Ilona Andrews offers “A Brief Analysis of the Alphahole Trope in Romantic Fiction” and it includes, “charts and witty graphics.”

“Character stereotypes are the staple of any fiction: the bitter disillusioned detective, the young rebel rallying against a repressive regime, the desperate mother trying to save her children, and so on. The stereotypes exist because real world is infinitely more complex than fiction and by distilling characters to a readily recognizable type, the author allows individual reader to fill in the blanks according to their own life experience.

This article will seek to examine one such stereotype, a Byronic hero (from this point on referred to as Alphahole, because it’s trendy,) as an effective love interest type in romantic fiction, when presented as subset of damaged hero trope.”