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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Discussion: Insta-Love in YA {Told in gifs}

Insta-love. AKA, instant love. Definition: when the main character (usually female) locks eyes on the hunky and mysterious introverted boy, and realizes in that moment that she's madly, deeply, truly and forever more in love with him.

For example:
CAAAAAAN YOU FEEEEEEL, THE LOOOOVE TONIIIGHT?
I really dislike insta-love, even more so than I dislike bad love triangles. I feel like insta love is the epitome of unrealistic, because what person can really say that they truly love someone if they barely even know them?

And even though most of the YA readership can't stand insta-love and blatantly says so, for some reason it just keeps slipping through the cracks! And I'm just like:


In case you're unfamiliar with the 'insta-love' plot, here's how it works.

There is a girl. There is a boy. Somehow in the beginning of the book, they either talk or their eyes meet in some cosmically fated way, and in those 5 seconds of contact that she has with this boy, she falls madly in love with him and for the next 10 chapters, this is her:


The boy and the girl start somehow getting closer (I say somehow because they've never talked to each other before in their lives, and so all of a sudden, they're just like "I'M GOING TO TALK TO YOU NOW BECAUSE IT'S CONVENIENT FOR THE PLOT, M'KAY?") But the boy, because he is usually not human and therefore 'dangerous' to the girl, is telling her she needs to stay away. The problem with that? The boy and the girl probably share every class together, and even though he's like "You need to stay away from me", when they're in class, this is him:


So then, probably about 5 chapters in or so, the boy and the girl will be proclaiming their undying love for each other.

And through all of this insta-love, these are my reactions:


Seriously people. SAY NO TO INSTA-LOVE.

I think insta-love has been the leading cause of me disliking novels above anything else--bad plot, bad characters, love triangles, bad writing--it all PALES in comparison to the "I don't know you at all, but I want to spend the rest of my life with you and have all your babies and we'll live happily ever after" schtick.

11 comments:

  1. You are so dead on ;) I love reading this post and the gifs makes it more interesting to read. I also have issues with insta-love, it's crazy.

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  2. lol I loved reading this with the gifs :P but you are sooo right. Love triangles and insta-love annoy me sooooo much!

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  3. Bwahahahaha love this post. I couldn't agree with you more on insta-love. I end up enjoying books where the author took the time to build up the relationship between the main two characters a heck of a lot more

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  4. I laughed so much while I was reading this post because of the GIFs. So appropriate, haha.

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  5. Wow, you are spot on at finding perfect gifs for this post to go along with what you're saying. Lol. This post is serious, but makes me laugh at some points. That is why I love these discussion posts.

    And yes, there is no such thing as instant love, it's all instant attraction or maybe instant connection. But not instant love. So when it's in books it gets annoying because it takes away from the realism of the story.

    It's okay if a character sees some other character and is curious, or thinks he's cute, but not when they are all, "Omg, I love him. We're going to be together. We're going to get married" and so on and so forth.

    It drives me crazy!! Makes me want to throw the book. But, you know, of course I can't do that. It's a book....

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  6. I love this post! I'm so tired of reading YA where they meet and 10 minutes later it's all, "I'll die for you baby, I love you so much!" Meh. It just feels lazy. I much prefer when an author takes time to let a relationship unfold naturally.

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  7. AMEN!

    *hot boy walks into room*
    *girl falls instantly in love with him and is unable to speak*
    *boy says girl needs to stay away*
    *girl stays glued to boy*
    *boy does something dangerous because he is of course a badboy/demon/serial killer*
    *girl bats eyelashes and goes back to drooling*

    I mean. Seriously.


    PS: the gif I just sent you on Twitter goes at the end of this comment.

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  8. In real life, I fell in insta-like with my future husband. Something about the way he was inhaling a bowl of chili just really impressed me. Plus he was cute. But the love part ... that took time.

    I think that we, the readers, have to fall in love with the character a bit too, if we're to believe the character-on-character love.

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  9. Awesome article, Ash. With you all the way! Nicely done

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  10. Yup, SPOT ON! I'm so sick of insta-love. As soon as it enters a plot, my interest exits. Fun post! :D

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  11. LOL, that is just how I feel. very few times has instant love worked for me in books. It kinda taked right away from the story.

    Love the GIFs!

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