Riley Locke

The Trope Encyclopedia

What each trope is, why it works, and where it lives in this library — written by the desk that reviews it, with every example drawn from books the house has actually shelved.

100 entries, filed in the house taxonomy.

Open the Trope Finder — stack tropes, cap the heat, avoid what you avoid →

The house taxonomy

Every entry is filed in one of six classes. The classes are the desk's own, and they exist because "trope" covers at least six different kinds of thing, which is precisely why most trope lists read as noise.

Plot shape 45 entries The arc itself: what happens, in what order, and what the ending has to settle. Remove a plot shape and the book has no story left to tell. Character dyad 11 entries A pairing defined by what two people do to each other. A dyad describes who is in the room rather than what happens there, and travels into almost any shape. Pacing covenant 7 entries A promise about speed. These govern how fast the feeling is allowed to arrive, and therefore what the reader is owed in the pages between. Set piece 7 entries A scene the genre keeps in its cabinet. Portable, repeatable, recognisable on sight, and liftable into almost any book without adjustment. Certification device 7 entries A mechanism that vouches. Something outside the couple declares the pairing valid, whether fate, a bond, a creature or a system, and the story tests whether the declaration was worth anything. Form 23 entries Not a trope but a shelf. A form is a whole subgenre with its own rules, terms and readership, and the smaller tropes get run inside it.

The Romance Review

Riley on the shapes the genre keeps its promise in.

Plot shape 36

The arc itself: what happens, in what order, and what the ending has to settle. Remove a plot shape and the book has no story left to tell.

Character dyad 10

A pairing defined by what two people do to each other. A dyad describes who is in the room rather than what happens there, and travels into almost any shape.

Pacing covenant 6

A promise about speed. These govern how fast the feeling is allowed to arrive, and therefore what the reader is owed in the pages between.

Set piece 5

A scene the genre keeps in its cabinet. Portable, repeatable, recognisable on sight, and liftable into almost any book without adjustment.

Certification device 5

A mechanism that vouches. Something outside the couple declares the pairing valid, whether fate, a bond, a creature or a system, and the story tests whether the declaration was worth anything.

Form 20

Not a trope but a shelf. A form is a whole subgenre with its own rules, terms and readership, and the smaller tropes get run inside it.

The Signal

Eddie on the premises the genre audits, and the bills they run up.

Plot shape 9

The arc itself: what happens, in what order, and what the ending has to settle. Remove a plot shape and the book has no story left to tell.

Character dyad 1

A pairing defined by what two people do to each other. A dyad describes who is in the room rather than what happens there, and travels into almost any shape.

Pacing covenant 1

A promise about speed. These govern how fast the feeling is allowed to arrive, and therefore what the reader is owed in the pages between.

Set piece 2

A scene the genre keeps in its cabinet. Portable, repeatable, recognisable on sight, and liftable into almost any book without adjustment.

Certification device 2

A mechanism that vouches. Something outside the couple declares the pairing valid, whether fate, a bond, a creature or a system, and the story tests whether the declaration was worth anything.

Form 3

Not a trope but a shelf. A form is a whole subgenre with its own rules, terms and readership, and the smaller tropes get run inside it.