The Nope Book Tag

A while ago Kelly @ justanotherbookinthewall did this tag and while I don’t like to dwell on the nopes (pop culture-wise; my own brainpan can get into depressive nope spirals like it’s my number one job), this was a fun tag to do! Sometimes you just gotta let out the nope in order to feel dope…. I’m so sorry.

NOPE Ending | A Book Ending That Made You Go NOPE Either In Denial, Rage, or Simply Because The Ending Was Crappy

This movie is about the relationship between a mother and her son and the aftermath when her son murders his classmates. It’s very well-written, and came out over 10 years ago, with a great film adaptation following. What gets to me about the ending was the inevitable long scream of it. This is a profile of a young killer, of a mother trapped within her own ambivalence and blindness – who really thinks their loved one would do something like this? – and the ending is just devastating. It’s similar thematically with the film Rudderless* (school massacre, nature vs nurture, how family/survivors are impacted), but is very different in tone/final message. I would recommend either of these stories because the elements/acting/writing come together to craft a compelling story about a controversial topic.

*Rudderless is a well-done movie with a fantastic cast (Anton Yelchin will make you cry for more than one reason) and the soundtrack is pretty good (it was designed to be that way lol) I like this one a lot, but it’s the last song on the soundtrack, so could be spoilery: Sing Along

NOPE Protagonist |  A Main Character You Dislike & Drives You Crazy

Dear Victor, Hug your son. Stop whinging. It’ll be alright. Love, Cade

NOPE Series | A Series That Turned Out to Be One Huge Pile of NOPE

James Patterson is just not for me. I know that now. I picked this book series up because I was pretty into Dark Angel and this is Dark Angel lite* and the kids were cute and Patterson’s writing definitely hurtles you along at a breakneck pace until you’re all, “plot holes, what?” There was a book later on in the series where all characterization and plot went out the window in favor of, if I recall correctly, the kids fighting the baddies in a northern locale, and it was a huuuuuuuuge global warming PSA, which yes, please, inspire our kids to save our planet, but I prefer the gorgeous, moving Miyazakian way, not the anvilicious style JPats delivered. So… it’s just a blargh, forgettable series for me.

*I’m not saying Dark Angel was any better. Just I can still dig it, even years later, even looking back at the so very early 00s James Cameron mess that it was. Um, yeah, see ya, gotta blaze.

NOPE Popular Pairing | A Ship You Don’t Support

This really isn’t a popular pairing, I’ll bet, and yeah, we all know Twilight has abusive, problematic as all get out couples, but dear Criminy Jickets, is the pairing of Jacob and a freaking five-minute-old baby the absolute worst. There’s nothing redeemable about writing a female BABY character who will “look” 17 in like seven years so it’s NBD, right, my dudes, and taking away all of her agency literally before she has a chance to scream about it. I just… nah, son. I noped out this franchise when Jacob was trying to justify his cousin having a playdate with a two-year-old LI on the beach. I don’t even want to “get it” as anything romantic or chivalrous. Peace.

NOPE Plot Twist | A Twist You Didn’t Anticipate, Or One You Didn’t Like

wil

HOLY MOLES this film is gorgeous and the plot twists (yes, plural) extremely well-executed and brilliant. I still need to read the book it’s based on, Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, and the film is graphic at parts, but I just love this story so much. It’s as sublime as the San Junipero episode of Black Mirror, especially in terms of the ending.

NOPE Protagonist’s Decision | A Decision That Made You Shake Your Head

Oh my babes, my dramatic darlings, my dudes. Romeo and Juliet. You were one of the firsts, so I get ya, no precedent = bad decision making. But at least now all of us know. If ya gonna fall madly in love-lust, maybe chill for a minute or two before ending it.

NOPE Genre | A Genre You Will Never Read

I’m not sure… I liked quite a few Beat authors, but if William S. Burroughs could be considered his own genre, drug-addled nonsense with a dab of pretension, then yeah, never. Reading The Naked Lunch was like scraping my face against the Gum Wall in Seattle while someone butchered a Celine Dion song behind me and made off with my Cajun GF tater tots.

NOPE Book Format | Book Formatting You Hate & Refuse To Buy

Um, again, not sure. I guess I don’t purchase audiobooks because eAudiobooks are amazing and freeeeeee. I don’t really like how small mass market paperbacks are? So yeah, I’d avoid those, except for the very odd occasion at the library.

NOPE Trope | A Trope That You Hate

Fridging women and burying the gays. F/// off.

NOPE Recommendation | A Hyped Book That You Refuse To Read

Uhhhhhhh, anything John Green or E.L. James. I’ve read enough sporkings/reviews to know, these are not the metaphors I’m looking for, and they won’t be my cup of (Twinings) tea.

NOPE Cliche | A Cliche Or Pet Peeve That Makes You Roll Your Eyes

I n s t a l o v e. Especially when it involves a turrible dudebro jerk and the female MC is like “but he’s soooooooo hot, I shall accept this physical/emotional/verbal abuse, #worthit.” It’s just such poor writing and honestly irresponsible/lazy/lame when authors do this.

NOPE Love Interest | A Character You Don’t Think Should’ve Been A Viable Love Interest

I mean… he’s boring. And makes dumb decisions. And Gatniss or Kale just can’t even hold a candle to the portmanteau perfection that is Peeniss and Katpee. Both. Both is good.

NOPE Book | A Book You Don’t Think Should Exist

Alrighty, so I work at a library. And even before that, even in my high school these certain YA hyped books are trash WHYYYYY phase, I never thought a book shouldn’t exist (or should be burned or banned or whathaveyou). Every book is a gift from an author to the world, a piece of their heart, and although their story might not resonate with myself, there is someone out there who will enjoy that book. BUT BUT there is one book, one terrible waste of paper, that I was pretty miffed to see my library had spent money on. It doesn’t matter what political set-up it was, but here’s the appalling gist. The title was Reasons to Vote for the Purple Party. And I flipped through it to find 200+ blank pages. And a f///ing fake bibliography. If (huge if) this failure of a joke had been released on a college campus, with a recycling bin right by the booth, maybe I would be like, Okay, I get your commentary. But that was not the case. Utterly stupid book. Because it was a throwaway joke. I just, gosh, I’m seething thinking about it. ANYWHO.

NOPE Villain | A Scary Villain You Would Hate To Cross Paths With

That’s a toss up between Patrick Bateman and Hannibal Lecter. The former is obnoxious toxic fragile masculinity incarnate, blargh. And the latter… oh no, I guess actually I wouldn’t mind going to one of his dinner parties, as long as I wasn’t the guest of honor, and I didn’t know about… you know. If it was Mads Mikkelsen, ja feel? And the food production was as koala tea as the NBC show. Yes… ahem. *whistles*

NOPE Death | A Character Death That Still Haunts You

I mean, literary-wise, there’s half of the Harry Potter cast, that character from Bridge to Terebithia, Boromir, Artax from The Neverending Story (although the movie version is actually far more emotionally fraught than the book), FREAKING The Book Thief, the ending of Life of Pi and We Need to Talk About Kevin and all of The Lovely Bones. Ahem, but the one that got me as a child and still freaking does, is when Littlefoot’s mother dies, fighting off that wicked T. Rex. The music, the whimpers, that old codger Scolosaurus (who was only added in after suggestions by psychologists that hey, Mr. Bluth, let’s give the kiddos a chance to freaking breathe after that small bit of devastation, maybe.) It all comes together to rip my heart out. Golly, I love this first film, and golly, I’m sad.

NOPE Author | An Author You Have Decided to Quit

I don’t know… even before the allegations, I didn’t like Junot Diaz’s stuff. He knows one story and he sticks to it. Oh, I did a chronological reread of a lot of Amelia Atwater-Rhodes’ supernatural books last year, and I got through her fantastic shapeshifter series, but fizzled out once I dove back into her vampire stuff. It just became very repetitive and boring and disappointing. So. Maybe one day I’ll read her next stuff, especially if it’s a new series, but for a while now, I just don’t care.

Has a book ever made you “nope” so hard that you tossed it across the room? What “nope” pairings do you have? If you’d like to do this tag, feel free! But also:

I tag: Jess and Teagan | Bentley | Larkin | Lily | May