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, 17:55:46 UTC 7 years ago
I hate pretty much all variations on "one of my great-grandparents was Irish so I am going to write a cutesy romanticised version of the Old Country which my fellow USAns will not have any way of telling from realism", because that makes this born-in-Ireland-and-lived-there-twenty-y
I hate Twue Wuv conquering all in ways that mean nobody has to put any effort into it, because, as
I also, having been stalked, hate stalking-positive takes on romance with an irrational fury.
I strongly dislike first-person narratives that have no frame or reason for existence, and doubly so when the narrator is admitting to things where anyone in-universe reading their story might well lead to them getting arrested.
(So what horror-movie buzzwords mean "softcore porn", then ? My fifteen-year-old self would have made unwise deals with creepy supernatural figures for a reliable way of making that distinction.)
November 3 2009, 20:09:48 UTC 7 years ago
Buzzwords meaning "soft-core porn" often include "rustic escape," "teenage campers," "class reunion," "graduation party," and "breeding stock."