Comments on: When a Book Sours (Updated)

By: J. Hernandez

J. Hernandez — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:42:44 +0000

This happened to me once. I was reading a book that I thought was amazing, and then halfway through-around page 250-it just fell apart. Still, I felt compelled to finish it, and I am glad to say that it improved somewhat later–although the book itself was ruined for me anyway. Even now I am lax to reccomend it to anyone.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:42:03 +0000

Ah, yes, many times, especially recently. I think I might be able to guess which series you’re talking about, as well as the series everyone else is talking about.
There are two main series that I am thinking of. One was good as I was reading it, but tedious. The other was fully captivating, and I still love it now, but it has many many many flaws and I love making fun of them. The first series, the flaws squash it, while with the later, it just makes it funny.

By: Sarah Rees Brennan

Sarah Rees Brennan — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:14:09 +0000

Sometimes our friends FIB to us about books, and then we spend the whole books waiting for THINGS TO HAPPEN WHICH DO NOT HAPPEN, and then are let down by said books. Where was the promised excitement, scandal and taboo behaviour?

I realise it is unfair to blame the book for this, but I kind of do anyway.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:37:22 +0000

Sadly, I now CAN name the series of books that made me feel this way, which is The Belgariad (and the Mallorean and the Elenium and The Tamuli and practically anything written by David Eddings). I read these books when I was, oh, ten, maybe? And I loved them, and have reread them so many times their covers fell off and I can quote large chunks of text. They and Tolkien were my introduction to high fantasy, and it really took me a couple of years and a LOT more reading to realise just how tropey they are. They don’t really work, and they are highly unsatisfying, but they’re still very addictive and I can’t help but be grateful to the very thorough kickstart they gave to my fantasy education. But they are my guilty pleasure, and I can’t really take them seriously any more. They’re good fun though. Just popcorn books.

By: J

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:47:43 +0000

I had started readin a very very famous series that many teens are in love with and obsessed with, many frighteningly so. the books were addicting, and i read the series twice, thoroughly in love with it. then i read what people who didn’t like the series thought of it, and why. and i found i agreed. the writer didn’t do much research, considering some facts were flawed, the main character ends up getting what she wants, the plots of each book were way to abrupt and thrown in, and many of the characters had personalaties that could be described in a few words. when i read the series, i still feel the addiction, and it is after i read it when i dwell on the flaws.

By: Amanda Coppedge

Amanda Coppedge — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:11:57 +0000

Totally behind you with the not-naming thing. I do the same. There is one trilogy that is interesting because I think book 1 is so-so, book 2 is AWESOME and book 3 is terrible. I really wanted to like this trilogy but only book 2 is worth writing home about imho.

One series that impresses me, which I have not read one lick of myself, is the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage. (I know it’s good because I give it to my patrons at the library and they come back for more.) I think book 5 got a couple of starred reviews? Bravo to series which remain strong and only get better over time.

By: PixelFish

PixelFish — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:15:35 +0000

Recently I tore through a fantasy-romance series (ALSO NOT TWILIGHT) that currently has four books. Weirdly enough I started with book four, unaware that it was a sort of series, and liked it, primarily because it did a great inversion of saving-the-girl, by having the girl save the guy.

But when I went to read books 1-3, I liked the series progressively less and less. Initially I recommended it, then I de-recommended it after one of the heroes off-handedly remarked that you couldn’t rape a wife. The male characters, who I had been hoping would be reformed or have new views, kept on being privileged, snobby, wealthy men of authority who felt like they should get everything they wanted. The world building had a lot of problematic issues, but worst of all was that the huge social injustices the secret society in this world perpetuated were never addressed, while our “heroes” continued to uphold the status quo. It was a shame really because the whole series had a lot of potential to undermine and subvert the romance conventions that I like least, but the series kept missing these opportunities and instead of toppling romance conventions, ended up reinforcing the ones I like least.

By: Mdi

Mdi — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:39:17 +0000

This happened to me a couple months ago. The book started out wonderfully, with good characters and hilarious writing. About halfway through, i realized that i no longer cared about the story. The characters started doing things COMPLETELY out of character with no visible reason.
This was the first book EVER that i didn’t finish.

By: Alissa

Alissa — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:16:15 +0000

I find that I feel more betrayed by badly plotted engagingly written prose than poorly/awkwardly written interestingly plotted prose. The former feels like more of a waste of my time. I think if the author could write this well they were being lazy about structure.
I suppose with the later I have already lowered my expectations, but intrigued by the story I want to see what happens. I wonder if the stronger structure allows more chances for the reader’s imagination to fill in whereas when it is all style it is like a beautiful movie that enthralls but is meaningless.

By: Adrienne Vrettos

Adrienne Vrettos — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:59:21 +0000

I picked up an ARC at BEA that so many people were excited about – it’s the first in a series and I *so* wanted it to be amazing. It just…wasn’t. Until the end, which was kind of sort of amazing but not enough to keep me from scowling and giving the book dirty looks when I was done. I think part of the problem was that someone thought they were being helpful by telling me what happened in the first two chapters. So I read them quickly, just waiting to get past the plot points I already knew about to get to something new. Next time, I’m going to cover my ears and scream No Spoilers.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:42:06 +0000

A series I’ve been reading recently reached…book #5, I think. The first four were rollicking fun. Book 5, well…it spent too long recapping the previous book, everyone’s acting like an idiot, the heroine has too many love interests and it’s just getting irritating, and…I was all, why did I like the first four again?

By: Paradox

Paradox — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:30:01 +0000

This happened to me with a book once. I checked it out thinking it sounded interesting, sort of, but by the time I started it I completely fell in love with it. Everything about it seemed perfect. I fully believed it was the best book I’d ever read. I loved it so much that I decided to read it again as soon as I finished it. Bad idea. When I read it through the second time I found all its flaws, and there were a lot of them. I felt so disappointed, but the book was still pretty good.

By: Allie-wa

Allie-wa — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:21:05 +0000

That has happened to me, but more often I have the opposite reaction. I might dislike a book when I first read it, but when I start thinking about it, I realize how awesome it is. And then I can’t stop thinking about it.

Which is why I almost always reread books. I pick up stuff the second or third time that I didn’t even realize the first time.

By: Merrie Haskell

Merrie Haskell — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:44:06 +0000

Well, sure, this happens. It happens more often with movies than books, for me… are we allowed to name the movies?? I just watched on in particular this weekend.

Anyway, the real reason I’m commenting is because I’ve had the opposite happen, too. Where I think, “This book is okay,” (as in “meh, merely okay, maybe not even good”) as I’m trundling along, and then weeks later, I’ll be thinking, “Dang, that was much better than I thought. That books is HAUNTING me.”

By: Maitriquest

Maitriquest — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:37:22 +0000

I have found recently with a couple of YA adult novels I’ve read is exactly what you’re talking about. Once I was done I thought over the story and realized that I really didn’t find what had happened compelling – the main character hadn’t really grown. And when I thought about the action it didn’t seem to really drive the plot forward. And I wondered later if it was lazy editing, or if the author’s (since this happened with two different authors)and respective editors thought that teens didn’t need that level of sophistication. It left me feeling a bit depressed.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:17:26 +0000

There are three book series that spring to mind. Two of them I loved until the last book, then that book didn’t satisfy me so it made the other books fall apart retroactively. I don’t know why that is but it’s like the context of what I learned in the last book made the rest of it wrong somehow.
The other book I’m think of was terrible but I still wanted to finish it in hopes that it would get better. The action was good but it was too lengthy and the description were not that great. But I powered through it and read the second one. But the third book almost killed me so I doubt I’ll read the next one.

By: Liana Brooks

Liana Brooks — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:56:15 +0000

It happens. Not every book pans out the way you want. I’ve had books where the series took a twist I just didn’t like and I’ve let it go.

I don’t think the writer or book is good or bad, I just know it’s not what I want to read today.

By: Nif

Nif — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:50:18 +0000

I recently read the latest novel by an author who I KNOW milks the emotional melodrama for all it is worth. Her first book made me sob in an utterly self-indulgent fashion. This was a sequel. And I was letting myself be gripped by the whole “is-everyone-going-to-be-OKAY?” pathos she was building. Then she enraged me completely by abruptly killing off a key character very close to the end. Piling actual tragedy on top of the ordinary, but compelling, stresses that the characters were wrestling with was supposed to be some sort of test of their moral fiber, I suppose. Look, we’re REALLY OK, we made it through an AWFUL thing. But the growth the characters were already demonstrating would have made for a fine, satisfying ending in my estimation. I was so angry that the author was trying so hard to jerk my strings, I completely detached from the characters for the final chapters of the book. I stopped caring about them. I’m still growly about it, because I liked them quite well before that.

By: HWPetty

HWPetty — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:47:05 +0000

I read a (uber popular) series like that, and I’m ashamed to say that even my ultimate disgust with the writing didn’t diminish my enjoyment or keep me from recommending the book to other people.

The last book was trash, though. Straight up trash from beginning to end.

I think its important to be a critical reader. But I think it’s just as important to be able to accept books for their entertainment value and not feel the need to diminish them entirely.

I have to say here that there have been times when reading a book was absolute drudgery–even when I could recognize the amazing writing and plot. But sometimes the characters are hard to relate to, or there is a lot of extraneous description or information. Whatever the reason, the book isn’t fun to read… even though after I can admit that it was brilliant in its own way.

All of that to say that it goes both ways. ahahaha

By: Justine

Justine — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:17:06 +0000

Chris Lawson: I think you’ve hobbled us, Justine, by refusing to allow us to name and shame living authors

You’re not wrong. But I’m really uninterested in trashing books. Especially ones that sell way better than mine do. Cause it just looks like sour grapes. Also to a certain extent it doesn’t really matter which books we’re talking about. It’s more about how following through implications of plot/charaterisation/world building etc can cause a book to crumble. Which applies to any number of books.

I can’t believe you had even a moment’s doubt about Jim Thompson’s genius.

By: Keren David

Keren David — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:51:34 +0000

I wonder how many of us are writing about the same series? I read one very popular series, loved how compelling it was but was very aware of its flaws as I was reading. It was like eating a lot of doughnuts – yummy but ultimately not all that good for me.
I did read a very popular best-selling novel recently and very much enjoyed it, but afterwards, on reflection felt a bit sick about various aspects of the plot. Things that only became clear late in the book changed my view of the characters. There was a tinge of paedophilia that I found distasteful, and the plot became ridiculous – but there were still many things I enjoyed about the book.

By: Annalee Flower Horne

Annalee Flower Horne — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:49:04 +0000

I’m going to go ahead and name names because Robert Luis Stevenson is dead. The book in question is THE BLACK ARROW.

It’s seriously one of my favorite books ever–a romping YA adventure about a boy from a minor noble family who gets caught up in the War of the Roses while trying to rescue the girl of his dreams. It’s really good craic; I recommend it to everyone.

Just dear dog, whatever you do, don’t think about it. Like, at all.

By: Sherwood

Sherwood — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:45:14 +0000

Yep–have had that experience. Still enjoy having read the book, but it doesn’t go on the reread list.

By: Cat Moleski

Cat Moleski — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:44:44 +0000

Yes, I have been seduced by an author’s writing, or characters, or the way they build emotions, only to be let down by the plot. But on reflection, I realized that’s because I like concrete things to happen in a book. I also like a good resolution, not a simple plot that extends over many books, when it could just as easily resolved in one book, leaving room for other stuff to happen.

By: Jude

Jude — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:32:37 +0000

I read a book, absolutely loved it, then a month later couldn’t remember why I loved it so much. I thought that was weird because I usually remember books quite well. Why didn’t I remember this one? Then I read a review in a science fiction magazine which said, “If a month later you can’t remember why you loved this book so much, re-read it.” I still think it’s bizarre that the reviewer and I had the same experience, but I took his advice, re-read it, and love it to this day. Since I love the book now, I’ll tell you that it is The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Leguin.