thoughtfulBy page two, I was ready to fling the book across the room. Why? Because the author had chosen to scramble the spelling of a common-to-the-genre word in a way that made it look not only pretentious, but difficult to read. This is a personal bug-a-boo of mine, since I really do feel that spelling was standardized for a reason, and while I managed to soldier through, it colored my ability to sink into the text for several chapters.
(As an aside, seriously: not all words become more interesting and mysterious when spelled with a vestigial "y." The worst example I've ever seen was in a YA series full of "mermyds," and the fact that I made it through all three volumes is a testament to the power of raw stubborn.)
One reader of Rosemary and Rue posted a lengthy, positive review, more than half of which was taken up by complaints about the pronunciation guide. Specifically, I didn't write down the correct pronunciation of "Kitsune." It's a fair cop—if you pronounce the word as written in the pronunciation guide, you'll be saying it wrong—and it's been corrected for A Local Habitation, but it was, for this person, as bad as if I'd spelled Toby's name "Aughtcober" and then claimed it was pronounced just like the month. Bug-a-boos for all!
Kate recently delivered a long and eloquent diatribe on "back cover buzz-word bingo," which I really wish I'd had a video camera running for, because it was awesome. The summation is that she watches the back covers of books for certain "buzz-words," and, if the book works up to a magical bingo score, she doesn't read it. I do something similar with bad horror movies, since there are specific buzz-words that mean "soft core porn" and "gratuitous torture," and those really aren't what I'm watching the movie to see.
So what are your bug-a-boos? Terribly twisted spelling? Pronunciations that you don't agree with? Buzz-words oozing off the back cover and getting all over your shoes? How about heroines with ruby hair and emerald eyes who aren't appearing in an Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld fanfic epic? Inquiring blondes want to know!
November 3 2009, 17:34:43 UTC 7 years ago
November 3 2009, 17:51:22 UTC 7 years ago
Ah, but that is historical fiction, which may or may not have any basis in fact. If you didn't like Other Boleyn girl, do not read her "Constant Princess". She so totally changed the character of Katherine of Aragon as to be unrecognizable as such and even I had a hard time finishing it.
I say this having read every biography and much of the historical fiction of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Mary, any of Henry's wives and Mary Queen of Scots that has come out in the past 40 years. I can read historical novels by separating them from biographies and not really twitching too much about the inaccuracies/changes.
November 3 2009, 18:08:28 UTC 7 years ago
November 3 2009, 19:26:51 UTC 7 years ago
November 3 2009, 19:53:57 UTC 7 years ago
[head explodes]
[body sends Seanan invoice for new head]
November 9 2009, 08:49:33 UTC 7 years ago
I'm not sure why it comes up so often, but my family has a tendency to ask me which of Henry VIII's wives were in which order. It's not that hard.... I mean, there were three Catherines and two Annes, but still... (Seriously, were they really short of names? That's a lot of overlap.)