Why don't people like harem novels?

Hmm yeah good or not is subjective, but a general rule is that if a lot of people agrees something is bad, it’s most likely bad. Same if it’s good. I once read stories where harem are unintentional but because every characters was so well done, I can’t help but hope for all of them to be with the MC (if the Mc is likeable) so that none of them will be heartbroken.

 

If youre talking about tropes...
Then the real tropes are that authors for harem / reverse harem web novels generally is an otaku that havent had real harem/ reverse harem relationship before.
People depend on tropes for something they dont know off!!
Like if you're suddenly asked on how will you make a character of the people of the country outside your own that you never visit or reaserch before. African, middle east, european, chinese.. etc2
I bet all we will see is a horde of trope characters written in repetitions.
If you want realistic harem, why not ask our @prongsjiisan to write the novel? Lol

 

I understand what you are saying to take the majority likes and dislikes as a rule of thumb to what is good harem story. I like to take away the subjectivity though, I want character development, a believable plot, tropes are good when used correctly, and the author has to actually be tell a story.

Also, and this is important, I have reached a point in my love of reading where it has to be good stuff and it's gotta make sense or I just can't be bothered and I get bitchy about it sometimes and it spirals. Not proud of it, but there it is, I hate wasting time on bad fiction so I tend to avoid harems as a rule to not spoil my enjoyment. It's one of the only guiltless pleasures I have.

 

Well, basically light novel or "official works" are what you’re looking for. Web novels are written by amateurs so it’s hard to expect a proper story from it. Of course there are good web novels out there but they’re far and few in between.

 

Hmm...that is food for thought...in saying that I've been disappointed lately by the quality of those works...as a general thing. Say for example Dan Brown, the way people spoke about his works was like he was the next Stephen King or something, then I read a couple of his books....what a let down.

A lot of the works here written by amateurs are really good with less of the wordiness of mainstream novels, etc. It's just good straight story telling. I remember my surprise when I finally got around to reading Fifty Shades (which was six months ago believe it or not) and I went, oh crap this is actually well written. *boggle* (Oh and I haven't watch the movies...dunno if I will, Hollywood usually disappoints when it makes movies based on books.)

Yeah...this is turning into a passionate ramble. Someone should give me a beer.

 

pleasure motivates people to have sex, which can produce babies. Now, as humans, we found numbers of ways around it, but it's still there.

 

Proper romance is one of the hardest things to write, harem is even harder multiplied by the amount of harem members. Generally speaking I wouldn't drop a thing if it goes harem, but you always notice the quality of writing drop by a HUGE margin when harem gets involved. So if you are reading content that is average at best, and harem is going to cause a drop in quality, I can see why people would drop it.

Personally I have not dropped things due to harem, but I have dropped things due to polygamy. Not because of the polygamy itself but HOW it was handled. I dropped 2 novels due to polygamy, one was a comedy which was okay and MC had 2 wives, but then on the 3rd wife he pulls something off equivalent to brainwashing while sweeping things under the table (not okay and not funny). The other one was a kingdom building novel where MC married like 4 people in 1 day like a checklist (not okay at all).

Even one novel which I liked quite a bit, I didn't drop but I'm reluctant to read due to harem. They handled the first 2 harem members decent enough. But when the 3rd came, it pretty much ruined everything. So one of the novels I liked reading a lot went completely downhill.

That is the problem with harem, it can easily destroy a good novel because it is hard to handle properly.

 

I think why people hate harem novels because often the girls call for trouble (arrogant young master flirt mc's girl) or jp novel trope where girl introduced at point of story then became harem member after an arc. Sometimes i think author doesn't know how to write the story then they introduce a girl character for make a story progress

 

In my personal experience thats fairly helpful unless you start talking about wish fulfillment then the helpfulness of reader reviews tends to degrade pretty significantly which is probably a big contributor to the people who just avoid harem all together

I tend to feel like the quality spread from amature to professional writing is that the professional side of things seems to dominate in the middle to good range with alot of good editing and coherent plots but also alot safe generic repetition whereas on the amature side in the highest quality stuff they tend to have an advantage (not dominating) in that there is alot more creativity and originality. Either way you tend sift through alot of bad writing to get to the good stuff

How would you compare it to twilight? Just curious because I have always thought the first twilight book was kind of interesting. While not necessarily well written it seemed to me that was very effective at achieving wat it was going for, a very very melodramatic and overwrought romance. I usually absolutely hate any romance that uses the "magically destined to be together" plot device as a cop out to avoid writing anything ACTUALLY romantic but aside from that I didn't think it was so bad.

 

Too long, didn't read, but man what a dumb question, also a question that has been asked dozens of times...

 

I haven't read Twilight yet....I found the concept of twinkling vampires a bit....far-fetched. XD IKR? Like vampires are not real but I have some kind of moral code that prohibits me from taking seriously a twinkling fairy vampire. *ROLLS HER EYES* However, I'm firmly in the Vampire Lestat/Dracula side of vampires. My favourite vampire novel of all time is Mephistopheles. Perhaps because it deals with the Job myth? Hmm...

Then I saw the actors for the Twilight movie and it put me off more. Maybe I should pick it up for this summer holidays which are coming up?

About Fifty Shades, don't get me wrong I would not call the novel literature or anything, but there is a clear progression of characters, plot, etc. After reading some of the more popular mainstream authors of the day, I find it refreshing to find someone that can actually tell a good story. I noticed that the author is now retelling the story from Gray's point of view and I"ve gone Urgggg....now they are just trying to milk the golden goat or something... That author will go the way of Anne Rice if they aren't careful.

 

*is too lazy to read the replies to the OP*

AFAIK, most people end up dropping harem novels, because badly written harem is just... Really bad.

Like, if the author is good, they can do pretty much anything and the story will probably keep on being good.

If the author is mediocre or bad though... They may do some things poorly, and harem tends to be one of those things...



I agree with you, I would never take it being a harem or not into account when deciding rather or not I should drop a novel.

But I think people do it, because they're so used to poorly written harems, that they forgot some harems can be really well written.

 

Why do you have to force yourself to read a bad novel? D: I've read a few extracts of Twilight waaay back because I was curious what the fuss was about. From what I could tell, it was basically smut without sex. You don't have to force yourself to read it just because it's famously bad... (lol funny how that's actually a thing)

 

Haha! Some things just have to be experienced?

Hmm...the only times I ever felt like I have to read something was when I had to write a paper or have an exam... it's why I will never ever finish Moby Dick. That has to be the worst excuse for literature yet.... However, if I don't even attempt to read some of the more popular stuff, how will I know if I like it? In fact, how can I have an opinion if I haven't read it and a discussion comes up? So when I find a reason to chomp on some popular drivel, I give it a go like I would a science experiment. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised, sometimes I'm horribly disillusioned. Life and Literature go hand in hand like that.

 

I loathe harem, wait loathe is too strong of a word...well, let's just say I avoid harem like the plague.

If I can have a great novel without a harem and a great novel with a harem, then I'd choose the one where there is no harem. The reason why avoid harem like the plague (or if I can, which is I will unless the story with a harem is some great shit like the second coming of Jesus) is because the portrayal of the women in the harem sucks as cow dung. As a human being who lives, breathes, gets angry, frustrated etc. I, too, would like to see how it is to be in love or married to someone who doesn't solely belong to you.

Though I still read novels with harems, to be precise, Imperial harems; where women are bitchy af, cunning, and two-faced as two-faced can be. Why? Because the Emperor's harem is a competition. If a concubine, wife or even an empress has no Emperor-dick for sometime, then it means serious business, you can say bye-bye to your position as another new pussy takes your hard-earned position; which you earned through seduction and etc., in just a few months.

 

Cause trash

 

I read those too!!! I LOVE those! Do you have any to recommend?

 

Hmm I do read harem, especially since lots of what I read is like reverse harem or imperial harem.

But if I think about why I hesitate to read them, it's probably because I don't have a harem and love OTP's ? LOL
That and I can barely remember character names, needing to remember the whole harem is rather difficult for me,
and there are writers who suck at writing harems since it might take away the original plot if it didn't start out as a harem or the harem member is annoying and rather just get rid of them XD

 

I don't hate harem it's just most of them turned shitty on later chapters.

 

I generally avoid harem in novels as they usually fall into the "encounter, trouble, saving damsel in distress and instantly falling in love" format x number of harem members. Though I do read/ watch harem manga and anime simply coz most of them (esp anime) are harem anyways and I could at least tell which harem member is which by their boobs size, bust size, hair style and colour, etc. In written form, it is just a pain to remember all their names and "supposed"/ lack of personality.

I do read reverse harem simply coz I: 1. prefer a female MC, 2. the male lead is quite obvious from the beginning and 3. I have yet to read a reverse harem where the MC is romantically involved with all the "harem members"
Imperial harem is understandable just coz it is based on mutual benefits (emperor gets concubines to control their house/family, concubines enters the harem to allow their house/family to stay in/rise in power) rather than romance.

All in all, it could be summarized to underdeveloped romance, lack of characterisation and repetitive storytelling