Submitted by Theresa de Valence on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 09:54
Tell us what gets you bumped out of a story. Don't bother with books that were terrible start to finish, nothing will fix those. Tell us about books that almost rang all the bells but stopped short.
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Getting Bumped Out of a Story
Any mystery that's badly or indifferently or flatly written pushes me out after a certain point even if I've given it my best shot as a reader. It's not enough that the story is good, the writing has to be equal to the story or the book feels crippled to me.
More technically, if the POVi seems off, especially in a first person narrative, I give up. "The Lovely Bones" never worked for me because the voice was much too sophisticated, and thus unbelievable. Friends would come up with great explanations like "Well, she got smarter in Heaven." I didn't buy it.
Unbelievable stories
Interesting, Lev. I cried all the way through "The Lovely Bones" which I positively devoured and, though the voice was much too adult, never had any issue with believability.
I guess that means what knocks you out of story is different from what knocks me out, yes? Interesting. So what's a poor author to do?
Seems like a nearly impossible problem.
Hmmm,
Theresa
Getting Bumped Out of a Story
I blogged about this on CrimeSpace the other day: I've quit finishing stories where the bad guy, who has painstakingly planned to steal the treasure or take over the nation or whatever, gets sidetracked by the protag's lovely girlfriend/wife/sister to the point where he drops everything else and just thinks about how good it's going to feel when he rapes her and then kills her.
Tell me more!
Peg, thanks for visiting. Do you have a link for that blog post?
--Theresa
Getting Bumped Out of a Story
Theresa asked for a link to my comments in my blog about what makes me quit reading a novel. Here's the entry that deals with the bad guy going off on the "I need to rape this woman" tangent.
http://crimespace.ning.com/profiles/blogs/evil-guy-speaks
What sends me packing
I am vision-impaired and listen to produced audios. I hate to say this (I am a feminist), but female readers often annoy the heck out of me--being too plummy, trilly, purring, chuckly, or over-animated and reading the male parts in sort of a Shirley-Templish nasal monotone.
Male readers that read too animatedly also annoy me. Too fakey. I also don't like over production--such as some sound effects or swirly music.
I know a lot of crime readers love Spenser, but Parker has "he said" or "she said" after almost every utterance--this becomes very irritating over time in audio, though easily overlooked on the page.
Elmore Leonard, on the other hand, for me, is much better when someone reads him to me.
I have put down an audio after a disk or two because of these drawbacks, which can lean into my last nerve until I almost scream.
Star Lawrence
http://chandlerazoo.blogspot.com
Audio reviews
Commiserating with Star
Female reader voices often annoy me too. I wonder if that is sex-related, i.e. I can put up with male voices because the man might do something entertaining later? ;) Seems awfully sexist, if so, and definitely sad to say.
Interesting to find out that you can't suppress the "he said", "she said" aurally as well as you can visually. I haven't read enough audible books to know.
Star, thanks very much for coming by.
Theresa
Hmmm, interesting point
Oooo--I listen to books lying in bed, but never thought of the "might do something 'entertaining'" aspect. Now--that will be ALL I can think of...
For me, though, I think it comes down to the women trying too hard to be actressy somehow.
Getting Bumped Out of a Story
A couple of things will prompt me to drop out of a story before the end:
- a mystery plot loses the plot, e.g. where the attempts on the hero/ine's life become too numerous, too frequent, and he/she/they somehow keep managing to just barely escape, so that the story becomes all about the attempts and escapes rather than the mystery. If I wanted an action movie, I'd watch an action movie.
- a really good story idea gets bogged down in bad writing - bad grammar, bad word and phrase choices, repetitive action words, etc. A good editor should have picked up on these and made suggestions for changes before publishing.
I love books and read a wide variety of genres and authors, but I will recycle a book and cross the author off my reading list quickly if I'm frustrated rather than intrigued.....