Top Ten Tuesday - Ten Things that Will Instantly Make Me NOT Want to Read a Book

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic from The Broke and the Bookish is 10 Things that Will Instantly Make Me NOT Want to Read a Book.  This was a little harder than last week's list of things that will make me WANT to read a book.  I think I could have come up with a top 20 without trouble for that one!  I will say that for almost all of these there is an exception - a book I read usually because a blogger friend made it sound to good to pass up and more often than not I end up loving it.  But without that these are some things that will make me put the book back on the shelf without putting it on my TBR.

1.  Death of a Child - Especially if the story is told from the parents' or child's POV.  I just can't handle it.  I can deal with a death way in the past but if it's present day I'm out.

2.  Controversial topics - There are 2 reasons I avoid this.  The first is that I tend to be an escapist reader and we're bombarded with current events and issues enough in the real world that I don't enjoy that in my fiction.  The second reason is that so often with an author is writing about a controversial topic they are frequently pushing their take on the issue.  Even when I agree with the author's POV I dislike that feeling of a pushed agenda.

3.  Cheating - I can handle a cheating spouse or significant other in a thriller but if I'm supposed to like or root for a character in a fiction, romance, or lighter mystery I just can't.

4.  Angst -  I'm not a huge fan of unnecessary drama so when there's 3 misunderstandings and tremendous amounts of sobbing in the blurb I tend to think the book isn't for me.

5.  Multi-book love triangles - I'm not a big fan of love triangles at the best of times - I typically end up feeling bad for the one not chosen unless the one not chosen is awful and then I have to wonder what the person was thinking in the first place. I can tolerate it in one book but when a major love triangle has drug on and on with no signs of ending that can be enough to make me stop reading the series.

6.  Books with animals if the animals are at risk in any way - If there's a dog in a romance I'm pretty good but the second the main character gets a pet in a thriller I'm on edge.  I've had to flip to the end of more than a few books to make sure that the dog or cat was still there before I could relax enough to read the actual story.

7.  Dystopian - This is probably the one where there have been the most exceptions.  I've read a number of Dystopian type books that I ended up really enjoying but unless it's heavily recommended I tend to steer clear.

8.  The characters are in high school - I didn't particularly enjoy high school or being that age and I'm not really drawn to most YA novels quite possibly for that reason.  I can handle some quests or teenagers saving the world but other than that I haven't had much luck.

9.  It's by an author who has burned me a few too many times in the past - There are a few popular authors who I've read a few books from and have finally decided their books just don't work for me.  Either the end feels emotionally manipulative, the characters don't click with me, or something about their writing style just is hard to get into but I've finally decided it's time to avoid them.

10. Catastrophe Fiction - Earthquakes,tornadoes, hurricanes, or other disasters natural or otherwise aren't my favorite things. I've read a few I've really really enjoyed but for the most part I avoid them

What things make you want to avoid a book?