Smash or Pass Book Tag

Hello and howdy.

Today we are smashing (the patriarchy) and passing (our classes) in the Smash or Pass Book Tag! This was created by Becky’s Book Blog. I’ve been seeing this tag a lot recently and have been very excited to give it a go.

We’re being speedy with this today though because I’ve been at my dads all weekend and haven’t had a chance to watch the newest episodes of Daisy Jones & The Six and I need to catch up asap.

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Bookish Tropes

While I’m not a huge fan of romance books being diluted down to just a bunch of tropes and no actual plot, I’m gonna have to smash this one cause there are more than a fair few tropes that I’m a sucker for: grumpy/sunshine, bad boy, billionaire, there’s only one bed, etc.

Alternating POV

Yeah I’m gonna have to smash this one too. Fantasy just has to be multiple/alternate POV so you get the full scope of the story and then romance books just hit ten times harder if you get to read from the perspective of both love interests.

Ambigious Endings

Hmm I’m not so sure on this one. If I’ve spent my time with a book I’d like to have a clear idea of how it eneded but then I saw the books Becky mentioned in her answers, specificially Our Violent Ends and The Invisible Life of Addie LeRue, and yeah, I liked there “fill in the blank” style of ending. I’m gonna give this a hesitant smash.

Non-Fiction

In an ideal world this would be a smash. It’s gonna have to be a pass though simply because of the fact that I don’t actually read them. I’ve got a big fat juicy non-fiction book about the history of the Russian tsars that I’ve still not read. This is entirely my own fault and I feel bad.

Historical Setting

Reading historical fiction makes me feel smarter than I actually am so smash for that reason alone. I will hold my hands up and admit though that historical settings scare me. Don’t ask me why because I don’t have an answer but it always takes me twice as long to read a book with a historical setting. Looking at you Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo …

Morally Grey characters

Kaz Brekker. Neil Josten. Alex Stern. Need I say more? SMASH

First Person POV

Yeah smash. I feel like I don’t have a strong enough opinion on a book being in first or third person.

Audiobooks

If I had done this tag last year it would have been a pass but I have grown as a human being in the last however many months and it is now a smash. I’m still finding my way when it comes to audiobooks but I feel like I’m doing a good job at reading one a month on my commutes etc. They’re coming in handy for re-reads and books I wouldn’t automatically pick up the physical copy of.

Re-reading

Despite trying to cut down on re-reads this year this is still 100% a smash. I would not be able to continue living my life if you told me I wasn’t allowed to re-read my favourite books. I mean I try and re-read All For the Game once a year. Who would I be if I couldn’t do that?

Classic novels

Pass. Please ignore the fact that I’m halfway through an English-Lit/Creative Writing degree :))

Annotating

I like the idea of it but in practice it’s a pass for me. I annotate my books for uni sometimes but that’s just for me to be able to go back and not use extra brain power when it comes to having points for my essays.

Cracking Book Spines

I don’t see the big deal with this, and in recent years I’ve cared less and less about dog-earing pages too. I’m not gonna go and bend the crap out of my book for the sake of it but I think cracking the spine makes the book look read and loved which isn’t a bad thing so smash.

Smut

As long as the book and specifically the romance narrative has more substance than just the smut then yeah, smash. It’s a pass if you try telling me “oh these characters have so much chemistry, they’re so in love” but all their scenes are just smutty. If you want me to buy into the chemistry of two characters I’m gonna need actual interactions and cutesty moments alongside that!

Character Driven Books

If I like the characters then I’m gonna like the book. Smash. Bad plot I can forgive, badly written characters I cannot.

Past/Present Split Timeline

If it’s done well then yeah smash but I’m dumb so I need things to be clear and concise. For example I didn’t realise The Witcher TV show was jumping between timelines until the second to last episode. I watched 99% of the first season before I realised and things started clicking into place.

Heavy World Building

Erm. I don’t read much high fantasy where loads of heavy world building is required. But I suppose the fact that I love the Shadowhunter Chronicles is an indicator that yeah I do like lots of detail when it comes to fantasy worlds and magic systems so we’ll say smash.

So there we have the smash and pass tag. This was a lot of fun. I’m not tagging anybody cause I wasn’t tagged but if you’ve done this or want to do it in the future, leave yours linked below cause I’d love to check it out! Thanks for reading :))

Elli xx