Wattpad : Bad Boy Books

Honestly, I don't think this topic is a surprise. This is the main reason why I decided this to be my first topic of the day. This topic is very prevalent in the algorithm and so many of the popular books are bad boy stories. 

I am no stranger to this topic because I do admit that I indulge in this genre a lot. However there are just some bad boy books that I cannot tolerate and have become too outrageous for me to carry on reading or too repetitive to keep me interested.

Warning: If this topic triggers you, please do not read! From this point on I will be mentioning very mature concepts and swears! If you are sensitive, please do not engage here any further! If you choose to continue, if you see words that trigger you, immediately move on to the next paragraph! Thank you!

The first thing I want to bring up about the genre is what I personally  define a bad boy!

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Part 1: The Bad Boy Definition

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Ever since I read bad boy books, I always questioned what really constitutes to a bad boy. Based on what I have seen on the platform they mostly are:

☛ violent 24/7 to the point that they start fights, punch almost anything they can punch on, and barely show any remorse in the first act of the story,

☛ rebellious that do slightly criminal acts that they may or may not go to jail for,

☛ lonely as they don't talk to anyone in the beginning except for a very few close friends and the main character,

☛ underground fighters, boxers, tattoo artists and illegal racers where they make time for these things and see these jobs as their main or only source of income

☛ in high school most of the time but are barely in classes as they skip, rebel, or are in detention

☛ smokers, drive motorcycles, has tattoos, dark aesthetic, and dysfunctional relationships with family, friends or current lovers,

☛ possessive to the point that they get jealous easily, always restricts the main girl from having any guy friends, and always wants to be around the main girl and can't stay away for long.

『These are the only things I can think of when it comes to bad boys. If you have any other things that can describe a bad boy or if you think the ones I listed are incorrect, comment it here! Would like to see how others define the term! 』

Now, I am not saying that all bad boys in these books are like this, but this is the general idea of what I have read and observed mainly in the wattpad circle. I am not saying that all these are bad traits, there are some appealing and unappealing characteristics and it boils down to a matter of taste.

The reason why I brought up what a bad boy is, is mainly because I do find some of these traits unappealing and there has been a lot of variations to the genre that it gets confusing if someone is a "bad boy" or a downright insane person. 

However, the bad boy genre doesn't also target some toxic traits in men, it also raises concern about the possibly toxic traits in women. Which brings me to my next part:

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Part 2: The Main Girl

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Now, I understand that the characters themselves are flawed because stories comes with flawed characters to show personal growth in the end. However, some females in these kinds of story have very similar and questionable attitudes and morals. 

The first thing I would want to bring about the main girl that may lead to inherently toxic behavior is submission. Now, hear me out, I am quite the submissive myself and I do like my men dominant which is why there are certain stories of this genre that interest me. However, I can't help but notice how most of the authors of these books have the bad boys groom young females. 

By the way, I am not saying that the authors intentionally do these things, I am mainly saying that it does look that way especially from an outside perspective of someone who doesn't find the appeal of these books. You have to remember that there are a lot of young people on wattpad, minors, younger than 18, that are in this platform. 

I can't help but be uncomfortable when bad boys exhibit very abusive traits and the main character just tolerates it because they are infatuated with the person. Despite how many times they tell them to "stay away", they can't help but keep wanting more. 

Another side of the spectrum is the sarcastic and wild main girls. You probably know what I'm talking about. They are the main girls that hate these men with a passion, making sure that they set boundaries, is constantly sarcastic, doesn't tolerate submission and would want to take control, and mostly does the push and pull. 

Now, why did I highlight the push and pull part? Well because I think this invokes something that I really hate about bad boy books. These girls don't approve of this bad boy behavior (especially the toxic and abusive behavior) but then suddenly changing their mind when this certain bad boy sexually assaults them like kissing them out of nowhere, grope a boob or butt in public, whisper suggestive things in their ears, or shows them affection out of nowhere.

Okay, so I understand that these men can inherently change their negative behaviors. But my problem is that these girls immediately forgive these men before they even properly admit to their wrongdoings or completely stop. They just accept them out of nowhere because "he makes me feel things". I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong but this again just instills a very negative message that these people (male or female) should accept their supposed significant other despite displaying toxic behaviors because "they love you and want you".

I just wish that these authors take great care with their main characters as these things can shift expectations for women and men and how they should be treated by their significant others. Main characters are meant to be flawed yes, but I would also want to see that the author is aware that these characters are flawed and that certain toxic behaviors shouldn't be okay!

『 I cannot think of any other main girl tropes at the moment for the bad boy books so if you have any that you can remember, comment here! Would love to read them and discuss!』

Now we just talked about the possible characters of a bad boy book, in the next part, we should explore what the world is like and the people interacting with them. 

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Part 3: The Bad Boy World

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The bad boy world isn't as unique as it is mostly set on earth and would likely represent normal and real countries and cities. The settings are also mainly in school, their homes, and some random locations for probably dates, hangouts or hobbies.

The first thing I would like to bring up is their families. I feel like bad boys' families are always either: divorced, abusive, dead or busy. Which does make sense since toxic home environments can lead to toxic behaviors. However, I wish that there was an innovative way for these authors to think of reasons why the bad boy turns out to be bad in the first place. It would have been nice to explore reasons beyond parents or family trauma and touch up on things like negative influence from the media, peer pressure or even to please their past significant others. I am pretty sure there are stories out right now that do touch on these, I just wish that there were more, something more relatable and maybe even thought provoking. 

The second thing in the bad boy world is friendships. Almost always it's either one or two male friends for the main guy. For the main girl it is usually a gay friend, a male best friend, or a girl best friend. Most of their friendships goes way back from childhood and they have been inseparable ever since. I don't mind this idea because these can be realistic however I would want to see some friendships where they don't even have a certain best friend. Because they are bad boys you know? You kind of expect for some of them to cycle through friends because they don't care about making friends. 

Like it really doesn't make it believable to me if they describe this guy as overbearing, aggressive, always keeps to himself, pessimistic and brooding but then have a really happy go lucky best friend who calms him down and cheers him up. I will admit, it gets repetitive and they are mostly the comic relief of this story. It would be so, so, so much appreciated if the bad boy was the comic relief himself. It would at least give him an appealing trait and it can make people awe at the fact that he is cold but he has a sense of humor. 

I am not saying there aren't any humorous bad boys, I have definitely encountered some. But I wish there was more creativity to the comedy than just "guy best friend says something funny or stupid, bad boy glares at best friend, best friend gets scared, bad boy reprimands best friend" humor.

The third thing I would want to bring up is their past. Now, thinking about their past and all their reasons and decisions that makes them the person they are today is not an easy feat. Heck, writing is already a difficult task and I am no way undermining the authors of these stories' creativity and abilities in writing. There has been variety of backstories so there is at least that and sometimes there are ones that do surprise me. I don't know, is it just me though that kind of wants to understand the character's reasons for turning out this way but I also can't completely give them a pass? I just don't really like victimizing the bad boy and then treating everyone around him like they are the ones to blame for everything.

They have choices and they had to suffer the consequences of their choices. We can't also blame them for making bad choices but if these people literally were told that "they shouldn't do this" or that "doing this will make it worse" then they don't immediately get the pity card from me. What do I mean by bringing this up? I am talking about cheating and criminal acts in these stories. 

Now, I do believe people can be victims of sexual assault and criminal charges. However, blaming the one night stand of the bad boy but then forgiving the bad boy himself like it's not completely his fault and that he was under the influence yada yada. I hate it. Okay? I hate it. If the man even cheats at all, that is a sign that they aren't worth it. I hate that most comments would be like "that woman is a bitch for manipulating *bad boy* into this" or " I feel bad for *bad boy*, the *cheater* should just go to hell".

Guys, it takes two to tango! Sure there can be reasons like being drugged, feeling conflicted on who to choose and all those reasons can be valid. Like, I would understand if someone would be raped in their sleep, that is completely on the fault of the assaulter. But if the bad boy willingly chose to go to a club, or even approach a girl, or continued to be friends with this girl despite knowing about her toxic behavior is just stupid. It is very hypocritical of them to be mad when the girl just talks to a guy friend but then beg on their knees for forgiveness when they willingly kiss a woman and then realize it was a mistake later on. 

I don't know this part is a bit sensitive so I'm sorry if my words can be very wrong. This is just my opinion, I don't claim for this to be factual!

『Anything else you would like to add about the Bad Boy World here? Things like locations, people, rules and politics, school systems, tolerance for drinking, driving, smoking or having sex underage, you can comment them here! I had these in my mind about the bad boy world but I didn't want to make this part too long! I would be okay to discuss the more controversial stuff about it in the comments! Feel free to do so!』

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Part 4: The Toxicity and Drama

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Oh boy! You can tell by this part's title what it's gonna be about. This part is like a mix of the 3 previous parts, to combine into what I find toxic about the genre and my opinions about the drama that the author's create in these types of stories. 

So, one thing I realize, it's that these stories just give a bad feeling in my stomach sometimes. It's so bad that just reading the first 3 chapters, I already feel sick and want to remove the book from my library. I can only handle so much toxicity and drama!

However, if you like the drama and all, I won't judge. It makes stories interesting and I admit that I do like the characters to suffer sometimes so that the ending will be satisfactory. With bad boy books though, their drama is mostly...how should I say this.. forced?

Like it's hard to put it into words but it feels like the drama could have just been prevented very easily, or the drama doesn't really have any weight on this story and that if removed, wouldn't really affect anything at all.

Some things I could think of are like love triangles (the ones that just spurred on in the middle of the book and not from the beginning), and kidnapping. 

For the love triangles, I understand they would want to create tension and a "will they, won't they" scenario. But sometimes I feel like this couple is already strong and they are already past the phase of confusion and are already dating, but they still want to bring up a love triangle out of nowhere? And most of the times, this drama is handled very poorly and it leads to either: 

a.) a main character accidentally cheating, or

b.) the other person being gay/the other person being a best friend/the other person being their sibling/everything being a big misunderstanding

Like I am tired of people giving the excuse that "oh, they are gay/my best friend/my sibling, why are you so worried?" Okay, so why didn't you tell them early on what they were? Why did you make the other person second guess themselves and think about all the possibilities of why this person is close to the one they love? 

As for the cheating, you already know what I think about it earlier. 

Now, the kidnapping drama. Boy oh boy do I have a pet peeve with this! I hate stories that start off with a normal high school setting and then all of a sudden involves the mafia, gangs, kidnapping and guns. Like, please pick a story. It's either a bad boy story or a mafia story (I might make a chapter on that).

I also hate how the kidnapping can be done so..poorly. Like the way that the main girl gets kidnapped either starts because the bad boy left her side for just a moment or that the main girl insists that she can handle being by herself after something bad just happened. 

And then some authors don't even commit to this plot point. They sometimes have the guy finding the girl so easily and the threat dismissed completely that just made me say out loud "then what was the point?". 

I don't mind kidnapping as an idea to add tension. But if you are going to do it, make it logical, necessary, and suspenseful. The point of kidnapping in stories is to give the character's tension of the possibility of being together and finding each other with limited contact, with high stakes, and with a huge threat. Most of the time it also makes the main character stronger or it gives the main girl a reason to have more doubts. Like if you're going to make something dramatic, make sure that this drama, actually affects the plot later on.

『Of course, there is a lot of toxic traits and unnecessary drama in these stories that I didn't touch on. If you want to start a conversation about a specific one, feel free to comment here! 』

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Part 5: The Romance

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Ah, alas! We can't talk about bad boy books if we don't talk about the main point of these stories. The romance!

Okay, before I go further, I would like to ask you "Do you like your significant other to be a bad boy/bad girl?" You can comment your answers here!

For me, I wouldn't mind if my significant other is/was a bad boy if he doesn't exhibit most of the red flags that come with it. Like for example I wouldn't mind if they have tattoos, or are rebellious, or if they own a motorcycle or box for a living and wouldn't even mind a little bit of possessiveness. I would mind though if they exude obsessive behavior, aggressiveness and cheating tendencies. 

Almost always these stories start out with the bad boy being a shit of a human being and the main girl being the most purest thing in the planet / the most fun and logical person in the world. Then it starts with them meeting coincidentally and are able to interact because the bad boy saves the main girl in some way. Whether it would be from falling or bullying. Sometimes they would just meet by bumping into each other. Almost always the bad boy would be the silent type, the one with very few words, occasionally staring or acting all soft out of nowhere. The main girl would either be flustered, annoyed or flat out leave. 

Then it follows with the men finding ways to meet the girl or interact with them again. This becomes creepy at some point because they would stalk or even find out all their personal information before even getting to know them as human beings.

Basically fast forward and their relationship will depend on whatever the author is targeting. They would make them be official immediately, have a love-hate relationship, or have them be friends with benefits.  

There would be friends and enemies. Things that can put their relationship to the test. With the men always being possessive and angry when any guy approaches the main girl, and with the main girl being oblivious and continues to interact with the guy that the bad boy dislikes. The best friends being the only logical people in their life by offering to give them advice, outright tell them about their attraction to one another, would bring their relationship forward by playing cupid, or would always bring sense to our main characters.

Then there comes a bitchy mean girl or an egotistical asshole that flirts with the main characters and then testing their love for each other. Then they would have a big argument over a misunderstanding and would go on for days ignoring each other. Then one day they decided to forgive them after going through an emotional point in their life or a random pep talk from family or friends.

Basically it ends with them being happily ever after. With them being married, and having babies.

Now, I know this is not the usual formula for these stories, I just didn't want to add too much to an already long  part but this is the gist of what I would usually expect from these kinds of stories. Of course there are unique elements added to it and can even make the story more enjoyable.

I do always have a gripe with the endings. Almost always they have to end with them being married or them in the future with kids and all that. Look I get that is what these books typically want for a happy ending but I honestly could care less about their wedding and their future family that could potentially land a sequel especially if I have seen wedding scenes and family scenes too much to the point it feels like almost every pregnancy, wedding and children scene in the future is exactly the same.

For the love story itself, it's mostly the love-hate relationships that bother me the most. And it's mostly the females in this trope that I have a problem with. Look girl, it's either you don't like the guy or you do. Maybe it's just me, but I don't find it appealing for someone to constantly change minds about how they feel about someone. I don't know, maybe there are guys or girls out there who love tsunderes but I can only handle so much of the tsun. 

『Anything you want to say about the romance in these stories? Comment it here! 』

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Part 6: Pros and Cons of the Genre

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This is a straightforward part where I quickly summarize the pros and cons of the bad boy genre! Feel free to comment about your opinion of each one!

PROS

✔ This is a very easy genre to write for and is a very popular genre that can guarantee a lot of reads in the platform!

✔ If you are a hardcore romantic and would love to live in a fantasy where the boyfriend is a hot guy who is possessive and protective, and is shit to other people but not you, then you would love this genre!

✔ If you are a sucker for happy endings. Most of the times, these books have endings with the characters being together. However there are times where authors can surprise you so this is not a full pro.

✔ Got more pros? Comment them here!

CONS

✘ If you cannot tolerate possessive, aggressive, or pessimistic men, this is not a genre for you!

✘ Can get frustrating because there are times where the characters make the most dumb decisions.

✘ If you hate main girls that are mostly weak or shy/outrageously quirky or sarcastic, you might have a hard time liking them

✘ Got more cons? Comment them here!

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『 Part 7: Final Remarks 』

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All in all if you want my opinion about what I think about the bad boy genre, I hate most of it but I can read and love some and I do have them saved in my library. In fact, I have one or two books that I consider my absolute favorites turn out to be a bad boy book. 

So I don't necessarily hate the genre, but I do hate some of the author's decisions with the genre if that makes sense.

Hopefully, you won't think this is too offensive. I try my best to keep it both positive and negative as I don't want to offend too many people. This is a popular genre after all.

Please also note, I am not encouraging you to love or hate the genre. You are your own person, you make your decisions. These mostly boil down to taste, standards and morals. So please don't feel ashamed for liking something others might hate more, it all boils down to taste.

Lastly, thank you to everyone who made it this far! This is a long chapter, hope you enjoyed it!

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PROMOTION AND FUN TIME

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If you are an author of a bad boy book, don't be shy to promote your story here! Just state the title and a link if you wish to.

If you have a reading list of bad boy books, don't be shy to send a link here! Maybe people who are interested in the genre would want to check them out!

If you want to tag certain people to engage in this chapter or read this chapter, you can tag them here!

Short QnA

❤️️ What is your favorite bad boy book?

❤️️ Who is your favorite author who specializes in bad boy books?

❤️️ Do you love or hate the genre? Why or why not?

Recommendations

What topics do you want me to talk about related to Wattpad in the future? Comment here!

What other topics that you want me to talk about that aren't related to Wattpad? Comment here!

Choose any of these three topics that you want me to talk about tomorrow! Comment "This one" on the appropriate topic!

➀ Werewolf Books

➁ Mafia Romance Books

➂ Wattpad Communities