Books I Loathed discussion

Moved under this suggested title(thanks Lori!).

This isn't a trope per se, more of a trend. I hate the endless, endless pictures of bare chested men on the covers of romance novels. At least show the guy's face!

Those covers don't attract me to the book. In fact, my eyes immediately glaze over at the sight.

You're welcome.

One I loathe is the use of "In the tradition of [name of big name author of the same genre]" or "for fans of X". That's a great way to make me NOT read the book ...

On books that are supposed to be taken as literature >/sarcastic font< you don't get the book's summary but a whole bunch of quotes from people who read the ARC book who don't tell you what the book is actually about but you're supposed to take their advice as the ultimate authority on the book.

Basically if there is a man's chest on there I know it's a romance and probably not going to do anything for me so I have to say that is a huge turn off for me as well.

All of them.
Naked dudes on the covers.
Makes both the books and the buyers look shallow and cheap. (No offence to the dudes.) There are actually some pretty goods with pretty cheap and shitty covers. Ilona Andrews's "Hidden Legacy" series is a good example.

The "fans of xxx will love this" that are always 100% false advertisement.

Constant false advertisement in general.

The blurbs that don't make sense and have no credibility. Why do publishers still believe they have place?

Using the author's famous friends or relatives on the back cover. Or actually using the "author's picture" where they are together with this famous person. (And no, I don't mean people who write together.)

Not a marketing plot per se, but I love books and respect the fact that it's got to be hard to write one and then to go through everything it takes to get it published. So I hate it when some celebrity decides he or she wants to be an "author", gets some ghost writer to do the actual writing, adds a few touches here and there, slaps their name on the cover and gets all the glory.
Starting to see the same thing on the cooking channel. Celebrity "chefs."

Also not a fan of celebrity book clubs. Let's all read what [fill in the name of the celebrity]'s reading. I don't give a hoot what a celebrity is reading and my own TBR pile is finally down to seven books - and frankly I have found better recommendations and comments on book groups than from any celebrity.

Barbara wrote: "Also not a fan of celebrity book clubs. Let's all read what [fill in the name of the celebrity]'s reading. I don't give a hoot what a celebrity is reading and my own TBR pile is finally down to sev..."

Oh, yeah. I never read any of those types of recommendations because they rarely, if ever, fall into my personal reading preferences.

On the general topic of book covers.

I wish authors had some say on cover art. P.C. Hodgell had a plot point that Jamethiel is so flat-chested that she could pass for a boy even with her shirt off. The cover art...? BOOOOOBBSSSS!!!

David Weber's War God books tend to have good representative art of the characters. Here's is my bar-none favourite depiction of a woman in armour cover. War Maid's Choice

What's up with naming all the YA books "a xxx of xxx and xxx" meme and why are people still not tired of being same and unoriginal?

Kei wrote: "What's up with naming all the YA books "a xxx of xxx and xxx" meme and why are people still not tired of being same and unoriginal?"

Could you clarify please? I'm not sure what you're getting at here.

Lori S. wrote: "Kei wrote: "What's up with naming all the YA books "a xxx of xxx and xxx" meme and why are people still not tired of being same and unoriginal?"

Could you clarify please? I'm not sure what you're ..."

I'm talking about this:

A Court of Thorns and Roses (and the similarly named series)
Girls of Paper and Fire
Girls of Storm and Shadow, etc similarly named series
A Pack of Blood and Lies
Children of Blood and Bone
The Forest of Hands and Teeth
The Girl of Fire and Thorns
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Kingdom of Shadow and Light
A Curse So Dark and Lonely
Queen of Air and Darkness

And these are just the ones I've noticed, and I don't even read YA...

Am I the only one who feels like people just said 'oh, readers must like it when we name books this way / books named this way sell better so lets just all copy it and be the same!" ?...

Kei wrote: "I'm talking about this:

A Court of Thorns and Roses (and the similarly named series)
Girls of Paper and Fire
Girls of Storm and Shadow, etc similarly named series
A Pack of Blood and Lies
Children of Blood and Bone ..."

Ah, the copy cat syndrome. I get you now. Yeah, one book hits the big time with such a title, probably Children of Blood and Bone, come to think of it, and everyone else jumps on the bandwagon with the naming convention. This is normal and will eventually die down, hopefully.

Lori S. wrote: Ah, the copy cat syndrome. "

Yes! That's the term I was looking for.
I don't know, it just bothers me on so many levels... Is it not embarrassing? When an author chooses to be a copycat so so blatantly, instead of striving to stand out in some way, it's just an instant turnoff...

Kei wrote: "Lori S. wrote: Ah, the copy cat syndrome. "

Yes! That's the term I was looking for.
I don't know, it just bothers me on so many levels... Is it not embarrassing? When an author chooses to be a cop..."

Like covers, authors don't always have control of the book titles, but I agree with you. It's in the same thing as "in the tradition of" or "fans of X author will love this".

Yeah, the publisher might change the book title. and definitely does the book cover. Then there is the problem of two books with the same tittle, or similar ones. When the first of the Janet Evanovich books came out, "One For The Money" there was already a novel with that title and I think there were a couple after.
There was also a book called "Between Shades of Gray" before the "50 Shades of Grey".