Off to a S—L—O—W start

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.

What went wrong with the book I read…

I recently read a relatively well known book, and while the premise was AMAZINGLY clever—the book fell flat.

THE PROBLEMS:

Far narrative distance. The story was told through a series of letters. This has been done well before (Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is as great example), but in this book I just read I never connected to any of the characters. The narrative distance was too far. I was never part of the action. I was told what happened afterword in a detached way—“We kissed on the peir. It was very passionate.” Okay, I guess if you say so. Wish I was there :)

No voice: I couldn’t tell the characters apart. I got so annoyed with this that I made it into a game. I tried to guess who wrote the letter before I got to the end. Some letters were so boring I just skimmed.

Contrived word choices: Some of the word choices the author used were ridiculous. I’m a fan of cool words—but only if they add something to the story. Why say laconic when brief works just as well? I can understand that it can be important to character voice or story flow to use big words, but it didn’t work here.

I learn something every time I read—what to do—what NOT to do. I understand that writing is subjective—so maybe I’m wrong, but whether I am or not—good and bad books make me a better writer.

-Angie