The Bones of Ruin, and my issues with love triangles


 by, Gabby Mongwa

Recently I started the book The Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley, the cover was interestingly illustrated, and the author had similar interests as myself, so I thought I would enjoy it. The intro to the plot had me interested too: Iris, an African tightrope dancer in Victorian London, has secret of her strange power of being unable to die. After meeting a man named Adam and getting chased out of the circus she used to work at, Iris has to work for Adam as his "champion" for a tournament in exchange for getting details about her past.

At first, I was really interested in this book! With there being a black main character with a cool power that hasn't been explained yet, I had bargained on really enjoying it. And I have been enjoying most of it so far, with the fight scenes being fun to read and the slow reveal of Iris's past, but there is a small bit of it that I just haven't really been able to vibe with at all: the love triangle (square?? pentagon??).

There are times when Iris's teammates for the tournament, Jinn and Max, fight over her attention or who knows her better. Those scenes very easily lose my attention, even if they were in the middle of a fight scene that I was previously enjoying, and what made that even more annoying was the introduction of Max's friend Cherice, who also has a crush on Max.

Now, I do not have a problem with romance, but also when one of the first few things a character does is to be described as in love with the main character, my like for that character will most definitely drop. There has been love triangles that I haven genuinely enjoyed reading, while they have been very few, the characters in that triangle all had personalities that I enjoyed reading about. The two girls in that who liked the same boy were good friends and stayed that way through their advancements, going so far as to encourage the other to make a move whenever they did. Then, when one of the girls didn't get the love she wanted in the end, she still was friends with her love interest, and hung out with him a lot.

I really hope that the romance isn't that big of a factor in this book, seeing as I still have to finish it, and I genuinely want to enjoy it, but if it is, I have read way too many unnecessary heterosexual love triangles for me to properly give this book the rating I would like to.

Comments

  1. Callie StanderferMarch 7, 2022 at 11:42 AM

    Gabby I could not agree more. I have maybe liked one or two books that have love triangles in them but overall it is not for me. The concept of this books sounds super cool though so that is disappointing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cora Lewis-PattersonMarch 7, 2022 at 11:52 AM

    Hi Gabby! Although I love some romance drama in a book, love triangles can be very aggravating. If it is not cleared up quickly and is dragged out for multiple chapters with no progress, I definitely get annoyed. However, I can still be a big sucker for the trope and stick with a series that has been doing that (despite everyone else's negative feelings about True Beauty, I am still an avid reader). I hope that this love pentagon is cleared up soon and the book goes back towards fight scenes! Keep up the good posts!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maryalice KleinMarch 10, 2022 at 4:47 PM

    I definitely agree with the whole love triangle thing. I'm reading a book right now that includes this trope, and it's KILLING ME. Every scene where they mention it makes me roll my eyes every time. It's really a shame the author chose to go that route, because this book sounds really interesting! I like drama/romance, but love triangles are in general just too much, and really decrease my overall enjoyment of the plot. Anyways, this is a great post and I hope the book gets better for you!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. evievieMarch 21, 2022 at 12:25 PM

    Like what you said, when a character is first introduced as having a crush on the main character, it instantly makes me lose interest in learning more about that character. It makes it seem like having a crush on (main character) is their only personality trait which is so BORING. Overall, great blog post, and I hope that the lame love triangle doesn't stop you from enjoying this book!!

    ReplyDelete

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