So last week I'm reading a book. It's by a writer I enjoy very much. Well-written, interesting story, that I would say falls in the thriller/mystery genre. I'm thoroughly happy with it.
Until, near the end, a character that is certainly one of the two largest characters in the book, if not THE central character, that we've spent much of the book hoping is going to get through the danger, bites it.
I have to say, I was not a happy reader. Even more so since the author is so good, so I was enjoying the book so much and so invested in that character. I know I'm promised nothing; the mystery WAS solved, the bad murderer caught, so it does fulfill the requirements of its genre.
And yet . . . I'll be thinking twice before I spring for the next book by this author. And I'll certainly be peeking at the end first.
So what are absolute dealbreakers for you? Any books you just loved except for ONE unforgivable thing?
Susie
8 comments:
Susie, I'd have to say: killing off the main character probably ranks right at the top of my "dealbreaker" list. Along with killing dogs on screen, killing off children onscreen, and blatantly philandering heroes and heroines.
Also-- plot holes that insult my intellience. One of my true pet peeves is writers who are so lazy about research that they just make up stuff when it would have been a lot more compelling and believable if they had just hit the "google" tab on the old home page.
A new dealbreaker for me is a paranormal thriller masquerading as a romance. There's a sexy couple on the cover, but inside it's all rough and blood and guts and nary a romantic kiss. If it says 'romance' on the spine, I want to find some inside, pretty please.
While talking with a friend just yesterday, I discovered that my reading choices may be really odd. But one of my Deal breakers is too much filler. Slogging through pages of that can do me in. Now, I like settings, descriptions, etc., as I think you have to set the story. But in one thriller I read lately, it was as if the writer wrote the plot points first and then filled in pages of whatever to get the required book pages.
My deal breaker is when an author sets up two characters in a series (which I love to read) and then drags it on FOREVER!!
Also I just read a book that was contemporary but had the much older hero falling for a 17/almost 18 year old girl. UGH! Just turned me off the whole book. This was a character I had been waiting for to get his match and this is what his story is!!! No thank you!
Sometimes the double ending of books bothers me too. When you get to the end of a story and it feels as if it should be over, but you have 10-15 pages to go and the author raises some conflict out of no where.
Those are some that bother me. The 1st and 2nd one is the only ones that makes me question reading an author anymore the last one is more of a pet peeve.
Oh, ick. I hate it when that happens! A big deal breaker for me is infidelity during the actual story. There are plenty of romances where the cheating happened before the opening of the book, but once I'm invested in the characters as a couple, forget it! They can't cheat. {{{shudder}}}
I'm with you, Susan. I'll forgive a lot but not if they kill off a character I'm invested in.
My other deal breaker is nice tidy endings that don't play fair with the reader. When there was nothing in the story that would have pointed to the character as being the villain.
Oh, Susie! You've just described the deal breaker for me. In genre...let me repeat GENRE fiction I have an expectation that the protagonist will make it through the book. Maybe not unscathed, but actually breathing nonetheless!
I was eagerly waiting for the fourth Valor book by Tanya Huff.
I was so depressed after I read it. Basically she killed all of my favorite characters except for the heroine. Hey, it is a book about war...maybe it should be depressing. But this series isn't usually depressing. Considering the state of the world, maybe Huff couldn't write a different book. But I just can't let a book cast me into a depression. (With the death of two siblings in less than two years, I may be a little too susceptible to depression).So I will be hesitant to buy the next book in this series. I might just have to stick to romance.
I don't read the so call modern novel, because I find the genre too depressing. I read for adventure and escape.
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