Bookish Musings - 24.04.26
Hello! I hope we have all had a good week, full of what you wish to do most. Coinciding with the brighter, if not warmer weather, coming to UK, my littles have returned to their respective day places - hurray! I love my littles dearly but they are time sinks and the three week break was more stressful than anticipated! I have definitely been productive this week to try and catch up, but I also feel that I should manage expectations. I am very much enjoying my blogging journey and my entry in to ARC reviewing is picking up pace (more to follow), and as much as I could and would do this endlessly. I do need to continue with my ongoing job search and trying to pass other examinations that are on my to do list. Therefore, while I will try my very best to publish something every week, how much and how often is likely to vary. I do appreciate you choosing to spend your time with me and wish you a good week ahead. Please see below for this week’s Bookish Musings.
Thoughts on Tropes
I came across this short from the To Be Read Podcast on YouTube about Tropes and it definitely got me musing. I am hugely interested in Tropes, as writing devices they fascinate me. They are used quite a lot across all Literature genres and if you are familiar with Romance literature, then you will be familiar with Romantic tropes. Personally for me, they are signifiers or ways to manage expectations around books. A happy ever after ending is a core Romantic trope. If you read a Romance and there is not a happy ending then you have not in fact read a Romance, but likely a literary fiction with romantic elements. I think that distinction matters and by using tropes, you are giving readers the space to manage their expectations and the choice as to whether engage or not with a particular story. I know personally, that I get very frustrated when something claims to be something that it is not. That said, I can agree that tropes are very important and a key story telling device, and also that they become a bit of a crutch around marketing of books. Do I decide what to read based on Tropes? Probably more often than I should. I use the excuse that as I am time poor, a trope is a shorthand signifier to me as to whether a book is worth investing my time or not. However, that’s not their purpose and ultimately I am doing myself a disservice. There are tropes I don’t like and therefore books that I will avoid because they contains those tropes, but therein lies the paradox, because I have read books that contained a particular trope I didn’t like and I have enjoyed the book. And the reason, that I read those books, was because the trope was absent from the marketing and I effectively went in blind. I would have missed out on that reading experience based on the marketing and my various predispositions. I think it is a really interesting point and there is an element of a double-edged sword, that putting the tropes front and central brings interest in but can also drive people away. I know it is a bad habit of mine and I am trying to open up my reading experiences, even if inevitably it will largely remain trope-focused.
So have tropes become victims of their own success? Are they given too much weight in the marketing process? Should they even be part of the marketing process? All interesting questions, I have no answers but feel it is definitely worth thinking about.
ARC Update
This has been quite an unusual week for me as I ended with two ARCs to review, taking me to a grand total of 3 successful attempts so far. Gemini: Ryder by Jodi Payne and BA Tortuga has already been written up and the review can be found on the blog and on Good Reads. At the time of writing, I have started reading Save the Date by Sophia Soames and that will go up in due course. I have also found out today, that I have received another ARC which will be my next read. I am incredibly grateful to the authors, book promoters and publishers who are affording me this opportunity. I think I do have to plan my time a bit better as there a number of new releases on my TBR that I am keen to start but I wish to have finished my ARC list first. Although, having too many books to read isn’t the worst problem to have, if I am honest! 📚📖📕
