What the Trope? The Plotlines That Keep Us Hooked
Written by Alyssa Blackwell
Have you ever read a book and found yourself thinking how some of the things play out feels familiar? Or that the relationship type between two characters has been done before?
You’ve probably discovered a trope!
Until I started reading more of the same genres, I hadn’t realised how many different tropes existed across book genres. And as I’ve read more and more romance, romantasy and fantasy romance I’ve discovered so many new tropes to love.
Uh, what exactly is a trope?
It’s a common narrative device or theme that appears often in books or movies - it’s borderline impossible to tell a story without using any tropes!
Some tropes may feel fresh and exciting, some might feel clichéd, but they are an important part of storytelling. They’re also a really fun way to identify what kind of books you like and read similar ones.
There are general plot tropes which we’ll dive into here, but there can also be specific character tropes - stay tuned for another post about those!
Some common tropes:
- Enemies to Lovers ⚔️❤️
- Friends to Lovers 👫💞
- Forced Proximity 🏠😳
- Fake Dating 💍🎭
- Grumpy x Sunshine 😠☀️
- Miscommunication 🙊📵
- Pregnancy 🤰🍼
- Workplace Romance 💼💘
- Only One Bed 🛏️😳
- Opposites Attract 🔥❄️
- Amnesia 🧠❓
And this is only the tip of the iceberg! Books usually have an overarching trope and then have a few smaller sub-tropes blended in to make it a bit different.
Let’s deep dive some tropes!
Enemies to Lovers
Hands down one of my all time favourite book tropes.
If I see a book is enemies to lovers, it’s almost an immediate must-read for me. Nothing makes me happier than two characters starting off hating each others guts but falling in love along the
way. Usually we take a pitstop at lust first, which is very fun if you’re into a spicy book. During this connection they’ll start to open up, realise maybe they’re not so different and then, we’re in love.
Some of my favourite enemies to lovers reads include:
- Book Lovers - Emily Henry
- Throne of Glass series - Sarah J Maas
- ACOTAR series - Sarah J Maas
- Bride - Ali Hazelwood
- Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros
Grumpy x Sunshine:
It’s so fun reading a total grump of a character fall in love with the brightest, sunniest character. The juxtaposition of their personalities always creates such an interesting dynamic and showcases some unique challenges for the couple to handle.
Some great grumpy x sunshine reads:
- Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J Maas
- The Love Hypothesis - Ali Hazelwood
- Wild Love - Elsie Silver
Are there any bad tropes?
In my humble opinion, yes.
If a book has the pregnancy trope or miscommunication trope, it’s an automatic side-eye, eye roll and mega sigh from me.
Pregnancy:
Usually the characters have finally gotten together, maybe lived through mortal peril and they’ll say they want kids but not yet. They want some time together to enjoy life.
And then what happens? BAM. INSTANT BABY. And it’s always a life or death scenario for the mother [or the death of her personality].
Maybe it’s the Twilight trauma, but this one is usually a miss for me.
Miscommunication:
This is the one that probably makes me the most mad.
Maybe it’s because I’ve never shut up in my life, but it drives me crazy that the two characters can’t have a simple conversation and resolve it.
Instead, we get 200+ pages of angst and wondering what the other person is thinking, when a quick chat could fix this up.
So, what do we think about tropes?
All in all, tropes are such a good part of reading and help authors create diverse, yet similar stories for us to cozy up with. It’s always fun to give books with different tropes a try, but it’s also great to settle in with one you know you already like.
Let us know in the Quirky Book Chat what some of your favourite tropes are!
About the Author
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Alyssa and I love to read a lot.
I also love to yap, and yapping about books brings me so much joy.
I’m an equal-opportunity reader and I’ll give everything a go - contemporary fiction, fantasy, romance, non-fiction, thrillers - if it looks interesting, I’ll read it!
I’d love to be friends, so if you’re interested in chatting books and enjoy book reviews, you can find me in the usual places:
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