Saturday Discussions: Topics/Genres I Don't Like

My amazing little sister thought it might be fun to talk about genres or topic that we don't like for this week's Saturday Discussion. I've been thinking about this prompt a lot, trying to decide if there ever WERE topics I don't like. As a writer, I don't like the idea of being silenced but that being said, there are definitely things I won't read about because they are simply not for me.


As a reader, I'm pretty open to every situation and most genres. I used to not read anything that wasn't fantasy. I looked as reading as an escape, thus I didn't want to read anything set in real life. I still look at reading as an escape but my genre bias has completely evaporated as books like 13 Reasons Why and Across The Universe and Twilight came into my world. Suddenly, I found I liked romance in plots and that contemps can be heartbreaking and moving. That sci-fi can still be out of this world and yet deal with the things I know on solid ground.


However, there are still some subject I just won't pick up.

1) Pregnancy- I have no desire to read books about pregnant characters. No offense to people who write about this or love these type of stories but they just aren't for me. I'm not particularly comfortable with the idea of pregnancy when it comes to myself and I'm not wild about kids so I just don't want to read about it. Does that mean I won't? Not at all. I read Breaking Dawn. That being said, Breaking Dawn is my least favorite book in the Twilight Saga.


2) Rape- I've read books with rape in it but I get really squeamish if it goes in to great detail. I understand that these events need to be talked about and I think they should be talked about but I don't want to relive every gory detail. So I don't mind this topic if it doesn't go into a lot of detail.


3) Gore- I just can't take it. I don't like knowing exactly how someone is sown up and how much blood and guts are hanging out. I can take a few details like this but I CANNOT get that over and over again or I will be forced to put the book down. Just can't deal in real life or my fiction.


4) Racism- Again, I don't like if there is a lot of racism in a book because I can't stand racist people. It should be talked about and it needs to be written about but I get really angry if it's in a novel over and over again. I've never actually come across this but if a main character were racist, I'd probably burn the book.


5) Politics- I don't mind a little bit of politics in my novel because they can be really important to the story. I just don't want to hear every single detail about how the government is running the place if it isn't going to be important later. I think the dystopians coming out now have it right with just the right amount of government politics in their novels.

6) Religion- This one is a bit different from the other in that I don't mind novels with the main topic of religion. I just don't want to be preached to. A good example of this is The Dark Divine by Despain. The father is a pastor and Grace believes in God but it doesn't over rule the book and it isn't trying to tell you what to believe the whole time. Things that are constantly praising God (in any religion) with their plot points will never be my cup of tea.


Those are really the main things I can think of that will really make me think twice about a book. There will always be exceptions to these pet peeves of mine and even terms within the book can make me change my mind. For instance, if a book has a racist character but that character learns something or ends up getting theirs, I'm all for it! I know it isn't realistic to want bad characters to be punished but again, I'm not reading for realism. I want to escape to a place where the mean girl gets thrown into a vat of trash at the end and the homophobic jock gets punched in the face for being an ass.


These are a few of the things that will make me put down a book. What about you? Is there a genre you just can't get into or a topic you just don't like?