Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: thoughtful
  • Music: Counting Crows, "Round Here."

Do not want...but why not?

Recently, I picked up a book that looked interesting. It hit many of my "sweet spots" for plot, description, and cover blurbs from people I trust. The cover didn't do it any favors, featuring, as it did, a generic Urban Fantasy Hot Girl standing in a Playboy circa-1984 pose, but I've enjoyed books with way worse covers. I entered the text in good faith.

By 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!
Tags: contemplation, cranky blonde is cranky, don't be dumb, kate, oh the humanity, reading things
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  • 181 comments

alicetheowl

November 5 2009, 23:41:32 UTC 7 years ago

Descriptions of clothing. If I get a lovingly detailed description of what a character is wearing every time she changes clothes, this is not a book for me. If each new character is introduced by what brands he or she is wearing, this is not a book for me. If even half of the outfits are described with two adjectives or more, I'm throwing the damn thing against a wall.

In my experience, that sort of loving detail to something that matters so little is to mask a gaping hole in writing ability, narrative, or character development. Sometimes all three.

Also, weak heroines drive me insane. I will read through all of a book where the main female character faints, swoons and squeals helplessly, in hopes she gets better. I will be very annoyed if she doesn't.

seanan_mcguire

November 6 2009, 18:37:19 UTC 7 years ago

I totally follow. Description of clothing should be included only when it matters (say, when a crazy bitch turns your best jeans into a ballgown).

alicetheowl

November 6 2009, 19:04:16 UTC 7 years ago

I wish I could say that's one of the things I liked about Rosemary and Rue, but it's one of those things that, if done well, I don't even notice. I only notice if and when it irritates me.

But the things I didn't notice wove together so well that I was totally abosrbed, reading it while standing in line at Dragon*Con. A lot of people asked me what I was reading, for it to hold my interest so well.

seanan_mcguire

November 11 2009, 03:29:21 UTC 7 years ago

Wow!

Win. <3

alicetheowl

November 11 2009, 18:54:43 UTC 7 years ago

You would be so much more impressed if you'd seen the cacophany I was reading in. There was blaring techno right in front of me, people constantly having to walk through the line (and picking me to walk right in front of, of course), and about a bajillion people in line. We were waiting for Charlaine Harris's autograph.