I'm not sure who may have noticed, but I skipped out on posting here last week, except for my previously scheduled book review. My son was home from college, my high school student finished up exams and started the summer job, and I was crazy busy slammed at my day job with projects - 4 of them have a due date of this coming Friday, so I'm still busy.
But I missed ranting with you all, so here I am.
This week I read and reviewed a (young) new adult book that the first of a 5-book series (so far.) This author's last series played out to 10 books, so maybe there are more coming. But I won't be reading them.
Why not?
I read a few books by this author a while ago and when I saw her name pop up in my feed, I remembered it fondly. But having read this first book of the series, I have no intention of reading more. Don't get me wrong, the writing, the grammar, the editing... Those things were fine.
I don't often post reviews of books I don't enjoy, but I did on Monday. As I was writing the review it started getting rant-y, and I wondered why I was so annoyed. I decided it might be interesting to examine why I didn't like it, and why I agree with several of the thoughtfully laid out negative reviews of this book.
Oddly enough, there are over 300 reviews of this book on Amazon, and a pretty good all-around rating. And the author is a USA Today best selling author, a moniker I recently tried to achieve but ultimately fell short. (Next time, people, next time.) But the negative reviews of her book were the most thought provoking of them all. I read a bunch of the reviews, to see what other readers thought and felt, but the thoughts expressed here are my own.
The book is told exclusively from the point of view of the main girl, who despite being a smart sounding narrator, makes bad choices. Terrible, selfish, impulsive choices. Unlikeable choices. She keeps doing incredibly stupid things, and putting everyone in danger for no good reason. And then its not just one of the boys on her new team she flirts with and secretly kisses... It's each of them. But none of them know about the others. Each boy ends up under the impression that she wants him. Even the supposed bad guy, whom she actually seems the hottest for out of all of them.
How could this book be better? Lots of ways.
First and foremost, I have no problem with multiple boys vying for her attention. Some readers hate love triangles, let alone quadrangles or whatever mess this one is, but that's not my issue. I also have no problem where the heroine dates more than one guy... But being with a group of close knit friends and not telling any of them what's going on just seems underhanded and somehow dirty. And she knows its wrong but keeps doing it.
Romance -even new adult romantic suspense- should have better defined parameters to the relationships. There are rules. I know there are lots of popular love triangles and ménage stories... But these poor guys don't even get the chance to be jealous or lay down ultimatums, because no one knows what's going on. Definitely UN-satisfying.
Second, the heroine doesn't learn anything as the book progresses. In fact, she seems stronger and braver in the first chapter than she does in the last half of the book. Character arc is important not just as an abstract theory, but as a reason for readers to stick with your story. I kept waiting for her "a-ha" moment... except it never happened.
Third, if your main character is going to be weak, at least give me a kickass plot that holds up under scrutiny. A bad guy worthy of the title. There again, I kept waiting for the plot to resolve and explain itself, And I realize this is the start of a series but I need a standalone story arc to follow, for Pete's sake. There can be unresolved threads to make the reader want more, but a book needs it's own story.
I know I've ranted many a time about books in a series that just don't stand up or satisfy on their own. Even with the character issues, this could have been an okay read if there was a solid plot to cling to like a life preserver.
No such luck.
So, bad romance etiquette, lack of character arc, lack of clear storyline... Three big writing no nos make this a "no," as in no recommendation. And like I said, I hate to be negative. Really. We've all been there and suffered from reviewers who didn't understand or appreciate our writing.
But.
As I was saying to another author friend at an event earlier this month, sometimes its good to read a book you DON'T like all the way through, and think about WHY you didn't like it. WHAT mistakes were made that rubbed you wrong? HOW can you avoid them in your own writing?
Reading books from authors we love and want to emulate is a great learning tool. On the flip side of the reading coin, you can learn just as much - maybe even more - by reading a book you don't necessarily like. Because you're learning how to focus your own writing to avoid those mistakes.
Time to share... What books have you read recently that were GOOD examples of romance? What books have you read that you didn't like, and why? You don't need to out anyone if you're uncomfortable, but what makes you want to either throw the book across the room, or recommend it?
Okay, enough rant for now. Until next time, Happy Reading - and Happy Writing!
Wow, I just went through and read my own rant and had to edit it to take out the specifics. My point is not to castigate a specific book, but to point out what makes a book and characters likeable and makes me want to spend my time with them.
ReplyDeleteSo please, if you leave a comment, don't feel the need to give names or titles of un-likeable books - just WHY you didn't like them. And if you have GOOD examples, please share because we all need more good reads on our TBR lists.
Very rarely do I begin reading a book and fail to finish it. It's kind of a sacred trust for me--into the book, give it the benefit of the doubt. There are some I'm tempted to just toss aside however. Most recently was a romance with a heroine so selfish, so whiny and incapable of thinking about anyone but herself, I wanted to kick her in the posterior. People bent over for this girl, who just didn't see it. Ugh. It was a great lesson for me, though--it's okay to create a character with personality issues but I must be able to at least like her/him. Perhaps a good question is: would I spend time with this person in real life, or only if I got shut into an elevator with her/him?
ReplyDeleteOh Laura, I totally agree. I have to like the characters and want to spend time with them. But unlike you, I do not always finish what I start. I used to. But then I decided my time was worth more than that. I've finished a lot of unworthy books, but I draw the line when there's obvious spelling, grammar and editing flaws - if the author didn't care enough to spend the time to present a polished product, why am I going to spend my time reading it?
DeleteI recently read an MC romance. Two things bothered me about it. The only way the heroine stood up against her abusers was to run away. She never developed a backbone. Secondly, the author had obviously never been around a real MC. The rules, codes, whatever you want to call them were unrealistic. Yeah, I come from that kind of family. If you're going to write about a certain lifestyle do your research. Thanks for letting me rant.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100%. And there's no excuse to not fully research your setting and your characters. In this day and age of internet, all the information you need is at your fingertips.
DeleteI read a book last year where the author had the characters wearing tank tops and skimpy clothing at night while vacationing on Martha's Vineyard. In early spring. I laughed out loud and shut the book. This is New England, people. It's too cold for that until July, even with global warming.
One of my biggest disappointments of late is the lackluster books that are being churned out by some of my favorite bestselling authors. I'm talking the top bestselling authors. Sometimes, I even question whether they wrote the book themselves. I think this might be a result of the driving need to publish more and more books in a single year. From what I can deduce, if you can't turn out 3 or 4 books a year, you aren't writing enough to feed your addicts (readers!) Personally, I'd much rather look forward to one book a year from a fave author and know that it's going to be a fantastic read...rather than the drivel I keep paying for.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for my writing speed, I'm still only on one book a year!
Publishing is a tough business. I hate that name recognition trumps actual writing... but it does. All we can do as authors is put out the best books we can.
DeleteHang in there, Anni. You're a great writer and you'll get there.
What I don't get is if the book was so horrible, how did the author receive more than 300 reviews? Sounds like lots of people are reading her book. Maybe that's the trick...write a book that's so poorly constructed that it becomes a best seller as readers struggle to make sense of it.
ReplyDeleteI think she has so many reviews of this particular book based on the strength of her previous series of 10 books. Also, since it's the first book of a series and now 3 years old, she's running lots of free giveaways to get new readers hooked on her writing, which is a good strategy. I just didn't like the book.
DeleteKatie - I agree with you on every point! It makes me sad the author got over 300 reviews for what sounds like a lousy premise and I can't even get lousy, a professional one! (That's my rant!)
ReplyDeleteChin up, Peggy and keep writing! I love your books and lots of readers love your books and you'll get there. I was just noticing this morning that there are authors who were where you (and maybe I) are now when I started out that are now making it big. I mean, I met Marie Force at a RWA chapter meeting and bought her first ever paperback, when she still had a day job and few readers. And now she's MARIE FORCE. It can happen. Keep writing!
DeleteI find that I critique books I read, making it hard for me to enjoy as many as I used to. Excellent points!
ReplyDelete...But doesn't it also make you better appreciate a unique turn of phrase, or a description that just stops you and makes you re-read it and say "yes, she got it." Reading as a writer is a different game - not better or worse, but different in many ways.
DeleteI've actually given up on a couple of books recently, so it was an interesting perspective to keep reading something I'm not enjoying to learn how to improve my writing.
ReplyDeleteThe one I gave up on that stands out in my mind, is part of a series that I initially loved, but has maybe gone on too long. The hero was a character I love, whose story I had been waiting years to read. He was always a nerdy guy, the computer expert of the special ops team. I was so disappointed in this book. The author turned him into a clone of all the previous heroes. Suddenly, he was huge and brawny and badass. I liked the smart, funny, quirky guy he was and felt cheated, as if the heroes of this series had all become interchangeable.
Thanks for making me think, Katie!
LOL, so glad to make you think - and glad this conversation is going well. I was a little worried to open this can of worms since we all can get oversensitive about reviews... but, well, some things just have to be talked about. I'm glad I'm not alone.
DeleteKatie, loved this rant. I won't be specific, either, but Long and Short Reviews, for which I have much esteem, put out a 5 STAR awesome review on a historical romance a couple of weeks back and the book was by a debut author. Okay, seeing that, I had to buy the book. It was awful!!! I don't know what the reviewer was thinking but it had bunches of telling, rather than showing, and every doggone paragraph was a head hop! I mean, really. I paid good money and couldn't bring myself to get past Chapter 2. Oh, well, sometimes you have to wonder?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, reviews are subject to the individual taste of the reviewer, and even somewhere like LASR has a team of reviewers that are all individuals.
DeleteI received a 3.5 star review from one of their reviewers once, but the review itself was FABULOUS. I mean, I really couldn't have asked for kinder words and she said she couldn't wait to read more of my books. The next LASR review on the page was for another book I'd already personally read and thought "meh" but it was a different reviewer who gave it 5 stars, but had some of the same issues with the characters that I did. So yeah. Every review is subjective.
We've all had this feeling, Katie. I remember a popular YA murder mystery I read and was stunned at how badly the plot was and how the murderer was introduced with only five chapters to go. Um...no.
ReplyDeleteWhat I think especially resonates with writers is when we are working hard on our craft and dream about getting 300 reviews.
You have the right attitude to use it as a learning tool for your own writing.
And lastly, I think the popularity of certain books that aren't well written is important because it proves nothing is predictable in publishing. The best rule is to write what you love and write it the best way you can.
Thanks for the honest post.
~Daphne Dubois
I wish there were an easier way to garner reviews, or to put less importance on them? Amazon makes it impossible to ignore the importance of reviews, which seems to snowball a book's popularity, whether or not it's a good read.
DeleteI read a book once by an author I used to love and it turned me off so much I haven't read anymore of their books. The hero was the villain of the series and was a GREAT villain. The heroine was disgusting and had no redemptive qualities. Put them together and it was awful. I really wish the author had decided to leave the villain as the villain instead of trying to turn him into a hero. Yuck. Just yuck. Haven't picked up another one of their books since.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting, though, to see how different people will react to a certain book. Some love it and others hate it. Thank you for the post!
All very good points. Though it's rare I find a heroine I simply cannot like, it does happen. I typically still read on, hoping I'll find the saving grace or at least the sense in it. Occasionally, I'm happily surprised. But bad choices by supposedly smart women is probably my biggest pet peeve.
ReplyDeleteI read in many genres, not just Romance. The book I just finished waas a 100 page historical, Wolf Hall, by Hilary Martel. I was annoyed by the writing from almost page one because it was almost impossible to tell from whose point of view the scene was written. I wUsually it was Thomas Cromwell's but at times I had to go back pages to see where a shift happened. At one point a POV change came at the end of a paragraph. This is a best seller. It has been made into a Masterpiece Theater series. Where was her EDITOR?? Is literate writing enough so that all the rules can be broken or ignored? There's my rant for the month!I write as Blair McDowell on TWRP.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem naming names. I rarely run across a book that I consider truly awful, but there are definitely some no-nos. Not just in Romance (and I read more than romance). The last book I tried to read and put down was the Time Traveler's Wife. I felt like a ton of rules were broken almost immediately, and I got about 50 pages in, and that was it. I tossed it in the giveaway. I expect a story to make some sort of sense, and for people not to do things that don't make sense. In the case of TTW, she slept with the main character upon meeting him, which made NO sense and did not feel real at all. I just couldn't see plowing through 450 more pages of that nonsense. My saying is "life is too short to read a bad book." There are millions of books for me to choose from. I just move on.
ReplyDelete