“It’s a grumpy/sunshine book, and there’s only one bed! Eeeeeek!”
Ever feel like book reviews or BookToks are speaking in a cryptic code that you can’t decipher? Something that goes beyond mere skibidi youth slang and “we’re-all-in-a-hurry” shortcuts like comps? There is one culprit for that, and it isn’t going anywhere: tropes.
What’s a trope?
In literary terms, a trope is a plot device or character attribute that is (over)used so commonly in a genre that it’s seen as commonplace, conventional or even cliché.
It’s a romance and the two protagonists who can’t stand each other pretend to be in a relationship for the sake of appearances? Guess what, they’re getting together for real and you can’t stop them. Are you currently reading a superhero book? There’s probably a villain who wants to take over the world, right?
Tropes are very useful to both writer and readers. They are so ubiquitous they cannot be copyrighted, so all the plagiarism scandals about one author using the other author’s “idea”, which turns out to be a basic love triangle trope, are just silly.
Not many books will achieve greatness by just stringing a bunch of tropes together, however. A wise author will use tropes as a jumping point and play with (or against) them as much as their creativity allows, to avoid a stale, predictable manuscript. House Andrews basically have trope torture chambers, you can hear the poor twisted things crying for mercy in each book, and that’s why I love them.
For us readers, tropes are an invaluable tool when we look for our next adventure. I always want romances with Cinnamon Roll heroes, will rarely pick up a Second Chance novel and can’t abide a miscommunication trope.
Tropes are also a way to ease us into a story with something familiar. “A book with magical detectives and political conspiracies? I don’t know if I would…oh, it’s got a Secret Billionaire? Oh yeah, give me 6 of them.” – someone about to join the BDH after reading Hidden Legacy, probably.
Trope trends
A website that can suck hours of your time in its rabbit holes is TV Tropes. You will also start making jokes that only the Chosen Ones understand, but that’s the Rule of Cool hehe.
I’ll give you just a few of my favorite things: raindrops on roses The Chunky Salsa Rule, Red Oni, Blue Oni, the Iron Butt Monkey, Applied Phlebotinum, Crapsaccharine World.
Once you start to recognise tropes everywhere, it also becomes apparent how they constantly go in and out of style and become viral or cancelled, according to the waves of social media opinion and the world (hopefully) learning better in some cases.
In the romance genre, we are currently living through the last days of Grumpy/Sunshine viralness (a subset of the Opposites Attract, where one of the characters is moody, taciturn, saturnine and the other one is a bubbly, chatty ray of sunshine). Enemies to Lovers is still going strong, after defeating the previous reigning champion, Fated Mates (who smell each other; what were we all thinking lol?). Forced Consent and Age Gap are relegated to the backstage or taboo indies. It might make your favorites harder to find or write about for commercial success, but I hope for a world where no one can dictate to adults what they should be reading.
What tropes are you interested in or glad to see the last of?
Edit: please keep it to discussion about tropes and not specific book or author recommendations. There will be designated blog posts for that!
Oh man! As an avid reader AND tv series/movie friend I cannot believe a world of classifications was just around the corner. AND I knew nothing of it being this big!!
Thank you so much Mod R for opening my eyes 🙂
I hate most second chance. Very few of them are done right but the ones that done right are treasures. “What It Means to Be You” is a second chance manhwa done right. You gotta try this.
That is the only second chance troupe I love, and I have read hundreds……
We have a saying here “A good husband is a new husband.”
I LOATHE reverse harm but cannot overdose on Fated Mates, which is a bit frustrating since Fated Mates seems to be fading except in badly written app serials and RH appears to be ascendant right now.
Found- or made- family is always a winner, and healthy family relationships and the existence of friends in the characters’ lives.
Meh on second chance romance and age gap and really dislike stupid miscommunications that are what the drama hinges on; they’re usually too silly to carry the plot.
LOVE a good grovel, HATE when it’s due to miscommunication or Other Woman drama. Detest Other Woman drama and cheating.
Ooey, gooey cinnamon roll heroes are the absolute best, and competence porn is just Actively avoid love triangles and (often paired to billionaires) poor, pathetic, jobless, helpless, and soon-to-be-homeless (and usually WAY young) heroines; “Sweetie, you don’t need a man, you need skills and a job… so maybe start with a job.”
Alpha holes are only fun when the FMC is strong enough to hold her own and make him work for it, and the entire concept of bully romance is only slightly less awful than step-sibling or guardian/ward or boyfriend’s father or other family-adjacent romance. Just no. Sooooooooooooo much no.
Surprise pregnancies are awesome…but only when there’s NO POSSIBLE WAY a pregnancy can happen.
Sllloooooooowwwww buuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrn. Never gets old, requires actual character- and relationship-development.
Grumpy/sunshine is usually fun, especially when (rarely) she’s the grump and he’s the sunshine.
I love shifters but they’re so common now that the stories are often defined by their other tropes. Shifters plus RH or age gap or second chance? Usually a nope. Shifters plus impossible pregnancy, magical heritage, or apocalypse? I’m so there!