If you like reading, you might also have a list of books that you wish were never written, to put it mildly. As a reader, I got curious about what exactly turns people away from a book. Whether it's the storyline or characters, there has to be something else that accompanies the poor writing.

Some time ago, I asked our community what their least favorite literature tropes and stock characters were and our pandas had a lot to share! Scroll down for the answers. What are your least favorite clichés in books?

#1

Sarcastic bad boy that has never loved before, has a troubled past, and hates everyone. Why the hell should the loner, unpopular girl (who usually likes to draw or read because "I'm not like other girls") be any different? But nope, he teases her, makes her think he hates her, then goes and kisses her after saving her life.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
goskawilkowska avatar
BlockDog02
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes. I see that a lot in high school American romances, and is annoying as heck. Though it does give me a little hope ;-;

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#2

Female characters who are competent, powerful, and awesome that inexplicably end up with the mediocre dude main character. Did they discover shared interests or chemistry? Did circumstances forge an unbreakable bond between them? Nah, he wanted her. So now she’s into him. Too much work to justify it, she’s a prize for him stumbling through the plot.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
dawnsardella-ayres avatar
Dawn Sardella-Ayres
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The flip side of "all nerdy and mediocre guys deserve hot chicks with little effort" trope.

View more commentsArrow down menu
#3

“A woman arrives at her place of employment; Because reasons, she’s suddenly working with a new Man Employee. Man Employee is actively superior, dismissive, and occasionally starts to mansplain even though she worked there first, because obviously she’s only a woman. Every fiber of her being despises Man Employees, as it should, for he’s an a**h***. Yet something inside her, somehow not a fiber of her being, knows that she will learn to desire this man because that’s how being female works.”

Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#4

Giving characters a sudden new field of expertise based on some tenuous connection. "My uncle's neighbor's dog's trainer's friend's mom was an auto mechanic, so I think I can to rebuild Optimus Prime."

Report

Add photo comments
POST
andreavilarmelego avatar
Ozacoter
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The "my dad was a X so I am an expert in the field".My father is a doctor. Dont ask me to operate on you.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#5

When the character that is supposed to be ugly turns beautiful when they realize that beauty is on the inside.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
claramcauley avatar
Aurelia!
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes. Why can't we just have an 'ugly' character stay 'ugly' and be happy that way?

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#6

Probably "Teenage girl who spouts that she's very unattractive but then describes her flowing blonde hair and blue eyes while gazing forlornly into a mirror before getting ready for school"

Report

Add photo comments
POST
alexhead avatar
A Head
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

According to "the movies" she just has to take off her glasses, and re-style her hair. Never mind that she was a stunningly beautiful woman to begin with.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#7

Autistic characters almost always being white, cisgender males that are savants and have a special interest in trains.

Report

#8

I don’t like the “Pick-me” girl type/masculine tomboyish main character. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great to have tomboy characters and stereotypically masculine women, however, I don’t appreciate the idea that a woman has to be masculine to be considered strong. I don’t like that a stereotypically strong woman has to have the traits of a man or be “different from other girls” in order to be taken seriously or recognized as anything other than dumb, pretty, and weak. I think it fuels internalized misogyny and only further pushes the idea that anything feminine is wrong and weak while masculine is tough and strong.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
maia-declark avatar
Emilycookie
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

i am super feminine, like 10/10 girly girl, pleated skirts and all. could i roast you to tears or make you really guilty though? probably! have i tromped through mud in sneakers on multiple mile hikes? heck yeah!

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
#9

Women in peril. There is an entire genre of books (and movies) that rely on women being in danger and needing to be saved, either by themselves or by someone else, but nevertheless, they are in peril. The Girl on the Train, the Good Girl, All the Missing Girls, any Ruth Ware book...I could go on. I used to read them on the beach or buy them at airports but I can't stand them anymore!

Report

#10

The wise cracking nine-year-old kid who is "old for their years" and calls out the adults in situations they should have no experience with or input on. "We need to move again." "You said this was the last time!" "Yes, but things have changed." "You're a liar. I guess THAT didn't change." Just soooo annoying.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
lee_5 avatar
Lee
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They’re so annoying! No kid cares or talks like that to their parents unless they want their a** beaten! Wtf?! And it’s often above their ‘intelligence level’ not every kid is going to argue the implications of their parents’ actions like that and they literally do not care. at least, I never did.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#11

This has already been said MANY times, but it is REALLY annoying. The gay BFF. Sure, I have a gay bestie, but it's not the friendship itself, is the girlishness of how the person or character acts. Or how someone expects them to act IRL. It's just, really freaking annoying

Report

Add photo comments
POST
andreavilarmelego avatar
Ozacoter
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Indeed. We need to see all people the same regarding sexual preference. My best friend is gay but i dont have "a gay best friend". I have a great friend that coincidentally likes men.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#12

Quirky girl in her thirties. Likes to read and has a cat. Had a bad break up and now doesn’t trust love. Will probably get over it by the next nice man she meets!

Report

#13

I hate it when physical characteristics replace personality - hooded eyes meaning someone (especially a male character) is sexy and deep; long silky hair in an unusally-used color (raven, chestnut, wheat, etc.), especially on a girl, means she's sexy and smart. I don't care about hair or eyes or anything like that. Forward the plot, please.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
karen-lancaster000 avatar
Yeah, you heard
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yep, and telling me the colour of people's eyes. I haven't noticed the eye colour of most of my best friends, why would I need to know the eye colour of someone in a novel?

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#14

Group of completely different people end up stuck with each other, go through something tough, and then after three days they are all calling each other their “new family”, despite not knowing anything about them.

Report

#15

The stories where a girl has to learn to love herself, and that means ending up dating the Popular Boy, who has never noticed her before. Same as the protagonists who take off their glasses and put a dress and makeup on and end up being the belle of the ball. How can they not have blurry vision with their glasses off??

Report

Add photo comments
POST
dawnsardella-ayres avatar
Dawn Sardella-Ayres
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The power of love magically fixes their eyesight. (I wish I was kidding, but I've had romance mss rejected because the FMC's disability wasn't fixed/healed by the romantic relationship. Yes, in the 2020s.)

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
#16

In crime novels: the protagonist does not seek law enforcement assistance for their relatively simple predicament because *insert feeble excuse here*, but by the end of the novel, same protagonist is in a situation that commandeers 17 police officers, 3 crime scene investigators, 2 ambulances (1 for him/her self, another for the dead vilain), a forensic pathologist, doctors and nurses to treat their injuries, a frustrated DA office, an overwhelmed but extremely relieved spouse...

Report

Add photo comments
POST
alisa-fender avatar
Honu
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Though the dead villain has often confessed, being somehow recorded or witnessed by others so the fact that the protagonist has spoiled all the evidence they have found, so it would never be admitted to trial, is irrelevant.

View more commentsArrow down menu
#17

Honestly, I love most awful cliché tropes, I'm a sucker for a bad boy, I love a wiseass best friend, and I'm obsessed with a raging badass female lead.
-
But I can't stand the awkward, clumsy, mousy, shy girl who has no self-confidence and no personality and somehow everyone's inexplicably obsessed with her. I like a girl with substance, a Carstairs girl, or someone out of a Marissa Meyer novel. I love a girl that deserves the attention she gets.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
goskawilkowska avatar
BlockDog02
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes, I am that girl and nobody cares xD. Ok, my confidence got better lately, but still.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#18

In romance teen books, a girl finds a guy, then decides he's too good for her and goes with a nice guy type person instead, but is still drawn towards the first guy, and then at the end of the book returns to him, and finds out he was the one for her all along.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
swizdom2 avatar
Susan Widomski
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Perhaps it is just in classical literature where heroes die more often.

View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#19

The main character's best friend who is better than the main character.

Report

#20

Like.... this one unpopular girl, with a lovely personality and beautiful hair and eyes, and the popular mean gal who bullies her. Why are all mean people supposedly popular there? Nobody likes a mean peep

Report

Add photo comments
POST
andreavilarmelego avatar
Ozacoter
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

To be fair not all popular kids are mean but most bullies are popuoar and mean.

View more commentsArrow down menu
#21

When a male character is in love with a female character who verbally or physically abuses him.

Report

#22

I'm a Strong Female Protagonist! I look down on things like cleaning, cooking and sewing! I live in filth and if I need to reattach a button I just punch it. I drink straight grain alcohol and eat raw meat! Grrrl Power!

Report

Add photo comments
POST
eoperha2014 avatar
JustABoredwing
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How come nobody in any apocalypse shows likes sewing? I mean, somebody has to know how to sew if everybody is still walking around in clothes, right?

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#23

Well, I don't like the token gay friend, there's never just one, in a friend group that has a gay friend, its more likely to have a token straight friend. It's not that the gay friend turns everyone gay, it's just that everyone realizes they have been gay.

And I also don't like the girl who takes off her glasses and puts down her hair and puts on a nice outfit and boom all of a sudden she's the most beautiful girl ever and everybody likes her. Like, no, everyone's beautiful no matter what, let her wear her glasses, let her wear a ponytail, let her wear leggings and a t-shirt, she's beautiful, she doesn't need to change, everyone else needs to change the way they look at her.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
flowercraft2000 avatar
I is rainbow
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was, more or less, the token straight friend and then I realized ✨I'm Bi✨

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#24

I really don't like the stereotypical Strong Female Character. They are not strong, they are two-dimensional and have no personality. Usually all you get is a fight scene or two without any motivations behind their actions. Usually a man is their superior and they're like nO iM tHe SuPeRiOr ToDaY and you're supposed to be like "yeah!" but then you don't like her enough to care. Oh, and they're always like "I don't need a man to be strong!" but then are in a relationship by the end of the movie and can't do anything by themselves anymore.

Report

#25

Love triangles. The absolute jerk male character who's the alpha type (yes, the word is used at least once), who's an absolute a-hole to the girl, gets aggressive, always at least 7 times says 'you're not my type, or I won't have sex with you' and then does, still is a d**k, as she falls harder in love with him. Her 'changing' him by the end of the book usually frustrates me the most. Does love change people, sure, do people adapt and compromise in relationships, yeah they should, but you're never gonna fundamentally change someone.

Report

#26

The old good girl + bad boy plotline. Also, the movies and books and tv shows where the character is completely normal and boring, being picked on, maybe being raised in a bad household and wishing things were different, and then BAM BAM BAM it turns out their humanity's only hope to stop evil and save the world!!!!!!!
I mean, don't get me wrong, some people execute this idea pretty flawlessly, but still.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
timellis0965 avatar
Timothy Ellis
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What do the good girl and bad boy have in common? What is it that brings them together? What would they talk about? What do they admire about each other when they have such different values?

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#27

Years ago I stopped reading a author when I saw that in every book the main characters were always described as “devastating beauty/rich beyond compare/immortal" I will admit, I did enjoy reading the Interview with a Vampire books when they were first published... but OMG that trope got annoying

Report

Add photo comments
POST
anke_dieken avatar
Anke Dieken
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I remember reading books by Joy Fielding. I used to enjoy them, but after a few I realised that it was somehow always the male partner in the women's life who was the bad one (and giving bad vibes).

View more commentsArrow down menu
#28

love triangles, cop falling for the criminal, fatal love story that ends in death, etc.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
the_mysterious_lady_analyn avatar
Analyn Lahr
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I got one but I'm kinda into it: grumpy a*****e meets cheery lunatic and they fall in love.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
See Also on Bored Panda
#29

The "perfect" girl/boy that has parents that make about a gazillion dollars a day.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#30

The "supposed to be _ but is actually _ whereas friend is supposed to be _ but actually _" or the "I'm different from the other girls".

Report

Note: this post originally had 52 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.