Top Ten Tuesdays is hosted weekly by The Broke and Bookish and anyone is free to participate! Last week was top things that will make me want to read a book immediately. This week’s we’re coming full circle and talking about things that will make me instantly not want to read a book. I like to think I’m an open reader. I don’t shy away from books because they have “controversial topics” in them. By “controversial topics,” I don’t mean racist books like Carve the Mark or The Continent, I will not read books like this; I mean books like like Night by Eli Wiesel, Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill or The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. But try as I might, there are some things I just would really rather not read about. I’m repulsed by all these things. Alright, let’s get started, and as always, in no particular order:

  • Teacher/student relationships
    There is something extremely repulsive about teacher/student relationships. They’re forbidden for a reason and books about them are little better than normalizing pedophilia. I don’t care how old the student is; I don’t care how old the teacher is. It’s never acceptable; this is something I. Will. Not. Budge. On. No Lolita, No Mrs. Robinson. Just no.
  • Age gap greater than 6 years
    Given there is a small (?) age gap between my husband and I (is 4 years considered an age gap?), I’m not sure what is defined as an “age gap.” I’ve seen 3 years defined as an age gap? There’s been only one exception where I’ve enjoyed an age gap and the characters were at essentially the same maturity (both consenting adults) so it wasn’t as noticeable; it was also a Korean Drama *cough* shameless plug for Coffee Prince. Either way, I’m just not a fan of it. I’ve never quite understood people who marry decades apart, but I guess whatever floats your boat.
  • Horror
    I know this is more of a genre, but I cannot do any type of horror. I’m terrified of the dark and I see things/people in the dark that aren’t there. To preserve my sanity and ability to sleep at night, I avoid all things horror including “thriller” books in some cases too.
  • Murderer retellings
    There have been a couple of Jack the Ripper retellings published in the last couple years (Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Manisalco and From Hell by Alan Moore) and I just can’t delve into that kind of thing. I read part of Stalking Jack the Ripper and I couldn’t take the gore; I didn’t get further than 3 chapters. From Hell is a graphic novel so that’s even more of a “no” from me. This category kind of goes along with the horror genre. Although I tend to think horror is more supernatural, maybe that’s just me.
  • Mystery
    My mom tried to get me to read the Nancy Drew books when I was little, and I had no interest in them. I’m not sure what it is but I’m not interested in mystery at all. I love mystery shows, and I recently discovered the joy of Sherlock Holmes (I never read or watched them when I was little) and I like all those crime shows. But that genre does not extend across mediums. Please don’t tell me I’ll love _______ mystery book. I won’t. I’m saving us both heartache.
  • “Has to throw over the government”
    I had enough of the dystopia “I need to throw over the government” around the time Divergent was over. By that time I had read The Maze Runner, The Gardener, Delirium, The Pledge, Matched, The Hunger Games, The Declaration, Among the Hidden, The Giver, Brave New World, The Handmaid’s Tale. For the most part, I was tired of seeing the same thing over and over and over and over again; still there’s The 5th Wave, All Our Yesterdays, Under the Never Sky. Please just let this end. To this day I refuse to read a dystopic novel like these unless I’ve seen OUTSTANDING reviews and people chatting about it (like The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton) will I read it. Just let’s move on. It worked for the Hunger Games for like 5 years, but now that’s over. I heard space is all the rage. Maybe jump on the sff bandwagon instead.
  • Voluntourism as a setting
    If you want to know what voluntourism is, you can read about it here. There’s some books that have this “volunteer summer camp” as a backdrop and please just no. I don’t want to read about teens patting themselves on the back and I don’t have time to go into the White Savior complex right now. Just set your story in a band summer camp or a neighborhood or something.
  • Classics
    Ha. You guys knew this was coming. Don’t @ me. Seriously.

Well that’s about it, I really looked hard though my Goodreads list to try and find a theme. But most often, I just read whatever looks good. Any mutuals? What are your major turnoffs with books?? Let me know in the comments!