Inheritance Games: Why Love Triangles Are Risky

Love triangles have been written in all kinds of stories. They’re immensely popular not only in the young adult and romance genres, but also across fiction in general. And while there is definitely a time and a place for love triangles, too many authors include them when they aren’t necessary, assume they’re quick and low-effort romantic tension, and their story suffers for it. So many good books have featured love triangles that became a detriment to its narrative. When handled carelessly, they add numerous flaws to your tension, character work, and the story’s resolution. 

But that doesn’t mean they have to. There have been well-written, pertinent love triangles that contribute to the story and become indispensable elements, creating tension, highlighting important themes, and generating powerful parallels that can’t be done any other way.

So this February, Sophia and I are writing three articles on the topic of love triangles, in an effort to help you determine whether or not your story needs one — and if it does, how to write it well. For the first article in this series, we wanted to include some warnings and address many of the most common pitfalls that become difficult to avoid when writing a love triangle. And to do it, we’ll use the YA mystery novel The Inheritance Games.

Inheritance Games

Avery is a typical high school student with above-average grades and even higher goals —  to escape high school, get a degree that allows her to work online, and then travel across the world, visiting all the places her mother dreamed of seeing with her before she died. 

But all of that changes when she is approached by uptight and well-to-do Grayson Hawthorne, the arrogant teenage grandson of a billionaire who has just passed away. Unfortunately for both of them, the reading of his will requires Avery’s presence, which is absurd considering she’d never even heard of the Hawthornes before. But Grayson, despite his obvious irritation with his grandfather’s will and Avery in general, insists that she is present, and Avery begrudgingly agrees.

Once at the Hawthorne mansion, she meets Grayson’s handsome, irresponsible, and currently drunk younger brother, Jameson. He immediately begins flirting with her and, despite her better judgment, Avery can’t help but appreciate his fiery disposition and complete disregard for any sort of rules. 

And his grandfather’s will makes it clear that the two brothers will be in Avery’s life for the foreseeable future. Their grandfather, who had always been fond of riddles and puzzles, set up a grand competition for the fortune he left behind, and Avery is up against his family in a race to solve the clues and, in the process, earn a massive sum of money. Determined to win the life her mother wanted her to live, Avery sets out to beat the brothers and win their grandfather’s inheritance… but things get complicated.

Throughout the book (and the following installments in the series) Avery is pulled in two directions, between the disciplined Grayson and reckless Jameson. She can sense interest from both of them, despite the competition, and entertains both possibilities until the series’ conclusion. The romantic tension between the three characters is in every sense a love triangle, and its failings illustrate many of the issues that plague most love triangles in modern storytelling.

Love Triangles

There’s no getting around the fact that love triangles are highly popular. They appear in almost every kind of story. They are so overused that it’s almost cliche to point that out. But despite their popularity (or maybe because of it), they can very quickly ruin a story by interfering with character work, adding needless romantic tension, or coming across as cliche.

Not to mention, they create a very thin needle for you as the writer to thread.

On the one hand, if your readers can clearly see which of the two love interests your protagonist will end up with, it’s easy for them to become irritated with your main character since she fails to notice clear red flags in one or a natural chemistry in the other. She will come across as oblivious, indecisive, and lacking the sort of agency that makes characters compelling. Characters making clear decisions and driving the story forward plays a big part in making a plot interesting, and love triangles often rob the protagonist of that dimension.

On the other hand, if your protagonist is pulled equally in both directions, your audience won’t know who to root for. Or, worse, they will become divided on which love interest is best and, while this can generate discourse around your book, necessarily leaves at least part of your audience dissatisfied with how the romantic tension is resolved. 

The Inheritance Games definitely fell into this trap, with both “Team Grayson” and “Team Jameson” fighting for Avery across the internet and in almost every discussion of the book. Thus, once the love triangle was resolved, part of the series’ loyal audience was left out and dissatisfied by its conclusion. 

Walking this tightrope is extremely difficult, which is part of why stories suffer so much when authors write love triangles badly or even just carelessly, hoping they will add romantic tension without complicating things too much. But this can quickly feel like the author is manufacturing romantic tension for the sake of keeping the reader’s interest. And on top of that, love triangles often happen at the detriment of the characters.   

Like I mentioned above, love triangles often rob your protagonist of her agency and ability to make decisions to drive the plot and tension forward. They leave your main character in a limbo, torn between two options and conflicted, but ultimately unwilling to resolve or face the tension. This makes them seem indecisive at best. At worst, they come across as arrogant and presumptuous, willing to toy with the affections of the people around them.

There are so many benefits to having a romance that faces obstacles that don’t include another potential partner. You give your readers a couple to cheer for, allow your protagonist to drive the romantic tension forward, and force them to deal with conflict that is more likely to be more unique and personal than a love triangle. At this point, love triangles are so overdone it’s extremely difficult to make them unique or interesting. Plus, there are so many alternatives to romantic tension between multiple individuals (just read Shakespeare.) Because of how overdone they are, love triangles often fail to target your protagonist’s flaws or point out a theme that couldn’t be done any other way. Thus they don’t ultimately serve the story, even if the tension they generate is engaging. 

The Inheritance Games would have done so much better to introduce alternate obstacles to Avery’s relationship, rather than creating a whole new character for her to feel conflicted about. There wasn’t a deeper meaning behind the tension other than the fact that the brothers are constantly competing and butting heads even in the realm of romance, and for that reason it is clear that there were other ways to highlight the growing tensions between the brothers than a love triangle that created a divided, dissatisfied audience.

Love triangles can be done well and even enhance your story. In fact, we have two articles coming up on the potential benefits that including a love triangle in your novel can bring. But they have to be written carefully, with deliberate intention, a clear purpose, and an obvious benefit to your story.

Let us know in the comments:

Did you like the love triangle in The Inheritance Games? What other love triangles have you seen fall into these traps?