What's bugging you in the novel you're reading?

Brightdreamer

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So a godlike alien entity, faced with the choice of saving only one of, a) a whole artificial ecosystem and the advanced aliens that built it, or b), two ships full of monkeys who were trying to nuke each other for the entire novel, giving the ones it chooses and only them the chance to repopulate the Galaxy, chooses b. Obviously.

I suspect the author was a primate.

I hate it when author biases sneak into a book like that. ;) (Seriously, though, I probably would've groaned myself... talk about a cram-down-your-throat Humans Are God's Superior Race In The Universe message...)

Myself, I'm reading a short story collection by a Very Well Known fantasy author. It started out intriguing and refreshingly well written (giving my recent reading experiences)... but I'm halfway through and I'm kinda numb. The same characters keep coming back without significantly changing. Almost every woman in the cast has been horrifically abused and many are or were living on the streets, but it's cool 'cause that way they can connect with Olde Magicks and be Real Artists. (Not the actual message, but there's a subtext there that certainly feels that way.) A couple stories have deviated from this, and I won't deny that there's a certain charm to the old-school mythic ambiance, but for the most part I feel like I'm reading the same story over and over again, with slightly different names and circumstances. There's following a Theme, and there's beating it into the ground. Repeatedly. With a ten-ton iron hammer. But I'm in this far, so I figure I'll finish it.
 

Albedo

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I hate it when author biases sneak into a book like that. ;) (Seriously, though, I probably would've groaned myself... talk about a cram-down-your-throat Humans Are God's Superior Race In The Universe message...)
I'd have been more accepting if the author hadn't been selling me on the idea the whole novel that humans are destined to wipe themselves out. That's a perfectly acceptable premise, but you gotta carry through.
 

Brightdreamer

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I'd have been more accepting if the author hadn't been selling me on the idea the whole novel that humans are destined to wipe themselves out. That's a perfectly acceptable premise, but you gotta carry through.

Oh - so the godlike alien chose the doomed-to-self-destruction primates because the universe really is a cruel, meaningless joke. Were they going for black humor, like the last Hitchhiker book written by Douglas Adams?
 

Chris P

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Five chapters of world building. Nothing happening except the MC learning about the new world she's living in and how she got there.
 

psyche24

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In the book I'm about to stop reading, the female MC has been threatened,harassed by the male MC (who has also threatened and harassed her family and friends) but still is unbelievably aroused when in his presence. And she supposed to be some kick-ass supernatural being dedicated to fighting evil.
 

Publius

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I'm about 50 pgs in and the POV keeps switching from real life to a dream/fantasy state with no indication of where one starts and the other begins. So, I find myself having to read back and wonder, "Wait, what? Did this really happen?"
 

Emermouse

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Yeah, that would be a deal-breaker for me, Publius. If I'm reading a story with many POV characters, the very least the author can do is make it so I know whose head I'm in.

Again, while I know there are people on this board who believe in finishing every book/story they start, that's not me. My reading list is long enough that for the most part if they haven't hooked me by the end of the first chapter, I put the book down and walk away. Life's too short to spend on books you hate.
 

Publius

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Yep. Gave up around page 70. I started thinking, "God, this is the longest chapter ever." Then, I thumbed through and realized that there were no chapters. Just one long story. Flashbacks of Ulysses. I surrender.
 

Dave Williams

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Jurassic Park

Oddly, Crichton's books written as "John Lange" tended to be *much* better than the ones he wrote under his real name. Much better plot flow, characterization, and none of the infodumps that peppered his later stuff.
 

ishtar'sgate

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Oddly, Crichton's books written as "John Lange" tended to be *much* better than the ones he wrote under his real name. Much better plot flow, characterization, and none of the infodumps that peppered his later stuff.

You think so? I only read one - Drug of Choice. It was kind of an old detective style with brief glimpses of the writer he would later become.
 

jaus tail

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I'm reading 'The Rainmaker' and it's so boring. I cannot find any voice, and it's in present tense.

Has anyone read it? I'm thinking of returning it for a different book.
 
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jaus tail

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I take my words back, it's actually actually a good novel. I've reached around 20% of it, and it's fun. Different than usual. Moves quickly. The description is interesting.
 

Menyanthana

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There's a nonconsensual kiss in the book I have just finished reading. It was so out of place - the book wasn't even a romance, the kiss serves no purpose in the plot, it's just this Irish guy who has annoyed the protagonist with his accent all the time (he could talk without the accent just fine, he did it on purpose, knowing she wouldn't be able to understand him), and then, suddenly, he kisses her, and then he not-apologizes, claiming that he "just couldn't resist".
I have largely quit romance novels, because I know those are all about violation of personal boundaries and no one cares, but I hadn't expected to see something like that in what was supposed to be a fun, humouristic novel.
 
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juniper

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That the intelligent and well-read characters - even a famous psychologist - don't know the difference between jealousy and envy. I can understand the average person mixing them up - I used to - but a psychologist should know. And use the proper term in dialogue.

This is a mystery novel by one of my favorite writers, a former journalist who's written about 10 best-selling hardcover books in this series, so I'm surprised by this error.

I wish this one thing didn't bug me so much.
 

Brightdreamer

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Misrepresentation.

It's been an ongoing theme... enough that I recently gave a romance novel a solid four-star rating simply for delivering what it promised, even though there were some flaws in the story.

Just finished (and preparing a review for) a short Kindle title that misrepresented what it was about; it promised to discuss one subject, but instead danced around it and didn't quite deliver what it said it would. Not long ago, there was a history book that said it would focus on one historical figure, but instead wandered all over the proverbial map.

Really, is it that tough to tell me what a book's about, then actually have the book be about that?
 

Tally

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Filters. As in she noticed, she saw, she watched, she heard, she looked at...

ALL THE TIME. So many of these, in every paragraph. Gah, I want to shake this person! xD We are in the character's POV. I know she is seeing this thing! Just describe the thing!

Still, the story is a thriller and it has that factor of WHAT IS THIS, MUST KNOW, CAN'T STOP NOW very strongly so I'm in it until the end. xD
 

Isobel Lindley

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It's a fantasy novel set in a vaguely medieval world, but the heroine keeps showing enthusiasm for what I suspect are the writer's favourite things, such as erotic romance novels and rather modern kinds of candy. Throws me right out of the world.
 

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I'm 67 and my grandchildren, ages 24 and 22, phone me when their computers go wrong! But, having said that, there are certain elderly people, my mother-in-law for instance, who refuse to have anything to do with anything modern. She did her washing by hand until the day she died, because that's how she'd always done it. When I got my first dishwasher, she stood and waited for it to finish so she could put all the things away. She thought it made her cute, I think; it didn't - it made her stupid.

Having said that, I am reading an historical novel which is quite well written so far and doesn't have any modernisms, but it is supposedly set in the early 13th century, time of King John, but started off with Cranmer's Protestant wedding service, 300 years before Cranmer was even born. Apart from that, I have not yet found anything to complain about, unlike the last I attempted to read.
 

autumnleaf

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I was really enjoying the book, but then the author decided to throw in a random incestuous relationship between two secondary characters. It appears to have no bearing on the plot, and the narrator seems blasé about it.

It's not the only book I've read that's used the incest taboo for shock value. It's an annoying trend. Not saying that incest should never occur in fiction, but there should be a good reason, and there should be implications beyond the narrator rolling their eyes.
 

shortstorymachinist

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Just finished a thriller that was great for the most part, but featured a secondary, thirteen-year-old character who was way too precocious. She sounded sixteen at least, both in dialogue and action, with an understanding of how to psychologically manipulate the most worldly adult characters. I mean, I've met manipulative little teens, but never ones spouting Machiavelli.
 

Roxxsmom

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The fantasy book I'm reading right now is quite good, but it's got oh-so-many names to keep straight. Definitely one of those with lots of very complex names, titles, styles, offices, and locations, all with very foreign sounding names with combinations of vowels and consonants that I have trouble wrapping my head around. Definitely challenging to keep them all straight.

Filters. As in she noticed, she saw, she watched, she heard, she looked at...

ALL THE TIME. So many of these, in every paragraph. Gah, I want to shake this person! xD We are in the character's POV. I know she is seeing this thing! Just describe the thing!

OMG, I know what you mean. I abandoned a novel a while back for this reason. The world building and story were cool, but the writing. I just couldn't even... Filters every time the pov character saw something. And each and every time it was pov character's name too. Like pronouns didn't exist.

Reginald noticed that a book was lying on the table next to the monk, and Reginald knew that it must be the great tome of enlightenment. Reginald wanted to take a closer look, so...

Everyone says not to do this. Everyone. Yet novels keep getting published by writers who do this. Where are their editors, darn it?
 
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ishtar'sgate

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I am reading a mystery by a writer I used to love. The humor she injected into her stories was terrific. After a while the novels got darker, they left the series characters I'd once loved and I stopped reading their work. The other day I noticed they had a new novel out featuring the series characters once more and I bought it, hoping the writer had gotten through their dark phase. I think they have but they didn't make it back to the humor I knew and loved. It's hovering on the edges but....Too bad. I'll finish the book but probably won't buy another by this author.
 

Tocotin

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I happen to hate the word "whore".

Recently I bought a non-fiction book for Kindle, about a subject that really interests me, the last years of the Hapsburg Empire. The author likes to use the aforementioned word in a strangely unnecessary way. A lady spy working for the Crown Prince is called that. Victims of Jack the Ripper are called that. Nasty, misogynistic, completely gratuitous.

Granted, the book was written some time ago, but this thing seriously interferes with my enjoyment of it. Won't be picking anything by the author again.
 

Chris P

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The first 10% of the book was set in the present day, and set up the conflict beautifully: the MC meets the woman of his dreams, only she's married already. The next 60% is flashback showing his life from childhood and we're still not back tto the conflict. No fair hooking me then ignoring it for the next 2/3 of the book. Is the hook the bait in this case?