2) Interview surprises: Okay, I’m now up to three cases of the interview surprise — you know this one already, I’m sure: The main character has (select one) a random hookup, an embarrassing drunken escapade, an uncomfortable-yet-sexy tension with an inappropriate person… and wouldn’t you know, the very next day the main character shows up for a VERY important interview and… voila!… there’s that hookup (or whatever) right there at the interview. Ugh. Awkward! My current read started with a weird encounter with a date’s relative in the first chapter, a thought about the next day’s super important, life-changing interview at the end of that chapter… and guess who’s on the crucial interview selection panel the next night? Nooooooo!!
Please, please, please…
Whew. End of rant. Thanks for listening!
What about you? What plot points are you SO over right now?
Bookshelf Fantasies 
I haven’t noticed the second one but definitely agree that the older person dying is getting a bit predictable now
It keeps happening! And it’s so unnecessary!
Um… Judy Leigh doesn’t kill off her older characters. And as for #2… YUCK! Agreed on both points.
She actually did in one of her books that I read this year! I don’t know why these plot points having been coming up so much lately… can’t stand either.
I forgot. But even so… killing off someone old is sometimes necessary. But I hear you!
I know the second one is very popular in romance, although I don’t read enough romance to notice it myself. I know I probably have some plots that irk me, I’ll have to think about it😁
Yes, the interview thing has come up for me in a couple of books firmly in the romance category, as well as one more in the contemporary (or — ugh — “women’s fiction” section). It’s so predictable and annoying.
As I was reading your rant I could think of several books that did both of these things! And I agree, that interview surprise is way overdone. And why can’t the old person live? ;D
Right??? Why do they have to die?? So unfair.
I know! Sometimes it feels like every book you read has the same tropes. It’s weird how that happens.
Yes, for sure… and I get so tired of reading the same basic storylines, over and over and over.