I was having a look at some book tags to do, to ease back into posting.
I tried to force myself back into posting winter last year, but the timing just wasn’t right for me. I think we’ve all had time to be a bit creative during lockdown (I’m in the UK, so our lockdown is very much on and off again). I saw this book tag by The Caffeinated Bookworm Life, and it looks like a fun one, so here goes.
Warning – there may be spoilers.
NOPE! Ending: a book ending that made you go NOPE either in denial, rage or simply because the ending was crappy.
There’s one book that really stands out for me here. The Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling). This book was trash. It’s got a pretty basic murder mystery, as all the Strike novels do, but I was so disappointed with this.
Robin begins to grow a lot in this book. She breaks away from her horribly oppressive partner, she’s focussing on her career. There’s a hint of romance between her and Strike (which I really did not ship anyway). Robin just has so much potential. AND THEN
She goes crawling back to her terrible partner. To me, it read as if Rowling was saying ‘women can’t make it without men. She had to go back to him and be controlled by him because she needed him’. UGH. I hated it. It’s the only book I have ever refused to finish because I was so disappointed. I put the book in the bin (recycling, of course). People have said to me that Robin gets better in Lethal White, but honestly, I don’t have the time to waste on any more of Rowling’s book.
I’d also like to add that I read this about a year ago, so this was before Rowling’s crashing and burning on twitter over the trans posts. I’m very much in the camp of not supporting Rowling, and I was never all that connected to Harry Potter, but this was the final straw for me. Very much a NOPE ending, and a NOPE to reading any more Rowling.
NOPE! Protagonist: a main character you dislike and drives you crazy.
I struggled with this one. I tend to put books down if I’m really not enjoying them, and a massive part of that is enjoying the voice the main character speaks in. But I guess if I was forced to choose, it’d be Marguerite Caine from the Firebird Trilogy (Claudia Gray). Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the books. I liked all the twists and turns, and the concept of travelling to different dimensions was super cool. But I felt like Marguerite fell a bit flat. She was pretty strong in the first book, but then she gets into this whole love triangle between Paul and Theo, and it dragged a bit. Her moral compass was always extremely rigid, in that she believed there was a fraction of your soul that survives in every variation of you, but then really couldn’t comprehend when that variant turned out to be awful. There was a lot of that, maybe a little too much. But honestly, the books are enjoyable, and I’d recommend them.
NOPE! Pairing: a “ship” you don’t support.
Don’t hate me for this, but I really don’t like Mia and Tric from Nevernight (Jay Kristoff). I think it was fairly obvious that the ship was moving towards Mia and Ashlinn, which meant the end of book one was both a shock and relief. I think I’d also spoiled it for myself a little, because I’d heard people talking about the LGBT representation in Nevernight so I was expecting Tric to have to move out the way for someone. I just didn’t expect it to happen that way. Good old Kristoff, always throwing in painful curveballs.
NOPE! Plot twist: a twist you didn’t see coming and didn’t like.
I’m not sure many people will have read this, because it didn’t get much hype, and probably for fair reason. But I was not a fan of the plot twist (or plot really) for The Merciless (Danielle Vega). The book is essentially ‘teen drama with (badly written) witches gone wrong’, and it felt like there were creepy things being thrown in just for the sake of it. It went from being creepy teen drama to just WTF at a very clear half way mark. Also there’s weird hair pulling. I’d recommend you read it because it’s an experience in itself, but also, what?
NOPE! Genre: a genre you will never read.
I think it’s pretty clear by my other NOPE reactions that I’m not a fan of romance, but I just think it’s so hit and miss. I quite like romance mixed in with something else, but when that’s the whole plot, count me out.
NOPE! Book format: book formatting you hate and avoid buying until it comes out in a different edition
This is a difficult one for me because I’m pretty flexible with all book formats. I prefer a hardback, they rest nicer in your lap, but also I’d rather have an ebook over a paperback – honestly I just find them so much easier to read. I think I’d say the format that doesn’t work for me is physical CD audiobooks. First of all, they’re so expensive. Second, who has the time to get up and change a CD half way through a book? I love audiobooks, but I definitely prefer them from a digital library.
NOPE! Trope: a trope that makes you go NOPE.
Again, it’s a romance issue for me. I hate love triangles. If there’s going to be romance, make it a slow burner. There is nothing I cannot stand more than the main character agonising over which person to choose. Also books where it’s love at first sight. That is not a thing, stop trying to make it a thing.
NOPE! Recommendation: a book recommendation that is constantly pushed at you, that you simply refuse to read.
Going back to my first NOPE it’s going to be anything by J.K. Rowling. I have a colleague who is obsessed with everything that she’s written, which is fine, I guess. But her books are so empty. I just have no interest in them. I get told to read The Casual Vacancy all the time, and I just, ugh. No thanks.
NOPE! Cliche: a cliche or writing pet peeve that always makes you roll your eyes.
Agonising over something for far too long. I get that the character needs to make the point that whatever they are agonising over is a big deal, and that it will probably be a major turning point in the plot. Yes, that needs reinforcement, I get that. But when every time that point of agony comes up, it’s like a whole page of agonising, I skip it. I get the picture. Please stop whining.
NOPE! Love interest: the love interest that’s not worthy of being one.
I think this might be quite a divisive NOPE, but for me, it’s Matthew in A Discovery of Witches (Deborah Harkness). Now, I love those books. I think the mixture of real alchemical study, historical references, and sheer woman power is awesome. But I can’t help but thinking Matthew isn’t all that. There’s always the dangerous territory when writing vampires of ownership, and I do feel like Harkness deals with a lot of that which I’m grateful for. But honestly, Diana is such a strong character, and Matthew really isn’t. I definitely liked him more in the second book, and seeing him in a historical setting was fascinating, but when compared with Diana, she’s so much better.
NOPE! Book: a book that shouldn’t have existed.
I’m pretty sure I wrote a WTF review for this one before, but all I’ll say is Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl – David Barnett. This whole book is awkward.
NOPE! Villain: a villain you would hate to cross.
I’m not sure he/it counts as a villain, maybe a quasi-villain. But I’d hate to come face to face with AIDAN (Illuminae Files – Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff). AIDAN is an AI that has far too much power, and if you’re only reading book one, then I really wouldn’t want to cross he/it.
NOPE! Death: a character death that still haunts you.
Major spoiler – don’t read if you haven’t finished Aurora Rising –
I’m haunted by Cat’s death. It was so unfair, but that’s to be expected when Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman have anything to do with the story.
NOPE! Author: an author you had a bad experience reading for and have decided to quit.
One that always sticks out to me is Terry Goodkind. There was that whole drama back in 2018 when he laughed at the artist who created the cover art for his latest book. It was so distasteful, and since then I’ve not read anything he’s written. He’s since apologised for the whole issue, but still, don’t be an arse.
What Librarians Read 