RANT: Dystopian Cliches

The Hunger Games. Divergent. Uglies. Delirium. Matched.

Besides all being popular and carrying the dystopian genre, there is one other similarity:

Cliches.

And as I write this, I want to let you know: I love all those books up there. Divergent is one of my favorites. But sometimes, cliches get boring and this is where this post starts.

Here are things I constantly, constantly see in dystopian books nowadays:

1. The main character is a girl. I realize right now that most main characters are a girl, so this cliche doesn't just apply to the dystopian range. In all of the books I've read, there had only been 1 or 2 main boy characters. And I don't know why this must have been; there are guy authors too, but I guess they choose to have a female main characters.

2. The girl is an orphan. I use the term orphan loosely in this case. Orphan usually means having no parents, but in most dystopian books, there are 3 cases:

1. Both parents are dead/gone/missing or just not in the book.
2. The dad is dead/gone/missing/not in the book while the mom is in the book.
3. The mom is dead/gone/missing/not in the book while the dad is in the book.



Spoilers: In Divergent, Tris's parents both die. In Uglies, I don't think Tally ever mentioned her parents...? It's been awhile since I read that one, so I'm not 100% sure. But for The Hunger Games, Katniss's dad is dead while her mom is back at home, not in the book. So what is the deal with not having parents in dystopian books?

3. The villain is the government. This nearly applies for almost every dystopian book I read. In all of the examples I've provided above, it's always, always the government's fault. So ahem. Can there be a real villain for once? I know in Shatter Me, the villain is a guy named Warner, but if I remember right, he's working for or a part of the government.

4. The girl resists the government and rebels against it. Again, this is basically the main vague plot of all dystopian stories.

Spoilers: In Divergent, Tris rebels against Jeanine/the serum/Eric. In Uglies, Tally ends up in the wilds not wanting the plastic surgery. In Delirium, Lena falls in love and to hide her relationship with Alex, betraying their government. And so on....

5. The girl is special. Somehow, she is different than all the other people brainwashed by their society, and somehow she makes all the right decisions. So it's almost like she's perfect. And while this isn't a cliche I mind, some books try to make their main character sound like an over-the-top, amazing, beautiful person. It gets annoying once the details just keep on raving on how different and brave this girl is.

6. The girl meets the perfect guy and falls in love with him. In almost all dystopian stories (and regular comtemporary books), that guy is her first boyfriend. Which is nice if you think about it, because she doesn't have to go through all the heartbreak, but is it really realistic to think she'll marry her first boyfriend?

It's a sweet concept, but to be realistic, it's rare. Too rare to be happening in each dystopian book.

So that's the most popular cliches I find in dystopian books. And to be honest, I like a lot of these cliches. They all soften the harsh world of breaking up, being boring and a carbon copy of the others. It's just once you get past all those layers, you see more doubts of being realistic. And although I've just listed all the cliches, I still find myself having a soft spot for dystopian books. ^^;

What about you? Do you like cliches?

RANT: Love Triangles

So, I was reading Starcrossed the other night. And being the type of person I am, of course I had to research the second book in the series, Dreamless. I went on Goodreads....only to disappoint myself. In the summary of the sequel, there is a love triangle.  

And don't get me wrong as I write this post. When a love triangle is done well, it's interesting to read. But when most of the YA paranormal books are raging about the love triangle (especially last year, where it seems like all books had love triangles), it gets tiring. Sometimes it's frustrating too.

Here's where this rant starts.

And before you start reading though, I'm not hating on love triangles. I just want to state my thoughts (which are sincere). Love triangles can be done well. It's just I can't stand some of them.

This post is for the love triangles that I dislike.

1. The Use of a Love Triangle

I'm pretty sure we all know what a love triangle is. If not, here's the short version of it.

Love Triangle noun.
an unneccesary element in YA where the story involves two boys and one girl
Example: Girl meets boy, falls in love with boy, meets another boy, likes that boy too, girl gets confused between both of them. Then, she chooses the "bad boy." The end.

The use of it, in my opinion as a reader, is because authors run out of plot ideas.

The use of it, in my opinion as a aspiring writer, is because authors tend to think it spices up the story.

Either ways, most (but not all)  love triangles are annoying.

Here's why.

2. Bad Main Character Developement

The main rants I see on Goodreads is due to the fact that the main character is annoying, whiny, or inconsiderate. I know for a fact that the author never meant for their character to come off that way. After all, the writer wants their readers to like the main character, right?

If so, why create love triangles? If a main character is truly a good person, I don't think she'll like two guys at the same time. Not only is that rare in real life, but it's also kind of ridiculous if you think about it.

You want the readers to connect to your character by interests, hobby, or personality. Not by the amount of guys they are "in love" with.

Besides, if your character really is that great, would she really spend her life stuck between choosing a guy?

3. True Love...or Fake Love?

Many YA books are all about true love. Which gets annoying and cliche if you think about it, but let's ignore that for now.

If the plot of a story is honestly true love and your main character finds it while choosing between two boys, fine. But don't blame me when you discover a huge plot hole.

Why? Let's think for a moment. If she was really in love with the first guy, would she like the second guy? No. Of course not.

And the dumb thing is, the main character usually ends up with the first guy.

 An example of this is: Twilight (meets Edward first), A Beautiful Dark (meets Asher first), and Vampire Academy (Rose meets Dimitri first).

So, all I'm saying is that, unless it's truly neccessary, don't throw in a love triangle. It's obvious who's going to win. They're usually the...

3. When in Doubt, Pick the Bad Boy

What's wrong with regular old-fashion nice boys? Why do love interests in YA novels have to be perfect, charming, and handsome?

It's not always about looks or about how "bad" they are. Because how is some crazed maniac cute?

Enough said.

4. One day in YA books are a Century on Earth

How can a main character just pick one boy, break the other's heart, and live happily ever after so fast? It's so random and just bad character development.

I don't even have much to say about this.

5. The Start of an Internet Fan War

After the whole series is over and the love interest is declared, there are usually tears from the really obsessed fangirls and often some disagreements via internet.

Example:

One: OMG, how could she pick him? I hated him!
Two: Are you serious? I loved the ending! How could you not support them? Are you crazy?!?!
One: If you read carefully, you would totally see why I didn't support them! He was so stupid and selfish...

And so on.

It often leads to debates and Team ______ or Team ________.

But while an internet fan war is unlikely, there are a lot of readers who truly are disappointed by the ending. They might not start a debate over it, but the frustration might tear them apart.

So really...

Why a Love Triangle? (all it does is disappoint people)

My rant ends here. Sorry, if it got out of control. ^^; I just wanted to share those thoughts out with readers.

And reading back, I discovered this rant seemed kind of aggressive, but like I had warned in the beginning, not all love triangles apply to these rules. Just some that I don't like.

These are the reasons why I don't like some certain love triangles.

And I haven't read Dreamless yet so this is not a post bashing on it. I am sure to continue reading the Starcrossed series with no biased views, even if some love triangles are not my favorite.

What about you? Do you like love triangles? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Thank you for reading!