This is dumb and I feel like it's over used, because even I— Yes I have pulled the tragic backstory card in my books before. Also warning, I will be talking about mental illnesses and disorders in my second part where I split this chapter. I mention personal experiences growing up that some people may not like.

Tragic backstories! Good if some kind of character development comes with it or if it affects the way the character acts/behaves, bad if used incorrectly.

Good Example; Korosensei's backstory— there's a reason why he's a compassionate and caring character towards his students and it gives power to the storyline.

Bad Example; Backstories I've seen— Parents are either dead, abusive, or neglect the reader like Karma's parents neglect him and it doesn't make sense why and it doesn't have any plot to the story other than for pity.

Now, I have used in one of my Karma x readers where the reader's father committed suicide, and I may have used it wrong in some way- but it had plot to the story for one of the antagonists to use it against the reader. In the end, the antagonist actually apologizes and the reader forgives her. Other than that, I rarely use tragic backstories for other books unless it correlates or connects to the plot in some way that makes the story interesting.

I've seen books pull the tragic backstory off very well too. There was one where the reader has a toxic relationship with her parents and brother because they were always competing and comparing their children. This created a bad environment for the reader growing up, but as the story goes on, she begins to reconcile with her brother and grow a healthier relationship with him. I enjoy the story, as it feels realistic to me, even relatable in ways.

What I don't like is when people write things like:

"She was abused by her parents. They hated her because she was in E-Class."

Which doesn't make sense to me, because as seen of ALL the students in AC, none of their parents hit them or beat them for being in E-class (from what I've seen).

Now, if you wanted to convey a sense to your story, you could explain that the reader's parents were strict and only strived for the highest rankings. Having a child in the lowest class of her highschool would disappoint them and they would become stricter— or maybe the opposite. They lose hope in her and begin to neglect her, but they wouldn't straight up cut, kick, punch, beat, or hurt their child physically. Abuse isn't always physical, it can be emotional and mental as well.

I've also seen in maybe a few books where the reader is kicked out of the house by her parents and she goes to live with Karma like— wtf??? That doesn't just happen, if you wanted to be more realistic, the parents wouldn't kick a 14/15 year old out of the house. (of course there's always those parents that do exist, but it's usually because the girl got pregnant which I don't agree with because it's their child still.) And if they did kick reader out of the house, the reader would probably go to a close friends house like if she were friends with Rio or something. I just never got the "why don't you stay with me ;)" thing between Karma and the reader except to get them closer in a quicker amount of time. But we'll talk about people rushing the relationship another time.

Part 2! Mental illnesses/Disorders

If there's something I hate, it's mis-representing significant things like these. Giving the reader a mental illness or disorder and wrongly presenting it in a book is one of the things that annoys me, especially when I know a lot of people with disorders and mental illnesses— even myself, which gladly I didn't inherit everything from my mom, but I was diagnosed with depression and possible PTSD from my childhood.

And it isn't cool. It's not QUIRKY. It's not fun. It's one of the worst things to experience— living with an illness or growing up with people who have an illness/disorder.

I saw a book a long time ago in which the reader was bipolar and people made jokes about it. And the author COMPLETELY butchered it too, because the reader was switching from being angry one second and then happy another. That's NOT how bipolar works. My biological mom has bipolar, and her mood didn't switch that quick.

She had episodes and she wasn't always angry, there were depressive episodes too. And in the times she was on a manic high, she choked my younger brother until we got her off of him. It's dangerous, especially because she wasn't taking her pills because she thought she didn't need them. In the depressive lows, she didn't go to work, she slept all day, lazed around, leaving me to cook for her and my brothers as well as getting my younger brother to the bus stop. I was always worried though because I didn't want to leave my youngest brother alone with her, scared she might hurt him while I was gone. I was only nine or ten maybe, so I didn't understand that well about what she had until later in life when I left to go live with my dad.

As for depression— it doesn't always mean someone is completely suicidal or harming themself, but without any help, it can definitely lead to it.

In those stories when I see the reader "depressed", they either always make them cut themself or they're shown to starve themself. Which isn't always the case.

When I was younger, I never really harmed myself that way. In my many depressive episodes, I would hurt my body internally rather than externally. Like taking a few more sleeping pills than I should've, over ate until I vomited, didn't eat until I got too nauseous, barely sleep at all, sleep all day, I didn't take a lot of showers because I barely left my bed, laying down all day. It's embarrassing, really. But it's what I lived through. And it was terrible. That's why I hate it when people give characters mental illnesses and disorders just because they think it'll make the character "unique".

Mental illness and disorders aren't a joke, if you want to represent it correctly, I suggest maybe going for a different book genre that isn't romance, maybe focus on the character's life and how they live and cope with having an illness/disorder.

But don't treat it like it's some cool accessory to have.