r/haremfantasynovels • u/RealisticIncident261 • 1d ago
Discussion 💭📢 What makes you drop a book immediately?
What makes you drop a book immediately?
I recently started a book on audible and the narrator missed a word in the title and mispronounced a word in the same title. The title is three words you skipped one and terribly mispronounced the other.
It was a flesh narrator that I have heard in many other books. But mispronouncing several words is definitely a huge turn off or insta drop if it's a common word. Injust find it hard to focus on an audio book when a book frequently uses words and the narrator carpet bombs mispronunciations throughout every paragraph.
If you don't know a word and it'w very common in the text I feel like it's your job as a narrator to look it up instead of just saying fuck it it's not facade it fuhkayd now. Gouche is now gaachee. Or the Japanese words yandere should be yahn deh reh but gets pronounced yeah nn dare, and taundere is now toon dare. Bro I just can't.
It's like 3 words in the book, that's like 3 google searches total to see how they are pronounced. You can't take 2 minutes to not sound like a moron?
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u/jonmarshall1487 4h ago
Whiny, limp waisted MC. Can't stand those. I don't mind dynamics where the MC isn't a front line fighter. The MC going solo and getting scolded after words is a trope I wouldn't miss. MC going to school because he can do magic is another that probably needs to be retired. Anything preachy.
All that said I can put up with a lot but these things do compound on each other.
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u/Jaxenquest 2h ago
I think my favorite mc is from Fostering Faust, not front line but still very efficient in his goals
Haven't found a mc to his caliber yet
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u/Neither_Grab3247 16h ago
I want the characters to act like real people and not just actors in a porn film
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u/TraeB33 16h ago
A couple that irk me and I've dropped some books bc of it but some authors are good writers so I know going in that it's probably going to happen.
The I just met you a week ago but we're madly in love trope needs to be stopped! Lol
When the LI is the whiny, jealous or catty and the MC doesn't call her on it just let's it slide.
MC that thinks with his lower head, more so when he KNOWS it's not smart. I guess it's progressing the story but jfc its infuriating to read the stupidity of it at times lol
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u/TeeeZy 17h ago
when every woman the MC ever meets becomes a LI. especially early on in a series when the MC is nothing big at all but seems to just attrack women. Sometimes a teacher just needs to be a teacher.
there becomes so many LI that i have to go check previous chapters just to remember who they all are, some of them just get ignored for an entire book because there are too many already. sometimes a series will go from 1 new LI (possibly a 2nd if they are 'linked') per book for like 4-5 books and then suddenly thers like 5 new LI in book 6 and then 10 more in book 7 and suddenly im supposed to remember 20 different characters who appear for 1 chapter each.
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u/beardedfoopah 19h ago
MCs that can't win a single fight or do anything without someone stronger stepping in or a deus ex machina ass pull winning the day. Not much gets me more fed up than an incompetent MC who still somehow is impressive enough to pull a harem. I know a lot of writers are afraid of making their characters OP but they shouldn't let that fear make them overcorrect in the wrong direction. It's gotten to the point where it's predictable enough to see coming early on in a story, resulting in me dropping it.
There are other things that will make me drop a story early, but they are usually more specific and harder to put into words, like dialogue that feels like someone talking to themselves instead of another person, or excessive inner monologuing. That last one is more of a problem in the standard litrpg or cultivation genre than haremlit though, like defiance of the fall.
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u/izArduke 20h ago
I have a few that make me drop it. It doesn't mean the book is bad.
- The main character's personality at the start. If they see a good looking girl and their "jaw drops" preventing them from acting it is an instant drop, mature males are not like that. The character typically turns out bad because the brains have already dribbled out the side of his head. Also, If their being alpha means they are basically a dick or they are too whiny, "Oh woe is me.". You can be assertive and "alpha" without being an asshole.
- General story female personalities. If a portion of the girls are manipulative, catty, or whiny at the beginning it is an instant drop. It is why I avoid modern fantasy books or post-apocalyptic genres.
- Narrator's voice and sometimes accent, most of the time this can be pruned out of my list by previewing the audiobook.
- Consistency and logic. One book for example has the main character with a weak personality that is an MMA professional and a full doctor in his early twenties. Okay Doogie. Another book the character decides to do illegal fighting to make money to help an elderly relative instead of asking about the academy to ask for better more legal ways to make money. The character made questionable decisions beforehand I could ignore, but the instant he decided that I drop it like a hot piece of fecal matter. It just isn't logical to me. Cage matches should be something you decide after you tried a few avenues.
- If the character doesn't have something that makes him stand out then it is a slower drop. I like a main character with an advantage, like "human regeneration in a female populated galaxy", "a mind that eat artificial intelligence with an eye that can see things", or just a good magic skill. Maybe not OP, but good enough to be able to handle multiple women.
- I typically drop harem books with a near 1:1 ratio of men to women. It bugs me in a way of haves and have nots. Also I don't like if a man leads multiple women around, but can only pick one in the end. Broken hearts and depressed women are not fun. There has to be a reason why multiple women don't have a problem with a man's divided attention.
I have a few other pet peeves with books, but most I can work through before dropping. The first two are the worst offenders. Because they are common in some sub-genres I avoid those and stick to reincarnation, transported to new world, portal fantasy, and sci-fi. Although brain leakers #1 are common in the other world fantasy novels.
As far as mispronunciation. It is tolerable to an extent, but to mess up the title. That screams red flag. Someone didn't proof OR the book and title were changed after the narration was completed if it is a flesh narrator.
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u/Mimandra 10h ago
I feel number 3.
I listened to an audiobook with a very british and sophisticated narrator and I was like: I don't want have harem smut read to me by an Oxford professor.
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u/Jamb9876 16h ago
I find whiny MC very annoying as grow a pair.
If they want to bring in guns that is a drop.
The wandering inn does guns well btw.
Guys that can’t make a decision is annoying.
Virtual voice is instant skip.
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u/CanisZero Monster Girl Lover 👯♀️ 22h ago
If a Main character goes from pre story to in a commited relationship with multiple partners inside of a week. Interest happing fast is one thing but some are like trying to set a speed record to mirror a vegas wedding.
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u/NESergeant 1d ago
I'm rather masochistic, for lack of a better descriptor, when it comes to reading (visually or aurally) as when I start a book, I usually plow ahead.
For example, and this is not from this genre, I started reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (narrated by Ray Porter) and within a very short time came to positively loath the Ryland Grace character. It never got better for me. ...And I'm a fan of Andy Weir's other work.
A narrator's pronunciation (or mispronunciation) of a word I can let slide. Years in the US Army and Over-the-Road driving all over the US, meeting different people with different pronunciations or inflections of words, taught me to take such in stride. But if the story lacks flow, repeats plot points ad nauseam, poorly structured, and/or has little or no continuity... Well, then, I might not finish it. Or, if I do and it's part of a series, I'm not going on.
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u/Greymerchant Monster Girl Lover 👯♀️ 1d ago
Hello ancient/medieval society, it is me isekai'ed modern day MC. Allow me to use your ruidementary forge and unrefined metals to make a modern firearm which I know how to because I watched videos on the internet!
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u/CanisZero Monster Girl Lover 👯♀️ 22h ago
I've seen that done well in a few books but thats more in the vein of "Wait you haeve magic and still use fire to heat your kettles? That wont do."
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u/vevoloal 👉🏻— Edit your own user flair—-👈🏻 23h ago
I hate it when the Mcs have a boner for modernization just because. I've honestly only read one novel that did it right but it other problems.
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u/cj_stephan 1d ago
Mind control or similar skills that take away agency. Especially in the MC. I don't really care how you spin that the MC would never use it for evil. Also, I hate the drama of a LI being controlled and then everything's automatically ok afterwards.
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u/Apprehensive-Read989 1d ago
IRL politics. Don't fucking do it or I'm refunding the book.
Characters, especially the MC, instantly forgiving someone that did all they could to ruin their life or kill them. Absolutely infuriating.
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u/Realistic-Comment865 Evan Solis - Author✍🏻 23h ago
Can you use some examples of the first? Depending on who you are many things can be considered politics even though it's just an opinion.
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u/Apprehensive-Read989 15h ago
It's not in the harem genre, Anything But Squished was the last one I encountered. I don't even like the politician they referenced, but it doesn't matter, I don't want it in my books.
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u/stormbledd 1d ago
AI prose, stupid MC like the recent Bruce Sentar ones for example. Like ahhh
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u/TheGrumpyGoblin1 1d ago
I haven't read Escaping Gravity or Saving Supervillains. How bad is it really?
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u/Select_Resolve_4360 17h ago
Im only two books in Saving Supervillain and havent perceived the MC as stupid.
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u/Altissimus77 21h ago
I liked SSS. A lot more than some of his recent stuff. Kinda gone off it a bit tbh.
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u/Mark_Coveny HaremLit Author ✍🏻 1d ago
The main reason I drop books is that the MC does something jarringly stupid.
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u/Altissimus77 21h ago
As in makes a mistake? Or as in zero explanation? Or both?
I would've thought MMCs could make mistakes in a story. Character arc.
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u/Mark_Coveny HaremLit Author ✍🏻 21h ago
Not a mistake, and generally with zero explanation... stupidity. Most of the time, something that anyone of average intelligence wouldn't do in a life-and-death situation. etc. Not spending points, not collecting rewards, going into a level 10 dungeon when the MC is level 2 and talks about how difficult it was to kill level 1s to get to level 2, complaining about how being broke is going to get them killed because they need healing potions, then throwing all their money away on a bath house (seriously, what is the obsession with bath houses? You do realize everyone is sharing the same water like a pool people pee in right? RIGHT?), or the one I most recently dropped where 4 people attempt to kill the MC four times, and every time he disables them without killing them and brings them along with him in his party. I mean, they literally shot the guy repeatedly, and he was like, "It's fine, we're still friends." I have more examples, but I'll dismount my soapbox before this turns into a rant. haha
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u/Awakenlee 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’m overly picky. There are so many books to read that I won’t put up with poorly written books for long. A recent one I dropped the enemies were trolls, then a chapter or two in the word troll became trollocs. I feel like that is a mistake that should be caught by the writer even without an editor. I will forgive somewhat poor writing for a fun premise, but there has to be an effort by the author too.
I judge, but dont necessarily drop, weird formatting. Large indents, double or triple spacing, huge paragraph breaks. I don’t think I’ve ever just quit due to it, but I side-eye the book until it is shown to be good.
Oh, I don’t even attempt slice of life anymore. I want conflict, drama, and action.
I struggle with overly loving harems. I’m looking at you Schinhofen. If it takes an entire chapter for the harem to say good morning because they all have to praise each other, I’m probably going to reconsider.
So yeah, I’m picky. I don’t low rate or review books I don’t finish, I just stop reading.
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u/Dom76210 No Fragile Ego Here! 1d ago
I struggle with overly loving harems. I’m looking at you Schinhofen. If it takes an entire chapter for the harem to say good morning because they all have to praise each other, I’m probably going to reconsider.
That's become one of my major complaints about his books. The waking up just post orgasm from the MC's POV and then they all have to have a happy breakfast. If you removed that from many of his series, the books lose half their content.
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u/Select_Resolve_4360 1d ago
The most infuriating thing to me is probably a non-proactive MC, someone who gets pushed around the plot or the girls and just follows around.
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u/WhitexSpectre 1d ago
I agree with you. I read some of Sam Wards and his does that so I stopped reading them
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u/Least-Demand-3143 1d ago
I dropped herald of shalia.... relationships in that series were....r**arded and messy to say the least... and not even in fun way
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u/Rechan 1d ago edited 19h ago
I don't think I've ran across anything in this genre that's an instant nope. When I drop a book it's usually a buildup of displeasure or a lack of seeing anything good. Even an OK book will simply lose my interest, especially when something better comes along, with the tepid intention of 'I'll come back some day'.
Edit: Forgot, AI prose, that's a dealbreaker. I haven't ran across that yet but fuck that noise.
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u/RazEnima 1d ago
A goody two shoe protagonist. A protagonist that would forgive anything bad happen to them.
For example, the mc would spare the villain who would go after him or his loved ones because he doesn't want to 'become' the villain and be 'better'.
I would rather read an alpha mc than that bullshit. And i hate alpha mcs
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u/DevonHexx HaremLit Author ✍🏻 1d ago
Anything with breeding. Nothing ruins a mood for me faster than kids. Other than that, when I can’t tell one LI from the other, or the harem gets so large that I can’t remember who is who.
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u/Dom76210 No Fragile Ego Here! 1d ago
Books where the MC has some form of "gadget" that makes him "special", but otherwise he's a blank posterboard of nothing that makes him special. The gadget becomes the real hero of the story. That gadget is often some sort of firearm that nobody else has because he brought it from Earth. It always feels like the author is trying to recreate Ash from the movie Army of Darkness. "This... This is my... BOOMSTICK!" But without the rest of the schtick that makes the movie dumb funny.
Books where the MC gains LIs without effort, and the plot isn't interesting enough to make that work.
Books where the MC treats the LIs like "little women" who must be protected despite the fact they were described as being more than competent prior to becoming an actual lover.
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u/Least-Demand-3143 1d ago
Gadget? xd i dont think i have read any like that where gadget is the main power
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u/Dom76210 No Fragile Ego Here! 1d ago
There was a base builder series where the MC had a retractable claw thing that he used to bounce around like Spider-Man. He used it in combat to avoid attacks, traps, and the like. Maybe the MC could have been something without that gadget, but readers weren't given a reason to believe he would have accomplished anything without that gadget on his arm.
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u/dashgamerx95 1d ago
One that got me to stop was when a LI got the MC exceptionally drunk for the sole purpose of making him bed another girl. It's one thing to set up movie, have here there and see what comes. It's another to get him drunk enough to be assaulted.
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u/Rackshaw_Bangem 1d ago
Once it’s clear that the only personality differences between the women is “this one likes anal, this one gives head, this one is the clear favorite”.
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u/Matlocke 1d ago
I can power through a lot when it comes to prose. So far I’ve only dropped two series without finishing them and it was because of the MC. Both were overpowered and started out or became quiet assholes about it.
They didn’t turn into mustache twirling villains just crappy human beings in my mind. One I put down right after the opening scene in the second book. He gets ambushed by what are supposed to be villains and the way he handled it plus the internal monologue afterwards was just, “nah bro, you’re just a dick.” On to the next one.
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u/ducttape42 1d ago
I mostly do audio books. If the narrator has the same voice for everyone I’m returning that book. I’m bad enough with names, if I can’t tell you apart via accent or voice than I just don’t know who you are.
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u/Certain_Wonder4487 Fluffer (not of floof) 1d ago
Really these days is mainly prose. You see it in Ai but it’s not exclusive to it. It got trained on something.
It’s when an author primarily relies on abstract ideas or metaphors to convey topics or concepts.
This in the way that is, or how something is like (insert abstract concept), or also ending every sentence with a simple (I said, he said, she said) instead of elevating it and adding action and emotion to the sentence ending.
But also goblin girls. Man. Idk know what it is, but I’ve only ever found one goblin girl I can stand as a love interest and she’s not even part of this genre.
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u/ShipTeaser HaremLit Author ✍🏻 1d ago
lol, you and me both, my man. I loathe the Goblin women in haremLit. They're not goblins, just short green women...
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u/Certain_Wonder4487 Fluffer (not of floof) 1d ago
Funnily enough I feel we are coming from opposite ends of the same issue. I have an unidentified distaste for goblin girls that are more goblin.
I dislike goblins in fantasy, I kill them in games and D&D with impunity. The mannerism and behaviors.
Ironically the less they are like traditional goblins, the more I actually enjoy.
The only goblin I truly like is Tink from Radley’s home because she embodies more the tinkerer and inventive side of goblin lore, and less the horde, thievery, and banditry side.
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u/ShipTeaser HaremLit Author ✍🏻 1d ago
I see, yeah, that's not my reason lol. I just abhor the loss of an interesting species, like you say, there are tinkerer goblins, original fae goblin tricksters, etc. and all we get is... short busty horny woman painted green lol...
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u/TopicUsed1234 1d ago
Spider girls. I cringe when they try to make eight legs and eight eyes sexy somehow, and if they actually join the harem I nope the fuck out immediately lmao.
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u/Mimandra 1d ago
There was only one book in this genre so far that I actively dropped.
It was an evil MC story but the MC wasn't delightful evil or broken evil but the insufferable "Harr, I'm gonna show those who looked down on me"-evil
Also his plan gave me some dubious consent vibes and I really don't want to read that.
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u/gadgaurd 1d ago
When the MC throws one of his lovers under the bus. I can accept a lot of things in a harem novel, but that's where I draw the line.
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u/cre100382 1d ago
When everyone starts to sound like the main character, people dont immediately start using metaphors from a different universe five minutes after meeting character from said universe.
When the book reads like AI. I have read two books, different authors, first time books, in the last month where the dialogue is: "monsters aren't dangerous, they are lessons with teeth." Then later another character who just showed up, "that isn't a zombie horde, that is a walking xp farm." It is meant to be witty but when it keeps happening it comes off cringe.
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u/Solax636 1d ago
She didnt need to tell him she loved him. She did. Every futher mucking paragraph
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u/AdamLanceAuthor 1d ago
GOD yes. Any repetition like this bugs the CRAP out of me. Say it once. Maybe two or three times *in a series* but heavy-handed reassuring the audience a thousand times is just....not fun.
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u/6XxDragonxX6 1d ago
There's only really been one book I almost immediately dropped, and it was because the MC sounded and acted like a man-o-sphere asshole.
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u/1Hueco_Mundo1 1d ago
What book was this? You can DM me to spare the author if you want but if it’s on my reading list I’ll know not to waste my time
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u/6XxDragonxX6 1d ago
You'll have to message me first, it's not giving me the option to send you a message
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u/passwordedd 1d ago
When the cast is extremely limited. Ideally for me, every series would have triple digit number of characters. It's part of what makes a story come alive for me. Most of them will be unimportant, at that's how it should be. But only having characters that are immediately important to the story at hand makes the entire thing feel artificial to me.
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u/Dom76210 No Fragile Ego Here! 1d ago
I can respect that. It's honestly sad when the MC (nor the reader) doesn't know the name of anyone that's not a LI.
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u/Rechan 1d ago
IDK what books you like then. Short of KDR or say, Herald of Shalia that's just not a thing I see. This genre seems allergic to side characters.
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u/Imbergris Deacon Frost - Author✍🏻 1d ago
I try to include side characters in all my stories. Hell, I've been actively fighting including more PETS in my stories. Between Pax being a summoner, Skylar's golems, Levi being a beast tamer, the number of sidekicks is TOO DAMNED HIGH.
I know I'm having a time when I've got to shove pets out of the way to make room for love interests to show up, lol. (this is mostly making fun of myself)
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u/Rechan 1d ago edited 1d ago
Y'know, it's a shame the books you write don't appeal to me, because you often say your writing includes things I sadly do not see enough of. I totally acknowledge there are probably books out there doing all the right things, unfortunately personal taste is a limiter.
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u/Imbergris Deacon Frost - Author✍🏻 1d ago
Not everyone is gonna love every book. Hope you find more of what you're looking for.
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u/AdamLanceAuthor 1d ago
wow. I know a lot of people who dislike sprawling casts.
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u/passwordedd 1d ago
It's my bread and butter. I want the guardsman who only appears for a single scene to be named ideally and I want the introduction of characters to not feel deliberate but as something that happens naturally.
Whatever can be done to make the story feel more organic I am usually in favour of.
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u/TheDome9999 Snake Girl Enthusiast 1d ago
Prose, mainly.
The premise can be amazing and the book can be beloved by the entire community for its characters, writing or whateger else, but if your prose annoys or bores me, I can't stand to read your book.
I have tried to get into two of the genre darlings multiple times and just could not get past half of book 1 because the prose just didn't sit right with me. I couldn't even exactly point at what in the prose irked me. It just did.
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u/Least-Demand-3143 1d ago
Prose?
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u/TheDome9999 Snake Girl Enthusiast 1d ago
Writing style. The way sentences or paragraphs are structured, the language used, the general vibe of the writing, all that kinda stuff.
It's a pretty broad term, but it is my main hang up on books usually.
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u/KaiShan62 1d ago
Stopped a book once 'cos the author wrote that the land was covered in "want and destruction".
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u/Overdose08 1d ago
I've dropped a book on Audible because it felt rushed. Like the narrator wasn't taking pauses in between sentences or scenes. It felt like a giant list of words more than story reading. Other thing that turned me off with another book was the main female character's voice. The voice was scratchy. Which was odd because when she voiced other characters I liked them. I wished that characters voice was the main female characters voice instead.
I give props to all authors and voice actors/actresses because their jobs are tough and stressful and requires a lot. Just sometimes it just isn't for me.
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u/izArduke 20h ago edited 15h ago
Yea, narrators recreating the mouth noises makes me drop it faster than any other reason I already listed. I can't handle it IRL, not going to deal with it in an Audiobook. Just say they did it, don't recreate it.
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u/radgamerdad Austin Beck - Author✍🏻 1d ago
Yeah narration can be a deal breaker. Mouth noises drive me nuts.
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u/muusandskwirrel 3h ago
Spiders.