Top Ten Tuesdays - Trends

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly meme from The Broke and the Bookish. Today's TTT is on trends: ones we like and ones we don't.

This was a little tough, but I wanted to see if I could name five trends I'd like to see more of, five trends I'd like to see less of.


Yay: Racial Diversity, especially in couples/families - The only character I can think of who is half-anything, yet with race not being a major factor, is Jake from DragonHaven. Seriously, I love mixed-race characters. I just do. There need to be more. And I have a Hispanic friends who really wants to date a black guy - sounds awesome, right? Diversity is cool. **After School Special Over**

Yay: Sub-genre fantasy - vampire detectives, comedic ghosts, etc. It annoys me when fantasy/supernatural characters are shoved into the dramatic/romantic/horror roles: the base characteristic of being such-and-such a creature doesn't have to restrain the roles a character can play. Mostly, I see this subverted in kidlit, sometimes YA. But there's always room for more in this fantasy-lover's book.

Yay: Fairytale Adaptions - They have to be good, of course, but in my mind there can never ever ever be too many. Not so sure how I feel about things like the Jane Eyre modernizations, but then I haven't really explored that yet. Also, I'd love to see people adapting Biblical or other religious stories.

Yay: Local diversity - especially for hauntings. I want to see someone whose apartment is haunted, instead of the big old house way out in nowhere. I feel like a lot of genres make use of out-of-the-way locals too much. I don't get to the city much, I want to read about cities!

Yay: Boys being kidnapped - Like, not trying to hate on boys or anything, but it is always the girl that gets kidnapped. I really like the complexity of the kidnapping trope, whether it's a the whole plot or a sub-plot. But I can't think of one example where it's a boy being kidnapped, or a woman doing the kidnapping. I can think of real examples, but not in fiction. Isn't anyone curious about how that dynamic plays out? Or, say, Stockholm syndrome between homosexuals? I mean, so many options. Explore, people. (Although, from what I myself have written, I have very little room to talk.)

Nay: The one-thing-that-changed-everything - because it is not events that change people so much as their reaction to those events. I feel like this isn't explained enough. Bella did not become a zombie because Edward left: she became a zombie because, once Edward was gone, she focused on his absence instead of the other things life had to offer her. This was not dealt with in a satisfactory way, for me. (I will make an effort not to use more Twilight in my bad examples.)

Nay: Stock Christians - So, you need to a stock unpopular for someone to bully. He could be the science geek, the band geek, the theatre kid, the alternative, the quiet one, the socially awkward. Or he could be the Christian. There is nothing wrong with having Christian side characters be bullied, but, to say they're a Christian at all, you're going to talk about religion. If that's not going to tie in somehow, then it's probably just going to get people mad and not add anything. Like that quote about not mentioning the gun on the wall if it's not going to go off. (I'm looking at you, Watching Alice.) And, is it just me, or are these characters always boys?

Nay: Non Co-dependent Relationships - as in, guy always protecting girl, never really needing help even when she's trying. Or girl is staking her whole identity on boy, and he's, well, not. Or one party is always bending to the other party's will, and when it goes the underdog's way, it's because the alpha is placating. Now, these are great examples of bad relationships, but I don't find this kind of thing appealing or romantic. A good relationship is two people meshing, each offering something, bending to each other.

Nay: Chatrooms/texting - Not a fan of textual communication, really, unless it's short and really important/interesting. That thing in Beastly? That was okay. Could've lived without it.

Nay: Bad good friends - it's one thing to have bad friends and know it. It's another to have bad friends and pretend everything's okay. It seems like, especially in romance, the main character's friends sometimes aren't very friendly. Or their relationship is so underdeveloped it's hard to tell what's going on. I mean, not everything has to be Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but really.


What trends do you love, and what are you sick of? Link to your posts, and remember to visit the original post at The Broke and the Bookish.