Reading/Book Pet Peeves

[Venus193]

Don't they also typically take place in isolated situations like the classic English Country Estate?

[Giggity]

Thank you all!

[Twik]

I dislike stories that depend on a lot of miscommunication among the characters--I read fiction for escapism, not to experience the things that irritate me in real life! I always liked how, in Harry Potter, the first thing Harry, Ron, or Hermione did upon learning a new bit of information was to tell the other two, so they could all try to figure it out as a group. (At least that's how I remember it.)

Well, I often found myself shouting at Harry, "Go tell Dumbledore what you just learned!" However, I don't think that's unrealistic; children (particularly children with bad experiences with adults, like Harry) often don't consider adults as confidantes. It's as though childhood and adulthood are two differents worlds. Harry is more forthcoming with adults as he gets older.

[Nikko-chan]

Okay, fanfiction -

I understand that it's fanfiction and that you are playing in an established world that has its own rules and canon, but please, please, please, label an AU as an AU.  I cannot begin to elaborate on how stabby it makes me to read a story and get into it and 2/3 of the way through the character just busts out with something off the wall - like wings.

Sherlock Holmes does not have a uterus and therefor cannot be pregnant with Watson's lovechild.

John Watson is not an incubus.

They do not live in a spaceship called the Baker Street.

All of this is fine and could be quite entertaining if I know that it is an AU from the begining!

On that same token, if a fanfiction has a male/male or female/female relationship, or even male/female relationship that is not established in Canon... your story is an AU. Please label it as such. Also, please give a warning that it does indeed have m/m or f/f or even f/m for folks who don't like that stuff, K? I am looking at you, fanfiction author of 'The Sentinel' fanfic, who tricked me! One minute, lovely story la la la la la... then BAM! Jim and Blair playing a game of scrabble.

I went "O.o but... they're roommates... and they are both straight in the series.... what!? O.o..."

[Twik]

I went "O.o but... they're roommates... and they are both straight in the series.... what!? O.o..."

Many fanfic authors go "Challenge accepted" to that.

[pierrotlunaire0]

One of the things I hate is when a supposedly likeable character behaves like a tantruming 2 year old, and the author wants us to approve.

There was a book I read years ago, in which the heroine stumbles upon a conspiracy where she works, and by the end of Chapter One, she has become the victim of a bungled murder attempt (hit and run accident), and she is lying comatose in the hospital.  She is trying to communicate psychically, but in the meantime: her soon to be ex-husband wants to pull the plug, her doctor wants to pull the plug, and the killer has managed to also get himself admitted to the hospital because he wants to, well, yes, pull the plug.  Enter her brother, a man so desperate to save his sister that he constantly shows up, screams and yells, grabs at doctors and nurses, attempts to snatch at charts and medication only to be asked to leave.  Asked to leave?  Heck, no!  They should have committed him.

Now, I know why this writer did it.  From Chapter One, the supposed heroine is in a coma.  She never speaks to anyone, you never get to know her as someone that you want to live, and since everyone else was at best, indifferent to her, or at worst, actively trying to kill her, the author had to generate someone who cared.  But the brother was such a pill!

I stopped reading Kathy Reichs for a few years because of a similar situation.  In one of her books, a crime scene had been rigged to look like a Santeria altar, and a local politician was trying to use the crime scene to support his conservative agenda.  So politician would show up, Tempe would see red and cause a major scene, complete with the press documenting it.  She was warned that she was in danger of losing her job, and yet over and over again, she was screaming and shoving at him.  I know that Kathy Reichs was trying to establish that the politician was a bad guy, but I ended up feeling sorry for him, and I wanted Tempe to lose her job in that she might finally admit she finally had a problem.

[Morticia]

Kathy Reichs is the only author who ever caused me to physically abuse a book. Heroine is being stalked by a serial killer. She decides she knows where the killer is. She goes off without a weapon or notifying the police task squad who are looking for the serial killer to find him on her own. What a moron. I threw the book across the room in disgust. Never did finish it, or pick up another of her books. Her heroine is supposed to super-smart, but she has no common sense at all?

[goldilocks]

Patricia Cornwall wrote a series of books about a different set of characters than Kay scarpetta, and I couldn't read after the 1st one.  THe main character, a female police detective, was ALWAYS in a bad mood, always running late, spilling coffee on her suit, couldn't find a parking place, etc.  She made me a nervous wreck just reading about her!

[pierrotlunaire0]

Patricia Cornwall wrote a series of books about a different set of characters than Kay scarpetta, and I couldn't read after the 1st one.  THe main character, a female police detective, was ALWAYS in a bad mood, always running late, spilling coffee on her suit, couldn't find a parking place, etc.  She made me a nervous wreck just reading about her!

Yes, there are some writers who in an effort to avoid Mary Sues, create a Grumpy Lou.  There was a book I posted about in the other thread about books you hate, in which the main female character was a mess: psychologically crippled, unpleasant, prone to suicidal behavior.

What they don't seem to understand is that the core problem with a Mary Sue is that there is no depth, no real personality.  Overly perfect or twisted, one dimensional is still one dimensional.

[Thuringwethyl]

Kathy Reichs is the only author who ever caused me to physically abuse a book. Heroine is being stalked by a serial killer. She decides she knows where the killer is. She goes off without a weapon or notifying the police task squad who are looking for the serial killer to find him on her own. What a moron. I threw the book across the room in disgust. Never did finish it, or pick up another of her books. Her heroine is supposed to super-smart, but she has no common sense at all?

I whole-heartedly agree with this post. I had much more empathy with the police officers who were trying to keep Tempe from being killed. Idiot!

[cabbageweevil]

I have, somehow, instinctively not fancied Kathy Reichs's books, and have never tried them. From what just learnt in this thread, am glad that I refrained !

[nuit93]

Romance books by British/Australian authors that have the story set in America.  The author has properly done her geography research, however, the heroine worries about scraping her "tyres" on the "kerb" as she pulls into the "carpark " then takes the "lift" up to her "flat."

"Anne of Windy Willows" was 'translated' when published in the US, had a lot of scenes cut out of it, and was retitled "Anne of Windy Poplars".

It was?  I had no idea...now I feel compelled to find the UK original.

[AylaM]

Latest thing that got to me was an author that made a series.  Interesting premise, but too predictable.  I guess it goes along with using the same plot device because it was popular in one book.

I never finished the series because the first 3 or four books taught me one thing:  Someone new will be introduced in the first chapter.  In the last chapter it will become apparent that they are working against the protagonist.  And z huge part of this the whole book is based on this premise.   How long are you going to continue this?

My example: 

Something happens and Bad Guy Bob (introduced by Good Guy George) says the only thing to be done is climb the mountain.  So they climb the mountain. And then it turns out that Bad Guy Bob betrays them.  And is working for Evil Corp.

So in book 2 Bad Guy Bill (introduced by Good Guy George) is introduced because they have to fix the problems caused by Bad Guy Bob.  Bad Guy Bill says they must swim across the river.  So they swim across the river.  And Bad Guy Bill betrays them. And is working for Evil Corp.

So in Book 3 Bad Guy Brett (introduced by Good Guy George) is introduced because of complications caused by Bad Guys Bob and Bill.  Bad Guy Brett says...


A.  Why do you still trust Good Guy George? 
B.  Just finish the mission on your own.  You don't need them.  You didn't need them before.  What are you doing?

[Slartibartfast]

You can't even get a standalone book published anymore, in many cases - publishers want trilogies which can be expanded into longer series.

[Winterlight]

I went "O.o but... they're roommates... and they are both straight in the series.... what!? O.o..."

Many fanfic authors go "Challenge accepted" to that.

Which is fine- so long as you mark it as slash. Not marking it and letting people walk into it is considered rude, at least in the fandoms I'm in. (BTW, where on earth do you find gen Sentinel fic? I don't think I've ever seen it.)