“In my life, I’d had my share of fights, sometimes with fists, sometimes with knives, occasionally with a sword.”
First line in The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt just spoke to me, so I knew I had to figure out a way to do it. The prompt in question is “books with your favorite trope/theme”, but because I had my issues fitting ten books to one trope or theme, I’ve picked five of my favorite tropes and two examples for each one. That still gives ten books.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, so head over there to check out upcoming topics. But let’s talk tropes!
Trope: Unlikeable main character
Description: I don’t mean the characters who have a few flaws that can easily be framed as positive traits, but the characters that you aren’t supposed to love. You are supposed to see their faults and understand them and thereby understand people different from yourself.
Example 1: The Betrayals by Bridget Collins
The Betrayals takes place at the exclusive academy Montverre where the students are educated in the mysterious grand jeu. I’ll go so far as to say that there isn’t a single likable character in this book but Léo Martin is an especially interesting example of this trope. I can’t say exactly why because this book is all too easy to spoil, but he was a big reason this book ended up as my favorite of 2021.
Example 2: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The well-known story about Dorian Gray, a man obsessed with his own beauty, is a great example of this trope. As much as it’s a story about vanity and narcissism, it’s also about how beauty on the outside doesn’t always match the beauty on the inside. Dorian is not a kind man but actually, rather mean and selfish, and you’re really not meant to love him, only be fascinated by what he’s willing to do to keep his youthful look.
Trope: Everything is weird (seriously, I don’t know what to call this)
Description: Those books where you have absolutely no idea what’s going on. You just read and hope it starts to make sense, and the challenge is for you to figure out how it makes sense.
Example 1: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The most obvious example of this trope is Piranesi where a guy named Piranesi is in a house with a lot of rooms, and that’s about the extent to which anyone can talk about this book without spoiling it. It’s weird, you don’t even know the genre and yet you feel you can figure it out if you just pay attention. And that’s how to get me hooked.
Example 2: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
The Starless Sea is often compared to Piranesi and rightfully so. The Starless Sea doesn’t reach the same level of weirdness, but with its story-within-a-story structure, you’re still left with the mystery of how the seemingly completely unrelated stories fit together. All the puzzle pieces are important in this beautiful book about love and fate.
Trope: Tyrannical government
Description: A dictator-like rule that suppresses the population or certain parts of it through manipulation, secrecy and brute force. Often personified by one man.
Example 1: Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness
I can confidently say that Patrick Ness is my favorite YA author and Chaos Walking is the trilogy that started it all. We follow Todd who lives in a village only populated by men and everyone can hear each other’s thoughts. The ‘tyrannical government’ element is the Mayor whom I still consider to be my favorite villain ever because he’s such a masterful manipulator. You know he’s wrong but you also find yourself agreeing with him, and I love it when books bring such complexity.
Example 2: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I can’t talk about the tyrannical government trope without mentioning the one that kills kids for sport. A lot of YA books deal with overthrowing a government, but no one, in my opinion, has managed this trope as well as The Hunger Games because it is so much more than just one man (Snow) being cruel. It’s also all of society that over 75 years has accepted that watching kids kill other kids is entertainment.
Trope: The cinnamonroll male character
Description: The male character that is soft, kind and generally a good person. There is a feisty version and an unfeisty version, but I don’t care; I love both equally and by that I mean if a book has this kind of character, they will be my favorite character by a long shot. Bonus point if they’re the main character (but they rarely are). (This is my favorite trope ever).
Example 1: The Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty
A rich fantasy trilogy based on Middle Eastern mythology, but the character that represents this trope is Jamshid. He’s an important side character that I love so much I can barely talk about him in words that make sense. He is sweet, fierce and intensely loyal to the people in his life. Can I please get a companion novel about just him? Please?
Example 2: The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
There is much to love about this duology but the main character Thaniel is probably why it holds a special place in my heart. Besides being kind-hearted, he also has a subtle intelligence that makes him able to treat people respectfully and lovingly, if they deserve it, of course, because don’t think being kind means he’ll let people walk all over him.
Trope: Royals out of their element
Description: Simply put, royals doing non-royal-like things like being on the run, being captured, being forced to live like a peasant, etc.
Example 1: Dragonfly by Julia Golding
Dragonfly is about a prince and a princess from two kingdoms whose cultures couldn’t be more different from each other, but they are forced to marry to form an important alliance. They are pulled “out of their element” as they are also kidnapped, which forces them to find a way of working together. It’s been a while since I read this book, but I remember flying through it because it was so interesting to see these characters work their way through unfamiliar situations.
Example 2: Ascendance by Jennifer A. Nielsen
I don’t want to be too detailed about explaining the trope in this series because it involves spoilers, but you have the second book titled The Runaway King so…
These are some highly addictive, action-packed books that are so good that I really should continue with the series sometime soon.
That was a lot of books that I dearly love, and if you have any recommendations for books with these tropes, I’m always looking for more. Maybe one day I’ll have read enough to make a top ten for just one trope. Other than that, I would love to know what you consider your favorite trope!
First Line Reader 
Yeah, unlikeable main characters are super interesting!
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-with-your-favourite-theme/
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One of my favourite “unlikeable main characters” is Emma Woodhouse 🙂 Jane Austen did something amazing when she wrote that character!
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I’m one of the few people who’ve never read any Jane Austen (honestly, I’m a bit scared), but I do seem to hear about a lot of people liking Emma 😄
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It’s definitely one of the best and easiest to read! 🙂 I would really recommend it if you ever fancy reading a classic
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I was not expecting a post today – especially not one with so many books I love in it! 🤗🥰 Now I really feel like I have to read the ones you mentioned under the “royals out of their element” trope, too… Because I’ve never even heard of those books and absolutely adore the trope!! (Also, can I just shamelessly mention that Bitterblue partially has it, too? 😇😁)
I don’t think Léo is an unlikeable character, though – I love him in spite of his flaws! You’re right, you just can’t help but understand where he’s coming from, so I’m willing to forgive all of his douchiness for the few good moments he does have 🥰 Dorian Gray, however, is despicable 😬 But I did love reading about him, too! Normally, unlikeable narrators are my jam, so The People in the Trees has really given me a severe identity crisis… 😂
And hmmm, as to recommendations, don’t you think I’d have given them to you already if I had them? 🤔😅 If you want weird, maybe you’d actually be a huge fan of Kazuo Ishiguro – The Buried Giant is literally one of the strangest books I’ve ever read, and I’m still not sure whether I consider it boring or deeply illuminating 😂 And have you ever read The Invention of Hugo Cabret? Although it’s technically middle-grade, that book is so beautiful, has a very unique format, and a main character I definitely consider to be cinnamon-rolly! Although maybe not as much as Jamshid… 🥰 And as for the horrible dystopian dictator stories – THEY’RE MY FAVORITE THING EVER! (Which I think you probably already know, though 😁) They don’t even have to be about fictive horrible worlds – like, All the Light We Cannot See is one of my favorite books ever because it is just the best WWII story, with a flawed but somehow still cinnamon-rolly main character you hate and love at the same time… I mean, Anthony Doerr in general is very recommendation worthy in my opinion! Like, About Grace has a totally weird plot (but not in the way that keeps you guessing what it actually going on), and from what I’ve heard, so does Cloud Cuckoo Land, which is one of the reasons I’m dying to get my hands on it! (I think Scribd has it now, though, so I guess I know what my plans are after Tawny Man 😁)
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Both examples about the royals are books I read a long time ago but I just remember devouring them, so I can’t actually guarantee that they hold up but I think you’ll love them if you read them, especially Dragonfly 😊
I do think Léo is meant to be an unlikeable character though. Unlikeable doesn’t mean you can’t love him. I actually love Léo and Dorian pretty equally because to me it’s not about liking them as people when I read about them. Unlikeable means they’re human and that’s what I like them for.
And since I read To Paradise, Ishiguro has kept popping up in my recommended feeds. I had never heard about him before and now you mention him so maybe the universe really wants me to read his books 😅 And The Buried Giant does sound very weird!
I have not read Hugo Cabret but I’ve watched the movie multiple times so I kind of decided I didn’t want to experience it in book-format as well.
I have also not read anything by Anthony Doerr because I read the synopsis for All the Light We Cannot See and found it utterly boring, so I really can’t see myself liking that one, sorry. I think that’s where I need my dictators to be fictional 😅 But thanks for trying to recommend me something anyway! 😁
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I guess I’m reading Dragonfly, then 😂 (Scribd has it, and since I’m desperately in the mood for breaking my reading-only-500+-page-books streak, it sounds very tempting! 😅😁)
And I do agree that Léo is probably meant to be unlikeable! I’m just failing abysmally at seeing him like that – I love him so much more than other unlikeable narrators! Even if I appreciate how human they are, I’ll secretly still loathe them 😁
And I’m glad my recommendation attempts were appreciated 😂 (That **might** just be enough to warrant forgiving you for calling the synopsis of one of the most profound books of all time boring and thinking the Hugo Cabret movie comes anywhere near being a replacement for the original’s greatness… 😜)
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I mean the main reason I’m not starting Fool’s Errand right now is that I can’t read such a long book right after Elantris so I get where you’re coming from 😅 I think Dragonfly could be a great choice to break that streak.
I read the synopsis for All the Light We Cannot See again and feel I need to defend myself: A few weeks ago I talked about how my decision to read a book was dependent on how and how much the characters were described in the synopsis. This one actually describes them a great deal… which means I know they’re children and child protagonists belong on my list of least favorite tropes. I really don’t care what they’re doing or saying throughout the book: They’re children so I’m going to be bored 😅 Same kind of goes for the Hugo one, although I’m so confident that the amazingness of the movie means I don’t absolutely have to read the book 😁
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See, that is why I prefer to have people tell me what vibes a book has and don’t really go by synopses – they can be so misleading! Because yes, Werner and Marie-Laure are children at the BEGINNING of the book. But they don’t stay that way – like all humans, they have a tendency to get older 😉 And All the Light You Cannot See actually spans quite a few years… Getting to see how their surroundings shape the adults these children eventually become is one of the best and most heartbreaking parts of this book!! Though yeah, if you want to avoid children altogether, I guess not reading it is the only way to go 😭😂
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If the synopsis only focuses on them as children, I can promise you they are children for longer than I care for them to be. I still think my method is fool-proof 😁
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Some great tropes here, a lot that I really love! Obviously I loved The Hunger Games trilogy (with the exception of Mockingjay) and I really enjoyed the Daevabad Trilogy, and tropes you mentioned were definitely ones I enjoyed in them. I love the cinnamon roll character trope, they are often my favourite characters.
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/03/08/top-ten-tuesday-358/
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Glad to hear you love some of the same tropes! The cinnamonroll character is just the best!
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It is!
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I just learned the term “cinnamon roll” to describe a gooey-on-the-inside character from someone else’s list today. I love it! And I do love that trope as well the dystopian/dictatorship government one (at least in fiction—it sucks pretty hard in real life).
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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Cinnamonroll is just such a perfect term to describe that kind of character 😄 And yes, I’m also all for the dystopian tropes to stay in the books.
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I spy several good ones here! The Hunger Games is a great example (and eerily not so far fetched as it was when it was written!) And Jamshid is precious!
Here’s my TTT post
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I always welcome some more Jamshid love!
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These are some of my favorite tropes! I love unlikeable characters, and I need to read more cinnamon rolls. They don’t pop up very often in the books I read.
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I’m happy to hear you also love some of these tropes! And there just needs to be more books with cinnamon-roll-characters 😄
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