When I’m listening to the Book Riot podcasts I subscribe to, there are certain book tropes that when mentioned by the presenters as they are describing a book make my ears prick up. These are the plot points that make me instantly add a book to my wish list, the things that make me itch with excitement to buy the book and read it. My catnip if you will.
I’ve never really thought about the book tropes that make me tick until recently. But after some careful consideration I have decided what they are. And here they are:
Religion
When I was a teenager, my cousin bought me my first adult fantasy book. It was The Lion of Senet by Jennifer Fallon. That book, and all of Jennifer’s books, really did open my eyes to what fantasy could be. Religion is a big player in Jennifer’s books – especially in The Hythrun Chronicles – and I really enjoyed the stories about gods meddling in human affairs, and manifesting themselves on the earth to walk among humans. I think this stemmed from my love of Greek mythology.
I also really enjoy a character who is a religious fanatic – who does really horrific things in the name of the god that they serve. Think Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, or Javert from Les Miserables. I really love a character that believes so strongly in something, and is so blind to their love for their god that it twists their reality. Then end up using their god as an excuse to commit atrocities, sometimes actually going against the teachings that their religion stands for.
I’m not a religious person myself – I only go to church on Christmas Eve, which is only because it’s a village thing that everyone does – but I swing more towards being agnostic rather than atheist. I want to believe there is something out there, but I’m not sure what it is. I think if I wanted something to exist, it would be something that aligns with what the Celts believed – the power of the natural world – or Japanese shintoism, where they have lots of little gods and spirits.
Multi-generational
I really enjoy a story that spans not just one lifetime, but several. Naruto is a great example of this. You have the main action happening in Naruto’s generation, but the origins of the conflicts stretch back to before Naruto’s birth, before his dad, Minato, even became hokage. And even before that when Jiraiya was fighting in the Third Great Ninja War. The unfinished business in Jiraiya’s time came back to haunt Minato, and then accumulated in the climax of the story in Naruto’s time.
Another good example would be The Shell Seekers, which is about an older woman who has kept a secret from her children – [spoilers] about how she nearly left their father for an American officer, who was then killed during the Second World War. The main action – mostly the children squabbling over their inheritance – happens in the modern times, but you also get a lot of flashbacks from the older woman, who tells you the story of what influenced the events of the present day.
I love a story that is generations in the making, because I think it adds such depth to a story, fleshes out characters and just makes it that more epic. In the end, we are not just a product of ourselves, but a product of all the people in our family who have come before us. All the decisions our ancestors made – or perhaps didn’t make – have put us where we are today, and have made up a large part of our identities.
Hidden Identity
I’ve recently been re-listening to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat soundtrack. And the part that really gets me is when the brothers come to see Joseph in Egypt to beg for food. They kneel before him, not knowing he is the brother they sold into slavery a decade before, and ask for food. I just love that tension – that Joseph knows who they are, but they do not know who he is. And then the big reveal when Joseph tells them who he is.
Another story that does this really well, is The Desert Spear, which is the second book in Peter V. Brett’s Demon Cycle series. [Spoilers incoming] In the first book, the main character Arlen is raised in a walled city away from the danger of the demons that come out at night. He stays with an adopted family, who raise him, and then he leaves the city and goes out in the wider world to fight demons. He becomes this living legend – the Painted Man – whose body is covered in tattoos and fights demons, who no one knows is really Arlen Bales. In the second book, Arlen returns to the city he grew up in and meets the family who raised him. Because he’s so changed, they don’t know who he is and he decides not to tell them. That part hurt to read so much, because you want him to so badly tell his adopted family who he is, so he can have a reconnection moment.
Twin Track Storylines
You know when you have two POVs in a story? Or more than two. They start out seemingly unrelated and then you begin to see the dots connect and how the stories are going to come to together. That sort of structure gets me really excited, especially when the two POVs are on opposing sides of whatever conflict is going on.
I really enjoy this on shounen battle manga. Tokyo Ghoul does this really well. You get the main character, Kaneki Ken’s POV as he is living amongst ghouls after his transformation. And you also get Amon’s POV as he and his ghoul hunting partner start tracking down ghouls. They have a run in with a ghoul Kaneki is close with. You know Kaneki and Amon are going to meet and clash at some point, and that suspense pays off in such a great way when when they finally meet and have a fight.
A Fate Worse Than Death
OK. I’m going to be going into Ninth House spoilers in this section, as an FYI. So look away now if you don’t want to know!
Because I want to talk about Darlington and what happened to him. For those of you who don’t know, in Ninth House Leigh has a twin track story – the main character, Alex, who is telling the story has it is happening in the winter, and also the story of another student Darlington who is telling what happened in the autumn. During Alex’s section you are aware that something has happened to Darlington, and gradually you learn that he was dragged into the underworld after being eaten by something. After a failed attempt to bring him back, Alex accepts Darlington is dead and then it is revealed he’s not and has actually become a demon and is living in the hell.
I don’t tend to enjoy that old story trope of “Oh, this character wasn’t actually dead. They’ve been alive all along!” Because it feels like a farce. Especially when you’ve seen that character die – I started to get really frustrated with Fairy Tail because the mangaka kept on making it seem like the characters were dead and then revealing that they were fine. It frustrated me and also made me no longer feel scared for the characters because I knew they would be OK. But I love it when a writer makes you think that a character is dead and then brings them back profoundly changed – either physically or mentally, so it almost makes them a completely different character.
A Protagonist Struggling with Their Powers
Overpowered characters can be a problem. And as much as I enjoy a good training montage, I love it more when you have a character that isn’t in 100% control of their powers.
I think My Hero Academia does this very well with Deku’s character. One of my favourite parts of the manga is right at the start when All Might has just given Deku One for All and Deku is testing it out for the first time. And he completely destroys his body. You think that Deku will instantly become this powerful super strong hero like All Might, but then you see how much this power that Deku has been after his whole life is going to wreck him.
Naruto also does this very well. When Naruto is training to develop his powers he develops a new jitsu that allows him to level up his signature move- the Rasengan – infusing it with wind chakra to create this massive powerful attack. But his body isn’t strong enough to with stand the power and he almost destroys his arm wielding it.
Magical powers in books are often given without much thought as to what they will do to the user’s body. I don’t know if it is the sadist in me, but I love watching characters being destroyed by the powers they are trying to control. I can’t help but feel that if there was magic in the world, humans would destroy their bodies trying to control it.
Bookworm Scribe 