Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme from The Broke and the Bookish!

This weeks topic:

Top Ten Trends I would Like to See More or Less of

MORE:

• Nerdy stud-muffin love interests. I mean, why can't a guy be totally sexy dressed in all black but also be a total genius and actually show it. I wouldn't mind my guy being completely flippant and being able to quote Shakespeare.
• Male protagonists. I love love love reading from a male's point of view. Especially when the male is getting all fluttery from a girl or thinkin' real nasty things about a girl. No, I'm not a pervert, I just like the realism that guys minds often stray to the dirty stuff first.
• Faeries. And not the good kind who flutter their sparkly wings and make the world a better place. I want the mean ones that lead girls into forests and switch out babies. Yeah, I'm cruel. That's the way I like it.
• Lust in YA. And I'm not just talking about with the guy that the girl is in love with (or vice-versa). I mean, the majority of teenagers do not fall head over heels in love and give away their virginity to their first and only love. Girls and boys both have hormones. Teenagers often find outlets to relieve those raging hormones. That is just how the world works, my friends.
• Profanity. I know this sounds weird, but there are a lot of YA books aimed at older teens that deal with sex and drugs and yet the protagonist says "What the crow?" What is that? I'm just saying, any teenager that, like, tumbles down a flight of stairs and then gets drooled on by a werewolf trying to rip their throat out is going to at least let out a little "Oh shit."

LESS:

•  Twilight Comparisons. I know this is on a lot of lists, but what I mean is that Stephenie Meyer did not invent vampires, werewolves, or love triangles. She didn't even make the best ones. She did not invent mind reading or psychics or families willing to do anything for each other. Please, stop saying that any book that contains those aspects is just like Twilight. Really, it's not.
• Series that drag on. Now, I love love love series. Usually, the longer the better. But sometimes authors just need to kill the bad guy and move on. There is one series in particular (not going to name it) where it is almost ten books in and the only people who have discovered that the bad guy is truly bad is a group of teenagers. They have spent about three books trying to convince everybody else that the bad guy is bad, to no avail. The first half of each book is spent rehashing the events from the previous books and I just mean, really, GET ON WITH IT! Make the books longer, fit in more action. Don't just have one major event. My God.
• Immediate love for no reason. This is a big one for me. Really big. I fully believe in characters EARNING relationships. I'm going to refer to the ever-famous Twilight series (If you can't tell - not one of my favorites). Bella meets Edward. Edward acts like a dick and then disappears. "Oh where is my precious Edward whose name I learned from someone else." Blah blah frickity blah. They did absolutely nothing to earn each other's love and then BAM! They couldn't live without each other? PUH-LEASE! And it's not only romantic relationships I'm talking about. What about friendships? All positive relationships are give and take and in a lot of books there's only give give give on one side and take take take on the other.
• Dumbasses. Pretty self explanatory, right? I'm sorry, but I don't want to read about girls who hear something downstairs in the middle of the night and then walk down there in their panties and expect not to get raped or murdered.
• Creepy guys (or non-creepy) who fall in love with dumb teenage girls. Yeah. I could give you a nice hefty list, but I'll just give one example. And since I've already bashed on Twilight enough, I'll use something else. What about Patch and Nora from Hush, Hush. As much as I love Patch, he could have done so much better. He's a fallen fricking angel, for Christ's sake. And he's damn sexy. So why the hell does he fall in love with Nora who, you know, isn't as awesome? She makes excuses and she never really gives her opinion. She lets people walk all over her and she follows random stalkers unarmed. How's that for brilliant?

Well, that's my list. What's on yours?