What’s your favourite trope?

Many years ago, a friend (the great Jenni Hill, an editor at Orbit) asked me what my favourite trope is. I had to really think about it; I’d never spent much time ranking them! I read a lot of trope-y literature, both SFF and romance, and I certainly gravitate towards some more than others, but I’d simply never really put much thought into the question. Those days are long behind me; I probably spend too much time thinking about tropes these days. One of the great things about the rise of romantasy is that I finally see a lot of overlap between my favourite topes on both sides of the genre. Here, in no particular order, are some of my favs:

• Reluctant Hero: I’m a sucker for a chosen one who starts out as a stable boy(slash girl slash monster), like any old-school fantasy fan, but the stable boy who’s happy as a stable boy and doesn’t really fancy picking up weapons, skills, allies and threat is my favourite kind of hero. Drag those feet, main character! Complain! Wish you could really just go home and make bread! (Uh, can you guess that The Hobbit is one of my favourite novels?)
  • Why not try: The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien de Castell
• Grumpy/Sunshine: a mainstay in romance fiction, where one character (usually the male) is a closed-off crank, and the other (usually the female) is an adorbz rainbows-and-sunshine type. I mean, I loved this back in the 80s when I was watching Care Bears and my favourite characters were literally Cheer Bear (pink; rainbow tummy) and Grumpy Bear (blue, scowling, raincloud tummy). I was shipping them before I knew what shipping was. It doesn’t have to be romantic – Wednesday and Enid in Wednesday are a great example of a grumpy/sunshine friendship.  Like all tropes, this often strays into the ridiculous; the famous “manic pixie dream girl” is a manifestation of “sunshine gone totally wrong” and if you make one character too grumpy, it becomes hard to buy that they’d ever get into a meaningful and fulfilling relationship. And yet, I stan this trope.
• Enemies to Lovers: I love this trope because I love banter, and when wielded well, this is the trope that leads to the best banter. Also, that season six episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer set in the abandoned house. IYKYK.
  • Why not try: The Sacred Stones trilogy by Kate Golden
• Heroic Crowd: I just can’t help but cheer when the hero’s in bad shape and everyone else steps in to help out. Tobey Macguire’s Spider-Man on the subway in Spider-Man 2? Unexpected Hero, but make it everyone!! Even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem ends with a heroic crowd. And also a hug from Mondo Gecko. Love it.

Anne Perry

Publishing Director, Arcadia Books