In the past few years I’ve become a lot more particular with the Romance books I read. Don’t get me wrong there is nothing I like better than sitting down and reading a good novel. (although they seem harder and harder to find)
I love War stories, the bravery and strength that the people who lived through and experienced such atrocities and yet can somehow still survive is interesting to me.
It’s been hard finding authors that don’t over romanticize these stories though. i mean like really hard.
What draws me to A book and captivate my soul is the rawness. The anguish. The utter desolation of hope. The sorrow of losing someone you deeply love. I could never imagine going through one of these, but all of them within a couple of years. I get that theses aren't pleasant things but it is real. there's not always a happy ending. The couple doesn't always get to ride off onto the sunset together. Its just not like that.
War is not beautiful. It’s not romantic. It’s often, blood, pain, tears. Mothers waiting at home waiting for sons and husbands never to come home. Sweethearts knowing that they’ll somehow have to reconstruct their life without the one that made their life sparkle.
Obviously I know nothing of war. But come on, the guys don’t always come home. The ending for most isn’t perfect. ALSO WHY ARE THERE WAY MORE WW2 BOOKS THAN WW1.. I can’t even..
okay so now that im done ranting talking lets get down to the three cliches.
1) the Hero
This is generally the guy (not always tho) but it doesn’t matter. Also why is everyone a pilot?!? It’s not like there was any other jobs in the military. Often in a lot of books every single chapter builds up to one pivotal seen, and almost every single time you can guess the ending. There is no surprises. Everything is alway the same. This is just my personal opinion but wouldn’t it be so much more interesting if the main characters weren’t always the same.
2) does everything ALWAYS have to turn out perfectly ?!?! lolol Don’t get me wrong. I hate when someones significant other gets killed. but War is not beautiful. It’s not romantic. It’s blood, pain, tears. Mothers waiting at home waiting for sons and husbands never to come home. Sweethearts knowing that they’ll somehow have to reconstruct their life without the one that made their life sparkle.
Obviously I know nothing of war. But come on, the guys don’t always come home.
3) Life does not go on as usual. You can’t just pick up where you left off. You can’t have gone off to the war without becoming a different person. There is no way that someone who has seen the level of bloodshed as a soldier on the front would have experienced could walk away from something like that with no emotional baggage.. yeah I don’t think so. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to try and fit back into society when your entire self has changed.
While it’s true that I do like sad books a lot, it doesn’t mean that i always want the main characters to die, although I have seen some books that have soon it well.Everyone is going to like different books and authors. Although I do like a happy ending just as much as the rest of you. My point is that, that’s not always how life is.
Would I loveeee every single book on your shelf? Probably not. And same goes for my books. I love how two people who read the same book can come away with a completely different opinion. Because how boring would it be if we all liked and disliked the same people.
Thanks for reading :)
So what do you think? Do any of these cliches drive you crazy? Or have you seen any examples of these cliches that you enjoy?
This was so interesting to read! I get what you're saying, but I personally prefer happy stories ^_^
ReplyDeleteLolol I do like happy books that when your finished reading it’s just like 🙌🏼😍🤩 haha BUT I also like books that make me cry 🙈
DeleteThanks for commenting and sharing your opinion:)
I'm all over a good realistic novel! But I'm torn, because I do really like happy endings. I mean, I don't think the MC should ever get killed in a fictional book! Great thoughts, Janelle! What is your favorite war novel?
ReplyDelete-Brooklyne
Haha sameeeee.. I’ve only ever read a couple of books where one of the main characters dies and it actually has an okay ending.. & I’m definitely not in favor of everyone dying in books. Cause that would be to many tears 🙈
DeleteThanks dude!
Ahhhh such a hard question.. but Rilla of Ingleside is LITERALLY THE BEST BOOK EVER. It’s also the most realistic and real war novel I’ve read so far :) :) :)
Janelle, this is such a great post!'💕Me I Loveee more romance books from like the 1930's, yes, war books can be interesting! I personally think that someone getting killed off is not that good of an ending. It makes me sad , but like you said that this is real and it is.
ReplyDeleteI also want to petition for more WWI books!
ReplyDeleteI get what you're saying. I think there can be a danger of over romanticizing war in literature, but I think there needs to be a balance. There needs to be realness, but I think there should also be hope. Even if there's not a happy ending, there should be a flicker of hope to give the reader some closure that things will get better eventually.
Lovely post!
Yes I totally agree.. I’m sorry if I sounded harsh in my post 🙈🙈 my point that I was trying to make was that SO often these books are so unrealistic as to how awful war actually is.. but yes thee does have to be hope and joy.
Deletethanks so much for your comment!!
heyy yes i totally get what your saying..
ReplyDeletethere is often so much romance that lots of other important things are forgotten.
Yes srly so true.
DeleteThanks for the comment
so yeah i seriously get what your saying.
ReplyDeletealthough i do like romance books i know what you mean when you say there not always that accurate.
thanks for the post. it was very interesting to read.