Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Characters Who Piss Me Off


Top Ten Tuesday if a fabulous link up hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Today's topic is Top Ten Characters who piss us off, would be our BFFs, stole our heart or whatever.  I figured this would be a good time to list out all of my fiction pet peeves.  I'm going to stick with character type instead of a specific name.

1. The Idiot Cop - a common occurrence in a cozy mystery.  At least one law enforcement person involved in the investigation - generally the primary one - is woefully incompetent.  Sometimes this is because of a bias they have against the main character sometimes it's because they're just not real smart.  The only time I've come across this working is in Rhys' Bowen's Family Blood (Review).  This worked because not only was the policeman a small character but the location, time period and regional politics made both his incompetence and vindictiveness make sense.

 2. The Expert - one of the easier ones to get past but when it's badly done can be super annoying.  The main character is an expert in EVERYTHING.  Medieval literature? Know it.  Celtic ghost stories? Check.  Bio-metric based security systems?  Got it.  This is well done in Beverly Connor's Diane Fallon series but can be maddening in others.  Nancy Drew is also a culprit in this one.  I remember rereading one where Nancy just happened to know the correct name and phone number to identify the tracking number on a pigeon.

 3. The Secret Keeper - this one shows up in romance novels and it drives me crazy.  9 times out of 10 the actual secret isn't that big of a deal and would've resulted in a little spat at most if the air had been cleared early on.  A good example of this is Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas (Review) where the lead guy was completely upfront.  I loved him for it.  Another of example of this being done right but done a little differently is When the Rogue Returns by Sabrina Jeffries (Review) where secrets were kept but the reasons were doing so were so serious that it made sense.

 4. The Over Reactor - this seems to happen across the board in all fiction categories.  Your boyfriend didn't tell you he was going to be 30 minutes late?  The audacity! Your mother/sister/best friend/co worker had to cancel dinner plans for some kind of emergency?  They secretly hate you.  It's exhausting.

 5. The To Stupid To Live - I'm not sure if this character needs further explanation but they make a regular appearance in just about all fiction.   I once read a book where a woman took her small son to a confrontation with someone she knew to be a murderer without letting anyone know.  I believe this all happened while standing on a catwalk over a vat of something toxic.  I wish I was kidding.

  6. The Immature one - this ties in to the above 3 but it annoys me enough where it gets it's own mention.  Normally their actions combine all 3 into one charming temper tantrum pitching sulking supposed grownup.

7.  The Surprise Baby - as soon as unprotected sex is mentioned in a romance you know what's going to happen by the end of the book.  It has to be a really really good book or it's getting put down quick.  This isn't really a character but it's a plot twist I dislike so much it's going on the list.

 8.. The Busy Body - Unless the main character is law enforcement, a private investigator or directly involved with whatever incident happened I'm not answering their questions.  Especially if they're rude and in bad cozy mysteries they frequently are.

9.  The Mean Friend - this is a character who doesn't necessarily ruin the book.  This is generally a side character and if I'm very very lucky is limited to only a few scenes.  Anytime the main character calls this friend she's just plain mean.  Mean in a  you have a massive drug addiction so I'm going to give you tough love to scare you straight kind of way except it's directed at some minor flaw on the main character's part.  Yes she may be too nice/letting the boyfriend stick around too long/rude to her mother but really?  Must we be so hateful?


And because I can't think of a #10 here's one character I love -

10. Sir Harry Valentine from Julia Quinn's What Happened in London.  Mostly because he realized Olivia was spying on him and starting wearing strange hats just to mess with her. 
 


19 comments:

  1. Great topic! The worst for me is The Cheater (which is also sorta A Secret Keeper) - UGH. Instant low stars for me.

    TTT @ Krista's Dust Jacket - Characters That Made Me Nuts, Then Made It All Better Again

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    1. Oh I can't stand the cheater! That's generally an instant put down the book for me!

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  2. Love this topic choice! Surprise Baby is awful. I'm a mom and I love my kids but I hate reading about babies and pregnancy in books.

    I also have to agree with the previous commenter who said the worst for her is The Cheater. That I have no tolerance for.

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    1. I'm with you on the no tolerance for the cheater! I think that's why it didn't make my list - I normally don't finish a book that involves one!

      Also I don't find anything romantic about kids and pregnancy. I love my kids and all but still! It can be done right but it takes a very very skillful hand.

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  3. Oh man. I agree with so many of these. Especially the mean friend and the over reactor. Ugh they are both so annoying.

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    1. I can deal with them if they're minor but too much page time drives me crazy! Glad to know I'm not the only one!

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  4. Oooooh, I like how you did this. Instead of listing specific characters, you gave their archetypes. SO GOOD.

    The Experts really dig deep. Not even true geniuses can know everything. People have flaws -- and when there's an Expert in the group, they're unbelievable. The Over Reactor cracks me up, because there are so many openings to books where the protagonist IS that character. It's meant to entice you and instead turns you off.

    Great topic choice! Clever, too.

    My TTT

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    1. Thanks! I've found that most of the time when a character gets on my nerves it's kind of a stock character type.
      I agree about the expert. You may know a lot about something but no one knows everything about everything. It's hard to read without some eye rolling!

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  5. I like your take on this week's topic. :-)

    Completely agree with you when it comes to Secret Keepers and Over Reactors. Especially Over Reactors. So annoying!

    The To Stupid to Live category comes up in a lot of mysteries. I love a good mystery and some of my favorite series feature characters that do the most stupid things. You are going in alone, up against the bad guy who is armed, with no weapon of your own, without a plan, without telling anyone where you are going? Really? And worse, the ones who should have learned their lesson the last time (or twenty), but continue to take such big risks.

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    1. Yes exactly! I think we read a lot of the same types of mysteries. Why won't they ever learn?? This is especially annoying if it's just a regular person. I don't normally confront suspected murders in between errands but if I did I'd probably tell someone. Worse case I wouldn't do this multiple times!

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  6. Loving your take on this week's topic. I agree with many of your kinds of people that piss you off!

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    1. Thanks! Glad to know I'm not the only one these characters drive crazy!

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  7. I don't mind babies or pregnancy in a romance if I know up front. I don't mind sex with no mention of birth control. It's when they do have the omg unprotected sex! Moment ..

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    1. Exactly! As soon as the OMG moment happens you know where the book's heading. I've read some where the baby is okay but it's a plot I'll only read if it's an author I trust.

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  8. This list is perfect..I would add the meddler to this list!

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    1. Oh the meddler is a good one! Definitely annoying!

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  9. hahaha! I love that you mention the surprise baby. It doesn't usually bother me, but it's predictable. bleh.

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    1. The surprise baby drives me nuts! I think I've read too many books that were borderline on the likable scale as it was and the surprise baby pushed it over the edge for me.

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  10. To Stupid To Live characters are the worst! Nothing ruins a good book faster for me than an appearance of a TSTL character.

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