Cilches That Still Sell Millions

Though it is a difficult thing to do, I try to at least check out and read the popular books in young adult fiction. Some books I read and love. Others, after I read the review, I say to myself, "Well, I'm not going to read that."

Nevertheless, I have read a good deal of popular fiction. While most of it I like, I have found a couple of clichés that are obvious, yet they're frequently used. In fact, some of these things were called to my attention recently. Now I've decided to finally rant about them.

1. Love Triangle.
Okay, this tops the list because everyone that this is in almost every hyped book in the teen section. Yet, more stories flood in that contain a love triangle. It might or might not be the main idea of the story, but it's there. Even if it's done well or not, it can get annoying after awhile. What's worse is that half of these love triangles are set up in basically the same way.

The female protagonist has a best friend whose a guy. She loves this boy. But a few chapters into it, bam! Another man comes in out of nowhere. At first, girl does not know what to do about him, out of loyalty for her male best friend. But the new guy interests here. It goes on. Eventually, it leads to the best friend getting jealous and the girl choosing the new dude.

It comes in different characters and settings, but 50% of the time, this is what happens. There's nothing wrong with this idea, but can we have a little variety here? In real life,  love triangles are rare. I think we can all agree that romance can be interesting and sweet without having three people involved.

2. Abusive, Dead, or Neglecting Parents
This only came to my attention recently, but I see how sad it is. Consider you're favorite secular teen fiction. This is mostly applied to science fiction, dystopian, and fantasy. Here's some of my favorite characters as an example.

Katniss Everdeen- Dead father and awkward relationship with mother.
Tobias Eaton-Abusive father and absent mother.
Percy Jackson- Absent father and nice mother, but she isn't around much in the stories.

I could go on and on. But do you see what I mean? Even in The Selection, America's relationship with her father is very nice and relatable to me. But he's not even in the series about 80% of the time! Even if the parent is actually good, the author stuffs them out, making them unimportant. These are still great stories, but this is a problem.

Yes, I completely aware that absent and abusive parents are real, But no matter what, parents are effective in a child's life. Can we please have a parent that's good to the child and involved in the story, instead of  a mean, violent adult who just causes problems for the poor kid?

3. Rebelling Against the Government
This is a extremely popular topic in dystopian. There's nothing wrong it. In fact, the rebellion is necessary.  Only, it gets a tad bit old after tons of teen fiction written about it.  Of course, the government always has something we disagree with, but do they always have to start a civil war?

4. Incomplete Last Sentences
Here's what that is. Someone is dying, either suddenly, or gradually. The protagonist leans down at his friend's dying face and screams her name. The life begins to leave this person and she whispers something, "Tell so-and-so I..."

That's it. Then she dies. It's cruel enough for a author to kill a well-loved character. They need to at least finish their last thought.

I could say a few more, but my time is limited. What are some annoying clichés you have found, in either books you hate or love? Comment and tell me about it. I'd love to hear it:)