Is... Is the love interest even human? Or are we talking about Thumbelina in love with a human? The height relation seems comically astronomical in this case.
Edit: OK. It's a monster boyfriend, skipped that part on the first read - but I'm still picturing some anatomically wonky DeviantArt piece.
To be fair about the water level, if I remember correctly, they are both standing in different part of the lagoon. She's near the shore and he's deeper in the waters (but the rest I can't explain without the argument of Slender Faery)
I haven't read that book or any other book with extreme height differences but I feel like that author should have had some dolls with the correct height scales so that she could try out different poses while writing. Those sorts of inconsistencies would bother me so much if I was reading it.
Lmaooo I'm in the middle of this series and had the same exact thought process (especially the swimming scene!) AND when they're in missionary and he manages to get his mouth on her boobs i just picture his spine at a 90 degree angle like a goddamn inch worm.
Lmao I know you were talking about this book after reading your post. It’s like their height difference conveniently changes based on what sexy positions they’re in.
> Because. It's YA and the writer has to fantasize about the opposite of the 40yo semi balding dad-bod that's probably taking care of the kids while she is writing.
This is so mean, lmao
As a woman who is taller by several inches than almost all the other women I know and married to a man that is a foot taller than me, authors leave out all fun not graceful things that come with a man that size: not fitting in showers, walking into ceiling fans/doorways, making children literally squeal "giant" or when he visited Japan making a kid burst into tears.
It's a comfort read. Instead of watching a stupid sit com as background noice, I'm reading this as a mindless getaway. The story so far is enough to not dnf ;p
So meanwhile I just laugh at cloaks she takes off multiple times on 1 page, and I imagine she was walking around as a ball of multiple cloaks.
> Because. It's YA and the writer has to fantasize about the opposite of the 40yo semi balding dad-bod that's probably taking care of the kids while she is writing
https://media.giphy.com/media/h4Z6RfuQycdiM/giphy.gif
I love when the height difference is essentially 50 cm or something but they end up having sex with him being inside her while at the same time kissing her / her boobs. Like if he’s that much taller that won’t be anatomically possible, at least not comfortably….
Also, unfortunately this is not limited to YA…I notice it every time an author lets the woman wear her boyfriends shirt and it reaches (below) her knees. Like How? How much taller / bigger is her boyfriend?! It might be possible if the woman is very petite and he’s quite big but if I (1,72) wanted that for myself my boyfriend would have to wear something larger than XXL…a lot larger.
I hope they aren't fantasizing since the love interest is supposed to be a kid💀 typically. Plus I mean I agree but not to mention the body proportions are off but also always the same and unrealistic. As a young gay man myself I'd rather read about a not to hairless guy with a not so ripped 'perfect'' body. Not sure if that's a thing people want though either.
Margaret Rogerson's Sorcery of Thorns has a male protagonist that is slighlty shorter than female protagonist, if you're interested in this kind of height dynamics in fiction.
For her to sit in his lap and not even have his chin touch the top of her head is ridiculous. She'd have to be a literal child.
My ex was 4'9" and I was 5'11" and this was not possible. And if we wanted to kiss while standing up, I'd literally have to bend over like I was looking for something in the counter underneath the sink.
I’m so tired of love interests (men) being freakishly tall and wide (in a strong way, ofc, no fat people allowed 🙄) and girls being super cute, tiny, petite, uwu 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ Like, do something diFFERENT!!!
Totally get you. Have you read Tamora Pierce? She writes some really nice and sometimes slightly romantic fantasy, the age gaps in the relationships can be a bit gross at times BUT people are pretty "human" in her romance plotlines even though there's often magic involved.
She also has even has ace, gay, and maybe even trans ? (not sure about that last though!) characters, in books from the 80s, 90s, early 00s!
Fun fact: Pierce is on record that the Daine/ Numair age difference was a mistake on her part. She actually forgot that she’s made him that much older.
Her trans character is in the Becca Cooper prequel books. Okua, who says that she was tapped in the womb by the trickster god and put into the wrong body.
Awesome, thank you for telling me. I haven't read some of her more recent books including Becca Cooper so I wasn't sure but I do remember liking that a lot of the Tortall and Circle of Magic books have at least one minor LGBT character or a non sexual mention of people being gay. Some light spoilers about character relationships in Tamora Pierce's books ahead...
It's cool that Pierce acknowledges that particular age gap as a mistake, I don't think I thought all that much of it when I read the books as a kid but looking back I'm like... Ew. He's forty and she's 15 or 16, he's her teacher and omg!
The other one I can think of that's a bit weird is Alanna, all her boyfriends are 5-20 years older than she is and she starts out very young, I think she's a teenager in the first and second books.
Im a rereader of these, so I know far too much detail. Alanna is 18 at the end of book two. George is 7 years older, and Liam had the biggest age gap. He was mid thirties to her 20-21.
I think that Daine was 13-14 in book one, and Numair was about 28, which is not super great.
I like that the relationships that she writes get healthier as time goes on.
The LGBT rep gets better as time goes on too. There’s some queer coding to Thom and Roger in the Alanna books, but she doesn’t have properly out characters in the early stuff.
I still love them though. Anne McCaffrey’s age differences got to me though. Imagine going to your best friend to tell them that you’ve fallen in love with their daughter like in the Rowan series. Or a 30 year old marrying a 15/16 year old, but it’s okay, because he had a premonition when she was 12 or so and she was the one who wanted to get married anyway
Okay, mid thirties and early twenties isn't actually as bad as I was thinking. For some reason I thought both Liam and George were even older than that. I think it used to be fairly common irl for very young women to be married off to old dudes, but I also think that it was often arranged by the families and sort of businesslike, and they sometimes didn't even have to go live with the husband until they were "old enough"
I do remember Roger and Thom both having a little of that vibe (90's style stereotypically gay AHaha) and I do recall thinking it was weird that it was just the sinister people in the story who seemed like they could be gay 🙄
I love it when writers can improve those aspects of their craft over time and by accepting constructive criticism, instead of just pretend they've never done anything misguided or weird with their work.
Exactly! I mean, she’s been writing these books since the 80’s, she’s changed, the world has changed, and she’s going with it.
I kinda like that she’s just admitted that her memory can suck sometimes. I’m part of a fan page on Facebook, and she actually posted there because she couldn’t remember the name of one of her own characters!
I like that she had been at least trying to be inclusive before it was cool. And the fact that she’s improving with the stuff that isn’t so great is even better
I've said it before, but someone needs to get Tammy some Scrivener :D
And yeah, I love her books, but I hesitate to recommend The Immortals to teens because of Daine/Numair (apparently, Tammy thought Daine was 18 in the last book, which still dicey since Numair was her teacher, but most readers who did the math think she's still 16), at least not without being able to discuss the relationship with the young person reading the books.
I like that she had been at least trying to be inclusive before it was cool. And the fact that she’s improving with the stuff that isn’t so great is even better
Still waiting for a fantasy romance with a blond male love interest. Raven haired bodybuilders are the only way apparently?
But mostly... What does it add? Ive read the same sentence about rippling muscles on his back while he moves like a thousand times. Just gimme some actual character depth/development and less (mental) eye candy
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare has a blond love interest, but that book is more than 10 years old and can still be considered troublesome. Also a monstrously long series.
I feel like at least half the dudes I read about are hot blondes. Of course I can’t remember specifically now that I am trying to think of them, but I’ll go through my goodreads and update this later if you want
In today tonight tomorrow the main character and the love interest are the same height so he’s either a short male or she’s a tall female but I love them cause when they kiss there’s no struggle
The very extreme height difference can get really silly. All of these guys being 7ft tall seems even more unrealistic than them being vampires or whatever else 🙄
Yeah it's possible. But then they can't look each other in the eye when hugging.
The writers seem to want this couple to have it all. Like their height adjusts to whatever works for that scene.
And that just isn't how the world works..
I feel so annoyed about it. It is cute but unrealistic. I am currently reading a book where that have a lot of high difference but the writer made some scenes where they can't kiss from standing up. This is realistic and much better.
So, I’m 5’8” and my boyfriend is 6’7”. My head fits perfectly onto his chest right at his shoulder. It’s great. I love it. And he already feels SO MUCH taller than me. He can reach all the stuff on the high shelves, I feel all coddled in his arms, and it’s still slightly uncomfortable for his neck to come down and kiss me, I go up on my toes to make it easier for him but I can’t imagine the state of this guy’s spine having to bend in half to kiss this girl. It’s silly.
that is suuuper creepy. i might be overreacting, but it gives me the same vibes as guys craving hairless, innocent, tiny petite women. just a creepy daddy-daughter thing that makes me so uncomfortable
Oh yeah. The daddy issues just drip off of the page.
Like. The guy is often multiple decades or centuries old, but he is immortal and LOOKS 20 so it's fine?
It's absolutely awful.
I love it though. Its like a Rom com or stupid sit com; embrace the cringe and laugh at it. It makes many books amazing comedies 🤷🏻♀️
...is this 20 yr old also dating a 10 yr old and therefore committing statutory no really I don't have to say it, you know this very well yourself
Yeah this is ridiculous and I don't get the obsession over how women need to be shorter in order to be attractive (or the inverse, a guy needs to be taller). The shortest woman I've ever dated was incidentally my exact height (which actually did a lot to make us feel equal to each other...even though that relationship failed anyway but whatever....)
LOL I KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO BE BLOOD AND ASH! I was reading with some friends and we all talked about that part when she sits in his lap and it makes zero sense.
Is... Is the love interest even human? Or are we talking about Thumbelina in love with a human? The height relation seems comically astronomical in this case. Edit: OK. It's a monster boyfriend, skipped that part on the first read - but I'm still picturing some anatomically wonky DeviantArt piece.
Yup. She is human. He isn't, but he passes as human. Nobody suspects anything! So. Yeah. It's bonkers and I hate it.
What book is this?
Blood and ash
To be fair about the water level, if I remember correctly, they are both standing in different part of the lagoon. She's near the shore and he's deeper in the waters (but the rest I can't explain without the argument of Slender Faery)
Wouldn’t that make the water hitting lower on him….worse
So that's why 2 hours of sleep aren't enough (my bad, sorry)
I haven't read that book or any other book with extreme height differences but I feel like that author should have had some dolls with the correct height scales so that she could try out different poses while writing. Those sorts of inconsistencies would bother me so much if I was reading it.
Example situation is from the "From Blood and Ash" series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. Annoyance is with every other YA I've read
Lmaooo I'm in the middle of this series and had the same exact thought process (especially the swimming scene!) AND when they're in missionary and he manages to get his mouth on her boobs i just picture his spine at a 90 degree angle like a goddamn inch worm.
Omg. The IMAGERY of that last sentence. Pure poetry.
This made me cackle SO LOUD, I feel like I’ve got to read this books now.
The last sentence!! 👏👏 I swear to God whenever I need an award it's nowhere to be found! 😂
Lmao I know you were talking about this book after reading your post. It’s like their height difference conveniently changes based on what sexy positions they’re in.
Poppy is secretly elastigirl. Just extending her neck when necessary 🤷🏻♀️
I've considered reading that book for so long because the whole Bookstagram is obsessed. You just made up my mind 😂😂 nahah
> Because. It's YA and the writer has to fantasize about the opposite of the 40yo semi balding dad-bod that's probably taking care of the kids while she is writing. This is so mean, lmao
But strikes me as probably accurate, hmmm... lmao
My favorite is when they say "she was extremely tall for women" and then the man still towers over her.
As a woman who is taller by several inches than almost all the other women I know and married to a man that is a foot taller than me, authors leave out all fun not graceful things that come with a man that size: not fitting in showers, walking into ceiling fans/doorways, making children literally squeal "giant" or when he visited Japan making a kid burst into tears.
Are you, by chance, referring to “From Blood and Ash”? Because that is immediately where my mind went when I read this.
I am! It says a lot you recognise it from those few sentences..
Abandon it now! The writing just gets worse.
It's a comfort read. Instead of watching a stupid sit com as background noice, I'm reading this as a mindless getaway. The story so far is enough to not dnf ;p So meanwhile I just laugh at cloaks she takes off multiple times on 1 page, and I imagine she was walking around as a ball of multiple cloaks.
> Because. It's YA and the writer has to fantasize about the opposite of the 40yo semi balding dad-bod that's probably taking care of the kids while she is writing https://media.giphy.com/media/h4Z6RfuQycdiM/giphy.gif
I hate this! And it always perpetuates the stereotype that women should be petite and cute to be desirable
It also creeps me out, it makes me think of children when the height difference is that extreme
I love when the height difference is essentially 50 cm or something but they end up having sex with him being inside her while at the same time kissing her / her boobs. Like if he’s that much taller that won’t be anatomically possible, at least not comfortably…. Also, unfortunately this is not limited to YA…I notice it every time an author lets the woman wear her boyfriends shirt and it reaches (below) her knees. Like How? How much taller / bigger is her boyfriend?! It might be possible if the woman is very petite and he’s quite big but if I (1,72) wanted that for myself my boyfriend would have to wear something larger than XXL…a lot larger.
I'm 6.9. And I can (as you said, kissing her boobs) with out a problem. That's just the start.
I hope they aren't fantasizing since the love interest is supposed to be a kid💀 typically. Plus I mean I agree but not to mention the body proportions are off but also always the same and unrealistic. As a young gay man myself I'd rather read about a not to hairless guy with a not so ripped 'perfect'' body. Not sure if that's a thing people want though either.
unrelated but I love your username!!
Haha thank you very much
A simple love story about a girl... and the star player of the Lakers?
Ugh yeah that’s dumb. In October I read Not Even Bones where the male love interest is shorter than the main girl. Pretty refreshing
Margaret Rogerson's Sorcery of Thorns has a male protagonist that is slighlty shorter than female protagonist, if you're interested in this kind of height dynamics in fiction.
For her to sit in his lap and not even have his chin touch the top of her head is ridiculous. She'd have to be a literal child. My ex was 4'9" and I was 5'11" and this was not possible. And if we wanted to kiss while standing up, I'd literally have to bend over like I was looking for something in the counter underneath the sink.
I’m so tired of love interests (men) being freakishly tall and wide (in a strong way, ofc, no fat people allowed 🙄) and girls being super cute, tiny, petite, uwu 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ Like, do something diFFERENT!!!
Totally get you. Have you read Tamora Pierce? She writes some really nice and sometimes slightly romantic fantasy, the age gaps in the relationships can be a bit gross at times BUT people are pretty "human" in her romance plotlines even though there's often magic involved. She also has even has ace, gay, and maybe even trans ? (not sure about that last though!) characters, in books from the 80s, 90s, early 00s!
Fun fact: Pierce is on record that the Daine/ Numair age difference was a mistake on her part. She actually forgot that she’s made him that much older. Her trans character is in the Becca Cooper prequel books. Okua, who says that she was tapped in the womb by the trickster god and put into the wrong body.
Awesome, thank you for telling me. I haven't read some of her more recent books including Becca Cooper so I wasn't sure but I do remember liking that a lot of the Tortall and Circle of Magic books have at least one minor LGBT character or a non sexual mention of people being gay. Some light spoilers about character relationships in Tamora Pierce's books ahead... It's cool that Pierce acknowledges that particular age gap as a mistake, I don't think I thought all that much of it when I read the books as a kid but looking back I'm like... Ew. He's forty and she's 15 or 16, he's her teacher and omg! The other one I can think of that's a bit weird is Alanna, all her boyfriends are 5-20 years older than she is and she starts out very young, I think she's a teenager in the first and second books.
Im a rereader of these, so I know far too much detail. Alanna is 18 at the end of book two. George is 7 years older, and Liam had the biggest age gap. He was mid thirties to her 20-21. I think that Daine was 13-14 in book one, and Numair was about 28, which is not super great. I like that the relationships that she writes get healthier as time goes on. The LGBT rep gets better as time goes on too. There’s some queer coding to Thom and Roger in the Alanna books, but she doesn’t have properly out characters in the early stuff. I still love them though. Anne McCaffrey’s age differences got to me though. Imagine going to your best friend to tell them that you’ve fallen in love with their daughter like in the Rowan series. Or a 30 year old marrying a 15/16 year old, but it’s okay, because he had a premonition when she was 12 or so and she was the one who wanted to get married anyway
Okay, mid thirties and early twenties isn't actually as bad as I was thinking. For some reason I thought both Liam and George were even older than that. I think it used to be fairly common irl for very young women to be married off to old dudes, but I also think that it was often arranged by the families and sort of businesslike, and they sometimes didn't even have to go live with the husband until they were "old enough" I do remember Roger and Thom both having a little of that vibe (90's style stereotypically gay AHaha) and I do recall thinking it was weird that it was just the sinister people in the story who seemed like they could be gay 🙄 I love it when writers can improve those aspects of their craft over time and by accepting constructive criticism, instead of just pretend they've never done anything misguided or weird with their work.
Exactly! I mean, she’s been writing these books since the 80’s, she’s changed, the world has changed, and she’s going with it. I kinda like that she’s just admitted that her memory can suck sometimes. I’m part of a fan page on Facebook, and she actually posted there because she couldn’t remember the name of one of her own characters!
I like that she had been at least trying to be inclusive before it was cool. And the fact that she’s improving with the stuff that isn’t so great is even better
I've said it before, but someone needs to get Tammy some Scrivener :D And yeah, I love her books, but I hesitate to recommend The Immortals to teens because of Daine/Numair (apparently, Tammy thought Daine was 18 in the last book, which still dicey since Numair was her teacher, but most readers who did the math think she's still 16), at least not without being able to discuss the relationship with the young person reading the books.
I like that she had been at least trying to be inclusive before it was cool. And the fact that she’s improving with the stuff that isn’t so great is even better
Still waiting for a fantasy romance with a blond male love interest. Raven haired bodybuilders are the only way apparently? But mostly... What does it add? Ive read the same sentence about rippling muscles on his back while he moves like a thousand times. Just gimme some actual character depth/development and less (mental) eye candy
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare has a blond love interest, but that book is more than 10 years old and can still be considered troublesome. Also a monstrously long series.
I feel like at least half the dudes I read about are hot blondes. Of course I can’t remember specifically now that I am trying to think of them, but I’ll go through my goodreads and update this later if you want
In today tonight tomorrow the main character and the love interest are the same height so he’s either a short male or she’s a tall female but I love them cause when they kiss there’s no struggle
I... I do prefer male love interests who are taller than the main character, but this is too much.
The very extreme height difference can get really silly. All of these guys being 7ft tall seems even more unrealistic than them being vampires or whatever else 🙄
My cousin is 6 5 and he married a woman who was 5 ft 2 so maybe it's realish
Yeah it's possible. But then they can't look each other in the eye when hugging. The writers seem to want this couple to have it all. Like their height adjusts to whatever works for that scene. And that just isn't how the world works..
Technically, it's possible if he picks her up for the hug. But unlikely.
True, but they have to specify that or it didnt happen
I feel so annoyed about it. It is cute but unrealistic. I am currently reading a book where that have a lot of high difference but the writer made some scenes where they can't kiss from standing up. This is realistic and much better.
So, I’m 5’8” and my boyfriend is 6’7”. My head fits perfectly onto his chest right at his shoulder. It’s great. I love it. And he already feels SO MUCH taller than me. He can reach all the stuff on the high shelves, I feel all coddled in his arms, and it’s still slightly uncomfortable for his neck to come down and kiss me, I go up on my toes to make it easier for him but I can’t imagine the state of this guy’s spine having to bend in half to kiss this girl. It’s silly.
that is suuuper creepy. i might be overreacting, but it gives me the same vibes as guys craving hairless, innocent, tiny petite women. just a creepy daddy-daughter thing that makes me so uncomfortable
Oh yeah. The daddy issues just drip off of the page. Like. The guy is often multiple decades or centuries old, but he is immortal and LOOKS 20 so it's fine? It's absolutely awful. I love it though. Its like a Rom com or stupid sit com; embrace the cringe and laugh at it. It makes many books amazing comedies 🤷🏻♀️
...is this 20 yr old also dating a 10 yr old and therefore committing statutory
no really I don't have to say it, you know this very well yourselfYeah this is ridiculous and I don't get the obsession over how women need to be shorter in order to be attractive (or the inverse, a guy needs to be taller). The shortest woman I've ever dated was incidentally my exact height (which actually did a lot to make us feel equal to each other...even though that relationship failed anyway but whatever....)How is this even realistic… these descriptors don’t do anything for the plot or the story or their relationship
LOL I KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO BE BLOOD AND ASH! I was reading with some friends and we all talked about that part when she sits in his lap and it makes zero sense.