Comments on: Literary letdowns

By: D. C. DaCosta

D. C. DaCosta — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 02:40:40 +0000

Your reaction is similar to mine when I finished “The Horse Whisperer”. What a load of improbable tripe!

But, by golly, what a page-turner!

By: Hillsy

Hillsy — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 15:57:59 +0000

Before I found I have fundamental problems liking YA books, I read rave reviews of a number of novels that turned out to be thoroughly insipid (for me):

Harry Potter (philospher’s stone), didn’t get it. Thought it was mediocre at best. Preferred the film.
His Dark Materials? I could rant for effing weeks about that.
The Painted Man was poorly hung together on shock tactics and premises I couldn’t buy (Ooo look, rape. Ooo look, incest. Ooo Look, a 9-year-old who’s more capable than anyone else in the book).
The Left Hand of God: After the hype, well, I nearly gave up reading….

Through that I’ve learned I just don’t “get” YA (BTW I’m not a book snob. I love fantasy and sci-fi, preferably heroic and far fetched. There’s something about the way YA frames its character motives and plots that I just don’t buy into. I’d also nail my left hand to Rush Limbugh than read Ulyses). But at the time I read the hype and thought “you know this sounds fun ” and ignored who the targetted audience was – it was swords and dragons and magic and who cares if it was YA or adult!.

I now have a MUCH greater respect for the subtleties of genre.

By: Gill Avila

Gill Avila — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 10:48:49 +0000

I remember reading a Robert McCammon book where the denoument was that the protagonist and antagonist were twins separated at birth. Within 3 seconds I went from surprise that the writer dared try that cliche to sadness that the writer had to pull that dated stunt to rage at the agent and editors for letting that lame stunt go through. I threw the book so hard that I dented my wall, and I’ve never read another of his books.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 00:48:22 +0000

I had the experience of hearing everyone rave about one series that is HUGELY popular (I won’t name it simply because I don’t want be rude), including a good friend of mine. In the past my friend had recommended some books I absolutely loved, so I trusted her judgement. Sadly, I HATED the series. I was 100% pissed off by the time I finished them (I’m one of those people who has to finish a series once I start it). I just couldn’t get behind an unapologetic rapist and murderer as the love interest no matter how ‘hot’ and ‘sexy’ he was, not to mention an idiotic MC.

There were a few other let downs, but that was the one that I feel stole time from me. It wasted both my money and time.