For a while now I've been thinking about the new craze in YA books; love triangles. So instead of me keeping my thoughts to myself, I thought I could ramble on here to see what all of you guys think. Sound good? Yes...no? Oh well. ;)First off, the one thing I've realised that's present in practically all of the love triangles we read is how infuriating they make you feel. Normally, I am all for just one of the male love interests but recently (yes, Delirium, I'm blaming you!) I've had a little... hiccup, shall we say at who to love more. Since I've already accused Delirium, I suppose I'll focus on that as an example.
Alex or Julian? Book one was more focused on Alex. Book two on Julian. And when it comes to me, I don't like being stuck in the middle. I like being on one side and rooting for just one boy. Otherwise it's really frustrating! But frustrating in a good way, of course. ;) Well after getting down to the nitty-gritty of the two boys in Delirium, I decided I'd go with Julian. And why may you ask? Why would you go for him when it appears Delirium readers love Alex much more than Julian? Well, I don't know 100% why. Maybe it's because I like Julian just that little bit more?
Then yesterday I came across a review which pointed out that we did get a lot more background information on Julian and barely any on Alex. So that got me thinking. Would I love Alex more if I knew more about him and his past? I'm just not sure. Is it possible for me to like them both and not having readers hate me for it? For now (until book three is out) I think I'll just say I love them both - even if Julian is just a little step ahead at this moment in time.
This leads me to what I'm trying to point out (I might have got a little carried away in my rambling there, I apologise)! Wouldn't it be just so much easier if the author made one character just much more likeable than the other? No. They know how to keep their audience on their toes and then break their hearts when that one boy is picked at the end of the series. They know the secret to a great page-turner is having two irresistible love interests for the audience to fight over and cry over. Basically, authors are very smart people! Very smart people, indeed!
Now, one writer who I both want to hug and scream at is Cassandra Clare. She can write one hell of a love triangle. I both love and slightly hate The Infernal Devices series. Sorry to all who like The Mortal Insturments better but I am all for TID! Whenever anyone mentions this series (which you really shouldn't do if you're ever around me... o_O) I go into full-blown fan girling mode about Will. Seriously. He is the best character the YA genre has ever seen - and I'm not being at all one-sided here... He is just so... ahhh, incredible! *THANK YOU SO MUCH, CASSANDRA CLARE FOR CREATING THIS MAGNIFICENT, SWOON WORTHY CHARACTER! xD* I really can not praise this series enough! And it's basically all down to Will. Well that's not true, everything about this series is awesome but Will is a BIG part of it! ;)
This is the side to love triangles where I am completely one sided to the one boy. Not in between and unsure of who to side with, I am forever TEAM WILL! I'm so sorry, Jem, but you're just not Will, and as great character you are... I just love Will too much! To all you that are Team Jem, I DO still like him as a character so don't hate me! It's just, I have such a strong siding with Will that I make myself hate Jem, which is just so unfair... ahh, the drama of it all! Oh yeah, almost forgot. Do you know that way when you usually guess who's going to be picked as the "true love"? Well in this series, let's just say it's difficult! Same with Delirium actually! I really highly recommend you read both of these series and if you love Will you will definetly score some brownie points! ;D
Just a little note to all you author's out there: PLEASE, OH PLEASE, OH PLEASE. MAKE YOUR LOVE TRIANGLES PERFECT!
So, yeah. Sorry for this very long, very gush, very rambly post but I sort-of needed to let out all that was in me. Summing up... Love triangles are both very entertaining and very likely to have you screaming in frustration. Whether it be because you are completely one sided in which boy you're rooting for (e.g. The Infernal Device's Will) or whether you're sort-of stuck in between (e.g. Delirium's Alex and Julian). They are also very likely to have you literally at breaking point (this time I'm looking at you, Cassandra Clare)! :)
Do any of you agree with the points made in this post? Disagree? Are you Team Will or Team Jem? Team Alex or Team Julian? Are there some love triangles where you just can't decide? Anything major that you feel an author should incorporate into them? Do you have a love or hate relationship with love triangles as a whole? Any books with love triangles you would recommend? Do you have any more Teams which you are sided on that you would like to mention? Comment below, the whole point of discussion posts is for you all to get involved! :D
Happy Reading,
Rachel xoxo
PS: I apologise for any spelling or grammatical mistakes but I'm in a hurry and can't really give it a look over! :S
Hmm, sometimes love triangles do bug me, especially when they become a little cliche, but sometimes, idf they're done well, then I'm all for them. A lot of the time I have a clear favourite (yes, I'm COMPLETELY Team Will too!!! I just always felt like Tessa and Will were meant to be together, Jem always just felt like a really good friend to Tessa for me, I NEVER felt any romance between them!)...
ReplyDeleteBut one example I can think of where I'm a little torn is with The Hunger Games (by the way, with this series, I'm a bit like you are with TID - any mention of the words 'The Hunger Games' and my ears perk up and I'm off on a major fangirling fest of the awesomeness of THG, which often involves a lot of jumping up and down like a mad hatter and clapping my hands excitedly. I'm weird. I know.)
BUT...anyway, back to the love triangle discussion...yeah, I always kinda felt myself leaning towards Gale (I <3 Gale!) but I mean, Peeta's so nice, you have just GOTTA love him! I love both of them in different ways, and I just could NOT pick between the two! I think I'd've been happy with whoever Katniss ended up with, but what made me really sad was that she and Gale kinda just stopped being friends... :(
ANYWAYS, MAJORLY long comment there, so I'm just gonna go now... ;)
Catherine xxx
The Book Parade
I just wrote a HUGE comment, which was more like an essay and my computer decides to crash. Ergh.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway, love traingles. I love them, as long as they're done right! As you pointed out, they need to perfect to work.(:
I adored Alex, but when Julian came along I was just like WOAH, I love you. I hadn't thought about the Alex background thingy, but that could be it... We'll see in the next book.(: But for now, I'm like you-- slightly more with Julian, but it could go any way!
Love triangles, done well, split the readers to create a brilliant discussion and make you get more indepth with the story to find about more about your guy. Worst thing ever when I can't decide and love them both!
It's rare that we see a love triangle with two girls and a guy... That should be done more often...
Amazing post, Rachel!<3<3
How I feel about love triangles depends on how well the author writes them. I totally agree with you that Cassandra Clare is an expert at this. I have never been so torn between two fictional guys as I am with The Infernal Devices, although in the end, I'm Team Will. :) I recently read Ally Condie's Matched, and I felt that Ky got so much page time, I never really had the chance to get to know Xander. I thought that triangle was kind of one-sided. My personal preference is for love triangles in which both sides get to make their case. Great discussion post!
ReplyDeleteHi!, Thanks for the amazing post!! :)
ReplyDeleteI really like love triangles, as usually authors make them very un-predictable!! I loved Alex, but then when Julian then Julian came into the story...and as much as I wanted to dislike him....I loved him!! ;) I think its how the author writes the love-triangles that makes the difference. If an author makes the love triangle very predictable then I think it can, in some ways, ruin the book. When a love triangle is in a book, it can usually be one of the main pulses of the book and so I think it needs to be written about well to work, but when they do work, I think they can be really good and usually...the ending is unexpected! I agree with Ria, I think it would be really interesting to see a love triangle with 2 girls and a boy as the love interest instead.
Thank you so much for the brilliant discussion post!!! :):)
Beth xxx
One author I spoke to once said that she'd been asked to add a romantic element to her novel - something she deemed 'The Twilight Factor'. I think that's had a big impact on the YA publishing world in the way of love triangles.
ReplyDeleteI get what you mean about the frustration, and never before have I found myself actually rooting for one character over the other, until I read The Infernal Devices. And I have to say that Team Jem seemed the way to go.
I understand there was the big thing about why Will had to behave the way he did, but I felt like it was a bit forced to make us feel something for him after he was rather a scoundrel at the end of the first book.
I sometimes wonder whether love triangles are used to show the different roads the protagonist could go down, one boy usually represents love, the other represents stability.
Either way, Team Will or Jem, this was a brilliant post.
Nay!
ReplyDeleteI think they are annoying and predictable - they all seem to be very similar, no matter which book it is.