Take 2: What makes you put down a book?

Original post (with lots of great comments, writers read this!) here.

Failing to connect is the biggest thing that get me to put down a book. Now that covers:

-Failing to connect with the MC, or any character (I’m talking to you The Walking Dead tv series.)

-Failing to connect with the story. The Drama is too drama-y, or not tense enough. Just go to the damned store and get the pregnancy test, Anita Blake! Don’t whine and wonder for the whole book. That’s not tension that’s needless stringing out of drama.

And if I’m yelling at your clear lack of science knowledge (The Walking Dead again) or unable to suspend my disbelief (oh look, random zombie book, yet another cop/military man is completely incapable? Because we send a lot of people like that through training and to foreign wars…) that’s a failure to connect.

-Failure to connect with the setting usually means that it’s just unremarkable. It’s adequate  but completely identical to many other stories I’ve read.

-Boring. When you fail to hold my interest. Yes, this is a failure to connect with the book because usually it means there are most of these “failures” are present to some degree.

-Failure on my part. Admittedly, I’m just not the right audience for some stories.

-Failure to actually be a book. This is where giant plot holes, bad grammar, slat characters, etc come in. Eyes glaze over and I check out.

Now there are a few other things.

I HATE rape-disguised-as-romance stories. A guy raping a girl but it’s okay because she realizes she was attracted to him is NOT COOL. Being attracted to someone isn’t consent. Even if it’s to teach someone about their super powers, or save the world (I’m talking to you Any Given Doomsday.)

I HATE torture-kill-obsessed-with-woman-who-rejected-you stories. Or thinly veiled author-gets-revenge-on-people stories.

I hate author intrusion. Sometimes you gotta manipulate the characters to get them where you want them. Don’t just throw them into a story and then force them to fit. Don’t make them voices for your aggravation. Don’t make every other female character jealous of and nasty to your powerful PC. I’m calling you out, Anita Blake.

I’m not big on slow stories. Even pretty ones. Forward momentum. Something NEEDS to happen. Plot is good. If Anne Rice can still keep the mystery continuing you can too.

Finally, entitlement. If an author expects me to buy the book to support the indie press, or the little guy, expects praise no matter what for putting some crayon smears on some paper and feeling entitled to have people pay them for it…yes, I will toss the book unread into my resale pile. Or the trash. I feel writers owe people their best stories. If your best isn’t amazing, that won’t get me upset because we can’t all be Neil Gaiman. But if you admit to putting up incomplete or unedited or first draft work and expect people to buy it, sometimes for high prices, that’s when I get offended. And fairly protective of readers. Readers owe writers to buy/read their work legitimately/legally. Writers owe readers their best efforts. Violating that gets me a little upset.