Cliche phrases in blurbs that make me avoid the book

by Zuky the BookBum, posted in Bookish bits

Cliche phrases in blurbs that make me avoid the book

We all have our likes and dislikes in books, be it themes, settings, or tropes. Recently, I’ve caught myself rolling my eyes at cliche phrases that appear in a lot of blurbs for mystery thriller books. I never, ever pick these books up because I find the synopses infuriating!

Here are a few examples of what I’ve been avoiding recently…

“How far would you go to save… [your child / your family / yourself]”
“But [insert name of detective] has a secret/traumatic past that they’re trying to escape. Can they catch the killer before their secrets are revealed and threaten to destroy everything?”
“What if [insert family / friend relation] wasn’t who you thought they were?”

So there we have it, those are the types of book I’ve found myself avoiding recently. I tend to find the main culprits of these cliche blurbs comes from Bookouture… although I have read a few books of theirs in this past, including some of the Erika Foster series, which I’ve featured above!

What cliche phrases do you hate seeing in blurbs?

46 thoughts on “Cliche phrases in blurbs that make me avoid the book”

  11. Ah yes, you are totally right on this! The whole ‘gripping psychological thriller with a shocking twists is getting old’ as well… Or the same old comparison to popular books that only make me want to read them less (think The Girl On The Train, Gone Girl etc). I still do read most of the books in the end though. xD

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  12. Haha, I love this post, and I love taglines, these are some of the very cliches ones indeed. I often decide whether or not to read a book based on it’s tagline, but I’m tired of the “shocking twist you won’t see coming” and any books that uses “for fans of Gone Girl.”

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    1. (As noted above, this redemption is generally implied in the paranormal genre, especially when it’s the romance sub-genre. I’m going to assume it happens anyway; you don’t have to spell it out for me!)

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  19. Yes, and they are usually either gripping or “edge of your seat”… 😀
    The Marriage Lie… i keep forgetting i read that book. :/

    I’m also with Kaleena on the comparison to other books. It’s either spoiler, or dead on wrong and then i’m like “whyyy???”.

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  20. I feel mean saying these, because I have enjoyed books with these blurbs before now, but it’s the over-use that irritates me:

    “…battling his/her own demons…” – nope;
    “Steven’s wife dies but she had a secret and it turns out he never really knew her at all…”;
    “Maria has the perfect life, with a loving husband, beautiful children, an amazing career and a gorgeous house”, well fandabiedozie for her, I hope it all comes crashing down when she finds out her husband or child or neighbour or pet cat is really a murderer;
    “A gripping serial killer thriller with a twist you won’t see coming” (especially when there is not even a bloody twist, it’s just a whodunit – Agatha Christie didn’t need to spell out that she didn’t want you to guess the bloody ending!)

    Great post btw x

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