Oh the Woes of Insta-Love and Love Triangles!

I haven’t written any reviews in a while and the main reason why is that I really haven’t read a book that just made me go “WOW THAT’S AMAZING!” and I’ve been a bit uninspired. Of course if you’ve seen my twitter you know that I recently read the second book in the Bloodlines Series by Rachelle Mead and the fifth book in the Shadowhunters series by Cassandra Claire, but I just really haven’t had the energy to write a review they deserve. So today instead of reviewing a book I am going to go on a rant about the two biggest things I hate in Young Adult Fiction today. The first is the curse of insta-love, and the second is the horrific love triangle! Get ready for years of pent up emotions to be released in this post!

Insta-love (noun) – an instant passion that occurs over the course of a couple days; the terms “I am in love with ____” or “I love you” are commonly used after a matter of days/weeks (sometimes hours)

Insta-love is the probably the number one technique seen in YA Fiction today. Yupp that’s right. Pretty much every novel you pick up off the YA shelf will have some variation of this virus. The genre it is used most in? Definitely any kind of paranormal romance. I have pretty much read every variation of the Twilight insta-love ever created. EVER CREATED I TELL YOU. First we have our protagonist, usually an insecure female girl who has just encountered a major change in her life (i.e.: a big move, family member(s) died, etc) . Enter hunky, mysterious male lead with a bit of an anger problem and protection complex. Usually the male is unfriendly at first, scared of what he feels (BLECH!). They (against all odds of course) fall in love and face the evil together and then we have happily ever after. All over a course of months or days depending on how much lovin’ our characters are feeling. They of course get that little happy period where they can express their love before the imminent danger descends upon them. All is well until the sequel (AKA LOVE TRIANGLE). What some of these authors fail to understand is that we have already read 500 pages of this in Twilight – trust me when I say Stephanie Meyer covered the subject throughly; we don’t need more cut copies of it! Twilight is probably (dare I say) the best Twilight out there, we don’t need a billion different copies with different names and scenarios, we got it the first time!

I got a little off course (trust me there was a lot more on that subject than what was written) but now we shall focus on the insta-love. The reason I mentioned Twilight was because that is pretty much the mother of all insta-love scenarios. Edward and Bella meet and BOOM a couple weeks later they are declaring themselves in “love”. I cannot express to you, dear reader, how much I absolutely hate this. Whatever happened to love being something special that didn’t just occur overnight? Has anyone ever read any Jane Austin? The greatest romantic novels ever written didn’t just have the characters fall in love overnight. It used to be a gradual, sacred process that took us readers on a wild ride on an emotional roller coaster. To me, insta-love just makes everything so much more boring. I love to wait and yearn for the characters to even acknowledge that there is some sort of attraction between them, and yet in almost every book I pick up there is a few chapters of this and then BOOM insta-love claims another victim. Romances that span several books are the best kind to me, not this “I’m so in love with him/her” after a couple chapters stuff. I think the main reason that we see this over and over and over again is because in the world we live in, instant gratification is what everyone wants, heck I even want it sometimes. But books are where things should be different, where things should be sacred and not just another contribution to the fads of our time.

Now…On to my next rant: LOVE TRIANGLES!

love triangle (noun) – a scenario in which person A is “in love” with person B and person C at the same time; often causes a rift in a relationship which began before the third person was introduced; person A has to make a “life changing” choice between their two loves at the end

In previous posts I have mentioned how much I hate the dreaded love triangle, and I have finally decided to release all my frustrations in this lovely little rant. Where do I even begin? Well again I will bring your attention to Twilight which was one of the first love triangles I read that really really angered me. Bella was probably one of my least favorite protagonists ever (especially when Kirstin Stewart played her in the movie), and the love triangle just added fuel to my fire of hatred. What I just could not understand in any way, shape, or form was why Bella was even questioning her love for Edward. Wasn’t this the same guy that had her ready to give everything up for him? The one that was “too perfect” to be with her? And yet when he was in love with her she couldn’t make up her mind between him and Jacob, the younger annoying guy? As you can see I was clearly team Edward in this scenario, but that’s just it! I want to be able to love every character for who they are, not have to pick a side. Why should we have “team edward” or “team jacob” why can’t we all just be “team Bella don’t get killed even though you’re annoying”?

I don’t know why authors feel the need to add love triangles. Is it to spice it up or something? Because let me tell you most of those books are pretty spicy already with vampires, ghosts, werewolves, etc. trying to kill the protagonist. In fluffy chick-lit books it may be necessary, but not so much in paranormal/dystopian romances. Why can’t the protagonist just be in love with one freaking guy in the book? Is that too much to ask? Why do we have to go through the motions of pretending that the main character is going to end up with someone else that is not their “first love”? It is totally unnecessary and overused and I am sick of it, SICK OF IT I TELL YOU!

These lists may have some spoilers so beware!

Examples of books with suitable love triangles and/or no insta-love are:

1. The Mortal Instruments Series – while Clary does have a bit of a love triangle in the beginning books, it is not the main focus of the book and it is resolved very well hence me still being able to read the series without being annoyed
2. The Gallagher Girls Series – the love between our protagonist and Zach that started in book 2 really doesn’t happen overnight (amazing right) but it actually spans many books which makes it a lot more enjoyable and exciting read; also no love triangle and love actually isn’t the main focus of the book which is refreshing
3. Bloodlines Series – while there are only two books in the series and I can’t really judge at this point, the author seems to be taking it in a good direction; the love definitely doesn’t happen overnight and there is no love triangle in the foreseeable future (thank goodness!)
4. The Georgia Nicholson Series – there are so many love interests in this book that I could barely keep count, however the series is refreshing and honestly Georgia isn’t annoying about her love problems but is actually comedic about the whole thing; the series is pretty long so we get to see Georgia grow and learn while also watching her fall in love…over and over and well…over again
5. Dead Is Series – while the love does happen in the first book, it is still refreshing in each book and doesn’t feel overly mushy; it is not the focus of the books and while the beginnings of a love triangle do appear, our protagonist doesn’t fall for it (you go girl!)
6. Heist Society Series – another Ally Carter masterpiece with a fiercely independent protagonist and a cute (non-insta) love story; again can’t really tell you about love triangles yet because only two books have been released
7. Harry Potter Series – one of the most beloved series of all time, and yet do we see a love triangle or insta-love? NO WE DON’T! you can be successful without one YA Authors, trust me JK Rowling did it beautifully, take notes?

Now a list of books that have been ruined for me because of love triangles/insta-love:

1. Twilight Series – already went on about this but in short I hated the very core of this series which was pretty much a combo of vampires, insta-love, and a love triangle
2. The Hunger Games Series – when I first started reading these books I couldn’t put them down but when I ended up on team Gale and Katniss didn’t, well…let’s just say that’s another reason to hate love triangles
3. The Infernal Devices Series – honestly this is one of the WORST love triangles I have ever encountered; I cannot tell what is going to happen, but I can tell you it annoys me that both boys are so darn lovable; I wish I could say Tessa and WIll will end up together and everything will be happily ever after, but at this point there’s no telling
4. The Carrier of the Mark – one of the absolute worst Twilight copies I have ever read; the insta-love was definitely puke-worthy and I cannot even promise that I finished the book because it was so bad
5. Struck – this book had such an exciting premise but unfortunately the insta-love was really weird and the whole book just felt rushed (I guess and upcoming apocalypse can do that do a person…heh)
6. The Vampire Academy Series – I hated and loved the protagonist at the same time mostly due to her badass-ness and her inability to choose a guy; we all knew how it was going to end up and yet the author made us fall in love with another guy after we had just fallen in love with the first one (this gets resolved in Bloodlines so I guess it isn’t the worst case)
7. Fallen Series – the first book was amazing but the rest were really annoying; insta-love struck and I was okay with it until the second book when things became really stupid with the introduction of a small love triangle while there was simultaneously another love triangle even though it wasn’t an outward love triangle; confusing, I know, that’s why it made me mad

Now these aren’t all the good/bad books I have read that included/didn’t include love triangle and insta-love but these are the ones I can remember at this moment. The only thing I ask is that we get some books that aren’t based on these two simple things! I hope to review some of the books on those lists that I have so graciously compiled, but until then, happy reading!

Want me to review a book? Email me at youngadultbookmuncher@gmail.com or comment this post!