Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Book Turnoffs

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created and hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

Today's Topic: My Top Ten Book Turnoffs 

1. Gruesomeness - I don't mind the stories in horror books and sometimes even find myself in the perfect mood for a well-written scary story, but I HATE graphic descriptions of gory details.  I personally don't find it at all necessary and will definitely put down a book if it becomes too much.

2. Lack of editing - I have to say that often this applies to self-published books, however I can think of several distinct examples of traditionally published books that NEEDED to be reedited before publication.  One in particular was about 100 pages longer than I thought it needed to be because the verbose author apparently needed to apply descriptors to every person, place, and thing in the book... (ie. - her shimmering, blond locks flowed lightly in the warm breeze, enticing him to reach out a strong hand to touch the soft curls...) 

3. War scenes - I used to say "war books" in general, but I've learned that's not true.  While I hate scenes that actually take place during battles, I don't mind books set in war time, as long as they have a focus outside of the battles.  For instance, I loved Walter Dean Myer's Sunrise Over Fallujah, which actually focuses on a troop of soldiers that follows the fighting to help rebuild in the war torn area... 

4. Eating Disorders - I actually have a really hard time reading books that deal with eating disorders. I know that it's a super important topic and I'm very glad the books are out there for the people who need to read them, but I just get so grossed out in so many ways reading about the issues other people have with food. 

5. Forced Love Triangles - *sigh* This didn't used to be such a problem, but nowadays, most books are being marketed with "Teams." I don't mind a well done love triangle where the heroine, and therefore myself, has a truly difficult time choosing between two guys that truly love her and want the best for her... but come on...when one guy is just being shoved into the equation to create "TENSION..."  No, thank you.  I'd rather have straight out love or none at all. 

6. ...Which brings me to... "Bad" (and sometimes Abusive!) Love Interests - As a fan of the Good Guy Next Door, I'm always sad that in more cases the good guy doesn't actually win the girl. I get extremely pissed at my female characters (*cough, Bella, cough, cough*) if they can't see the decent guy right in front of them because they've been wooed by the enticing "bad guy." I could get rant-y here, so instead, I'm just going to move on. 

7. Animal Cruelty - Defenseless animals being hurt to move the plot along. No. I can't do it.  

8. "Circus Freaks" - Let's just say that I was mentally scarred for life by GEEK LOVE in college and now if a book has circus freaks in it, I pretty much shy away.  It took years for me to be able to read any book set in a circus again... *shudders*

9.  Mean Girl Main Characters - Generally, I can't stand it when the main character is one of the "mean girls." That's not to say that I don't read books where it's not occasionally a facet of who they are, or that they hang out with the alpha chicks, but I tend to need to sympathize with my MCs to an extent and having never been one of the mean girls, that doesn't work for me.

10.  Being Too Heavy to Comfortably Carry - Thank goodness for my Nook, because now I can happily read those 800 page novels that used to make me crazy.  I read in bed a LOT and there's nothing worse than having a 800 pager slowly breaking your sternum as you try to rest it on your chest at night... LOL.

Well, that's all I could think of at the moment.  What are YOUR top ten book turnoffs?