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Originally Posted by Anke Wehner
"Life sucks" books. Diving deep into the seedy underbelly of whatever. Starting a book by describing how much the protagonist suffered all their life, or the protagonist wallowing in misery.
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Interestingly enough, I enjoy reading about crapsack worlds where everything is terrible, as long as it maintains some wit, or a sense of humour, or has a different take on things. I don't like it when books with dark settings are take themselves way too seriously. The darkest stories I've enjoyed with asshole anti-heroes and seriously crapsack-why-aren't-you-all-dead-yet settings still had a refreshingly twisted sort of humour. There has to be bits of humour to everything, whether it be dry humour, wry, off-beat, slapstick, gallows, twisted, etc. Even just a few quips at the right moments will make a book much better. Humour is part how people put up with life, and I like seeing that reflected in fiction.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anke Wehner
Books which treat women as sex objects and maybe plot devices rather than characters. Books in which the viewpoint characters are misogynist dickheads. (Didn't get farther into a book by John Locke than the prologue because the AFAICT protagonist thought a) the only reason to meet a woman would be sex and b) she should be impressed at him pulling a knife from under the pillow and stabbing his cellphone, rather than freaked out.)
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Yeaah I'm not a fan of this either.
I like competent female characters and I don't like it when women are disposable or constantly treated as victims (e.g. rape and killed), it's not material I'm interested in reading about. There's nothing wrong with themes about violence against women, but it's more appealing to me when it's told from the point of view of the woman and shows her struggle and how she gets out of it.
But those stories where the woman is raped and killed in the first scene, then all the guy detectives have to solve her murder, or the only female character is raped and killed to get at the male hero... well... those are instant wallbangers for me. Not saying it should be wallbangers for everyone, but there are just some tropes (like stuffed in the freezer) which I find distasteful and you know, not really inspiring. I'm a woman. Why do I want to read about women getting raped and killed all the time? And spend my leisure time reading these? I pass.