Books

Well, since you mentioned it, Dean Koontz uses the word "susurration" in practically every book. You don't see it often elsewhere. He also likes effervescent, iridescent and cacophony.

ACOTAR mentioned Feyre’s bowels turning to liquid way too many times. That and a muscle feathered in someone’s jaw.

Detecting repetitive words and phrases is one of my editing superpowers.

Across the genre, though, I've noticed these specific offenders:

Palpable Pop the P Lift a shoulder Lift an eyebrow Licked the seam of their lips The shell of their ear Heart beat almost out of their chest

I’m obsessed with the Throne of Glass series but the author uses the word “strode” so often it makes me want to throw the books out the window. 🤬

Alan Dean Foster - “albeit”

Dark Tower Saga taught me the world palaver.

I was reading a WWII novel by Jeff Shaara, and he used "the men" 14 times in one page.

I'm reading interview with the vampire and Anne Rice loves the word preternatural

Penultimate. So annoying

The English translation of the Attack on Titan manga series uses the phrase “at this rate” incessantly. Once I noticed it, I just kept jumping out at me lmao

Harry Potter uses “anxious” “anxiously” constantly The generation that grew up reading these books frequently feel…

Joe Abercrombie loves using the word "Grimaced" and his narrator loves mispronouncing it!

Poe really liked the word melancholy.

Mark Dawson used the word “scree” in a book. I had to look it up as I’d never heard it before. He then used it over and over in the same scene until it grated on me. I don’t know if it’s a more British term, since he’s British, but I was to the point of thinking, mix it up some with rocks, gravel, whatever! Other than that that, I like his books.

“Ersatz” is a word I learned from Phillip K Dick. Such a good word.

Not one specific author but every thriller I read is obsessed with the word “sinew”

Dostoevsky and magnanimous but that could just be the translation

In the book "The Omen Machine", Terry Goodkind used the word "prophecy" over 250 times in 500 pages

It was distracting, irritating, and effective ruined any enjoyment I might have gotten because I was literally cringing and editing for the next one

Beeming keeps showing up throughout Harry Potter, very noticeable.

Imo unusual words like that should not appear more than once or twice in a book, no words should stick out enough to distract me.

In The Witcher series, Sapkowski frequently says Geralt "pirouettes" while fighting. Don't know how that translates from the original polish, but I'm reading them now and noticed this.

In The Great Gatsby I got so annoyed I started a tally on the back page of the book every time Gatsby says “old sport.” It totalled to 40, plus a bonus two from Tom.

Arthur Conan Doyle uses ejaculated in a way that will seem odd to modern audiences.

Indubitably.

Ottessa Moshfegh uses "pilly" a lot throughout her novels and short stories

I find Stephen king repeats himself a lot and it’s one of the biggest reasons I’m not a huge fan of his books.

Fairy tale for instance has this fantasy world and the child can understand in his head this magical language. Well it felt like from then on every time someone spoke in the book he keenly reminded the reader “He said this word, but I feel as if it was another word that doesn’t exist in my language.” And variations of. I swear there was one paragraph we’re it was brought up like four times alone.