Top Ten Tuesday: Thankful Freebie

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This week’s TTT is another freebie, and though it usually takes me a bit to think of something to use, this week the answer came to me almost instantly: tropes. I love tropes! I love when authors take a trope and turn it into something new, or unexpected, but I also love sinking into a book that I know has a trope I love. So, here’s the tropes I’m thankful for.

Top Five Tropes I’m Thankful For

Enemies/Rivals to Lovers

Yep, whether it’s two people who are instantly at each other’s throats, or two people who are competing for almost any reason, or even just two folks who have wants that are at odds, I really do love when it turns out the enemies or rivals push each other to be better, because they have those pesky things called feelings. And, to be honest, this trope kind of crosses into…

Star-Crossed Lovers/Romeo & Juliet

These characters might be enemies, but they might just be caught up in a long-standing family feud, or they’re from completely different worlds, and find it’s their families, rather than anything else, that prevents them being together. These Violent Delights is the best example that springs to mind, partly as it’s based off Romeo & Juliet. I’m not 100% sure this is the name of this trope, but it’s what I call it, anyway.

Personification

I love when aspects or concepts are put in human form. I can’t quite explain what it is about this, whether it’s the soul of New York in The City We Became or Dream, Death, Desire etc in Sandman, or Death in both the Discworld series and Good Omens, but I love reading this kind of thing.

Gods and Myths in Modern World

This kind of ties in slightly with personification, while still being it’s own thing. I love a good retelling, but this is more about taking these gods, myths and legends and sliding them into the real world, usually with a fair dose of Urban Fantasy. It’s truly something I love reading.

Grumpy/Sunshine

Yes, Santa Maybe gets included again. I LOVE this trope, and I love especially when it’s in relation to Christmas – one happy, bubbly, “Christmas cheer” type versus a Grinch is a delight, especially when they bounce off each other. It’s fun in other contexts, too, and Becoming Human is absolutely great for this. See also one of my favourite on-screen relationships: Lucifer’s Mazikeen and Eve.

I’m going to leave this one at five this week, and there’s plenty here already! But I would really love to know what tropes you’re thankful for, too.