Things I HATE in YA Books | Bookish Pet Peeves 

I don't think people realize that when we say "we want strong female characters" we actually mean "we want complex female characters that can carry a story" not "WE WANNA WOMAN WHO SHOOTS HER GUNS BOOM BOOM BOOM."

"she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding" CRINGE

Sometimes I wish I could jump into a book to slap a character in the face.

I could not concentrate on what you were saying I was lost in those blue eyes blue as sapphire

One of my biggest pet peeve is that every main character, without fail, is super attractive and good looking. I mean what are the chances? And then the author always has to point this out like "She had to admit, that he was extremely good looking" when the characters are talking about something really important. And I always sit there like "Giiirl, focus! You have to save the world, this is important, can you just get your shit together?" I never understand how people can be so hormone-driven that they think about how attractive someone is when they're in severe danger...

I hate how in YA books the author always tries to make the female main character "unique" by putting down other girls... I don't understand why the girl always has to be "not like other girls"... I have yet to find a book where the female main character likes make up and fashion and is still a badass fighter. Liking feminine things doesn't make you weak!

I'm sick of hearing about blue eyes. They're always described so beautifully. If they're brown they're described as...coffee beans or raisins or something not so remarkable! what about brown or green eyes!!?

I'm gonna use all of these to write a parody

You mentioned things I hadn't even realized bother me until you said it & I thought, "yeah, what's up with that?"

I don't have an issue with eyes compared to gemstones, so long as the author does not go overboard *cough, Stephenie Meyer*. If we were to blandly describe eyes as blue or brown, meh, what's the point of literature?!

i think it'd be great if we could ditch describing eyes with these overboard, dramatic colors and getting lost in them, and instead describe things like eye lashes, bags, the lid, anything else than the color. eyes are cool but they're more than colors

The only acceptable reason to use crimson is when you're describing blood or bruises.

I hate when I character is super evil and rude and bad and then, in the last book, they redeem themselves but get killed like a week later. WTFFFFFFF

This isn't specific to YA books but one thing I absolutely cannot stand is when the author describes characters features in EVERY SINGLE BOOK..... -___- Seriously if I'm reading the 5th book in a series I know what the characters look like already! I swear its like the author is describing characters as if a new reader in starting the series at a random book.

Miscommunication is the absolute worst in stories, I just get extremely annoyed and stop reading because I can't handle the frustration

Do people really use raven so much? I don't mind when it describes hair color, but anything other than that sounds silly

I agreed with almost every single one I think. Here are some of mine: Mirror Introduction: When they immediately start out the book with cringe worthy forced character introductions, like, they literally just copied down the character description they wrote earlier and popped it under the mirror scene, example: "16 year old Kayla Jae Roberts looked into her mirror, she had dirty blonde hair, and crystal blue eyes." And tied to that a little, when the characters are super vain and are gorgeous but think they're ugly, and like, I get it, the authors are expressing their own insecurities and fantasies of actually being stunning, but it's annoyingggg, and if it's from their point of view, they would view themselves as unattractive (imagine if that was done and then you saw them in someone else POV as beautiful, ahhh, I'd love that) -- they wouldn't just SAY they're ugly while a description of them as beautiful is being shown, example: "Kayla sighed as she looked into the mirror, her dirty blond curls, well-lashed blue eyes, she wished she was pretty." Getting dressed brand scenes: When kids are "rich" and have the coolest clothes so the author is brand dropping every few seconds in the first scene where they're getting dressed: "I got out of bed and looked around for something to wear, I pulled on my Lee skinny jeans and hot topic band t-shirt, then got one of my Converse shoes to put on." Like, first of all, "just got up, getting dressed scenes"? Over-rated, secondly, nobody cares about your characters clothes that much, we read stories because we want stories, not examples of stylish clothes and trendy brands. If you want to point out the characters clothes to explain part of the story, maybe to show she's a soldier, or that she was wearing something special for a date, or he was in a fight, that's fine, but a reason is important. Those are just a few, I suppose I have too many too haha

Dont forget Love Triangles

When she BLUSHES AT EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME NO MATTER HOW SERIOUS THE SITUATION IS. They could be in a battle, people dead and dying everywhere, and the main guy will spout some trash like *"you're the only one who can"* or *"you're the only one I trust,"* usually in a whisper, and they'll pull into the whole *"time slowed down and the world vanished, and Sophie felt her cheeks burn under the heat of his gaze."* LIKE THERE IS A SCREAMING DYING HUMAN BEHIND YOU AND A CORPSE UNDER YOUR FEET HOW DO YOU HAVE TIME TO BLUSH RRRRRGH

YES TO ALL. I really hate it when YA-heroes is riding horses. And the author obviously doesn't know how a horse works. Like no, you can't run through the forest for 20 hours at the time without either a) killing your horse, or b) getting some serious muscle cramps. It's not that hard to do some research.

"crimson" translated to my language sounds quite old-fashioned too, but I don't mind when it's used in books, since it just suits the description of shoes or cloaks (especially in high fantasy), I get how annoying it can get when archaisms are used too much though 😂 my little pet peeve is when a description of something appears just too regularly, for example, in one moment of my favourite series, there was a sentence like "his aura smelled of rotten eggs" every few pages…

Omg that sound effect annoys me SO MUCh. Also when people scream in books and its like "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" like honestly

I hate it when a character is described as short and then they say that they are five foot seven inches tall. That is not short for a girl that is tall. I'm only five foot two.

Oh gosh yes that annoys me as well, when the author describes the person late in the book. What are they thinking that I imagine a blur as long as they're not describing his appearence? Like you said it's done I imagined it for myself. But sometimes I even don't care about description at all :D I feel like a lot of authors give their male lead long hair and I don't like that at all so I always imagine them to have short hair :D loved your rant (and Justins What do you mean :D) - agree on everything! ;)

OH MY GOD YES! I thought I was the only one who noticed every strong female character is short and skinny! As a 5'8" heavy woman, it would be nice to see a hero of a story be strong, beautiful, and powerful that also matched my description in some way!

i always assumed the difference between a doctor/medic and a healer was that a healer uses magic while a doctor uses technique.

I actually quite like sounds effects in books! To me it help you get more into a scene, but hey to each their own! Excellent video non the less!

Your eyes are such a beautiful Benitoite ... um, I mean blue ;)

Miscommunication between characters is my biggest pet peeve. Especially when it's used to create drama. It's just lazy writing, in my opinion.

I get the memory loss point but one of my favourite series is the Program series, and it's based around a suicide epidemic where teenagers memories are wiped. It's super good I would strongly recommend it.

do you have a video on romance pet peeves? would love to hear about those too! :)

My pet peeve is when the main character is an asshole but everybody loves her/him anyway. They just adore the mc despite the fact that the mc is rude and not a good friend, etc. or basically what you said, when we are told but not shown. Like other characters will be talking about the mc like "she's so intelligent and selfless" but she has just been making poor decisions the entire book. Like just idiotic decisions. If she was so intelligent how did she get herself into this situation??

What do you think about the Percy/Jason memory loss? (I'm assuming that you've read it because it's one of the most popular YA books out there) There's a reason for it, and they don't completely forget everything, and they regain their memories in the end.

I totally agree with you on the pretty rude popular girl thing, the whole popular mean girl stereotype in itself gets so so so old and it always makes me so sad, and that is what I loved about the DUFF. if you've read the DUFF you know the main character isn't necessarily extremely attractive or anything, but she hangs out with the "popular girls" and is very good friends with them?? and doesn't judge them?? and its just so great the DUFF did a great job of breaking that stereotype

I usually use the word Maroon to describe a dark red color, mainly pertaining to clothes.

To add to 1 of your points I hate the "memory loss" trope because some authors erase the characters personality along with the memories

OMG lol; good to know other people feel this way. Even the villains are obsessed with the MC though, they hate her but they can't stop thinking about her; if they ignored her their problems will go away. That and the Mean girls is hated for being pretty or wearing a dress that might attract the main stud, then heroine wears the same dress and she's modest and lovely.

I definitely relate to a lot of your opinions about YA "issues" ^^. I particularly really can't stand new characters being introduced and killed in the final volume of a trilogy as the only ones. It seriously gets on my nerves. It just feel like an easy (and artificial) way to compensate for the lack of damage done to the protagonist and his/her squad of whomever, but it's just really hard to buy. I feel like you just don't get the time to properly bond with all of these random new people, so when the big showdown finally happens, I'm personally not on edge/immersed at all, simply because I'm not scared for the main squad and I don't care about the rest of them. Then it doesn't really matter if a thousand demon horses ascent from a hole in the ground and start spitting hydrochloric acid on everyone and their mother - if no one but the random side characters die, I'll still feel like it was a really uneventful reading experience.

Your eyes are so beautifully blue! This is the first video I see from you, and I didn't know you were Dutch. You speak English so good it sounds natural.

I'm okay with them being called healers, but only if they are legitimately supernatural in some way to heal, like they have magic healing powers, but if they heal in some mundane way, then it just seems like a bad description.

Wait, are those Fairy Tail books behind you?

I really want to read a book with a romantic subplot where the main is like "ughhhh I'm really not sure if he likes me does he like meee" and all her friends and het mother are like "go get Mr. Sixpack!" And in the end she's like "i love you" and he's just like uhhhhhhhhhhh and then when they talk about it like "It's not that you aren't nice and all, I'm just not interested"

As a tall girl, about 5'8, I noticed this thing about short female protagonists ages ago, like, why do they have to be short and slim??? We non-petite girls just can't save the world or what??? And I only accept rich girls complaining about their wealth if they actually face some serious problems brought by it. Things like parents forcing them to give up their dream and work in their family company, or arranging her marriage to an ally, or having mean siblings or other family members who wanna rip her into pieces in an inheritance fight, etc. Otherwise any complaint about being too rich just makes me roll my eyes into the sky.

In the defense of crimson and raven I will say those are shades or red and black; yes black has shades so from a distinction point of view it makes sense. However the over use of raven and crimson are annoying especially when there are more distinct and descriptive shades of either color like pitch and sanguine. From an artistic point of view it also makes sense since we tend to use descriptive tone and shades instead of the base hue

I hate when there's a villian who acts as more of placeholder than an actual villian. They don't really have a reason to be evil or to hate the protagonist. They just want "to rule the world" or something like "Destroy Earth and then people will regret looking down upon him/her." To me it makes the story unfinished like we should get another book as a prequel which would show you their back story and explain things . However, the book never comes and you're left confused as to why the villain acted like that.

Mostly, you seem to be annoyed by the same things as me, but additionally these are recuring "Pet Peeves" of mine: - The Characters often consist soly of eyes, hair, hands and maybe muscles if they have them... - Then there is the eycolor. Beside the fact that it is almost always blue I cannot understand why it is of any importance. Eyes are small. They are the last thing you notice about a porson. It's not realistic for them to be ones most stunning feature. If characters see another and the first thing they notice is the eye colore.... well Dobby the House Elf comes to mind. - What also drives me up the walls is the shortage to total absence of competent female protagonists. Is there some rule that dictates that only males protaginists may archive things through their own merit?

i totally understand the pet peeve about the mean girls. i grew up reading books where the mean girl was always blonde and blue-eyed with big boobs, which now make me distrust girls that look like that... even though i am that exact description. meanwhile, girls with brown curly hair and brown eyes are automatically more trustworthy to me. i hate the stereotypes that books and movies, especially american ones, perpetuate. it's made me think my natural appearance is bitchy.

I've got one! What about everyone being white?

Also Sarah J. Maas frequently says that her characters "sighed through his/her nose." There's so much sighing in her novels, I'm surprised there aren't low-key wind storms.

First of all, I really enjoyed your video, these things bug me too. As for the last one, I think that in some cases the word "healer" could be used instead of "doctor" or "medic", because the two last are crated by our specific society, they have more complex roots, than word "healer", which just comes from word "to heal". Of course, in many cases authors just want to sound fancy, but sometimes it is worth to take a look at roots of words and the way they are built. For example, in one work I read the medics were called "clerics", simply because they had a very close connection to church and religion of that specific culture. That is how I see it.

YOURE HONESTLY SO FUNNY. I understand wha you mean by when translating it. When they translate english books to french they have some of the weirdest translations

Ohhhhh I get you so much with the eye/gem stone pet peeve, wtf are "drops of sapphire' NO NO NO WHO EVER LOOKS AT SOMEONE'S RAL EYES AND COMPARES THEM TO GEM STONES. But I especially can't stand it for reason when someone uses 'orbs' to describe eyes, THAT may just be me but I just can't.

Oh my goodness, you made me laugh. Loved this video. Raven. Crimson. ...and the only memory loss happens to my own, and that's because I'm getting old (smirk).

Oh geez, the purple prose. HATE that. I HATE writers using long or elaborate words to make readers feel smart and give the impression of imagery/descriptiveness, while the plot and characters are actually very simple and predictable.

"It's really not fun to be annoyed by everything." Guuurl do I feel you! Miscommunication is the WORST and so annoying. Especially in romance, how can you believe it's an epic love when the two assholes can't even talk to each other?? Amazing video!! I have many of this pet peeves myself (like the girl who just wants to be normal, why? Just why??) Thanks for the laughs! :)

just curious the big manga looking book on your shelf... IS THAT A YURI AND if so wich one

Just discovered your channel and you're hilarious xD Totally agree on all of these! Never even really noticed the crimson/raven thing, but it's actually true!

OMG SO RELATABLE!! Im so looking forward to the romance pet peeves video

As a tall/not exactly skinny girl, I agree a lot with you on the whole short main character. Also, have you noticed how those characters are always like "omg im short and skinny, i hate it so much" . It just bothers me so much -_-

omg the thing with raven and crimson and gem stones.... its like sometimes authors try too hard to make their writing sound more sophisticated and complicated??? theres nothing wrong with simple writing style, u dont have to pull out thesaurus every two lines to find an old fashioned fancy sounding synonym of a word you were about to use aaaaggrhhh most of the time it seems to be a cover up for the lack of actual plot of world building too? ive read so many books where when the story gets dull and bland, suddenly youre hit with complicated words and sentences that go on for half pages.

Great video! And all good points. I can't think of any particular pet peeves in books that annoy me at the moment (or at least none that you haven't mentioned). I'm looking forward to the romance pet peeves :)

Here's what I hate: "I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding"

okay, kind of serious compliment, but honestly, AMAZING thought-out rant video! This has changed some of my basic thinking for my own writing and now my reading process. Thanks for this! Also, love your voice/accent. great video!!

Thumbed up for the communication point :) Nothing is more annoying than when the main conflict would be resolved with one clear conversation!

Raven actually means black that shines blue or green in the light, like a raven's wing.

oml 2016 leonie is a different person. voice wise. idk why this showed up in recommendation all these yrs too late.

im the same way with the sound effects! its just awkward, like how do you read it without cringing?

That last kept peeve cracked me up! I never thought about it before, but as soon as you mentioned it I was like, "That's so true!" 😂

leo: “the second thing that annoys me is when eyes are described as gemstones” dorian havilliard from tog: 🔵👄🔵

"uhhh girl stop whining" had me rolling XD lol

How do you feel about books where the entire premise is memory loss like in thrillers and stuff?

When I was reading the selection, I imagined maxon as a brunet and the author never even said that he was blond until like the last book. Yea he's still a brunet in my head.

This is such a great video! I think I need to do a pet peeves video myself in the future! :D And I could not agree more, all these things annoy me so much too, and especially miscommunication. What also annoys me is when main character keeps secrets because she/he thinks everybody will hate them because of these secrets but really they are nothing and in the end they cause most problems, hrr hate it so much! :D

This is the first of your videos I´ve seen, and I got so excited when you said you are Dutch I´ve been thinking of starting a booktube channel myself in January, and I´m so excited to find a booktuber whose first language isn´t English. And oh man do I feel you on the "Mean Girl" pet peeve ...

oh my god i just found your channel and this is the best video ever ^^

Your bookshelf looks so satisfying I could cry. I don't know what it is. Just the top shelf looks perfect already.

You're so funny. LOL. I really enjoy this vid, it's like watching a broadway monologue. Really entertaining. Thank You.

7:15-7:19 Are you talking about The Princess Diaries? :D

Totally agree with you about the sound effects!! Whenever I see "boom" in a book, I always roll my eyes lol. However, I am a native English speaker and I once in a while use "crimson" in my books that I write, lol! Good video! You got a new sub! :)

These are all so right! XD I agree with pretty much all of these, nice to hear it articulated. About the short thing, I guess as a short guy I always just really appreciated when male characters weren't huge and strong. I don't remember coming across this trope too much myself.

omg memory loss is the least original trope, it reminds me of mexican telenovelas haha! It's only good if it's done wonderfully otherwise it's cringy and horrible. Loooooved this video, same same same with everything! Brilliant video :)

If its first person I dont mind sound effects because Its like the maincharacter is sitting next to you telling you the story. I just picture them getting all excited "and then booooommmmmmm!!!" and the image in my head is just so adorable.

First video of yours I have ever seen and I already subscribed! :))

omg i imagine what you'll do if you were forced to read ''the selection'' this books seriously includes most of the things you hate XD

I so agree with you when it come down to memory loss. Absolutly hate it. It's such a easy way out.

Great tips for writers. Thank you for your honesty.

Saw winter in the background and clicked. Was not disappointed !!!!

Memory loss plot points! AAAAAAAAAAAHH! 😤

I absolutely love this and your reactions haha

I write stories and watching this video, I realized how many of my main female characters actually fall into the category of being either short, skinny or both. Thank you for making me aware, even though that was not what you intended at all - it's such an easy hole to fall into!

I actually really loved this video- very valid points 😂 subscribed! Sassy but logical 😂😂

just found your videos and I love them!!!

hahaha karmozijn. Jup. And it's not just with colors, but many translated books just sound really weird in Dutch. I was really happy when I could start reading the books in English. A lot of pet peeves you talked about annoy me as well hehe. Nice video! :)

I loved this video the first time and i still love it now

I hope I can avoid these in my newest project!

my Pet Peeves are 1) I'm so perfect but yet i'm so ugly 2) girl hate 3) i have only one friend of the same sex 4) love triangles done wrong 5) i get my powers on my 16 birthday and i have full control over them 6) your eyes shine like a lake on a crystal blue sky day 7) i so physically strong but i'm brain dead 8) i love to look at people only for their looks, but i'm not a mean person. I just don't care for the personality. 9) i'm always white, short, and skinny 10) i can never have both brown hair and eyes and more....

I don't have many pet peeves but I agree with a big bunch of the ones you said in this video, specially the short and tiny main character!! EVERY BOOK! It gets on my nerves but whyyy?? :( I am very tall so I get frustrated about that haha! However I love the eye thing, I love looking at eyes and be able to see all the colors and the different tones so I love it when it happens!!

I think the reason why those characters that heal aren't called doctors because the name means a person who earned a doctorate which would be quite out of place in a Fantasy world (unless they have universities and colleges, etc.)

The whole calling someone a healer instead of a doctor thing makes sense to me. I just think of it like this, in a fantasy world you're not exactly going to school for a degree so a person who heals you is a healer. Oh, and next time I go to a store looking for a black dress I'm totally going to be like, "You in the crimson sweater! Yes you with the sapphire eyes! I require a raven dress immediately!"

What are your opinions on vampires?