1. Weird stylistic stuff - I have a really hard time concentrating on super weird or distracting stylistic elements in writing. Not page design, actual writing. House of Leaves was a complete and total no go for me. I made it halfway before throwing in the towel (though honestly even without the weird elements I probably still wouldn't like it.)
2. No quotations! What is it with books that don't use quotation marks? It kind of drives me bananas. I don't know why - probably for the same reason as no 1.
3. When there's more sex than story. I'm referring to genres other than romance here.
4. Incredibly obvious red herrings - I read a lot of mysteries and thrillers. Red herrings are pretty par for the course but when they're too obvious they can really hamper a plot in my opinion.
5. Too many plot twists - I don't have any sort of limit, mind you. Some stories can work with a ton of twists, if the author incorporates them well. If they start to become too obviously plentiful or off the wall it's never a good sign.
6. No cursing - this is a bit of a pet peeve of mine and it ultimately comes down to good writing. No books don't need cursing but if an author goes out of their way to use acceptable-for-all-audiences language in place of cuss words - and it's obvious - I start to get irritated. There are exceptions, maybe it's an actual character quirk in which case it's fine, but if every character in your book is using "fudge," "shoot," and "darn"... let's face it, people just don't talk like that.
7. Immature narrators - like the above there are exceptions. If your character is supposed to be immature that's fine. If, however, your character comes across as vapid or oddly young when they aren't supposed to be it's just bad writing.
8. Dumbed down fiction - this goes with no 7. I occasionally come across books in which the author seems to think their audience needs to be talked down to. Or maybe it's just the author's style. Either way, this'll pretty much always result in a dreaded DNF (which I hate to do).
That's it. That's all I've got.
5. Too many plot twists - I don't have any sort of limit, mind you. Some stories can work with a ton of twists, if the author incorporates them well. If they start to become too obviously plentiful or off the wall it's never a good sign.
6. No cursing - this is a bit of a pet peeve of mine and it ultimately comes down to good writing. No books don't need cursing but if an author goes out of their way to use acceptable-for-all-audiences language in place of cuss words - and it's obvious - I start to get irritated. There are exceptions, maybe it's an actual character quirk in which case it's fine, but if every character in your book is using "fudge," "shoot," and "darn"... let's face it, people just don't talk like that.
7. Immature narrators - like the above there are exceptions. If your character is supposed to be immature that's fine. If, however, your character comes across as vapid or oddly young when they aren't supposed to be it's just bad writing.
8. Dumbed down fiction - this goes with no 7. I occasionally come across books in which the author seems to think their audience needs to be talked down to. Or maybe it's just the author's style. Either way, this'll pretty much always result in a dreaded DNF (which I hate to do).
That's it. That's all I've got.
5 comments:
I don't like false cursing either. Recently read a book when the mc kept saying ''Oh my Dog!'' at every page. Annoying!
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I agree with you! Fake cursing is a huge turn-off and WHY WOULD YOU NOT USE QUOTATION MARKS? What is this madness?
Oh my goodness I totally agree with immature characters, it made my list today too!
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Ashley @ The Quiet Concert
False cursing is SO BAD. Either just go for it, or find a way to skip it. I think once or twice I've read a book where a side character (usually the not very important best friend) has decided that they just aren't going to swear for no real reason - except to be a humor device and say weird things. I'm okay with that in what I've already read, but I wouldn't like to see it pop up again.
I semi-recently got an ARC from Netgalley that I was pretty excited about until I heard there were NO QUOTATIONS. I didn't read that one.
1. Ugh, The House of Leaves was so fucking boring. X_X I made it about halfway before I could not anymore. That's how I felt about Rawhead and Bloody Bones. It was in an old-fashioned style with all the nouns capitalized, which means I put emphasis on all of them in my head. This wouldn't have bothered me in an actual old book or in German, but in a modern novel, my brain says they must be emphasized for a reason.
2. THIS. Why the heck is this necessary? Oh right, it's not. You just want your book to be a special snowflake.
6. When they substitute fake words that are obviously placeholders for the actual swear...blergh. Even worse, adding in playground swear words. Nope.
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