The mark of guaranteed badness

[rachelmanija]

On the drive to Judy Tarr's horse camp, Sherwood and I were talking about tropes which function as a warning sign, either of extreme badness or at least of stories we are sure not to enjoy.

Sherwood's nominee was serial killers. My nominees were Satan and Satanists (unless it's a comedy) and all stories in which abortion laws lead to ridiculous dystopias. For instance, "Because abortion has been banned and it's illegal to kill fetuses, parents now have the right to kill their children after birth and before age eighteen." (Actual book. I read that on the back cover, and my eyes rolled so hard they almost flew out of their sockets and bounced against the opposite wall.) And as I have ranted about before, I generally dislike stories in which infidelity or zombies play a very large role.

The ultimate Sherwood and Rachel scarer-offer would be, "Because abortion has been banned/legalized/made mandatory, parents have the right to kill adulterers. A serial killer takes advantage of this situation to create zombies to help him worship Satan." (Abort: a YA dystopia. Also, cats have been banned and the government controls heterosexuals.)

What are your Tropes of Ultimate Loathing?

Comments

[longstrider.livejournal.com]

Plot, plot, plot. Our heroes win and save the day and then magic goes away. I don't care whether it's Tolkien, Mary Poppins or Gaiman, I hate hate hate that ending. It's at its most egregious when it is tied to children growing up and magic is only for innocent children. I can love the rest of a book but that ending is going to make me not want to read it again. I've repeatedly described The Graveyard Book as 7/8ths of a truly great book.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Because of Scarlett? It seemed pretty clearly signaled that Bod will remain connected to the Underworld, just not literally living in it.

[longstrider.livejournal.com]

Bod, he stops being able to see the ghosts and his 'Right to the Graveyard' (I've got that wording wrong) is revoked. There are hints he *might* be able to come back someday but instead of giving him a reason to go out into the world and do something they take away his reasons to stay and force him out.