20 Things People Love In Books But Are Actually Big Red Flags In Real Life

Reddit users reveal the things that give them butterflies in books but are actually flashing red flags in real life.

Liezel

• Published in Interesting
• December 21, 2021

Writers are seriously amazing people. They can make you believe in worlds that don’t exist in the one we live in, they can make you feel such strong emotions for characters that aren’t real, and they can also change your mind about a lot of things you believe in. 

If you think about it though, they can be pretty scary too. Because despite all the good that they do with their stories and their writing, there is a downside to it and it’s not all fun. 

One of those things is having us romanticize things or actions that would have us running far far away in real life. The worst part of it is that we know it’s wrong, oh so wrong, but we can’t help but love it. 

For some reason, a lot of these things give a lot of us readers butterflies in our stomachs. At times, we can’t even help but root for it. 

It’s not completely the author’s fault, of course, because a lot of them do genuinely state the reasons why it shouldn’t happen clearly. It’s just us and our bizarre minds

Thankfully, nobody’s alone in this. Every reader out there has had that guilty moment when they’ve rooted for something they know they shouldn’t have. 

In a subreddit for women, user cutiemaan asked the question “What’s something that’s a red flag in real life, but you love in books?” Other users delivered and we couldn’t agree more with their answers.

Remember when Elsa said," You can't marry a man you just met"?

We'd get a restraining order in real life

This would be horrific and extremely toxic in real life but very exciting and enticing in a book

Just because they have a soft spot for that one person doesn't make them any less of a jerk but in a fantasy novel, maybe

That's seriously creepy and who in the world would actually have the energy and right mind to talk properly when your body is just begging for sleep?

We're going to rage in real life alright

Hmmm maybe not so sociopathic if it's worth it and well executed though

There's no excitement to read about without the angst and melodrama

This person gets it

They create that much needed drama everyone craves to read about

Oh yes, it's better in the imagination than in real life

This would just be plain stupid in real life

That's what you call obsessive

Nope, we don't want to be responsible for anything crazy you might do to 'protect' us

If it's purely coincidental IRL, it's pretty cute but really, how many things are just coincidental in real life?

Book characters are always rich enough to afford missing their flights for some reason

This is just toxic in real life and a headache nobody needs

In real life, you get a restraining order to counter these kinds of things

We'd be judging the person doing this in real life so hard

Books and movies make this scenario seem alright but NO

Just because a lot of readers love these red flags doesn't mean that they're messed up people. It's just that sometimes, things in the world of fantasy seem a lot better than what they are in reality.

In real life, we'd probably use the very books that gave us those butterflies to knock some sense into people giving into these red flags.

Liezel