Top Ten Tuesday: Book Turn-Offs

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Imagine you start reading a book after reading a killer synopsis or looking at an amazing cover. Everything might be just dandy in the beginning and then out of nowhere, you're hit by a metaphorical bus. What does that bus hold? A certain bookish turn-off a trope. We all have them so in no particular order, here's mine. 

Insta-love

This will probably be the most famous one among the lists today so I'll get it out of the way. Insta-attraction, I get. But why do authors put insta-love in potentially amazing books? I'm digging the story then WHACK, I'm hit with the unrealistic, stupid notion of love at first sight. Puh-lease. 

Apostrophes as quotes

For example, here is part of the beginning of Anthem for Jackson Dawes by Celia Bryce:

'Well,' Mum said, 'this isn't bad, is it?'

Megan twisted her face. 'It's not good.'

Ironic excerpt, no? Anyways, I know that they did this in the olden literature days, but whether it's school reading or fun reading, I can't stand it when they do this type of dialogue. Maybe it's a visual and psychological thing, but I have a habit of stopping the book once this shows up. 

Typos

This is a major duh, but must be said. Authors, make sure your book doesn't have typos. Editors, do your job. Please. One or two, I understand, especially if it's a long book. But when I catch a typo on nearly every page? Too bad. Your book might have been great, but I will never know except for the first however many pages. 

Verse

An excerpt from Crank by Ellen Hopkins: 

Alone, 

there is no perfect daughter, 

no gifted high-school junior,

no Kristina Georgia Snow.

There is only Bree.

The spacing is a little closer together than that, but you get the gist of how the formatting works, at least for this particular book in verse. I hated poetry in high school with a passion. I can appreciate some think Dr. Seuss in small quantities, but I've never been able to do or imitate it. And the whole layout messes me up. The synopsis always sounds really good, but I'm extremely disappointed when I open it up and I'm met with that. 

Cannot compute books in verse.

A boring narrative

This might seem obvious to every human in the world. If a book has a boring narrative, then you will get bored, and if you're bored, you will probably stop reading it. You'd be amazed though at how many books I have picked up and put down because the narrative was so boring I couldn't concentrate and was actually contemplating about reading olden literature with apostrophes as quotes boring. They either try to hard to be dramatic or who knows what the author was aiming for. It just needed to stop. 

Clingy guys
I'm all for the sweet, protective boyfriend. They're cute. BUT I do not like the possessive, clingy ones who are the poster children for a Dear Abby segment in which the girl is writing and all the readers are like, "GET OUT! He's a future emotional abuser waiting to happen!" Those kinds are annoying. And they also make the girl annoying to me since the girl doesn't see it. Slappage for all ya'll.

Needy girls
With the above said, now I glare at the girls. Sometimes they do so well on their own until they meet the guy and then it's as if all the air goes out of them. They can't do one simple thing without them afterwards! Or the neediness is ingrained in them from the start. Get some girl power!

A catchphrase or repeating words that act like nails on a chalkboard
You know what I'm talking about I hope. There's that one character who says something so weird that no one will ever say in real life and they keep repeating it. If any of you have seen that new Disney Channel show, Liv and Maddie, you know what I'm talking about since Maddie constantly says, "BAM! WUT!" I can't remember the exact title, but I had to stop a book once because the constant best friend was talking like a valley girl with these really annoying phrases.
Bonus: This also includes acronyms. Do not have your characters actually say, "LOL or WTF" please. That's just stupid.

Cheaters
Oh, you love each other? How sweet. Oh, one of you are in a marriage or relationship? GET OUT OF MY BOOK. Don't act like what you're doing is impossible to stop or acceptable just because you have "love." Either get out of your present relationship first or actually make that one work instead of philandering around.
Bonus: I also hate when authors put in that mean girl who is usually the girlfriend of the love interest. She's probably just misunderstood. If not, then boy, why are you dating her anyways?

Whiners
Sigh. I get that you need to just vent sometimes and that people do whine in real life. However, we do not whine a 24/7 basis and then not do anything. If you have a problem, do something about it. Don't act as if you have no control over your whole life when I know for a fact that your problem is doable to fix. You're just pathetic.

What are some of your turn-offs or deal breakers?