But Enough About Me!

Okay, I asked permission and am totally stealing this from manga_crow.

In my post "In common: Susanna Kearsley's A WINTER SEA and Diana Rowland's MY LIFE AS A WHITE TRASH ZOMBIE," I begin by saying

There are genres, sub genres, settings, things, character types, and plot lines that are not to my taste.

I then go on to discuss why I really enjoyed the two aforementioned books despite them being woven of elements I normally don't care for.

A discussion ensued, but I was particularly struck by this comment by the aforementioned manga_crow:

I've really discovered over the years that I don't really care about genre conventions - it's the equivalent of the color of the paint when choosing a house. The real deal-makers/breakers are the characters and to a much, much lesser extent, the plot. Give me good characters and it doesn't matter if they're flying around on dragons trying to prevent evil wizards from taking over their kingdom, running around New York sewers fighting vampires, being a medic in the far-flung reaches of the galaxy, or, well, you get the idea.

If I were in charge of labeling genres, they would look something like this (so I could avoid them):

Supposedly brilliant detective who can't solve crimes without having the answer shoved in his/her face.
Ungrateful jerk has life saved by being turned into something not-quite-human and won't shut up about how they want a normal life again.
Supposedly experienced political figures are taken in by tricks that wouldn't fool a three-year-old.


This is a great way of categorizing things I can't read. Because it's true: I can really read anything if the characters grab me, as my love for the two mentioned books proves.


What character genres do you despise? Be as specific as you need to be. No need to spare your scorn!

I'll go next:

Serial killer is a complex, dark man of deep meaningfully depicted psychological chasms and gritty back story, and yet still is obsessed with killing nubile young women after sexual violence described in detail.

Within five minutes of first setting eyes on each other, hero and heroine are forced into a state of orgasmic confusion over the overwhelming sexual attraction between them, to the point that they must spend much of the book having intense sex as the only relief to their bewildering symptoms.

Jolly sex worker in a world without decent medical care never gets any form of venereal disease or infection.