As soon as I read that the male love interest has a "chiseled jaw" and "cheekbones that could cut glass" I just can't help but imagine Handsome Squidward 😂
Oh my goodness, yes! And handsome squidward is definitely poking fun at caricature art when so many fiction books describe their men in absurd ways over and over to the point that I start to see them as caricatures in my head. Like “Good job. Now I’m picturing all these normal sized characters standing in this room plus one sexy giant who can probably touch the ceiling and is to wide and tall to fit through doorways” lol!
My 🚩 is when the author withholds information from the reader in ways that are painfully obvious. Like we're in a character's head and they're deliberately circling around their big secret in their own thoughts while trying to make decisions about it.
as someone who has been stalked, it's definitely not romantic 😂. also i feel like romatasy is especially guilty of letting the smut erase any and all tenderness or other relationship aspects, and that's why i consistently dislike the books i try to read in the genre
I was reading 1970s sci fi last month and all the characters were smoking and drinking. I staggered away craving a smoke and a stiff drink, and I don't drink or smoke. Sherlock Holmes even, when you need councelling they're like "Get that man a brandy!" Wows. Our ancestors were high af.🚩
I'm very, very specific about my romance and I am becoming desperate to find a book where both partners are playful with one another. They are best friends but with the bonus that they can cuddle and kiss. I just want more wholesome relationships where not every scene is charged by sexual tension or lead up to where they eventually do the deed or whatever.
_Office Flirts! 5 Romantic Short Stories_ by Lisa Scott would be right up your alley! The office is full of pranksters, and the first story especially has that wholesome best friend vibe. Scott has other _Flirt_ series, but I love this one the most haha
The 'too many perspectives doing different things' is so real. I've DNF'd so many books because I'd like one perspective and then have to sit through 3 or more others I don't care about OR I'm having trouble understanding what the book is about because we keep flitting here there and everywhere with no rhyme or reason. And I normally love multi-POV books!
I’m an average height girly who married a short guy, so I get tired of the size difference between men and women in books too. We need more body type representation in stories.
Yes!!! Absolutely loathe the miscommunication trope. Most of the time, it's things that IRL would've been resolved in no time because regular humans are not this terrible at communicating 🙄
i literally wrote like a 20 page essay on the tropes of disabled characters in fiction and it is WACKY how much you notice it once it's pointed out for the first time! like moving beyond the trope of the "disabled villain" there are so many other tropes that originated in the brother's grimm fairy tales or even earlier. it's actually super fascinating (and disheartening tbh) to learn about and definitely a rich area of study. a book i would recommend to anyone, that is super approachable and well written is "disfigured: on fairy tales, disability and making space" by amanda leduc. such a good look at this type of thing, and the essays read almost like fiction they're so engaging!
I adore when the authors explain in details, I do love it when a book take it's time to really create a picture of how this place really looks like, where every furniture is, the lighting of the place and etc. It helps a lot with creating the best possible scenery in your head. What I don't understand at all is that how some authors believe that by mentioning how this place looks like for quite a few times readers will be having a full understanding of the situation but they don't believe that readers remember that this guy's eyes are blue after reading about it for the 20th time?
Omg or when an author causes a character to be injured to the point of disability but their already established magic makes it so they can still function TOTALLY NORMALLY. *cough cough Graceling cough cough
Mine were mentioned in the video. #1. Miscommunication. I find it so annoying. Especially when it drags out for a really long time in the book. #2. Use of the words padded or orbs. I automatically change them in my mind to walked and eyes.
Speaking of body types, I can't complain about authors realising there are other body types, when IRL I struggle to find clothing and footwear that fit 😶
I read almost exclusively romance and even that is almost exclusively sports romance so most of my books have that crazy hot fit athlete body type. I love sports romances but occasionally I have to find a book that doesn't proclaim that hockey player bodies are the sexiest and the only attractive bodies. Also I can't stand a book where the characters have no friends outside of their lover. Its so isolating and we neever get to see reactions to the relationship or hoe they all get along and I need that to be satisfied
Oooh about the poc characters, there's a common description on Clau's books (from ClauReadsBooks) that goes something like "his skin that was like kissed by the sun" and I LOVE that description for the prince Emil, to me it's so good to give you the image of his brown skin and it's so cute! And I love it even more when our FL uses it to talk about him ^-^
As someone who would very much like to include poc characters in her writing, how could I go about describing them physically in a well thought out and respectful manner. I've been too used to the food descriptive tbh and I'd love some insight into how it would be tastefully done
I love so so much watching tall girls or "big" girls woth shorter or slimer guys (or not even skinny but the completly opposite, doesn't matter), idk why, maybe because there's not much out there in books; or sometimes just when she is stronger than him, like we're not bodyguards but I like to see her being also protective :3
A recent five-star read that doesn't have any of these red flags (I think) is Delilah Green Doesn't Care!!! Jesse, hear me out, it's a wonderful sapphic romance that I'm sure you'd love 😭💜💜
I work in athletics. I HATE it when authors write the team *insert coaching or healthcare credential* having a relationship with the athlete. HUGE NO!! That will cost you your license! I get that "it isn't real", but it's too close to real. Especially if there is an age gap (it's considered a form of abuse, btw). I refuse to read any more sports romances because of this.
You had me laughing so hard omg 😂 and yes I wish authors would include more relationships in romance books where the characters just form a natural relationship and the physical parts are focused on later. This is why I don’t like reading romance books because they all feel the same and I’m really confused why isn’t there more variety of the way the relationship works. Like I haven’t seen myself represented in any romance book, every one I’ve read is like a woman who just sleeps with the guy the second they convey they like each other or the second the get together.
My red flag is wondering why my comment never features whenever you do these kinda videos. Anyways, a bookish red flag for me is when fantasy novels start becoming more romance and less fantasy. I read a series where the first book had fantastic world building. And then I read the second book that became all about romance. They left the plot behind in the first book. Immediately lost interest in the series. 😢
aw I'm sorry your comment didn't get featured! I try to get through as many as I can. I'll try to make sure yours gets chosen for one of the upcoming reacting videos.
My red flag is just censorship. Everything, and I do mean everything, should be allowed to be written and enjoyed. Don't like? Don't read. Though I do think it would be a cool idea if all the publishers could get together and make a QR code in the front of the book so you can check triggers if you need to. And those who are less sensitive can remain spoiler free.
I have 2 big ones that have to do with the synophis. 1: The title of the book weaved into the synophis. (Also don't lite when it's in the book, but then I'm already reading so...) 2: The fact that the characters are queer is a plot point (when the story isn't supposed to be about that). It just makes me wonder if you even have a plot.
With miscommunication trope it depends on the story for me. It can be VERY frustrating at times😂 Specially in the shadowhunters world😅 Still reading the books, is my guilty pleasure books but yes sometimes I want to bang their heads together🤭😂 I love a good friends to lovers story but as someone who has both boy and girl friends , I agree. We need more platonic relationship in books. I think my red flags is sometimes miscommunication, descriptions of characters were everyone has the perfect body or the girl is very tiny and the boy very big ( What kind of world do they actually live in?😂🙈), and very toxic characters/relationship.
@jessethereader Thank you so much for choosing my comment. Being called "Bestie" by you....made my day🥰....I mean you've always been an inspiration. Your bookish content encouraged me to start my own channel....so thanks again 🎉
My ick is insta-love. I've seen fated mates hate each other and have to work up to it... or even are cautious... like they should be. I hate instant love!!
any book that gets advertised as a "sad girl/hot girl must read." Usually these are really heavy on self sabortaging and self destructive characters and thats just not my vibe.
i hate the miscomunication in show and movies and movies ugh so frustating! YESSSSS OMFGG the shadowhunter books do that soo fuckin much so annoying, its drama that could be avoided if they didnt keep secrets for no reason
I don’t read a lot of romance but I think if I did the damsel in distress trope would be super annoying. Like not even the prince saves her, more like girl is from a poor family or is being abused by an ex and her new love interest literally helps her get out of there when the other guy is about to kill her because she can’t fight back. I’ve seen this more in movies. Books I guess when the book is so long and it’s the first book in a series or just a long book that tells a whole story, but my red flag with those is if they drag the story out. I don’t need a super detailed description of each character, I just need their name and personality and the plot of the story and I’m good
About sizes and bodies... I just reaaaally wih there where more books out there where our protagonists describes as "hot", "breath taking" etc., people that have a more average body or appereance, I know a tons of readers really just want to imagine their own perspective of a hot person, but maybe now and then a book about how this people found themselves incredibly appealing without the intension to be a steriotypical handsome character, like just more human feelings, finding the beauty in other details, and I'm not even talking about personalities, anyone can have such an attractive personality, but maybe admiring their hair, hands, idk, or maybe a body that not everyone would found attractive but for them it is, maybe at first sight or because they get to know each other so they fall in love with that part too I just would like to see authors describing that 😅I found it once on a fanfic and to me it was so surprising how that girl made it seem like a such a hot and wholesome scene without them being this perfect bodies, like it's possible you know? XD
I enjoyed this topic and agreed with these red flags. Yes, how can these books go through so many filters and no one catches these issues? Miscommunication is the worst. I also don't like when characters are not held responsible for hurting their love with their bad behavior. Ooh, the promiscuous character finding true love with the virginal. Ugh!
On the body size difference point, the man is always described as big because he's tall and/or muscular and never because he's fat. Like fat male love interests just don't seem to exist
Does anyone have like physical or sensory red flags? Like the story could be incredible but as soon as I feel the pages being BIBLE THIN or have deckled edges I won't pick it up 😅
I pretty much agree with all of these. But especially the "every friendship turns to love." This just gives me traumatic flashbacks to JHS and HS when I had mostly male friends, and I CONSTANTLY got asked by others (including my family) if we were dating, WHEN were we going to date, etc. One of my personal red flags (which is primarily an issue in YA fantasy) is when the story is about a female main character, the synopsis moves to "And then she meets-!" It means the romance is going to overtake the actual plot and I need to stay far away. If you want a great series that has good found family and friendship with no "friends to lovers," I HIGHLY recommend the "Circle of Magic" series (The Circle of Magic, The Circle Opens, The Will of the Empress, and the standalones) by Tamora Pierce, by #1 fave author for the past 23 years. Fanfiction has people paring the main 4 together in different ways, but Tamora went "Nah fam" and kept them as friends/adopted siblings.
my bookish red flag is people normalising sex/smut in YOUNG ADULT books ... and those very same people defending themselves by saying "we used to read wattpad at 12" like ??????? okay? those books were usually written BY young people FOR young people, these published books are written by GROWN ADULTS ... grown adults writing about TEENAGERS having sex ????????? i'm sorry, but that is fucking weird . . thanks for coming to my ted talk, everyone, you can carry on with the comment section
I don't like it when authors make all the mental illness disappear with love of the other character too. Like let them get help, go to therapy & get better like a human
My biggest book problem is the girl who falls for the misunderstood guy who she’s been calling a jerk the whole time. He doesn’t get to be a jerk just cuz his life was hard and you don’t get to forgive him just because he’s telling you his trauma!
Small girl, big guy trope is real! I myself am 165cm (I'm not American I don't know feet) which is average for a girl. But I have so many female friends and acquaintances that are a lot shorter than me and they are all together with tall guys. And I with my average hight prefer to be in a relationship with someone who is as tall or taller than me (I'm panromantic so that includes all genders for me personally) so I don't mind that trope because it's what I'm personally into as are a lot of people around me. I think it's about feeling protected.
I recently read a fantasy in which the female character was angry with her boyfriend because he didn't want to have sex in a group with her family (she being included in that group).
Regarding miscommunication, I think it’s more the assumption trope that I don’t like, not so much miscommunication, like assuming the other characters is thinking this or that. Also I wish there were more loving relationships between heterosexual men. Men need to see they can have emotional connections with other men, also I want to see more male characters calling out MMC about what he did to make the FMC get mad at him 😅
I would deem myself a CoHo hater at times. But I have recently been told that her books are less about abusive relationships and more about someone getting out of them and moving on. Saying this without having read any. And I don’t think I will because I like to stay in the fantasy section at the bookstore.
Oooh I also get so tired of the general hotness in books these days! Because there are so many different types of hot and everyone has different things that they think are attractive in real life and I hate how a lot of books are boiling it down to such few characteristics
This is more of a pet peeve than a red flag, but characters gazing up at each other “through their eyelashes.” WHY DOES NO ONE TALK ABOUT THIS?! It’s a thousand times worse than characters letting out a breath they didn’t know they were holding! I have legitimately done that in my life, but looking at someone through your eyelashes makes NO SENSE. Try it - you have to half-close your eyes and even then your eyelashes are so close to your eyes that they’re just a bit of a dark blur, so you’re not really looking through them, and who looks at anyone like this anyway?! It reeks of amateur writer to me.
Great video, I laughed so much! I completely agree with most of these too, especially the ones about body sizes. Huge ML/Tiny FL, is such an ick! T_T I understand if it's like a kink for the author, but ugh. And also about ML bodies, they all look and are described the same and I'm a bit tired of it. I don't like big muscle guys with all the cheekbones!
I agree with pretty much all of those. I'd add that my biggest red flag, which leads to an immediate DNF and a desire to trash the book, is when the sexual assault of a female character is only there to further a male protagonist's plot line. Also, unnecessary amounts of swearing.
The stalking!!!! Like fr!!! I don't read too much romance but I've seen it so mucho on k-dramas and I'm like "I just don't like you already bc you're a psucho stalker! Go and talk PLEASE" XD I watched one when the dude was following this girl and he NEVER talked to her, NEVER but everyone was so into him because he was lik the "nice guy" and me just being like "did you all forgot how he was always following her and even working at the same place just to watch her? Or are you just ignoring it?" I can't with that XD like NOT EDWARD, WATCHING BELLA SLEEPING AIN0T RIGHT! XD but at least he's a vampire!, he has a lot of bad things already XD
In the Door romance(?), do you think the Door is stalking the woman because he's always in her home? Or is the woman stalking the Door because she's always in the home he's built into? 🤔
omg the size difference is driving me crazy x.x mostly in fanfics, because for some reason (because I like it lol) I tend to ship characters that are like exactly the same hight or like 1-2 cms apart and then everyone and their mother makes one of them 1.95m tall and the other one 1.5m short and like stop what are you guys doing? x.x that is the opposite of sexy... I mean a size difference is not a deal breaker, but don't exagerate it. + it does nothing for me
Where the author I making their MC way to OP with powers and they don't like to use their magic. Like?????? Come on I want to see how OP their magic is show me something please 😧
I'm speculating but dedicating a book to someone you hate sounds like what athletes do -- where they use some hate or perceived hate by an outsider to drive their performance. So here, the author would credit the person they hate for driving them to excel at writing their next book or something like that. I'm not saying this makes sense to me, but I think this is how the author would justify it.
The fact you placed the "love can solve any mental health issue" to YA tells me you have not read a lot of older romance books. The healing 🍆 was a common trope there for way too long.
omg yes I'm so over this how big a guy is in romance books, like give it a rest. I don't need authors to now write lots of romances with the girl being taller than the guy, but just don't keep mentioning every other scene how big big big he is (and usually how tiny tiny she is), it has become such a turn-off for me
Not like other girls - can we please leave it in the past?? Also, if every female character except the female protagonist (and maybe her friends) are mean and/or evil 🙄 Some additional tropes that are personal trope red flags that immediately come to mind - second chance romance & personification of death in a story
Good evening, Jesse. i hope you've had a wonderful Monday. A red flag for me is when an author is a proud sexist, I'm never going to pick up one of their books again. i don't care who the sexism is towards, I. DONT. WANT. IT. Misandry is still sexism and its brushed off time and time again. sexism is vile and i refuse to just accept it.
Hate the "im not like other girls" girl. Haven't we seen enough of that? It's so outdated. Also, im special because, reason and of course, i can handle my ability/ powers without training. just bad writing, in my opinion. 😪
When i see reviews for a book and black women/marginalized groups are critiquing it and white people love the book Trauma for shock value and no resolution or help for those characters male characters doing male behaviors, like i’m reading to escape 😩
Straight white man syndrome for me. It's not always a deal breaker if everything else is good. But it can easily be too much. One recent example I've read is the Red Rising series. I overall like them so far (just started book 3). But I get so frustrated when I'm reminded that it was clearly written by a straight white man. When the wife is the sole motivation for the male MC, so she dies in like chapter 2. I understand immediately after, but good lord Darrow, it's been years. You're planning to start a revolution that will end in the deaths of countless people. You should have your own motivation that can be supplemented with your wife's death. When there are only like 2-3 women characters who aren't villians. When every woman who isn't a villain is pining over the male MC, even tho he's a mass murderer and is frequently so disrespectful towards them.. When SA is used as nothing more than to show how horrible a male character is (this improved in the 2nd book and hope it stays that way, but the first book was full of it). That's just what comes to mind. Like I said, mostly enjoying them. But I still find myself drawn out of the book from time to time for this reason
More to do with book recommendations but if anyone describes a book to me using ONLY tropes and not the actual plot it immediately turns me off to checking out the book, even if I could have loved it. 🥲
As soon as I read that the male love interest has a "chiseled jaw" and "cheekbones that could cut glass" I just can't help but imagine Handsome Squidward 😂
Oh my goodness, yes! And handsome squidward is definitely poking fun at caricature art when so many fiction books describe their men in absurd ways over and over to the point that I start to see them as caricatures in my head. Like “Good job. Now I’m picturing all these normal sized characters standing in this room plus one sexy giant who can probably touch the ceiling and is to wide and tall to fit through doorways” lol!
I read a romance novel that described the male love interest's cheekbones as, and I quote, 'cheekbones that could massage ovaries'
“Ain’t no man gonna solve anybody’s mental health issues!” Jesse speaks truth. Listen to him
My 🚩 is when the author withholds information from the reader in ways that are painfully obvious.
Like we're in a character's head and they're deliberately circling around their big secret in their own thoughts while trying to make decisions about it.
When the author thinks too highly of a character, and none of the characters who would logically call out their behavior ever do.
For me it’s these: wattpad writing, constant swearing just cause the book is adult, romance that’s about the physical
as someone who has been stalked, it's definitely not romantic 😂. also i feel like romatasy is especially guilty of letting the smut erase any and all tenderness or other relationship aspects, and that's why i consistently dislike the books i try to read in the genre
It’s almost worse when it starts emotional and then drops it in favor of smut when they start dating. I feel mislead
Any form of cheating gives me the absolute ick - it's why I haven't been able to touch the Outlander books.
I was reading 1970s sci fi last month and all the characters were smoking and drinking. I staggered away craving a smoke and a stiff drink, and I don't drink or smoke. Sherlock Holmes even, when you need councelling they're like "Get that man a brandy!" Wows. Our ancestors were high af.🚩
LOL
I'm very, very specific about my romance and I am becoming desperate to find a book where both partners are playful with one another.
They are best friends but with the bonus that they can cuddle and kiss.
I just want more wholesome relationships where not every scene is charged by sexual tension or lead up to where they eventually do the deed or whatever.
I get that, 100%! It's hard to beat a wholesome relationship that isn't too overwhelming to read.
_Office Flirts! 5 Romantic Short Stories_ by Lisa Scott would be right up your alley! The office is full of pranksters, and the first story especially has that wholesome best friend vibe.
Scott has other _Flirt_ series, but I love this one the most haha
The 'too many perspectives doing different things' is so real. I've DNF'd so many books because I'd like one perspective and then have to sit through 3 or more others I don't care about OR I'm having trouble understanding what the book is about because we keep flitting here there and everywhere with no rhyme or reason. And I normally love multi-POV books!
I’m an average height girly who married a short guy, so I get tired of the size difference between men and women in books too. We need more body type representation in stories.
Yes!!! Absolutely loathe the miscommunication trope. Most of the time, it's things that IRL would've been resolved in no time because regular humans are not this terrible at communicating 🙄
My bookish 🚩🚩is the pregnancy trope IF the woman loses all her personality, dreams, and goals and they just get replaced by "MOM"
i literally wrote like a 20 page essay on the tropes of disabled characters in fiction and it is WACKY how much you notice it once it's pointed out for the first time! like moving beyond the trope of the "disabled villain" there are so many other tropes that originated in the brother's grimm fairy tales or even earlier. it's actually super fascinating (and disheartening tbh) to learn about and definitely a rich area of study. a book i would recommend to anyone, that is super approachable and well written is "disfigured: on fairy tales, disability and making space" by amanda leduc. such a good look at this type of thing, and the essays read almost like fiction they're so engaging!
Thank you for the recommendation!
I really don't have book red flags, more author read flags lol.
that's valid, honestly!
I adore when the authors explain in details, I do love it when a book take it's time to really create a picture of how this place really looks like, where every furniture is, the lighting of the place and etc.
It helps a lot with creating the best possible scenery in your head.
What I don't understand at all is that how some authors believe that by mentioning how this place looks like for quite a few times readers will be having a full understanding of the situation but they don't believe that readers remember that this guy's eyes are blue after reading about it for the 20th time?
When an author cures a disabled character using magic 🚩 OR when an author kills off the disabled character before “that’s not a life worth living” 🚩
Curing anxiety and despression is one of the biggest red flags in romances 😭
Omg or when an author causes a character to be injured to the point of disability but their already established magic makes it so they can still function TOTALLY NORMALLY.
*cough cough Graceling cough cough
I’ll take a Jesus miracle over thinly veiled eugenics ideals.
Mine were mentioned in the video. #1. Miscommunication. I find it so annoying. Especially when it drags out for a really long time in the book. #2. Use of the words padded or orbs. I automatically change them in my mind to walked and eyes.
Speaking of body types, I can't complain about authors realising there are other body types, when IRL I struggle to find clothing and footwear that fit 😶
Yes true.
Romanticising abusive relationships: anything by E. L. James so fifty shades of Grey.
I 100% about the friendship turned to relationship as much as i love a good romance i need a good friendship too
I read almost exclusively romance and even that is almost exclusively sports romance so most of my books have that crazy hot fit athlete body type. I love sports romances but occasionally I have to find a book that doesn't proclaim that hockey player bodies are the sexiest and the only attractive bodies.
Also I can't stand a book where the characters have no friends outside of their lover. Its so isolating and we neever get to see reactions to the relationship or hoe they all get along and I need that to be satisfied
Evil can be beaten with the power of friendship. UGH!
Oooh about the poc characters, there's a common description on Clau's books (from ClauReadsBooks) that goes something like "his skin that was like kissed by the sun" and I LOVE that description for the prince Emil, to me it's so good to give you the image of his brown skin and it's so cute! And I love it even more when our FL uses it to talk about him ^-^
As someone who would very much like to include poc characters in her writing, how could I go about describing them physically in a well thought out and respectful manner. I've been too used to the food descriptive tbh and I'd love some insight into how it would be tastefully done
I love so so much watching tall girls or "big" girls woth shorter or slimer guys (or not even skinny but the completly opposite, doesn't matter), idk why, maybe because there's not much out there in books; or sometimes just when she is stronger than him, like we're not bodyguards but I like to see her being also protective :3
A recent five-star read that doesn't have any of these red flags (I think) is Delilah Green Doesn't Care!!! Jesse, hear me out, it's a wonderful sapphic romance that I'm sure you'd love 😭💜💜
I work in athletics. I HATE it when authors write the team *insert coaching or healthcare credential* having a relationship with the athlete. HUGE NO!! That will cost you your license! I get that "it isn't real", but it's too close to real. Especially if there is an age gap (it's considered a form of abuse, btw). I refuse to read any more sports romances because of this.
You had me laughing so hard omg 😂 and yes I wish authors would include more relationships in romance books where the characters just form a natural relationship and the physical parts are focused on later. This is why I don’t like reading romance books because they all feel the same and I’m really confused why isn’t there more variety of the way the relationship works. Like I haven’t seen myself represented in any romance book, every one I’ve read is like a woman who just sleeps with the guy the second they convey they like each other or the second the get together.
I was working while listening to you, and nearly spit coffee on my keyboard at "where are all my flat pancake butts out there?" WORTH IT HAHAHHAA
LOL
I really enjoyed this, you should do a mini series with it!!
My red flag is wondering why my comment never features whenever you do these kinda videos. Anyways, a bookish red flag for me is when fantasy novels start becoming more romance and less fantasy. I read a series where the first book had fantastic world building. And then I read the second book that became all about romance. They left the plot behind in the first book. Immediately lost interest in the series. 😢
aw I'm sorry your comment didn't get featured! I try to get through as many as I can. I'll try to make sure yours gets chosen for one of the upcoming reacting videos.
@@jessethereader Oh thanks!
My red flag is just censorship. Everything, and I do mean everything, should be allowed to be written and enjoyed. Don't like? Don't read. Though I do think it would be a cool idea if all the publishers could get together and make a QR code in the front of the book so you can check triggers if you need to. And those who are less sensitive can remain spoiler free.
When Asexuality/Demisexuality/etc. gets "fixed" by the love interest.
I have 2 big ones that have to do with the synophis.
1: The title of the book weaved into the synophis. (Also don't lite when it's in the book, but then I'm already reading so...)
2: The fact that the characters are queer is a plot point (when the story isn't supposed to be about that). It just makes me wonder if you even have a plot.
With miscommunication trope it depends on the story for me. It can be VERY frustrating at times😂 Specially in the shadowhunters world😅 Still reading the books, is my guilty pleasure books but yes sometimes I want to bang their heads together🤭😂 I love a good friends to lovers story but as someone who has both boy and girl friends , I agree. We need more platonic relationship in books. I think my red flags is sometimes miscommunication, descriptions of characters were everyone has the perfect body or the girl is very tiny and the boy very big ( What kind of world do they actually live in?😂🙈), and very toxic characters/relationship.
@jessethereader Thank you so much for choosing my comment. Being called "Bestie" by you....made my day🥰....I mean you've always been an inspiration. Your bookish content encouraged me to start my own channel....so thanks again 🎉
My ick is insta-love. I've seen fated mates hate each other and have to work up to it... or even are cautious... like they should be. I hate instant love!!
any book that gets advertised as a "sad girl/hot girl must read." Usually these are really heavy on self sabortaging and self destructive characters and thats just not my vibe.
i hate the miscomunication in show and movies and movies ugh so frustating! YESSSSS OMFGG the shadowhunter books do that soo fuckin much so annoying, its drama that could be avoided if they didnt keep secrets for no reason
I don’t read a lot of romance but I think if I did the damsel in distress trope would be super annoying. Like not even the prince saves her, more like girl is from a poor family or is being abused by an ex and her new love interest literally helps her get out of there when the other guy is about to kill her because she can’t fight back. I’ve seen this more in movies. Books I guess when the book is so long and it’s the first book in a series or just a long book that tells a whole story, but my red flag with those is if they drag the story out. I don’t need a super detailed description of each character, I just need their name and personality and the plot of the story and I’m good
About sizes and bodies... I just reaaaally wih there where more books out there where our protagonists describes as "hot", "breath taking" etc., people that have a more average body or appereance, I know a tons of readers really just want to imagine their own perspective of a hot person, but maybe now and then a book about how this people found themselves incredibly appealing without the intension to be a steriotypical handsome character, like just more human feelings, finding the beauty in other details, and I'm not even talking about personalities, anyone can have such an attractive personality, but maybe admiring their hair, hands, idk, or maybe a body that not everyone would found attractive but for them it is, maybe at first sight or because they get to know each other so they fall in love with that part too
I just would like to see authors describing that 😅I found it once on a fanfic and to me it was so surprising how that girl made it seem like a such a hot and wholesome scene without them being this perfect bodies, like it's possible you know? XD
The miscommunication trope is my least favorite! I can't stand it haha. Okay but have you seen Ryan La Sala's dedications? They are fire 🔥.
And you, Jesse, are one of the hugest green flags ever! Just wanted to say thank you for making content and inspiring so many of us here 💜
I enjoyed this topic and agreed with these red flags. Yes, how can these books go through so many filters and no one catches these issues?
Miscommunication is the worst. I also don't like when characters are not held responsible for hurting their love with their bad behavior. Ooh, the promiscuous character finding true love with the virginal. Ugh!
On the body size difference point, the man is always described as big because he's tall and/or muscular and never because he's fat. Like fat male love interests just don't seem to exist
Does anyone have like physical or sensory red flags? Like the story could be incredible but as soon as I feel the pages being BIBLE THIN or have deckled edges I won't pick it up 😅
Deckled edges are such a huge red flag 🚩
YES. Also if a book is bound too tight. It hurts my hands 😂
@@MKTraxel it makes flipping the page so difficult!!!
@@ollieb.9731 that, and also when a book is too heavy it literally hurts my wrists to hold up lol
Dang. I didn't know about the colouring book & nail polish collection thing about that book 😮
I pretty much agree with all of these. But especially the "every friendship turns to love." This just gives me traumatic flashbacks to JHS and HS when I had mostly male friends, and I CONSTANTLY got asked by others (including my family) if we were dating, WHEN were we going to date, etc. One of my personal red flags (which is primarily an issue in YA fantasy) is when the story is about a female main character, the synopsis moves to "And then she meets-!" It means the romance is going to overtake the actual plot and I need to stay far away.
If you want a great series that has good found family and friendship with no "friends to lovers," I HIGHLY recommend the "Circle of Magic" series (The Circle of Magic, The Circle Opens, The Will of the Empress, and the standalones) by Tamora Pierce, by #1 fave author for the past 23 years. Fanfiction has people paring the main 4 together in different ways, but Tamora went "Nah fam" and kept them as friends/adopted siblings.
I got the inheritance cycle excited to read it ❤
I cannot believe that door romance exists 🤣🤣 so funny. There is something out there for everyone hahaha.
my bookish red flag is people normalising sex/smut in YOUNG ADULT books ... and those very same people defending themselves by saying "we used to read wattpad at 12" like ??????? okay? those books were usually written BY young people FOR young people, these published books are written by GROWN ADULTS ... grown adults writing about TEENAGERS having sex ????????? i'm sorry, but that is fucking weird
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thanks for coming to my ted talk, everyone, you can carry on with the comment section
I don't like it when authors make all the mental illness disappear with love of the other character too. Like let them get help, go to therapy & get better like a human
My biggest book problem is the girl who falls for the misunderstood guy who she’s been calling a jerk the whole time. He doesn’t get to be a jerk just cuz his life was hard and you don’t get to forgive him just because he’s telling you his trauma!
I love your videos!!! Pls make another video :D
Small girl, big guy trope is real! I myself am 165cm (I'm not American I don't know feet) which is average for a girl. But I have so many female friends and acquaintances that are a lot shorter than me and they are all together with tall guys. And I with my average hight prefer to be in a relationship with someone who is as tall or taller than me (I'm panromantic so that includes all genders for me personally) so I don't mind that trope because it's what I'm personally into as are a lot of people around me. I think it's about feeling protected.
I recently read a fantasy in which the female character was angry with her boyfriend because he didn't want to have sex in a group with her family (she being included in that group).
HELLO????? that is UNHINGED.
Loved this ❤️
Your mug is so cute! 😍
Thanks for reacting to my bookish red flag!! I’m glad we agree. 😂
Regarding miscommunication, I think it’s more the assumption trope that I don’t like, not so much miscommunication, like assuming the other characters is thinking this or that. Also I wish there were more loving relationships between heterosexual men. Men need to see they can have emotional connections with other men, also I want to see more male characters calling out MMC about what he did to make the FMC get mad at him 😅
I would deem myself a CoHo hater at times. But I have recently been told that her books are less about abusive relationships and more about someone getting out of them and moving on. Saying this without having read any. And I don’t think I will because I like to stay in the fantasy section at the bookstore.
I know I’ve been on the internet too much when I start commenting 🤦🏼♀️
I can only vouch for It Ends With Us, but in that book this is true! The abuse is not romanticized, it’s something to leave.
I hate the miscommunication trope!!
Oooh I also get so tired of the general hotness in books these days! Because there are so many different types of hot and everyone has different things that they think are attractive in real life and I hate how a lot of books are boiling it down to such few characteristics
Romanticizing stalking is a sudden 🚩
This is more of a pet peeve than a red flag, but characters gazing up at each other “through their eyelashes.” WHY DOES NO ONE TALK ABOUT THIS?! It’s a thousand times worse than characters letting out a breath they didn’t know they were holding! I have legitimately done that in my life, but looking at someone through your eyelashes makes NO SENSE. Try it - you have to half-close your eyes and even then your eyelashes are so close to your eyes that they’re just a bit of a dark blur, so you’re not really looking through them, and who looks at anyone like this anyway?! It reeks of amateur writer to me.
Great video, I laughed so much! I completely agree with most of these too, especially the ones about body sizes. Huge ML/Tiny FL, is such an ick! T_T I understand if it's like a kink for the author, but ugh.
And also about ML bodies, they all look and are described the same and I'm a bit tired of it. I don't like big muscle guys with all the cheekbones!
Not the door romance 😂😭
The "big man small woman" thing is probably a heteronormative reinforcement of gender essentialism (i.e. patriarchal fantasy power dynamics)
My bookish red flag is when a book has werewolf romance or a "alpha/omega/beta" situation....all I see is a badly written Wattpad fic 😂
Twilight Bella is depressed but Eward fixes it
I agree with pretty much all of those. I'd add that my biggest red flag, which leads to an immediate DNF and a desire to trash the book, is when the sexual assault of a female character is only there to further a male protagonist's plot line. Also, unnecessary amounts of swearing.
The stalking!!!! Like fr!!! I don't read too much romance but I've seen it so mucho on k-dramas and I'm like "I just don't like you already bc you're a psucho stalker! Go and talk PLEASE" XD I watched one when the dude was following this girl and he NEVER talked to her, NEVER but everyone was so into him because he was lik the "nice guy" and me just being like "did you all forgot how he was always following her and even working at the same place just to watch her? Or are you just ignoring it?"
I can't with that XD like NOT EDWARD, WATCHING BELLA SLEEPING AIN0T RIGHT! XD but at least he's a vampire!, he has a lot of bad things already XD
Surprise Pregnancy Trope = BIG NO NO!
In the Door romance(?), do you think the Door is stalking the woman because he's always in her home? Or is the woman stalking the Door because she's always in the home he's built into? 🤔
🚩 when character doesn't act human. Like you read and stop because the characters are just not behaving like real humans would.
omg the size difference is driving me crazy x.x
mostly in fanfics, because for some reason (because I like it lol) I tend to ship characters that are like exactly the same hight or like 1-2 cms apart and then everyone and their mother makes one of them 1.95m tall and the other one 1.5m short and like stop what are you guys doing? x.x that is the opposite of sexy...
I mean a size difference is not a deal breaker, but don't exagerate it. + it does nothing for me
Where the author I making their MC way to OP with powers and they don't like to use their magic.
Like?????? Come on I want to see how OP their magic is show me something please 😧
I'm speculating but dedicating a book to someone you hate sounds like what athletes do -- where they use some hate or perceived hate by an outsider to drive their performance. So here, the author would credit the person they hate for driving them to excel at writing their next book or something like that. I'm not saying this makes sense to me, but I think this is how the author would justify it.
The fact you placed the "love can solve any mental health issue" to YA tells me you have not read a lot of older romance books.
The healing 🍆 was a common trope there for way too long.
omg yes I'm so over this how big a guy is in romance books, like give it a rest. I don't need authors to now write lots of romances with the girl being taller than the guy, but just don't keep mentioning every other scene how big big big he is (and usually how tiny tiny she is), it has become such a turn-off for me
Flat pancake club
Not like other girls - can we please leave it in the past?? Also, if every female character except the female protagonist (and maybe her friends) are mean and/or evil 🙄
Some additional tropes that are personal trope red flags that immediately come to mind - second chance romance & personification of death in a story
ONE day I will be featured🫠
Good evening, Jesse. i hope you've had a wonderful Monday.
A red flag for me is when an author is a proud sexist, I'm never going to pick up one of their books again. i don't care who the sexism is towards, I. DONT. WANT. IT.
Misandry is still sexism and its brushed off time and time again. sexism is vile and i refuse to just accept it.
Hate the "im not like other girls" girl. Haven't we seen enough of that? It's so outdated. Also, im special because, reason and of course, i can handle my ability/ powers without training. just bad writing, in my opinion. 😪
When i see reviews for a book and black women/marginalized groups are critiquing it and white people love the book
Trauma for shock value and no resolution or help for those characters
male characters doing male behaviors, like i’m reading to escape 😩
Cringy edgelord dialogue that’s supposed to be sexy.
Are your eyes ok? One is bigger than the other.
Straight white man syndrome for me. It's not always a deal breaker if everything else is good. But it can easily be too much.
One recent example I've read is the Red Rising series. I overall like them so far (just started book 3). But I get so frustrated when I'm reminded that it was clearly written by a straight white man.
When the wife is the sole motivation for the male MC, so she dies in like chapter 2. I understand immediately after, but good lord Darrow, it's been years. You're planning to start a revolution that will end in the deaths of countless people. You should have your own motivation that can be supplemented with your wife's death. When there are only like 2-3 women characters who aren't villians. When every woman who isn't a villain is pining over the male MC, even tho he's a mass murderer and is frequently so disrespectful towards them.. When SA is used as nothing more than to show how horrible a male character is (this improved in the 2nd book and hope it stays that way, but the first book was full of it). That's just what comes to mind. Like I said, mostly enjoying them. But I still find myself drawn out of the book from time to time for this reason
Bad writing 🙈
Insta-Love 🚩
More to do with book recommendations but if anyone describes a book to me using ONLY tropes and not the actual plot it immediately turns me off to checking out the book, even if I could have loved it. 🥲