Top Five Tuesday is a Weakly meme hosted by Shanah @ Bionic Bookworm and this week’s theme is favourite tropes. I actually love to talk about tropes since I’m an assiduous reader of TV Tropes and can spend hours browsing the tropes of the media I like, plus, finding new stuff to like based on my favourite tropes. But the tropes over there are a tad too specific at times, so I’m sticking to the broader more well-known tropes. Also, I’ve just realised many of my favourite (specific) tropes are actually more prevalent in video games than books. I’d love to read a book about a glass cannon character as much as I love to play one.
Found Families
I’m pretty sure this is going to be a really common one. There’s just something about a group of characters, all of them battling their own demons, coming together and bonding over their shared struggles, ambitions and ultimately friendship– to form their own little family unit. Willing to kill and die for each other. Proving the old, and often misquoted, saying right: “The blood of the covenant is thicker than water from the womb”
The Raven Cycle — Doesn’t need much introduction. The friendship between the characters is the story, the plot is absolutely secondary to their intricate relationships and devotion to each other. As a big fan of character driven stories I couldn’t love it more.
Bloody Rose — A new favourite but with a band of friends that left a huge mark on me. Just a few pages after meeting them I was already deeply invested in their friendship. The ending broke my heart a little.
Red Sister — I love Nona and all her friends. In the bleak world of Abeth they are the one shining spot. Their genuine friendship and childlike joy in each other’s company is like a balm for the soul. I don’t think I’ve ever read about female friendships I loved this much.
Protective Siblings
As much as I love the families characters make for themselves I also appreciate it when they love the families they were born into — especially their siblings. I’m very close with my brother, and we’ve been best friends since we were children, so I love reading about characters who value their siblings just as much.
The Darkest Part of the Forest — This book is one where the siblings actually have to work through some previous issues and new ones that crop up in order to salvage their relationship. It’s a really worthwhile journey and a big reason why I enjoyed this book so much.
Summer of Salt — I love the relationship between Georgina and Mary. I love that they are such different people but they never mock of belittle one another, and instead are close friends who would go to the ends of the earth for each other.
Dream Thieves — This is really about Ronan and his love for his brother Matthew. It’s ironic considering he and Declan hate each other so much, but Ronan’s immense love for his younger brother, mother, and even his (frankly abusive at times) father just goes to show how Declan is to blame for their strained relationship. I really enjoy how Ronan’s devotion to Matthew pops up all through the series, reminding us that there is nothing he values more than family.
Meant to Be
This is a hard one to describe. Either the romantic relationship is foretold by prophecy or there are just some elements of it that feel cosmically inevitable in some way. These people aren’t soulmates, or I highly prefer it if the word isn’t used. This is grander than that, almost mythological. The very balance of the world hangs on their relationship, their very lives are dependent on each other. If one dies, so does the other. It’s very dramatic and I’m a sucker for it. There are very few books that do it, but maybe that’s only my perception because this is a trope that I enjoy exclusively with LGBT couples.
The Song of Achilles — These are actual mythological lovers. The nature of Achilles and Patroclus relationship is the stuff of legend. There were fights in ancient Greece over which one of them was the top or the bottom. I think it was Plato that was convinced it was Achilles who bottomed. I love the knowledge that this was a topic of discussion in the symposium and during fancy dinner parties. Their relationship felt appropriately epic, and in keeping with the Greek tradition, tragic.
Fire from Heaven — If it isn’t the story of Alexander the Great and his lover Hephaestion, the man who thought he was Achilles, you’ll never guess who he thought Hephaestion was! This chronicles Alexander’s earlier years before the death of his father. Alexander thought himself a demi-god and so did plenty of other people, he was worshipped in life. in death, but he worshipped only Hephaestion. It’s the second book The Persian Boy, however, that actually drives home the similarities between the two sets of lovers. Since Alexander actually dies of a broken heart, driven mad by grief, shortly after Hephaestion’s death. Uncanny. (Listen, it isn’t a spoiler when it’s about a real person. His wikipedia page will tell you as much)
The Tiger’s Daughter — I’m not finished with this book, I’m not even halfway, but oh boy, do I love the impression I get about Shizuka and Shefali’s relationship. I mean a few pages in there’s talk of a prophecy about their birth, and they are both princesses, and they don’t have that much in common to begin with but they make really big strides to meet each other in the middle, and I’m loving it thus far. Also, they’re both deeply flawed, which I should mention, all the characters in this section are, and I enjoy it immensely. It’s par for the course with this trope, and one of the reasons’s why I like it so much.
Magical School
This is a really obvious one. There’s a school, people gather there to learn to master whatever magic skills they have.
Nevernight — This doubles as assassin and magic school, although the assassin part takes most of the spotlight, the magic plays a big role though. I especially liked the potions-like class.
Red Sister — Oh man I loved the classes in this, I was actually surprised to learn some people found them boring! They were an absolute highlight for me. I loved Path and Shade most of all.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children — I didn’t loooove this book. But I liked it well enough. The “school” aspect was a big part of it. This is also an example that for me to enjoy this trope there doesn’t need to be a formal school or teaching system as such, but unique individuals, brought together under a single roof, where they have to coexist — and the tensions born from that.
Enemies to Friends (to Lovers)
I love when characters initially hate each other, for whatever reason, and then overcome their biases to work together and become allies, friends, and sometimes more! A really common and popular trope that is nevertheless seldom done right.
Proxy — The friendship that grows between Knox and Syd is just…I read this book ages ago but I’ll never forget about it. The character growth Knox goes trough is astonishing, the sacrifice he makes for Syd is heartbreaking. I think their relationship is a big reason why I wasn’t able to enjoy the sequel as much.
Red Sister — I don’t want to spoil anything. But there’s one character that initially feels like she will be a rival of Nona’s. That doesn’t end up happening, they actually become really close friends (there’s a prophecy involving them — remember how much I love those), and the hints of something more make me hope for a deeper relationship when they’re both older. Just, so good.
Godsgrave — This one actually is an example of friends-to-enemies-to-lovers, and there are not enough words to express how much I love that dynamic. I can’t wait to see more of this relationship in the next book!
And that’s it, those are my absolute favourite tropes. I’m not at all surprised to see some books pop up more than once, it makes sense that the books I like the most would have the biggest collections of tropes I love. I haven’t read Grey Sister yet, but if all goes well the Book of the Ancestor trilogy could be going for the gold and hitting all of my favourite tropes. Do you like any of these tropes? Have any recommendations? I’d love to hear them, especially in the “Meant to Be” section since I’m always looking for books with that kind of epic, word-defying type of love.
Third Person Limited 