Hey friends, welcome back to my channel.
My name is Taylor and for today's video
I'm just gonna go through all of the
tropes that I absolutely love in books. I
feel like the word trope in and of
itself tends to get a lot of hate
or tends to be used in a negative way,
which you know is fine, a lot of tropes
are things that we see over and over
again.
They're called tropes for a reason they
are things that tend to happen again and
again and again so it is very easy to
become tired of some of them and
definitely it's always nice to see them
done like a different way. But I thought
I would sit down today and tell you some
of my favorite book tropes that I
absolutely never get tired of. The first
trope that I absolutely love is an
unreliable narrator, and I even love it
more when it isn't spoon-fed to you.
If you go into a book and they're like
"hey you're unreliable, hey you have this
problem, you have this problem we don't
trust you" I think that's a lot less
engaging than a book where you think
that the character starts out as a
reliable narrator and you start to get
clues along the way that they're not so
reliable. I just think if done right
that's such a wonderful device for
really throwing some great twists in the
story maybe switch things around a
little bit and have things in the plot
they didn't see coming because the
narrator isn't the most reliable;
especially in genres where they aren't
normally. I feel like this is a very common
trope in the thriller genre but when
it's done in like other genres I feel
like it can really take you by surprise
because you're really not expecting it
when it's done in one of these genres
that you don't really find it in. The
next trope that I love is an unlikable
narrator. I only figured this out in the
past couple of years but most of my
favorite characters tend to be very
unlikable characters, they're obviously
likable to me but it is an unpopular
opinion that I like them I just
there's something about an unlikable
character that when they're written well
and you can still root for this
character that is just absolutely
wonderful writing in my opinion. If it's
an unlikable person that you can still
root for, it's very easy to root for good
people but when you find yourself
rooting for maybe some more flawed
characters then I think that's just a
really good writing technique. Another
trope that I absolutely love is a
character that wants to be by themself,
doesn't really feel drawn into a
specific conflict and
reluctantly has to go along with a group
of people, or like the main group of
people or protect like a small child and
they become less grouchy over time and
you discover by the end of the book or
the series or whatever that this
character is actually been forming bonds
where they said they're a lone
wolf they're out for just themselves
really forming bonds with other people I
absolutely love it like all aspects of
this trope. I think it's so endearing to
me especially recently I think this is
done really well in the Monstress
graphic novel series that's all my prickly
faves coming together to
protect some people that one is really
nice. There's just something so wonderful
and so wholesome about a character who
thinks that they're only out for
themselves
and thinks that they're like morally
gray or like an antihero and they start
becoming more soft and more rounded
because they fall in love with maybe a
small child they have to escort somewhere
and just like a group of people where
they thought "Okay I'm just gonna protect
them but like I'm only doing it because
I get paid",  or in the example of
this is a movie but you know Han Solo in
the fourth Star Wars movie when he comes
back at the end even though he has no
monetary reason to do so he just comes
back because he's truly found these
great friendships and potential love
interests in Luke and Leia just I love
that trope I love it. I know this is
another movie but Guardians of the
Galaxy does this really well. The
characters aren't necessarily even
looking for another family unit, some of
them already have family units like
Rocket and Groot but they come together
and they think they're just going to be
really good co-workers and work
together to do something but then they
end up becoming a found family and I
think that's really wonderful as well.
Going along with that, another trope that
I absolutely love is a found family
trope, especially when the people don't
think that they need a family or that
they don't think that they need like a
family group or another family group.
Sometimes they don't have to be
orphaned or misfits they can just get
together in a group and that group
becomes more cohesive and it becomes
less of a group of people trying to
accomplish something and more like a
family.  Chefs kiss, I absolutely love it.
Another trope I love , this is less of a
trope in terms of writing but in terms
of style of books I love uniquely
formatted books. I haven't finished this
one so it's a little weird to say but
books like House of Leaves, 
that are in epistolary format where
there are letters thrown in, or like the
formats just done a little bit
differently or some pages are a
different format than others I
absolutely love that. As a kid I loved
the Dear America series where it was
diaries of these young girls in
different points in history. I just think
that adds just a little extra something
to a book when it has those aspects
thrown in there. Another book that I
think does this really well is
Night film by Marisha Pessel, that one
also really ups the creep factor
with the photos and the websites
and all of that content in there as well,
as opposed to just the text.  The next
trope I absolutely love is I love dark
academia books but they have to have a
very atmospheric supernatural almost
paranormal or fantasy type of lens; so I
didn't really like The Secret History,
I've tried to read If we were Villains
and dnf'd it, but I absolutely loved
Bunny, I loved Ninth House, I loved
Catherine House so those are all dark
academia books now dark academia books
don't have to have
supernatural or fantasy element, but I
tend to enjoy them a whole lot more when
they do. I think it just adds a little
extra something. I don't know if this was
if this is me going off of like my
childhood love for the Harry Potter
series and me really loving like that
magical school element probably I just
really love when dark academia has a
little something extra thrown in there.
Another trope that I love are children
in books, especially horror. If you want to
add  horror and put it at the next
level, add a kid in there. Like, well
written kids obviously especially in the
horror genre I think that children add
an extra dimension. In terms of horror
that I love, I love a good haunted house
story, I love possession stories, I love
exorcisms, anything
revolving with ghosts or demons that's
my favorite sub-genre of horror. Add kids
to it and just gets so much better kids
can't really defend themselves so I
think it adds,  I sound so psychotic
saying this, but  it adds an extra
level of,  "you have to protect these kids". 
Sometimes kids are the ones doing the
creepy things, possessed children are
creepy!  Kids say weird things, creepy
things in real life, add a horror element
to it
it's very disturbing. I also like kids
coming together to try and face an evil
that's the ultimate 
David and Goliath sort of story, are
these just very normal kids trying to
fight a supernatural element like
Stranger things or IT. I feel like this is a
very common genre that people love
just because you get lots of good
opportunities for good wholesome
friendships and good wholesome
characters and just really that underdog
trying to fight something bigger than
themselves. Another trope I love, I am NOT
a big romance fan. I don't really read
that genre. I don't mind if it's done in
a book, but it has to be a subplot.
It can't be the main plot of a book. I
think that friends to lovers is vastly
superior than enemies to lovers or even
people
that you're kind of close with but not
really friends with to lovers is
better than enemies to lovers. I don't
know if that's because in my personal
life I could never see myself becoming a
lover with a person that I was an enemy
of. I just really prefer the story of a pair of really close friends
and that moment where something changes
something clicks and you realize oh this
is something more than a friendship I
just think that's really good. Another
trope I love,  conflicts that are more
nuanced than good versus evil and I
don't know if this is exactly something
that you could consider a trope or if
it's something growing out of younger
literature to older literature because
that's something that you can grasp your
head around because for a long time the
only fantasy books that I read obviously
as a kid but growing up as well, were
 middle grade and that is very
black and white,  good versus evil. I
mean for the most part I'm sure there
are some exceptions,  but I just
absolutely love a conflict that is more
than just two sides,  one's clearly the
right , ones clearly the wrong,  everyone on
one side is so good there's nothing
wrong about them,  and everyone on the
other side is so bad about them because
that's not how it happens in the real
world and I think it's so interesting to
look at a conflict to see maybe people
who are doing what you think are bad
things but they're doing it for good
reasons or people who are doing
terrible things but they think that this
will help the greater good. I
think that's a really engaging story.
Another trope that I love... I don't
really know
how to classify this one like a
historical puzzle or mystery. For example
National Treasure, I loved that
movie.  Da Vinci Code is another good one
or The Anomaly by Michael Rutger. You take historical
things or you're doing anything with
historical artifacts rediscovering
history solving you know it could even
be like a cold case or missing-persons
case or something where there are clues
from the past that everyone thinks this
one thing has happened and you figure
out that that's like not the truth I
think that is so cool.  I don't know if
it's like the history minor in me
leaping out a little bit in that, but I
just absolutely love a new spin on
things even if it's not factual. Even if
I know that these things don't
really exist,  I
love suspending my disbelief and
exploring different things like that, 
especially if you add a supernatural
element to it, like The Anomalies is one
where it's more paranormal,
and then the other two are ones
where it's forgotten elements
of history that have been hidden some
way or another. I love that. So those are
some of my favorite tropes in fiction in
general, obviously in books but also just
in terms of movies or TV shows. Leave a
comment down below, do you like any of
these tropes? Do you hate them?
I don't mind leave that down below. I'd
love to get a discussion and a dialogue
going. Also leave your favorite tropes
down below. I know there are a
ton of them and I'm sure there are more
things that I love in fiction that I
just didn't put in this video because I
wanted to make it kind of a more
informal sit-down one, a shorter form
video. If there are a lot of them that I
remember that I liked I might sit down
and do a round two. I'm also planning on
doing one specifically for movies
in particular, horror fiction. I read more
diversely than I watch movies... movies
it's pretty much like superhero movies
and horror films so I have a lot for
horror films in particular that I like
in terms of tropes so I'll probably do a
video like that sometime. But that is
going to be the end of this video, if you
liked it be sure to give it a thumbs up,
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and I will catch y'all in my next video
bye!
-music-
