Book closers?

Terrible writing.

Obvious grammar and spelling errors. Silly/nonsensical plot. Annoying characters. Mary Sue/Gary Stu-itis. The story opens with the character doing things that have nothing to do with moving the plot forward (waking up, eating breakfast, waiting for something, being bored, falling asleep--particularly in class, etc). The character describes themselves in a self-effacing way in the first chapter and/or you get a character description from the MC looking in a mirror. If I can predict the ending within the first 2-3 chapters. If it goes completely off the rails. Aliens show up in chapter 14.

I could go on. Those are just some of the obvious ones that bug me and will make me put it down.

Characters doing stupid things just to keep the plot going.

(Just like in the movies. The bad guy with a pistol is after the girl. He comes around a corner, and she hits him in the head with a board. He falls to the ground, dazed, and drops the pistol. Instead of picking up the pistol and shooting him, the girl runs away. That's the point at which I start rooting for the bad guy.)

*rubs hands gleefully* Ooh, this will be fun.

Over description

Animal cruelty

Dialogue that makes me want to gouge my eyes out

Characters that are too stupid to live

Deus ex machinas

Gratuitous sex scenes every few pages that do nothing to help the plot

Gary/Mary Stus

Love triangles. That one'll get the book launched against the wall.

A conveniently young, attractive person who is better at X than the silly experienced people

Boring or cruel are about the only things that will make me close a book. I'm one of those readers who can overlook a lot if I'm still having fun, but if it's hitting the snooze button, or reading like some ignorant cyberbully's Twitter feed, then I bail.

Forgot one:


Anything where the bad guy's goal is to destroy the world. Seriously? What are you going to do then? (Only exception: Garth Nix's Orannis)

When every character in the book is unrealistically beautiful. Have some normal, ordinary people, too.

When main characters are wealthy but never working; unless the plot drives them to run for their very lives, they need to go to work and be busy people.

Beginning the book with a huge infodump on page one to get everybody up to speed.

Drawing out the plot too long to fill pages will get me bored enough to put a book down, too.

* Overuse of Adjectives and Adverbs. I recently read a sample chapter where every sentence was gushing with descriptive words. The heroine wasn't just wearing a dark cloak, she was wearing a cloak of glistening, ink-black satin that flapped wildly in the tempestuous arctic wind, like a flock of angry ravens. My own words, but I'm not exaggerating in the least. My eyebrows rose after the first couple of paragraphs, but the entire first chapter was written this way! Even the adjectives had adjectives. It must have taken the author days to sculpt each sentence.

* Historical Inaccuracies. This is a big peeve of mine. If your novel takes place in 1810, don't make reference to "Victorian furniture." (Victoria didn't take the throne until 1837.) If your novel is set prior to the 1920s, don't have your heroine wearing panties. (They did not exist!)

* Cliches. Especially inaccurate cliches. A strong, independent heroine is not required to rebel against her soul-crushing corset. (Not only is the trope overdone, but if made to fit properly, a corset is no more painful or disfiguring than a modern underwire bra.)

Loads of things do.

Boring, whiny or annoying main characters, or their love interest is boring, whiny or annoying (in which case I *might* stick around just to see them get dumped).

Lazy exposition where something should have probably been properly written out, or anything that reads like a summary of events rather than a story.

Internal monologuing. I rarely ever find someone's thoughts or memories interesting.

Anything where the writer went for a really grabby 'hook' or starts in the midst of some hurried action and a page later everything slows to a semi-conscious crawl.

A major plot-turning point that hasn't even been hinted at earlier, especially if it's well into the story and revolves around a character who's only just been introduced, yet the relationship is important enough for the MC to risk everything to save him or her.

Writing so self-consciously beautiful it seems the writer is admiring themselves in a mirror. Or on the other hand, a vocabulary so limited it wouldn't send the average eight-year -old to a dictionary.

Predictable story with an outcome you can see by the second or third chapter.

One-too-many overdone tropes won't even get me to crack it open: some are, x villain killed MC's mum or dad and now they have to get revenge, anyone 'chosen' or 'destined' out of the millions of people out there but all they want to do is live an ordinary life, or must stop the apocalypse/end of the universe. Anything generic like vampire hunters, vampire academies or gangs, vampires or werewolves still in high school, any zombie apocalypse, ordinary MC crossed or got caught up in something involving gangsters or drug dealers, x race vs y race...

Villains with no decent motives, they're just 'evil' for some reason.

Stories that should have been political pamphlets or polemic essays instead.

Really graphic violence, especially if directed at children or animals.

Stories too fixated on the MC's shopping habits.

Domestics - stories that never leave the front yard. If I want to hear about squabbling in-laws I have five siblings I could call and in the era of Facebook I get my fill and then some of cute/quirky/weird/funny things any child ever does.

guttersquid said:

Characters doing stupid things just to keep the plot going.

(Just like in the movies. The bad guy with a pistol is after the girl. He comes around a corner, and she hits him in the head with a board. He falls to the ground, dazed, and drops the pistol. Instead of picking up the pistol and shooting him, the girl runs away. That's the point at which I start rooting for the bad guy.)

Click to expand...

Regarding the example: I actually can sympathize with the girl here. In those types of situations, you're not necessarily thinking rationally, so you might not do the most rational thing. Like the girl, I would probably run. Perhaps I would grab the gun to get it out of the bad guy's reach, but I certainly wouldn't shoot him - I don't think I have the mental fortitude to kill a person. Not to mention that I'd be worried about the legal implications. Sure, I was doing it in self defense, but you never know how the courts are going to rule in these days. If the bad guy gets a really good lawyer, I might end up being charged with murder and my life consequently being ruined.

I'm not even certain I would grab the gun, though. I've never handled a gun before and would be afraid that it might misfire. Additionally, I would be afraid of getting my finger prints on it - what if it was used to kill someone else previously, and now the gun can be linked back to me? Again, this brings about legal implications.

As I said before, if I were in this situation, I would probably not be having these kinds of thoughts - I wouldn't be thinking very rationally at this point. However, these thoughts influence my perception and I would probably act in accordance with them if I was in a situation where I had to rely on instinct. I also think the instinct of many people is to run from a dangerous situation, rather than to make the confrontation escalate.

Sorry, this got way off topic - I just wanted to point out that I don't necessarily think that is a situation in which the character is doing something stupid.

Back to the question at hand: I'm in agreement with Jess Haines - all of the things she pointed out would stop me from reading a book further.

When the writing makes be feel like I'm trudging through quicksand. Also, while I don't intend it, whenever an animal is abused and the story lingers on it, my interest quickly disappears, even if I would have loved the rest of the story.

I put a book down when the plot stops moving forward. If nothing needs to be resolved soon, I lose interest no matter how pretty the mountains or flowers being described in detail.

Question: What is "
Gary/Mary Stus"?

Graphic rape. No, no, no!

Talking about bodily functions. I tried to read a book where the entire first chapter was about the MCs monthly friend.

I hate when authors beat me in the head with stuff. I'm smart enough to figure it out. Thanks.

Religion or the current governmental events. I attempted to beta read for a friend who wanted to puke out propaganda that I could I learned on the news.

Racism that has nothing to do with the story in anyway what so ever. "Oh? Your MC hates pink birds? Why? 'Because I do.' Really?

"America will save us!" Good grief, we are ten zillion light years away from Earth being chased by rabid bunnies that puke acid.

What bugs me the most is a hero who never makes a mistake. Or, if he does there is no consequence to it.

Nina Kaytel said:

Question: What is "
Gary/Mary Stus"?
....
What bugs me the most is a hero who never makes a mistake. Or, if he does there is no consequence to it.

Click to expand...

In your last sentence. Someone 'perfect'.

Pathetic characters that can't pull their own weight, holds everyone back and needs to be saved over and over again. E.g. Frodo Baggins (I hate Frodo Baggins). When nothing interesting is happening and the story is starting to drag.

I wrote:

Characters doing stupid things just to keep the plot going.

(Just like in the movies. The bad guy with a pistol is after the girl. He comes around a corner, and she hits him in the head with a board. He falls to the ground, dazed, and drops the pistol. Instead of picking up the pistol and shooting him, the girl runs away. That's the point at which I start rooting for the bad guy.)

Kayley said:

I just wanted to point out that I don't necessarily think that is a situation in which the character is doing something stupid.

Click to expand...

Had I any idea someone would take my examle and run with it, I would have been less specific. Note that I said "characters" (plural) doing stupid things." It's not always a girl being chased. It's very often the male MC, and he's very often running in the first place because the bad guy has a weapon. I'm pretty sure most of us have seen this in movies or TV shows.

When there are obvious flaws in the plot. e.g. Hunger games, the capital has the ability to make dogs out of nothing but they still the districts to keep them going.

atrocious writing
annoying main character

In no particular order. Many of these, if not all of them are entirely subjective. My issues are not, and should not necessarily be your issues. No offense intended to anyone who writes a book I would put down as I am sure there are plenty of people who would not.

Boring
Graphic rape, especially if it reads like it was written to titillate
Sexist sterotyping
Bad Writing
A damaged, lonely young woman who makes her whole life about a man presented as a good or desirable thing
'Naturally beautiful, unlike all those other faking fakers who wear makeup'
poor pacing
racist stereotypes
bad writing
bad plotting
all the characters are exclusively straight, white, able-bodied males (other types of people do exist)
unbelievable

Anninyn said:

A damaged, lonely young woman who makes her whole life about a man presented as a good or desirable thing

Click to expand...

Yes, hurray for saying it.

Generally if I get past the beginning I can get to the end. I have yet to have a 'book closing moment' - like something that happens suddenly and I close the book. But in the last two years I had one book - the prose was so stinky - I wanted to keep reading, I wanted to find out what happened, I wanted to keep learning about the world but the language was just so overdone. I finally said, no more! & took it back to the library. Then I had another book - likewise, I wanted to know what happened, but ... I got bored, it started interesting but became so predictable. I wanted to read it, but I just stopped caring... It's sitting on my shelf. I have to decide whether to take it to the used bookstore or graduate it to my bathroom book when I finish 'Odd Thomas'...