Ready? Okay!
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| I didn't find the film all that interesting, either. |
5. Explaining your imagery. This was done in a book I'm slightly ashamed to say I've read, but proud to admit I couldn't even get halfway through reading. Every metaphor made is explained by the first person narrator, justifying its relevance to the plot and therefore destroying any impact it might have on me as a reader. The novel was really popular when it was first published and from what I've read, I have no idea why. That's right, it's The Hunger Games. I actually managed to find an excerpt of the book on the publisher's website - you can read it here.
6. Introducing the story with endless amounts of back story. I'm sure it's integral to know how many partners the main character slept with in her youth, or what her parents did for a living, but maybe don't have all this information in a splurge right at the beginning? I am currently reading a book given to me by my godfather - who said he enjoyed reading it and maybe I would too - but I haven't gotten past the fourth chapter. Mainly because there are four POVs and the first four chapters and all of their back stories. Zero story. Urgh. The novel is called Waiting to Exhale, if anyone's interested. I'm hoping it gets better.
7. An ending where 'everything works out'. Yes, I'm rooting for a happy ending. Yes, I want some hope at the end of the novel. But if you set up endless amounts of misery, conflict and tension throughout the novel, have a twist at the end and then twist that ending, I expect a little more than "and they all lived in contentment with each other, despite the events they had been through". However much I mourn them, bringing a character back to life (or taking them to the brink of death and magically saving them at the last minute) isn't going to make me like the story any better. Give me real emotions over wishful thinking any day, writers of Welcome to Night Vale.
8. The first book was good, but now the sequel is £8,305672,620000. Okay, this one isn't actually about a novel, doesn't really have anything to do with the quality of literature and I may or may not have exaggerated with the price there. I just really need to vent about this. When I was still able to take books out of my university library (i.e. back when I was a student) I found this brilliant book called Afrofuturism. It was an inspiring read and opened my horizons up to new writers, artists and creators. Just before Christmas, I discovered by chance that there was going to be a second book: Afrofuturism.20. If you clicked on both links, you might see the almost $70 increase in price (that's almost £50 for us Brits). That's not okay.
For all my complaints, I do enjoy a great many things about books - sometimes even in the same books I've complained about. Welcome to Night Vale, for example, had two really strong and believable main characters who were both women. Not to mention the plethora of diverse characters throughout the novel. And the story was gripping, from start to almost-finish. Perhaps I'll review it in my next post.
Until then, readers!
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