Weird immersion breaks that make you drop or never pick up a book.

Personally can't stand shifter stuff,can't wrap my head around it either. We read haremlit to self insert ,and your fantasy is to turn into a wolf or a bear?

The whole breeding thing/ we need you to have sex with us so we can grow stronger/ for our survival/ arrange marriage

Also can't stand super Chad with who every woman wants to fuck immediately in a literal sense

Couple things...

1. If the MC seemingly avoids logic.

"Gee, I sure hope Noble Commander Vladimir is a good person. I hear his army is in the next town. * Three Pages Later * "Why are their so many bodies on pikes? Maybe it's a normal thing here"

Or if the MC spends two novels hiding a fact good or bad that will cause a Holy War while people die to protect the secret but when they see a random person in front of them in danger they tell the world about it.

Or when an MC gives a love interest a job/position they are completely unqualified for just because. 

"I know Gloria was a Nurse before but she's a good person. Let's fire the old Head Physician of the healers guild and make make her the new Head Physician. What? She doesn't know healing magic? Leaders delegate, I'm sure sĥe can handle it."

2) Making the story boring, especially of it should be a stressful situation.

"There are two of other factions on this space station. Humanoid cultists and Giant Humanoid bugs that reproduce rapidly. We'll send in the scout bots to map out the nest then casually walk in with our atomic weapons and obliterate the hive of the bugs first. We'll be back in time for supper, additional training, and make sure to wear the blue nighty when we go to bed. That one always looks good on you after battle."

3 ) If you have too large of a cast or even just too large of a harem.

"Kat we'll have to update the "nights with Hiro roster" again, I fell down and my dick slipped into 3 more women when I was walking down the road. Yeah, I know I'll probably go entire books before we have another scene with half of these women."

Megan, who are my 30 personal maids at this castle again? Who's the commander here again? I know, I appointed them but in my defense we haven't seen the maids, troops, or the commander here for five books."

-edit-

4) Pacing

If a single book is continuously hot and cold on the pacing I'm probably going to drop the book. A story can't be continuously climbing, I get that, but if the plot is playing red light, green light chances are I'm going to get bored of it and move onto something else.

There are certain tropes that will raise some red flags for me, but the worst is lack of plot:

MC get isekai'd, will notice that he is now a chiseled 6'4" greek god with a huge dong (compared to a couch potato the previous life). The first woman is a hot fashion-magazine-cover, huge tits, and as horny for other pussy as the MC. She will remark how it's absolutely crucial for MC to find more women. Then she will leer on anything with a pussy and say MC must absolutely bang them both, and MC will keep mentioning every other paragraph how we really don't think that way. MC will then go on a huge infodump that's boring to hell, and beat some low-lives that threatened his woman. His blood will boil in a furious rage, and he will use his newfound martial/magical skills to completely obliterate them. The first woman will then reward him with a blow job.

Note that so far nothing of the plot has been mentioned, nor there's any plan on what to do. It's just a bunch of wish fulfillment dumped onto the reader.

I read a lot, about a book every two days. I try to give every book at least three chapters. If it doesn't have my interest by then, I dnf; there are too many books in my To-Be-Read stack.

Some things later in books are:

1. Arrogant or clueless MCs that have to be told something time and again. Or just unlikeable for being arrogant or clueless, in general.

2. Lack of editing, proof-reading for obvious things - grammar, spelling, over-used words, or mis-used words.

3. Spicy scenes thrown in at wrong times. For instance, time is of the essence because of X reason, but it's been ten chapters since the last sex scene, so hold my beer, it's time to rut.

I don't usually drop a book no matter how "bad" I am finding it. It takes a lot for me to do it. I figure the author took the time to write it, I grabbed it, so I should at least get through it to show some support. I have actually continued books where I despised the MC, but the love interests we what kept me going. However, here are a few things that annoy me and I have dropped books for.

1. MC acting & talking like a 12 year who saw his first boob constantly when either seeing a woman or interacting with them, especially when he was like 25+ years old before being dropped in the new world. I think this is the main reason I have dropped the books I have. Annoys the hell out of me.

2. MC making constant references to TV, movies, and original world stuff when nobody in the new world knows what he is talking about all the time. Then being like "Oh, you don't know what that is...oh well." and keeps doing it.

3. Also, the MC basically mandating his views on the world are the only views that matter, and not learning the reasons behind how/why things are. He's been there a maybe a day/week and doesn't know jack, but tells everyone that how their society has been living for ages is all wrong because he says so.

4. MC being dropped into a world where swords, war, survival skills (hunt, fish, etc..), or magic are necessary skills and the other characters have been doing this their whole lives. Yet the MC, whos biggest issue in his prior world was dealing with a papercut, within 5 minutes of landing in the new world is the greatest swordsman/fighter/lover/magician ever. Seriously, gets me yelling at the book for stupidity. If the MC was a paper-pusher, how the heck can he take down a master swordsman/magician within 5 minutes of landing in the new world buck naked?

5. Lastly, too many love interests or automatic love/devotion too quickly. What I mean is within like a day to week of landing the new world the MC has 5-6 love interests. Seriously, was reading on book where the MC had three love interests within the first 2-3 chapters, and based on the timeline in the book he had been in the world all of three days. Within the first month he had 6 wives and 3 more in waiting.

Cultivation. I detest that crap with the burning passion of a thousand suns. It all amounts to "meditate/eat pills for a thousand years so I can live another thousand years to meditate/eat some more pills for another thousand years to maybe, possibly 'defy the Heavens' (whatever that shit actually means) someday". There's always, always the arrogant young master trope. Someone that any normal family would be fucking ashamed to have as a member, but for some reason, they get a pass from every person in power, to be supreme jackasses.

Just about the only cultivation book I've ever actually like has been Beware Of Chicken.

For me it’s the military MC who is just good at ALL things military. Gotta go in stealthy, MC has your back. Need to plan a strategic whole sale war front, to the MC we go. What, you’ve never flown a space craft before? Don’t worry, our land bound army MC knows how! Other thing that tosses me is the complete asshole MC who is still somehow the best and most tolerable man around. How? What kind of world is the author imagining when the MC can be so unkind to even the people who like him but is still the best choice? I don’t like the guileless nice guy dummy either, but they don’t pull me from the story that way. Mostly because if done right watching them grow up and become more nuanced is fun, while the opposite doesn’t happen as often. Instead the MC gets to continue being a dick and everyone loves him more for it.

It takes more than one thing to make me drop a book. I can't imagine what that one thing would be. It seems a bit petty if I were to nope out because of a singular gripe.

However I do have gripes. I do have tropes I've grown tired of. Enough of them and I'm likely to lose interest.

I hate when characters don't do the things they obviously need to do. Sometimes I'm almost at "yelling at movie screen" levels of annoyed. I'm currently reading a series where the character has a rare power that no one knows much about but he doesn't dedicate time to testing and exploring it so he's at the bottom of his classes in the academy and he needs to succeed to have a future because he's an undesirable orphan with nowhere to go. So why isn't he spending his free time working on that? It took until like the last third of book 2 in a trilogy for him to start dipping his toes. In the mean time he's been removed from multiple classes because he's not able to participate due to his lackluster ability and has come close to getting expelled to a life on the streets.

I'm dead tired of "end of the world" plots. These days I prefer more personal stakes whether it's at a small or large scale. Practically anything but that. I don't buy the idea that it's necessary to escalate the stakes to the world for it to be interesting or that the scale has no where else to go in a series. Unfortunately it frequently happens that I'm enjoying a perfectly scrumptious plot with some decently proportioned stakes and by the third book we've escalated to the world is in danger... Yet again. Ughh. It almost feels like a bait and switch sometimes.

Add "hidden prince" or "chosen one" tropes. It mostly sucks when what was an interesting character has to get ruined by the notion that "he also have to be super special so now he's the bastard son of the late emperor who alone has the power to save the world". Sometimes, if done right, it can still be made interesting but it's rare at this point.

Haremlit specific gripes? When it feels like the author is following a template which in part is because of genre expectations. Such as one new LI per book. When things become too predictable, I lose interest. When things feel like they're running on rails. Gotta surprise me at least a little bit sometimes.

Also, when my favorite LI(s) get completely sidelined to make room for LI #12-16. Sometimes it's fun to witness the debauchery and excess but the cost is high. More often than not: too high.

There are definitely more things I could point out but this comment is already way too long.

Wouldn't drop a book because of it, but it's definitely immersion breaking when during a sex scene the author goes all scientific with anatomy: "My penis throbbed as she squeezed my testicles under the blanket. I could just barely see her vagina in the darkness."

Stuff like that. Just sounds so off and distant. Doesn't convey tone well at all. There's nothing hot or steamy about hearing these words lol.

the nice guy trope kills the entire story for me, the mc getting laid just because he is the only decent person with a penis is as low as you can get in the genre

it's like those old literotica stories when the story just happens because the main character had a big dick

Wow, people will drop for incredibly mild things.

Reading these comments I feel weird because I am even struggling to think of a one trope or thing that is a dealbreaker.

Previous love interests, never to be seen again (through isekai or such)... or just widowed characters. Already pre-existing relationships for the MC are also a hard nope.

Apart from that, MC acting stupid or acting like an absolute asshole just for the sake of it also leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

• Instsa-love. If the MC doesn't have to work for it, I'm out.

• The MC is told he's got some grand destiny. Authors tend to get really heavy handed with plot armor.

• Butchering of a career/hobby by the MC (author) just before the MC dies only to be reborn. Nope, they died for being stupid and don't deserve a harem, so I got my happy ending right there.

• Bad spelling/grammar/punctuation problems in the first chapter.

• The isekai'd MC constantly dropping movie quotes that nobody gets but them.

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The MC being a passenger in the story as opposed to the driving force. I dont need the MC to be godlike, he can fail or be a loser but he needs to actively make decisions that push the story forward.

For me, it's the Mc beings the only hope for x reasons or the big bad guy wanting for x reason to destroy the world or conquer it. I nope just by reading the synopsis.

"Awesome" or other words like that. Bro when the guy confesses his entire life story, tell secrets,or give declarations of love to the first girl to give him some pussy. Cringe worthy 

The whole nobody magically waking up in a new body/world cliche. Unfortunately it is extremely common. I have a hard time with the LitRPG game elements too. Admittedly tho I forced way may past that for "Tamer: King of Dinosaurs" and it is one of my favorites now.

Trying not to base this on what has made me just drop a book outright cause that just turns into a rabbit hole of critiquing books that just wasn't for me...with That said.

If the MC is the only person in the world who shows basic human decency with no ulterior motive. It's almost cartoonish when a simple accidental shoulder bump can lead a damn dual of honor, an exaggeration ofc.

Changing narrators in stories with POV changes that are also writen in the 1st person. It wasnt a harem book but a recent book I read had this luckily it wasn't too distracting since the narrator would partially use the characters voice so I would mostly know who the pov change was on. This however became almost impossible when the last book had a new narrator who just...read with no changes, ended up spending half the time trying to figure out who the hell this person was, luckily It was the last book so I powered through to a satisfying..ish ending.

If I hear the words vagina, pussy or netherlips in sex scene, It makes me chuckle or bark a small laugh, extra points for "glisening fold" or one time they just said cunt, breaks immersion but damn is it still entertaining.

High pitch characters, I'm sorry Blossom, you're cute and adorable but my God my ears hurt when she talks.

(Might I recommend Headpats After Dark by Virgil Knightley to address your Dracula issue?)

Have not encountered a total immersion break yet, but ... give it time.

Two things:

1. Unironically cringe dialogue. Ironically cringe dialogue? Absolutely fine bit of silliness, proceed sir. Unironically? Get the fuck out. I don't know why, but its like a kick to the nuts for me.

2. Narrators that over act like they're reading to kids or young adults. Bro, you're literally narrating a sex scene right now. The neighbor's kid, Jimmy, isn't your target audience here.