Postcard For Reader

Thoughts On: Love Triangles

There are many trends in the young adult publishing world recently.

We have the entire paranormal genre.
We have the dark covers.
We have people on the covers.
And most annoyingly, we have love triangles.

Don't get me wrong; I like some love triangles well enough. One love triangle in every hundred books is nice, so long as they're well written and creative and whathaveyou.

But that's the problem - they should only be one in a hundred. Wherever you look, you have an LOL LOVE TRIANGLE, especially in paranormal romance!

I was talking to a friend yesterday; it always seems to go like this:
- Ordinary girl wanders around.
- One EXTRAORDINARY boy has shown an interest in her for a while.
- Another EXTRAORDINARY boy shows up and also is unusually interested in her.
- DILEMMA OMIGOD LOL.

It's not just a Twilight thing, though that may be what set off all of the (paranormal) love triangles. It happens in books I like and don't like, in all genres now.

For paranormal, Firelight by Sophie Jordan, which I love, has a love triangle. The love triangle in Nightshade by Andrea Cremer was the only part of the book I didn't like.

In dystopians, we have the love triangle set up in The Hunger Games, which added even more drama to an already dramatic series, but at the heart of the series was irrelevant. In Enclave by Ann Aguirre, the love triangle was so unnecessarily set up that it made me dislike the book as a whole. Even Lauren deStefano's Wither sets up the hint of a love triangle.

In fantasy, The Iron King - which I consider fantasy, not paranormal, though I'm not sure why - has a massive love triangle, of which I take the losing side. I'm invested in it, and I do enjoy it, but at the same time, logically, it doesn't make much sense - Ash, who she chooses to fall for, is the same man who starts the book trying to kill her. If somebody is trying to murder you, do you really decide, "Oh, hmm. I'm going to fall in love with them!"?*

*Note: If your name is Bella Swann, you are exempt from this rule.

I asked Twitter for suggestions for love triangles and got dozens with in minutes. The Summer I Turned Pretty. Looking for Alaska. The Sky Is Everywhere. Flawless. Forget You. Prom and Prejudice. Shade. Deadly Little Lies. Beautiful Disaster. The Truth About Forever. Wicked Lovely. Perfect Chemistry.

Part of my dislike of love triangles is that, more often than not, and especially in paranormal, they're unrealistic. You have ridiculously amazing people falling for ordinary people. Yes, sure, that's nice in ideal, but I've never been able to relate to that; you'd never feel equal with somebody who is so PERFECT! while you are so ORDINARY!

And more often than not, and especially in paranormal, one of the people you're interested in is "elusive" or "mysterious" which, in the context of the story, translates to "he tried to kill me, but I forgave him." What the hell!? I know very few people in real life who would get back together with somebody who tried to kill them, if any at all.

And that brings up another unrealistic point - look at your group of friends. (Your REAL friends, not your Facebook friends.) How many of them are involved with in a love triangle? Not crushing on a guy who has a girlfriend, but genuinely involved in a love triangle? If you can come up with one, I applaud you. It's rare.

I think the thing I hate most about love triangles is that they're not just two people falling in love.

Yes, I said it. The problem with love triangles is that they are, in fact, love triangles.

What happened to just two people falling in love? Why do you have to have the selection all of a sudden? The beauty, the amazingness, the sheer euphoria of two people falling in love is amazing. And more often than not, you can have enough problems in that relationship, or adjusting to that relationship, or within the plot that causes stress in the relationship, that you don't need to stick another guy in to cause the drama.

Look at Harry Potter. Is there the hint of a love triangle? No. Yes, Harry does date Cho before finding Ginny, but that's normal. Yes, Ron dates Lavendar; Hermione dates Krum; they're teenagers, it's okay to date outside of the one person you'll be with forever.

But you know who loves who. The characters aren't running around in love triangles or whathaveyou. Even in Pride and Prejudice, which is arguably the most romantic story of most time, there is no love triangle. Is Wickham interested in Lizzie for a bit? Yes! But there was never any real interest on Lizzie's part, not really; she defended him because she thought him friendly and already disliked Darcy. But there's never a triangle. The two guys don't spend the entire book fighting over her; she's not madly in love with both and has to choose.

Or take My Ridiculous Romantic Obsessions by Becca Wilhite, which I just finished recently. I loved it. And it's about two people falling in love. They have their problems and their stresses and she doesn't need to be in love with somebody else to do it.

Maybe that's the reason I love the historical romance genre; more often than not, it's not a love triangle. It's two people who try not to fall in love and then do. I love that.

Is it just me? Or do you guys feel the same way?