I consider myself pretty easy—an easy reader that is. I generally like most books I read, but when I come across one I don’t like I’m never sure what to do. Keep reading? Stop reading? I will admit I feel like a failure stopping.
I’m currently reading a highly praised, highly recommended, 600+ page adult fantasy debut and I want to hit myself over the head with it. Yikes.
What are the problems?
The slow start: OH MY GOSH! I’m 80 pages in and NOTHING has happened. NOTHING! I have no sense of the plot and even worse—I have no sense of who the MC is. I can deal with a slow start. A lot of books I love take a while to build—the difference is they do eventually build.
Terrible cover copy: I have no sense of what this story is about. I even went on to Goodreads to try and unravel the mystery, but it was no help. I have a sinking feeling—there is no plot. *sigh*
Telling not showing: So far I’ve read very little showing. Yuck. The actual writing only goes to add another layer of dislike.
If this book hadn’t been recommended to me by people I trust I would chuck it out the window. They keep telling me, “It gets better.” But will it really get better for me?
Maybe I needed to read this so I would have a firsthand experience with “what not to do”. Agents have been saying this forever, but now I REALLY believe them :)
1. Give readers a sense to the plot and stakes early on
2. Engage readers early
3. Have a strong character voice
4. If something is boring leave it out
Maybe I will give it 100 pages. That’s fair right? But as I look at this book sitting next to my chair—I’m already bored.
9 comments:
Isn't it disappointing when you pick up a book you're so excited to read and then it's a flop? At 600 pages, it should have something going on by page 80. So, are you going to persevere? Or does this book go to the back of your closet?
Emily - I'm generally a book buyer, but I was leery about this one so I waited on the waiting list at the library for 5 months for it. If I don't finish it in the next two weeks I will be out of luck for another 6 months. I'm going to give it 20 more pages, but if it doesn't pick up I'm finished!
Oh goodness... I hope it gets better. I HATE when that happens and I am a really easy reader too! I like a wide variety of things, but who wants to read boring and slow??? Nobody! You'll have to tell us more about this book when you're done with it.
Abby - I went to page 100 and it didn't improve so I moved on. It has great reviews on Amazon and Goodreads--4 1/2 stars on both. I don't get it?
Number 4 is by far my favorite!
"If it's boring leave it out"
LOL! Who writes a book and thinks I'm going to put in this boring dialogue because I don't have anything better right now.
I ditch VERY few books but I think I'd dump that one. The worst is knowing someone is going to ask, 'So how'd ya like it?'
Shelly - What I want to know is how this author got an agent for this book? I'm serious NOTHING happens in the first 30 pages.
When someone asks me how I liked it, I will just ask them what it is they loved about it.
ditch it. or skip to the middle and read a few if you really want to know. jump to the end, even. i have been putting more down lately because they have things i am editing out of my book and they are published! no fair!
curious what it is!
I agree Angie, my thought when reading your post was, how did they get this published? Just goes to show that there all types for all tastes.
I'm at a point in life that if I can't get into a book, I don't slog through it. Same for movies. There are too many great ones out there, that unless I'm specifically looking for lessons in bad storytelling, I move on.
Tara - I might ditch it or skip to the middle, but that feels so naughty!
JRo - I'm generally a slogger, mostly because I want to know what not to do. But I don't really feel like 600+ pages of slogging especially with other interesting books waiting in the wings.
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