Over the last year I've read a few frustrating books. Not very many that I DNF'ed because they were that bad, but I've noticed that many of these books I was disappointed in have a similar theme: The books have too much. Too much time passing throughout the book and not enough happening in one time period. Too much detail. Too many items of conflict. For example The Magicians by Lev Grossman and Harry Potter & the Cursed Child by JK Rowling (et al) happen over a span of years. I understand why to an extent. Like in HP&tCC, there is a lot of backstory and events that lead to the main conflict and action. Or in The Magicians, there is a lot of world building that happens and once again, a lot of setup that then leads to the main adventure. Both of these books were alright in my opinion, but I wish that they would have been done differently. Maybe incorporate flashbacks that help build the characters and conflict instead of starting at the beginning and piecing small scenes together. Or (in the case of The Magicians) split it into at least two books. The school years could have been one book and then the adventure to Fillory could be a second book. There's just a lot of book there, and it doesn't all flow totally seamlessly together. It could easily been broken into 2 or 3 novels. Another book I had a huge problem with was She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. This book had too much of everything. It happened over a large span of years, from adolescence to young-adulthood. For the first half or so, I didn't really mind this. But then it just kept going and going and going and I was ready for it to stop about halfway through. Not only that, but there were WAY to many social issues brought to light in the book. I'm all for talking about social problems and helping your characters work through something like that. But this poor character had to go through eating disorders, mental health problems, sexual assault, domestic problems, suicidal tendencies, bullying…do you catch my drift? I understand that there are people that do have multiple problems arise for them to battle throughout their life. But it was way too much for this book. Like I said, about halfway through I thought it was a pretty adequate book that just needed to be wrapped up, but the conflicts just kept coming. I say all of that to ask the question: how much is too much? I think for me, it depends on what kind of book it is. I need details about the world in a fantasy novel. I want details about social issues and how that's affecting a character's life in a contemporary. I want to know what goes through a character's mind when they're falling in love. I want enough backstory to know why a character is having so much conflict in this one area.
But I don't want the whole life story. I do want some mystery and things I have to decipher or infer for myself. How about you?
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AuthorJust sharing my passion of reading through my passion of writing. Archives
May 2020
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