I know this is probably a common topic. For me, I’m not sure if it’s a “trope” or just totally misinformed writing, but it’s how many authors approach alcoholism. Some examples are Girl on the Train and The House Across the Lake, among HUNDREDS. If anyone else here has struggled with alcoholism, you know it’s not just "i woke up after downing an entire bottle of whiskey but was able to shower, down a cup of coffee, and solve a murder. "
picture this, if you will, your life is falling apart, and you receive sudden news that you have inherited, hear me out, a scottish/irish/english cottage. Throwing caution to the wind, you spontaneously sublet your city apartment and hop a plane. Not staying, just to sort it all out. The cottage is a tad run down, but luckily, there’s a hot neighbor guy who’s very handy. You try to resist catching feelings because you will only be there a week, until a sudden storm/crisis traps you and hottie neighbor in the darkened cottage. Bonus points if there’s a sassy lassie who used to date hottie and she’s now jealous, but soon, once you have it out with her, you are besties. You know now you can never leave.
I was with you right until there wasn’t a pivotal scene on a moor.
But, otherwise, I’d read that same book a thousand times.
Oh! You’re right!!!
Beautiful world, where are you? Is such a high level parody of this trope that most people don’t even realize that it’s tropey.
The Holiday!
Slap that bitch in a query format and you’re g2g
My absolute favorite twist on this garbage was by Riley Sagar (who used to be a good writer before diving into supernatural shit).
The female MC inherited some massive haunted mansion and there was a big horror / murder mystery plot. You know the deal: one of those “is the whole town in on it” kind of plots where you suspect everyone at one point or another.
So as the plot dictates, our female MC (newly-single but still hot ofc) and the hunky hot neighbor guy who is handy start to make eyes at each other. She bakes him a pie; he fixes her ceiling. Will they or won’t they?
But also as the plot dictates, Hunky becomes the main suspect briefly. “Wait… you mean, you knew about this secret tunnel this whole time?” Hunky of course didn’t do it and the MC finds the real culprit.
In the aftermath, MC goes over to Hunky like “Okay this is where we fuck now”. In a wonderful little twist, Hunky snarls “Fuck you, a day ago you accused me of murder. Not only are we not getting together at the end of this story, but I am moving away. You’re insane.”
I finished this book three days ago!
My roommate and I watch a lot of cop shows, and they’d be way different if the family and friends of the victims remembered how the cops behaved between story beats.
I’m surprised there aren’t supercuts out there of the CSI people screaming horrific shit into the faces of people they later prove innocent.
God I hate most of those shows, between SVU and Blue Bloods etc, most of the cops should be fired or in jail after the first season
Seriously, I almost feel like they are police propaganda sometimes. They want us all to believe that it is a-okay to go full vengeful street gang when a cop is hurt, or to ignore all procedure and evidence and just go with your gut (aka lean into your personal prejudices), or cover up each other’s crimes because cop-to-cop loyalty is the ultimate virtue. It genuinely pisses me off sometimes (I want to yell at the screen “you are not the good guys here!”)
Not for nothing but, at least in the law & order vein, they are actually legitimately police propaganda. People who routinely watch those shows will skew towards a positive opinion of the police because they’ll imagine that any interaction with the policy is actually them working with Olivia Benson, SVU detective-extraordinaire.
lol, do you think real life cops are not acting 100x worse than the ones in those shows?
When CSI: Miami was a thing, we used to joke about David Caruso’s character not being able to function in his job or frankly his personal life, because he was too busy carrying out the eternal vigilance and harassment that he swore on all the suspects!
Well, cops don’t apologize for anything, and they are allowed to accuse or lie to anyone in order to get evidence.
Apologizing is showing guilt, and is even recognized as so by the courts. Cops will not apologize for this reason.
How…convenient for them.
I like the part of this trope where they sublet their apartment despite only being gone for a week!
And other related “that makes no sense” choices
But then, in the midst of blissful cottage life, tragedy strikes and dead bodies start piling up in middle of nowhere quaint british isle village. What? Why? Why has this village a murder rate that would have made Pablo Escobar shake his head in disbelief? And why does hottie have so many convenient alibis? Is bestie really just running an antique store or is it the headquarter of an international smuggling cartel? And is that depressed drunk in a trenchcoat -who is also somewhat hot- really a genius detective, who was fired from his job at MI5 because of his strong morals?! So many questions, but luckily also so many answers (some may or not may make sense, but they‘re answers nevertheless).
:) I think we all just wrotevthe outline for our new novel!
Do we have a third fun trope for a well rounded trilogy?
Following :)
Omg this gave me an idea for a horror story haha plot:
Pretty much what you describe above. A woman inherits a piece of land in a remote town from her uncle who she used to visit there and goes to check it out. While there she meets Hunky Guy. Oh Wow! Hunky Guy is a carpenter and that’s exactly what she needs to fix up the house she inherited?? Wayoow!
Well, it turns out, this was all orchestrated. Hunky Guy is a sociopath who convinced the uncle to leave the house to the niece MC. Then murders him to set it in motion.
Acts like the nice guy when she shows up and offers to help fix the house when they meet (which he made sure would happen). As time goes on, she starts to notice how he seems weirdly familiar with the house. Keeps talking like it’s a given that she’ll be staying there forever. Other odd behavior. She eventually learns/remembers who he is and that he was committed to a mental health facility when he was a kid for stabbing one of his parents. Long since released because he was thought to be rehabilitated. Nope! Sociopath gunna sociopath!
He eventually reveals that he’s not going to let her leave and she has to stay there with him or he’ll kill her if she tries to leave. All the while he was fixing up the house he was turning it into a cage of sorts, outward facing locks to keep her in etc. He takes her keys so she can’t leave. Locks the doors etc to trap her in. No one in town really knows she’s there or notices her absence so nobody comes looking.
She eventually plots her escape by pretending to give in etc. and … Idk … Attacks him in some way and escapes. I’d figure that out later haha but it’s basically flipping the Hallmark RomCom trope on its head.
Well I, for one, am scared!
Goooood
That’s pretty much Rouge by Mona Awad, aka “this is why we can’t have nice things” the book
Isn’t this basically the plot of every teen romance movie of the 2000s?
Time of year: Christmas. Et voilà, Hallmark movie!
Ditto for the horror version of this where instead of there being a hot neighbour it’s a weird cranky murderous old guy or the cottage is haunted.
I forgot the paranormal twist!!!