Words in book titles that you really hate

dondomat · Jun 27, 2013

I'll kick off with my list of words which, when I see in book titles, make me gnaw on my desk and squeeze my fists in impotent rage.

Bite
Hunger
Ravenous
Famished
Thirst
Crave
Parch
Night
Midnight
Moon
Crescent
Forever
Eternal
Blood
Crimson
Red
Witch
Apprentice
Wife
Daughter
Marine
Galactic
Dead
Undead
Grave
Dark
Fallen
Rising
Last
Final
Ultimate
Alpha
Delta
Omega
Wolf
Chronicles
Legend
Prophecy
Cycle
Fire
Flame
The First (second, third, fourth, etc.)
Damn
Curse
Spell

blacbird · Jun 27, 2013

Sword
Dragon
Mage

caw

Chasing the Horizon · Jun 28, 2013

The only words I hate in titles are weird or made-up ones that I can't spell in order to look up the damn book.

And many of the words on your list have been included in the titles of recent international best-sellers. Evidently, most people are like me and don't care.

dondomat · Jun 28, 2013

Chasing the Horizon said:
And many of the words on your list have been included in the titles of recent international best-sellers. Evidently, most people are like me and don't care.

Yes

SomethingOrOther · Jun 28, 2013

Randomnizer-generated titles, using that list and "the X Y," "the X of Y," or "the X's Y" schemes.

The Blood Crave's Omega Curse

The Crimson Forever

The Dead Famished of the Undead

The Damn's Galactic

The Crescent Legend's Thirst Prophecy

The First Damn Delta

The Fire's Flame

clee984 · Jun 28, 2013

I find it to be a fairly reliable rule that dull novels have dull titles, which is handy, because it makes them easily to avoid. I recently read an absolutely appalling novel, I won't name it, on the off chance that the author, or someone who knows the author, is a member of AW, and not only was the title staggeringly bland, it didn't even have any relevance to the "plot" (and I use the word loosely).

dondomat · Jun 28, 2013

I'd like to add

Shadow
Dusk
Dawn
Virus
Reborn

dondomat · Jun 28, 2013

SomethingOrOther said:
Randomnizer-generated titles, using that list and "the X Y," "the X of Y," or "the X's Y" schemes.

The Blood Crave's Omega Curse

The Crimson Forever

The Dead Famished of the Undead

The Damn's Galactic

The Crescent Legend's Thirst Prophecy

The First Damn Delta

The Fire's Flame

Ha, close, close. Some these could easily be the new hits:
The Omega Curse
Galaxy of the Damned
Crescent Legend
The Thirst Prophecy
The First Curse
Blood Crave

Wow. Now we're in business! Just write quickly some stuff to fit the titles.

SianaBlackwood · Jun 28, 2013

Surely it would be Crave Blood and The Thirst Curse?

I can't pick out a third one. Shame - I wanted a trilogy. Maybe The Crimson Forever will work okay as book 3.

dondomat · Jun 28, 2013

SianaBlackwood said:
Surely it would be Crave Blood and The Thirst Curse?

I can't pick out a third one. Shame - I wanted a trilogy. Maybe The Crimson Forever will work okay as book 3.

The Undead Crimson Moon

JournoWriter · Jun 28, 2013

I don't know about hate, but I've been known to get Anne McCaffrey's Pern books confused with one another because of the similarity in titles (Dragonthis and Dragonthat).

I dislike titles that combine a geographic location or historic element with another word to create artificial Big Stakes and tension - The Paris Sanction, The Luxor Code, The Tudor Magic, The Washington Crossing, etc. They all sort of become generic thrillers in my mind, a la Steve Berry or Robert Ludlum, though that's probably unfair.

I do have to object to your list only because it includes The Dark is Rising, one of the best books ever ...

Moon Daughter · Jun 28, 2013

I don't know why, but I really loathe book titles with "Confessions of a ...."

dondomat · Jun 28, 2013

JournoWriter said:
I dislike titles that combine a geographic location or historic element with another word to create artificial Big Stakes and tension - The Paris Sanction, The Luxor Code, The Tudor Magic, The Washington Crossing, etc.

I do have to object to your list only because it includes The Dark is Rising, one of the best books ever ...

How about Rising Dark: The Paris Ultimatum

Torgo · Jun 28, 2013

Tor.com did a statistical analysis of the most common words in fantasy book titles over ten years, and came up with the most generic titles for a trilogy that they could:

The Shadow War of the Night Dragon, Book One: The Dead City
The Shadow War of the Night Dragon, Book Two: Dark Blood Magic
The Shadow War of the Night Dragon, Book Three: Dream World of the Fire Wolf

dondomat · Jun 28, 2013

Torgo said:
Tor.com did a statistical analysis of the most common words in fantasy book titles over ten years, and came up with the most generic titles for a trilogy that they could:

The Shadow War of the Night Dragon, Book One: The Dead City
The Shadow War of the Night Dragon, Book Two: Dark Blood Magic
The Shadow War of the Night Dragon, Book Three: Dream World of the Fire Wolf

"of the Night Dragon Chronicles" I think it should have been. And "The Dead City Prophecy". ...Statistic always need a human touch.

Marian Perera · Jun 28, 2013

For romances, words to guarantee I'll never read it:

Billionaire
Baby

Exception : if the title is The Billionaire's Bride's Bastard Baby, I'd check it out

Child
Virgin
Innocent
Pregnant
Sheik
Duke
Rake
Scoundrel
Savage (or any synonym thereof, e.g. Unconquered, Untamed, Undomesticated, Unhousebroken, etc)

Princess Marina · Jun 28, 2013

dondomat said:
I'll kick off with my list of words which, when I see in book titles, make me gnaw on my desk and squeeze my fists in impotent rage.

Bite

Hunger

Ravenous

Famished

...etc

Midnight

Apprentice

Wife

Daughter

Marine

...etc

Guilty as charged as my first book is titled "The Fencing Master's Daughter", a Regency Romance, and I have also got a some Fantasy/Erotica with a weird made up name in it.

My objections are contractions in titles, they just look wrong.

It shouldn't happen to a...
Don't be a Nice Girl
Let's go et al...

https://www.facebook.com/GiselleMarks?fref=ts

Torgo · Jun 28, 2013

Princess Marina said:
Guilty as charged as my first book is titled "The Fencing Master's Daughter", a Regency Romance, and I have also got a some Fantasy/Erotica with a weird made up name in it.

The Fencing Master's Daughter is a good title.

Ken · Jun 28, 2013

... "girl."
It's been beaten to death.

girl with a dragon tattoo
girl with a pearl earring
girl ...

dondomat · Jun 28, 2013

Ken said:
... "girl."
It's been beaten to death.

girl with a dragon tattoo
girl with a pearl earring
girl ...

"Girl, it's been beaten to death," is a fine opening sentence.

WendyN · Jun 28, 2013

It bugs me when titles are obviously derived from bestsellers (i.e. any supernatural romance with "Twilight" in the title, or anything starting with "Shades of..." or anything). If it's fan-fic, that's one thing, but otherwise it just seems lazy.

LindaJeanne · Jun 28, 2013

Hmm, now I want to make a random title generator script, using the words people have listed here, and the title forms:

Noun
Adjective Noun
The Noun of the Noun
The Noun of the Adjective Noun
The Adjective Noun of the Noun
The Adjective Noun of the Adjective Noun
Verbing Noun
Verbing Adjective Noun
Noun Verbing
Adjective Noun Verbing
Confessions of a Noun
The Noun's Daughter
Verb
Adjective
Noun: The Verbing

Edited to add: Actually, should probably have a separate word-category for nouns like Chronicles, Codex, Cycle, Prophesy, Curse, Saga.

Mr Flibble · Jun 28, 2013

Moon Daughter said:
I don't know why, but I really loathe book titles with "Confessions of a ...."

Well, if you aren't into sex comedies*, it's probably as well not to read them.

*which are extremely tame by today's standards, but were probably quite racy in their day. And pretty funny in places.

Dave Hardy · Jun 28, 2013

Subrogation
Teleology
Theodolite
Spline
Diatomaceous

There are some others, but these are truly unacceptable.

Becky Black · Jun 28, 2013

I don't really mind (as I tend to forget them later.) But what I don't like are imitations of the last big seller. Not so much funny pastiches of those titles for the sake of satire, but ones that are trying to grab some of the gloss of those big sellers.

So right now, anything that's a variation on Fifty Shades of Grey is getting my goat. And anything with any of the words "fifty" "shades" and "grey" is viewed with suspicion.

Words in book titles that you really hate

dondomat

blacbird

Chasing the Horizon

Blowing in the Wind

dondomat

SomethingOrOther

-

clee984

Bearded and serious

dondomat

dondomat

SianaBlackwood

dondomat

JournoWriter

Just the facts, please

Moon Daughter

dondomat

Torgo

Formerly Phantom of Krankor.

dondomat

Marian Perera

starting over

Princess Marina

Princess Marina

Torgo

Formerly Phantom of Krankor.

Ken

dondomat

WendyN

8-armed cyborg tree

LindaJeanne

On a small world west of wonder

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Dave Hardy

Don't let your deal go down,

Becky Black

Writing my way off the B Ark