(Notes: This post is a lot like my anti-love triangles post. This isn't my review of The Mephisto Covenant; I haven't even finished the book yet. I used it for most of the examples because it's the worst case of Insta-Love! I've ever read.)
So I'm about halfway through The Mephisto Covenant, and something in it really, really bothers me in more than any other book I've read. The Insta-Love. >.<
It's not that love at first sight bothers me. It doesn't. It really doesn't. Being a writer myself, I understand that the characters don't have all the time in the world, and that the romantic parts are some of the best and most fun to write. The characters just have to find something attractive in each other besides looks. They have to be more connected then just through looks. And I'm sorry to say that most YA books today don't have this.
My main problem is that the romance today, especially the Insta-Love! kind is mostly told and shown through make-out sessions and fits of passion. There's no depth to them. None at all. And that comes from two things: the actual romance being flat, or the romantic interest.
When the romantic interest is flat in Insta-Love!, it's usually because we as the readers have barely seen the romantic interest. In The Mephisto Covenant, even though Jax is one of the narrators, he's barely anything beyond being obsessed with Sasha. In Darker Still, Denby is about as flat a character of major importance could get.
I also think that one of the things that really bothers me is when the romance takes place too early in the book. In The Mephisto Covenant, it starts on page 75. (Yes, I checked.) With the Infernal Devices and Daughter of Smoke and Bone, two of my favorite books, it's only about a week after the couple meets, but about half the book has gone by. In reality it isn't a long time, but since half the book and half the action has gone by, it seems longer. Plus, in paranormal romances, after about half the book they've usually been through a lot together; they have something that connects them. They have something that makes their romance deeper.
Like I said with love triangles: I don't despise Insta-Love! Not at all. But there just has to be a reason beyond looks. Most aren't well done at all, so that's why I dislike them.
THANK YOU for making the point about page count. Because honestly, more than the chronological amount of time that passes, it's the amount of the book spent on them that determines whether the romance develops or not. A book set in one day where the characters don't get together until page 300 would have a much better developed romance than one that spans a month where they get together in the first 50. It's all about how much time the author spends developing it, not about how much time actually passes.
ReplyDeleteLexie: Exactly.
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