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

BC11

Possibly related to R2-D2
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 5, 2011
Messages
721
Reaction score
103
Location
Sweden
Thirteen Reasons Why

You wanna know why the girl killed herself? It was so the main character can hear her tapes and grow as a person.

I tried to like this book. Considering the subject matter, I really wanted to. Then Hannah was completely self-absorbed and petulant. It almost glamorised the subject, IMO.
 

Devil Ledbetter

Come on you stranger, you legend,
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 8, 2007
Messages
9,767
Reaction score
3,936
Location
you martyr and shine.
Thirteen Reasons Why

You wanna know why the girl killed herself? It was so the main character can hear her tapes and grow as a person.
I does seem to be the case. I'll admit a cried at the end, though.

I'm reading Miss Peregrine Home for Peculiar Children. It is not living up to its promise (creepy, or at least interesting). The characters are severely underdeveloped, with peculiarities ("special" abilities like levitation or swallowing bees) standing in for, you know, actual characterization. Add a boring, loner MC with a pointless goal (I'm like, sort of curious about my dead grandpappy!), nothing to lose and a nonsensical time-bending plot and what you end up with is a library e-book loaner I keep hoping will expire on my Kindle before I actually finish it.

Or .... something that can put me to sleep in less than 3 pages a night.
 
Last edited:

ManOfTongues

Coffee, please.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 8, 2012
Messages
91
Reaction score
17
Location
Toronto, Canada
Right now, I'm reading Divergent by Veronica Roth. I should have expected it, but I can't get over how terrible the prose is. I just wanted to see what all the hype was about, especially as someone who enjoyed the Hunger Games and as a writer of YA, but seriously... She makes me wanna kick someone in the face. Her writing is FULL of stage directions and all around, she's just painful to read. Her youth and inexperience is definitely showing and that makes me kind of sad as a young writer myself :(

Just 100 pages to go though, then it's back to Atwood and Steinbeck :)
 
Last edited:

DeadCities

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 18, 2013
Messages
70
Reaction score
5
I'm reading Stephen King's DUMA KEY. I'm not a big King fan, but the beginning drew me in with the MC suffering a terrible accident and struggling with damage to the language center of his brain.

What's driving me nuts about the book is that it's contemporary, yet the characters speak like they're from the 50's, 70's, or some other random decade.

Examples:

A college boy in his early 20s says: "The cable's hooked up, the computer's Internet-ready—I got you Wi-Fi, costs a little extra, but it's way cool."

First, this doesn't even make sense from a technical standpoint. "Internet-ready" means something is ready to be hooked up to the internet. It's almost never said of a computer, because all modern computers are internet-ready. That's like saying a computer is keyboard-ready. King is showing his age here. He was clearly trying to make this character come across as tech-savvy, and failed.

And second, "way cool?" No one under 30 says that.

Next example: The MC, a man in his 50s, says goodbye to his 19-year-old daughter at the airport: "Go on, hon, better let 'em wand your bod and check your shoes." Seriously? Does anyone on earth say "bod?"

And here's the one that finally made me stop reading for the night: The middle-aged MC and his college boy assistant are discussing an art gallery where the MC would like to show his paintings.

"It's where the elite meet." He spoke solemnly, but when I burst out laughing, he joined me. That was the day, I think, when Jack Cantori became my friend rather than my part-time gofer.

"Then that's settled," I said, "because I am definitely elite. Give it up, son."

I raised my hand, and Jack gave it a smack.


I should think what is painfully wrong with this is painfully obvious. Just, no.

You sort of have to expect that. A man of his age isn't exactly "hip" with the "lingo" of the "homies". Plus in some ways I think he's past the point of trying at times. I mean he's Stephen King, he knows you'll read his books regardless of whether characters say stupid things sometimes (I've noticed the aged dialogue and references too, but I can't think of examples at the moment.)
 
Last edited:

DeadCities

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 18, 2013
Messages
70
Reaction score
5
I'm reading Jane Eyre. And everything moves so sloooooow I want to set the book on fire. Autobiography (and slow ones at that) are not really my thing.

It does get better if you preservere(sp?) at any rate though, I have no idea why that novel is considered such a classic (though to be honest I think the fact it was written by a woman in the time period is largely why it gets the praise it does.) Check out 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte, much more interesting plot and characters, though the style is very similar (though it was partially written and edited by Charlotte after Emily's early demise)
 

Suzanna Owen

Registered
Joined
Jan 2, 2014
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
I found Jane Eyre so aggravating. I wanted to kick her to get her moving along.
 

gingerwoman

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 27, 2007
Messages
2,548
Reaction score
228
You sort of have to expect that. A man of his age isn't exactly "hip" with the "lingo" of the "homies". Plus in some ways I think he's past the point of trying at times. I mean he's Stephen King, he knows you'll read his books regardless of whether characters say stupid things sometimes (I've noticed the aged dialogue and references too, but I can't think of examples at the moment.)

lol I saw King refer to some guy on Twitter as "this cat" it took me a few seconds to figure out what on earth he was talking about.
I love him.
 

Devil Ledbetter

Come on you stranger, you legend,
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 8, 2007
Messages
9,767
Reaction score
3,936
Location
you martyr and shine.
I'm reading The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten. It's a Socratic dialogue posing as a novel, but that's not what's bugging me. I can handle Socratic dialogues as long as they are interesting.

What's bugging me is that after a promising start, we've fallen down a semantic rabbit hole. I really cringe when writers get all new agey and start splitting up words trying to say that when they're split,they reveal additional meaning, e.g., healthy is actually heal-thy (self or others). As of that's not bad enough, he then posits that "health" is contagious to sick or injured people. You can just pass your good health onto them because woohoo MAGIC you have realized that healthy means heal-thy. No more doctors or hospitals folks, just share your good health by sneezing your enlightenment onto the sick.:tongue

Wisdom, when broken apart and understood properly, is revealed to be "whiz-dumb."
 
Last edited:

Arcadia Divine

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 24, 2011
Messages
940
Reaction score
35
Location
Rapid City, SD
I'm reading The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten. It's a Socratic dialogue posing as a novel, but that's not what's bugging me. I can handle Socratic dialogues as long as they are interesting.

What's bugging me is that after a promising start, we've fallen down a semantic rabbit hole. I really cringe when writers get all new agey and start splitting up words trying to say that when they're split,they reveal additional meaning, e.g., healthy is actually heal-thy (self or others). As of that's not bad enough, he then posits that "health" is contagious to sick or injured people. You can just pass your good health onto them because woohoo MAGIC you have realized that healthy means heal-thy. No more doctors or hospitals folks, just share your good health by sneezing your enlightenment onto the sick.:tongue

Wisdom, when broken apart and understood properly, is revealed to be "whiz-dumb."

This probably won't help much but victor seems to be a lot like his eldest brother Regi. He doesn't teach you everything. Instead he teaches you just enough so you can figure things out on your own.

I don't think victor wants anybody to think what your saying nor do I think it was his intent. Have you tried emailing him directly and letting him know your concerns? You'll find that he's very down to earth and understanding to anything you bring up with him. Trust me on that.
 

Sixpence

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
121
Reaction score
7
Location
Ireland
Website
orlawritesthings.com
I just finished reading a sci-fi novel that has a lot of stuff about video games in it, and as a gamer it really ticked me off that the author didn't grok the word "grok" and used it MANY times and always in the wrong context. Nit-pickery maybe, but it had me grinding my molars every time.
 

Devil Ledbetter

Come on you stranger, you legend,
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 8, 2007
Messages
9,767
Reaction score
3,936
Location
you martyr and shine.
This probably won't help much but victor seems to be a lot like his eldest brother Regi. He doesn't teach you everything. Instead he teaches you just enough so you can figure things out on your own.

I don't think victor wants anybody to think what your saying nor do I think it was his intent. Have you tried emailing him directly and letting him know your concerns? You'll find that he's very down to earth and understanding to anything you bring up with him. Trust me on that.
He does have some nuggets in that book, I will totally give him that. Reading it on the heels of Effortless Mastery, I feel like it's on the right track in a lot of ways. I really loved Wooten's Ted talk.

I knew the book was going to be a bit new agey when I got it; I just hate the whole word dissection thing. He's not the first to do this (It's a staple of Marianne Williamson's books, and I think Ekhart Tolle does this too, IIRC). It always feels really contrived to me.

Another thing that I'm not liking is the ig'nant dialect he sometimes gives Uncle Clyde. I get that the inconsistency in Clyde's dialog is supposed to be about phrasing (and also excused with Clyde's "I talk like that so people will leave me be"), but the stereotype is just too painfully Uncle Remus. I know Wooten is black, but that still doesn't make it feel OK to me.
 

Arcadia Divine

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 24, 2011
Messages
940
Reaction score
35
Location
Rapid City, SD
He does have some nuggets in that book, I will totally give him that. Reading it on the heels of Effortless Mastery, I feel like it's on the right track in a lot of ways. I really loved Wooten's Ted talk.

I knew the book was going to be a bit new agey when I got it; I just hate the whole word dissection thing. He's not the first to do this (It's a staple of Marianne Williamson's books, and I think Ekhart Tolle does this too, IIRC). It always feels really contrived to me.

Another thing that I'm not liking is the ig'nant dialect he sometimes gives Uncle Clyde. I get that the inconsistency in Clyde's dialog is supposed to be about phrasing (and also excused with Clyde's "I talk like that so people will leave me be"), but the stereotype is just too painfully Uncle Remus. I know Wooten is black, but that still doesn't make it feel OK to me.

You should write an in depth review of the book and email the review to him. I'm thinking about doing that with his book considering his music ("More Love" off of A Show Of Hands if you want to get precise) stopped me from committing suicide. I guess I feel like I should repay the favor, you know?
 

phantasy

I write weird stories.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 16, 2012
Messages
1,895
Reaction score
259
Location
The Moon
The Waste Lands by Stephen King

Spoilers below:

So yeah, the demon rape scene. WTF. And she was ok with it because it was her mission? F that. If Roland had been raped by the first demon two books ago I would have been ok, it's what demons do. But of course it was the girl?–argh...If she ends up having a demon baby I think I will hurl the book across the room...one of the guys better get raped, I'll tell you that much.

If I didn't love Jake and Roland so much I would have put the book down. Seriously.

Oh and another gripe? Why is Susannah the lamest character so far? Because she's the girl? At least I can identify with Eddie because he acts like a regular person but basically he gave her all of the issues and none of the interesting. She's a stoic and not even a cool one like Roland. I know a later book has her name it so I'm hoping he fixes how unidentifiable she is. Anyway, from what I've read of King, I think he sucks at making female characters interesting. So there./rant

Oh yes, and I don't like the illustrations either. My imagination is much better.
 
Last edited:

Devil Ledbetter

Come on you stranger, you legend,
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 8, 2007
Messages
9,767
Reaction score
3,936
Location
you martyr and shine.
You should write an in depth review of the book and email the review to him. I'm thinking about doing that with his book considering his music ("More Love" off of A Show Of Hands if you want to get precise) stopped me from committing suicide. I guess I feel like I should repay the favor, you know?
Wow. That is heavy. I'm so glad his music stopped you. :Hug2:That is the power of real music, which is what is book, at the core, is all about.

ETA: Maybe through his music he did pass on his healthy vibes to you.
 
Last edited:

Arcadia Divine

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 24, 2011
Messages
940
Reaction score
35
Location
Rapid City, SD
Wow. That is heavy. I'm so glad his music stopped you. :Hug2:That is the power of real music, which is what is book, at the core, is all about.

ETA: Maybe through his music he did pass on his healthy vibes to you.

The only other artist capable of doing that for me was "BT". BT is the only one out of the those 2 artist I know for a fact I'm not alone when claiming that, especially when you follow his Facebook account and read all the people that comment on his music. That has to make him feel wonderful. It already feels amazing stopping one friend from suicide (like I did), I can only imagine what it would be like with gobs of them.

I listen to a huge variety of artists but 2 out of 2000 (exaggerating a bit) is still pretty damn good.
 
Last edited:

Nina Kaytel

I spell Gray with an 'E''
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 6, 2013
Messages
646
Reaction score
58
Location
I have high-speed internet.
The book I am reading now is too predictable. I don't know if the fault is with me as a 23 year old reader who just started reading fantasy, and has enjoyed crime/horror/thriller/romance, which also end up being predictable after a while, but that is me. People hate watching crime shows with me -- or with the book itself.
MC has bad dream, well all three do, you know he won't tell who he is supposed to tell, you know the three will get in trouble because of their reluctance, and you know they won't tell who they should because of their own ingrained prejudices which are false and they need to tell her. Bah, and they keep skirting around the history 'don't say that guys name!'.
The villain is cool as sheet so I'm sticking around though he has only appeared twice in the MC dreams.
 

erikafabulous

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 7, 2014
Messages
56
Reaction score
2
I'm reading Great Expectations right now. While I'm finding it worlds better than I remembered it, I've noticed that Dickens is just kind of mean. Every description of every character in that book is just brutally unfavorable. I realized this when I was reading it outside the other day, and a woman walked by, and the Dickensey voice in my head started describing her just brutally. He's MEAN. I suppose that's a good tip for writers though. Vivid descriptions can be very unkind.
 

Night_Writer

It's all symbolic.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 5, 2011
Messages
1,053
Reaction score
86
Location
The New World
The book I'm reading right now would be a lot better if it had a plot. There's just a lot of meandering semi-adventure and danger. It's not a short book, and I've read about a third of it, so I've done a good amount of reading already. But there is no sign of a plot in sight. It's tempting to just put it down, but I've never read a post-apocalyptic zombie thing before. Also it's self-published, and I've never read any self-pubs before (I don't think). So curiosity will make me plod on.

Sure wish it had a plot, though.
 

Wilde_at_heart

υπείκωphobe
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 12, 2012
Messages
3,243
Reaction score
514
Location
Southern Ontario
I just put down a book that had a very clever title, but after about fifty pages I wondered who'd actually come up with it. And implied suburban satire featuring vampires in Las Vegas should have been interesting. But I found it bland and none of the characters, male or female, vampire or human, seemed that distinct from one another.
 

cmi0616

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 14, 2010
Messages
1,802
Reaction score
141
Location
In the aeroplane over the sea
Reading Updike's Rabbit, Run for the first time. The present-tense is kind of odd when he uses it for hundreds of pages. Especially considering there are these flashbacks that are written in the past-tense. It kind of feels herky-jerky to me.
 

Devil Ledbetter

Come on you stranger, you legend,
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 8, 2007
Messages
9,767
Reaction score
3,936
Location
you martyr and shine.
Has anyone else read Wicked? Does it ever get interesting? The early part was OK but now I'm at 40% and can't read more than two pages without falling asleep. Does it pick up again ever, or does this band of characters just wander aimlessly around Oz forever until the reader drops dead of boredom?

Seriously, I need to know.
 

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 4, 2009
Messages
22,611
Reaction score
7,289
Location
Wash., D.C. area
Sorry, can't help you Devil.

cmi: I didn't notice that about Rabbit, Run. It worked for me.

I'm currently about a third of the way through Jonathan Franzen's Freedom. It's interesting writing, and it's keeping me interested, but I feel like he's still setting the stage and that the story hasn't gotten started yet. If someone were to ask me what the book was about, I wouldn't be able to say.
 

Brightdreamer

Just Another Lazy Perfectionist
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
12,975
Reaction score
4,507
Location
USA
Website
brightdreamersbookreviews.blogspot.com
On my Nook, I'm reading The Virginian, by Owen Wister. Great encapsulation of a lost era and some wonderful characterization, though once in a while the dialect's a bit thick, and the storyline itself seems to meander. (I also can't believe this will have anything close to a happy ending; the romance has doom written all over it.)

In paperback, I'm (still) struggling to push myself through Island in the Sea of Time, by S. M. Stirling. Finally, at the halfway point, something major has happened... but I'm having trouble caring about anyone. It's also a bit old how anyone who deviates from the main "good" characters' philosophies seems to be painted as either an extremist nutcase or outright evil. Really? It's my way or the highway in a situation as thorny and complex as the one they're in?

On Kindle, I'm reading The Divide by Elizabeth Kay, and so far I have no real complaints. It has lots of silly superficial trappings, but with an evil pharmaceutical company knowingly distributing deadly healing spells and a higher body count than many grown-up books, it ain't your average Fluffy Bunny portal fantasy.
 

shadowwalker

empty-nester!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 8, 2010
Messages
5,601
Reaction score
598
Location
SE Minnesota
I'm just finishing up Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor". I actually only read about half of it; every time he started in on his social studies or economics classes I skipped over it. I'm also having a hard time keeping track of all but the really, really major players. The rest are so lacking in characterization it's difficult to remember who's who and what they do. Not sure if I'll read any others or just get the DVDs.
 

Wilde_at_heart

υπείκωphobe
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 12, 2012
Messages
3,243
Reaction score
514
Location
Southern Ontario
I'm halfway through a novel called Bones that I started yesterday and while it's quite good for the most part, there was a page or two I skimmed that struck me as ... very thoroughly researched. It's great when someone does their homework of course, and I'm sure other readers probably love it (I'm not much a dog person, which might be why) but for me it did drag a bit. Overall it's good though, with unpredictable twists ... I knew that x and y character would face each other alone at some point but the 'how' was a shocker for me.