Hey Pandas, Do You Have Literary Pet Peeves?

Share your literary pet peeves down below!

#1

Where did putting the number of the series on the spine go? Huh??? SOMEBODY TELL ME!!!

#2

I hate when I am reading a story and the author writes "this is relevant later". Yeah, no duh! If it's not relevant to the story it should be edited out. I think what the author conveys when they include that is: 'I am the only smart person and everyone else is an idiot that I have to tediously explain everything to'.

#3

Typos, misspellings, inaccurate changes in later scenes (in the first, he ordered a burger, but later in the same meal he cuts his steak), using the wrong name. Where the hell are the editors?

#4

A series that revolves around a "Chosen One" who is often a whiny impetuous brat.

#5

In books when the "villain's" problems could have been solved by rational thinking and the main characters are actually a**holes.

#6

when your reading a really good book/series but slowly starts to go down in quality

#7

When an author is great at building suspense and creating a creepy atmosphere, and then the climax comes and it's silly and disappointing. (Looking at you, Stephen King!)

#8

How every single book that exists is a New York Times Bestseller or is written by a New York Times Bestselling Author.. That's like the participation award for writers at this point.

#9

Lending a book to someone and it coming back dogeared, or otherwise messed up.

#10

changing the look, style, size, colouring, text direction, font size part way through a series

#11

When writing a series, authors often do a bit of recap to tie in the new book to the previous book. I become annoyed when the author does this by having one character monologue the back story to a second character who already knows said back story.


I also dislike discontinuity. If a character has black hair and brown eyes, she shouldn't suddenly become auburn with green eyes in the next chapter.

#12

It gets to me when I'm reading a novel with a character smokes three packs of cigarettes a day and never coughs once in the whole book.

And then there are the scenes in which three or four people have a serious discussion which lasts for four or five pages and everybody's coffee stays hot until the last line.

#13

Women characters written by men. Especially when everything they do has to do with their boobs. Or when it’s an adventure/action novel and the woman has to be portrayed as emotionless, fully-badass, and completely misogynistic to other women because god-forbid a girl with stereotypically feminine qualities is also tough and powerful.

#14

This goes back to Highschool. Having a book you loved as subject matter in English and after the teacher and class have analysed it to death, you can't even look at anymore.

#15

When people forget the second comma. It's "books, cheese, and more!" not "books, cheese and more!"

At least that's how I think of it.

#16

When a book changes between past and present or between character POVs and the only way to differentiate them is the font changes or is italicized

#17

why does the fate of the world always lie on a hormonal 16 year old who can duel, hack and invent at a level par to a 30 year old sucked-of-life adult. oh and they always have to be social outcasts who will eventually marry their crush happily ever after.

#18

Writers who assume you are intimately familiar with the real-world settings and temporal culture references. When stories are set in a real world location that the author has grown up in, you need to dig out dictionaries, atlases, and newspapers from the applicable era to even have a remote clue what they are talking about. Just 2 decades out is bad enough, but when you cannot properly grasp a story without a bachelor's degree in the societal structure and political details in the relevant setting, the author HAS FAILED. Just about every 'classic' suffers this, yet we are force-fed the content (Looking at you Shakespeare, whoever you might be, and Dostoevsky". Yet this can be overcome - Most of Hemmingway and works such as "A Clockwork Orange" can be read & understood without requiring expertise in the backdrops.

#19

When the author loses track of where what is. This is usually hands, arms, feet, background items, anything really etc. This happens a lot more than it should, and I know things get edited, but you need to keep track of continuity. I've read a book where they lost a whole dang character between two paragraphs because they were sitting on the far left couch laughing silently at so-and-so then two paragraphs later they're climbing in the window with people welcoming them like they just got there and no mention of the person on the couch because it was the same person.

This is also a bigger issue in steamy books I've found. You lose track of what is where and some things just aren't possible. I've checked the Karma Sutra it agreed with me.

#20

Stories that are tediously stretched over multiple volumes just so the author and publisher can have a "series".

#21

I hate it when authors write the hero as an absolute idiot, e.g. DBS Goku. In Z, Goku wasn’t as stupid but the writers then wrote him as an idiot. You don’t need a character to be funny from stupidity, also, Majin Buu, stupid character. Like, when he separates from himself, then combines again, he’s somehow smarter?

#22

Novels written in the present tense. So annoying. First thing I check for when browsing books in the library or bookshop.

#23

Incorrectness. Just they are straight up wrong somewhere in the book. I also can't stand authors that like to sound smart (or just are smart....) and they use way too many words.

For example:

The quick brown fox jumped over the log.

The expeditious mahogany vulpes vulpes (scientific name for fox, had to look it up) ascended into the amalgamation of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, etc. Thereupon, the creature plunged to the earth on the far periphery of the length of the limb of a deceased large plant enclosed in bark.

I'm all for describing things and using details, but there is indeed such a thing as 'too many words'.

#24

Books that pretend to be completely original but are highly derivative and refuse to acknowledge it. We are all inspired by our heroes and become a synergy of all we've read so I have no problem with someone taking an idea and running. However, don't pretend you invented the wheel and expect me to be surprised when the story's climax is IT ROTATES!. This is quite prevalent in young adult fiction that is pushed on adults as well (Twilight, Harry Potter, etc). The worst is when someone straight up jacks a character, put them through the same story arc, and just changes the name.

#25

I’m almost afraid to let this be published, but ….

Jane Austen.

#26

Anne of Green Gables is an amazing book, but the plot felt all over the place. Whenever a book is doing this, and I already feel like it’s lacking I will spank the book (yes im aware how weird I am and how this hurts paperbacks, but honestly they deserve it)

#27

I get most of my books from an online website, Quotev. You can write and publish books there. I sure have my fair share of books on there. But I hate it when I find a book that I'm really interested in, but the grammar is terrible! Run on sentences, the paragraphs arent separated, bad spelling, and no punctuation! Its physically painful to read.

#28

Female "characters" with zero personality that are simply a love interest or damsel in distress

#29

Switching to italics for long periods.
My vision is sadly, not what it once was, and italics are a royal pain in the bum. I find myself having to hold the book up to my face and even then I have to angle it just right. I know I need glasses but I'm vain.

#30

Where the protagonist is an author going through some type of turmoil…. Seriously, a writer writing about being a writer?! What type of laziness is this???

#31

my literal pet peeve is my cat changing its mind whenever I open a door. Ah but it's not a peeve anymore, really. It's more of a ritual dance by now.

#32

When books in a series have similar plots (death to Harry Potter), when stuff is inconsistent, and when it isn't properly spelled, grammatically correct, and so on.

#33

When a famous writer has a book published only because they are a famous writer, not because the book is good or worth reading. Far too many examples to mention.

#34

When stories just stop. There’s no proper ending to the book, it’s like the author just got bored and gave up. The amount of times I’ve read a book that I’ve been really enjoying and at the end, the writer has just thrown anything together to end it. It’s incredibly unfulfilling and frustrating.

#35

What happened to actual chapters? Current fiction seems to have chapters of 2-3 pages. I grew up reading Dickens, Dumas and other classic writers. The chapters were dense and long but worth the read. I feel this is pandering to the "short attention span" of the current generations, maybe it makes people feel good about themselves that they read 5 chapters ???? I just feel like the current best-selling authors are phoning it in, some writers have series where the sex scenes between the hero/heroine are exactly the same from one book to the next (I'm talking about you, J D Robb) If you can't come up with something interesting and different, just skip it. That's what I do.

#36

When your favorite game like pokemon become very low because the battles are back and back

#37

When a story starts off as a mystery but suddenly gets a big portion of romance right in the middle of the investigation. Whole pages spent wondering if the feelings are mutual. Ugh... I want to know who the killer is and how they did it, not if the main character gets a mate.

#38

People being late. Don’t waste my time, if you’re going to be late tell me, but don’t ever have me wait at a restaurant and you be 30 minutes late and not tell me!