# Biggest turn-off when reading a book?



## Stuart S. Laing (Mar 9, 2012)

Is there one thing which really gets your back up when reading a book? A character suddenly doing something completely out of how they have been portrayed up until then? A sex scene which feels it's been dropped in there because the writer had decided they needed to spice things up? Excessive swearing or extreme violence? 
Personally I dislike scenes of torture which seem to linger on every flesh shredding detail. 
So is there something that annoys you and puts you off a book or do you just shrug your shoulders whatever happens and plough on with the book?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

For me, the book is the book.  The stuff in the book either serves the story line or it doesn't.  Stuff that doesn't serve the story turns me off.  Stuff that does, I'll press on even if I don't like what's happening.

Betsy


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## Jeroen Steenbeeke (Feb 3, 2012)

I mostly read fantasy, so my biggest peeves are turns of events that are not consistent with the established "rules of the universe". Other than that: deus ex machina endings.


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

Continuity errors drive me nuts.  Don't kill off a character in chapter 10 and have them show up in the background in chapter 15.  Don't tell me that Werewolves in your universe are fine with silver, then show them burning to a crisp via silver in the next book.  etc etc...


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## jbcohen (Jul 29, 2011)

I know that there are a lot of authors in this forum, I hope that some of them will read this thread.


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## valleycat1 (Mar 15, 2011)

Totally predictable or trite story lines.  Mysteries where the 'whodunnit' is some random character that only pops just before before the solution is revealed.  Use of a dialect or made-up words so embedded that you need a decoder.  Sentences that go on forever.


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## SSantore (Jun 28, 2011)

> Is there one thing which really gets your back up when reading a book? A character suddenly doing something completely out of how they have been portrayed up until then? A sex scene which feels it's been dropped in there because the writer had decided they needed to spice things up? Excessive swearing or extreme violence?
> Personally I dislike scenes of torture which seem to linger on every flesh shredding detail.
> So is there something that annoys you and puts you off a book or do you just shrug your shoulders whatever happens and plough on with the book?


All of the above! I don't like excessive torture or extremely explicit sex or violence. If the scenes are short I skip over them and get back to the story, but if a major part of the book is filled with sex and violence, I rarely read them. I do read the J.D. Robb future detective books, so I guess that blows my entire statement!


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

Also not a fan of vivid torture scenes, particularly when they seem to be written as torture porn, if that's the right term - there for the reader to get off on rather than serving the story.

I don't like reading books in which the main characters are completely unsympathetic.  They dont have to be perfect - in fact I prefer a flawed character - but when they are just nasty, cynical, whiny or brutal and nothing else, I cant read the book.


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## TWErvin2 (Aug 7, 2010)

Historical or scientific inaccuracies turn me off. 
Authors (and editors) should do their research.


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## KindleChickie (Oct 24, 2009)

Inconsistencies.  One series I read, the author has two completely different versions of how one characters parents died.  In another, the main character in the beginning of the book is worried about pregnancy because she was never a day late, like clockwork, etc.  and then by the end of the book (after torturing herself over a possible pregnancy) she says there is nothing to worry about because she has been known to be up to a week late.  Really?

Child abuse.  Don't want to read it, don't want it in my head.  And sexualization of kids.  Huge no-no for me.


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

Three things torque me ceaselessly.  

1) Writing at an 8th grade level.  I know, this is supposed to be the new standard, but I firmly proclaim the only people who should be reading at an 8th grade level (other than 8th graders) are advanced 6th and 7th graders and slow witted 9th and 10th graders.

2) Writing a novel as if it were a movie.  Again, this is probably de rigueur for a lot of modern fiction, but it turns me off.  If authors  sees a story in their head as a movie, write a film script, not a novel.

3) Series.  Especially those with the same characters doing the same sort of thing again and again.  Billy Bob the Gumshoe might be interesting for a novel, or maybe even a trilogy if there is a story arch, but if it is: Book 1 Billy Bob solves a crime, then Book 2 Billy Bob solves another crime, and all the way to Book 18 Billy Bob solves yet another completely different wholly other crime, I'm not going to be interested.


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

Geemont said:


> 2) Writing a novel as if it were a movie. Again, this is probably de rigueur for a lot of modern fiction, but it turns me off. If authors sees a story in their head as a movie, write a film script, not a novel.


I think I know what you mean, but I'm not sure. What is too "movie like" for you? Establishing shots from above, zooming in etc?


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## Sherlock (Dec 17, 2008)

Torture, child abuse and animal abuse make it a no-go for me.  I also never pick up a book that involves a serial killer.


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

Jeroen Steenbeeke said:


> I mostly read fantasy, so my biggest peeves are turns of events that are not consistent with the established "rules of the universe". Other than that: deus ex machina endings.


Deus ex machina for sure. Cheap, cheap, cheap.


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## Rie142 (Oct 28, 2009)

Sherlock said:


> Torture, child abuse and animal abuse make it a no-go for me. I also never pick up a book that involves a serial killer.


Same here for me. Also agree with most of the above.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

Poor word usage, grammatical errors, and misspellings turn me off real quick when I see them on every page. I won't keep reading a poorly edited book that was not proofread.

Continuity and inconsistency will also cause me to give up on a book. For example, in one book, someone left their "revolver" behind when they drove to a distant city. Once they reached the city, they reached for their Glock. Two problems: 1. They left the handgun behind, and 2. Glock doesn't make revolvers.

One thing I miss about printed books is that I can't (won't, actually) fling my Kindle across the room!


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> For me, the book is the book. The stuff in the book either serves the story line or it doesn't. Stuff that doesn't serve the story turns me off. Stuff that does, I'll press on even if I don't like what's happening.
> 
> Betsy


I think I have to agree. Poppy Z. Brite's _Exquisite Corpse_ is the story of two serial killers and just about the grossest thing I ever read - but I didn't stop reading because it was all integral to the overall story. In general, I don't like explicit, gratuitous violence in things I read but this was an exception.


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## Neil Ostroff (Mar 25, 2011)

Bad grammar in an award winning book. I see it all the time.


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## Adam Poe (Apr 2, 2012)

I hate unnatural dialogue - Such as a modern day fourteen year old speaking like an English gentleman in all of her conversations with friends..


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## Todd Trumpet (Sep 7, 2011)

Here's one for you:

*I hate it when an author or character asks incessant internal questions.
*
This always plays like a crutch to me, i.e., the author working out his thoughts on paper.

And it is often abused.

Todd


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## sheiler1963 (Nov 23, 2011)

1. graphic sex scenes that have nothing to do with the plot. I don't want to watch people have sex let alone read about it. Besides, if sex was as incredible as described, I wouldn't bother with books. 
2. Books that follow a 'formula' that is predictable. The worst offenders of this seem to be the 'whodunnit' books where the murderer is usually a character that you meet briefly by the second chapter as a peripheral character. This character is mentioned and then left on the wayside until the last chapter where he is resurrected.


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## Carolyn62 (Sep 5, 2011)

Describing the same thing several times in the same book just to make the book longer really bugs me.


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## Shawn Mackey (Mar 28, 2012)

Killing off a character for shock value, especially when it's for the sake of "realism." That applies to every medium as well.


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## VondaZ (Apr 21, 2009)

I think my biggest turn off is a book filled with cookie cutter characters - the traditional genre type characters that behave in the predictable stereotypical genre type way. That is not to say I don't like genre fiction - I like many genres - but only when the characters are 3 dimensional and original and unpredictable without being inconsistent with their own character. Character for me is even more important than plot. I can follow a fascinating character through an ordinary story, but I cannot follow flat characters through even the most eccentric of plots. Who cares how interesting the situation is if it doesn't impact anyone I am interested in?

On the subject of horror - I can't stand the slasher type horror, either. If the author is trying to impress me with the horrifying things he/she and his/her main character can think of to do to another human being, that will never happen. I do love horror, but I like it to be more subtle. The scariest things are the things that exist in our imagination and not in the details that you can think up to describe violence. I can tolerate violence and bloody scenes - but only if they complement an already scary story and they are not what is supposed to be scary to begin with.


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

It drives me NUTS when the author will introduce some HUGE bit of information and then the characters decide to go get lunch first before acting on it.  I'm like, "PUT DOWN THE SANDWICH AND SOLVE THE MYSTERY!"  Or there is some HUGE build up to getting character from Point A to Point B and then once they arrive, NOTHING happens, except the character goes, "QUICK! To Point C!"  There is nothing at Point C that could not be at Point B!  Get on with the story!  Quit yer stallin'!  

/endofrant


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

So many of the above things can turn me off. Perhaps not the worst, but one that is a bit of a pet peeve of mine is mainly applicable to sci-fi: characters living 200, 500, or 1000 years from now who just happen to be be big fans and collectors of late 20th century movies, music, or some other medium that allows the author to make constant references to present day culture. Whenever an author does this, it jerks me out of the moment and my willing suspension of disbelief, as if the author is waving a red flag saying, "Hey! Look at me! Isn't it cool how I got some references to my favorite bands into this story taking place in 2355?"


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## Baron of Cleveland (Apr 3, 2012)

My biggest turn off? Well, I can read explicit anything - hell, I've read Marquise de Sade without getting too worked up about anything on the page. But my biggest turn off - maybe even the biggest sin - is a book that offers nothing but entertainment. A book full of entertainment is like a physically beautiful human being who can't think or carry on a conversation. I want depth.

Baron


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## Chad Wilde Author (Mar 16, 2012)

Biggest turn off is when you read the book jacket and the book sounds amazing, then you start reading the book and it's completely different than how it was sold.


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

Geoffrey said:


> I think I have to agree. Poppy Z. Brite's _Exquisite Corpse_ is the story of two serial killers and just about the grossest thing I ever read - but I didn't stop reading because it was all integral to the overall story. In general, I don't like explicit, gratuitous violence in things I read but this was an exception.


Poppy Z. Brite is a wonderful writer. I know what you mean, though, it's in there because it has to be. I'm not a fan of vampire fiction, gay or otherwise, but Lost Souls and Drawing Blood are great books. If they'd come out in the last couple of years they would probably have been way more successful.

Chris Ward


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

For me it's dream sequences.  Yeah, so sometimes they're necessary (usually when there's no other way of pushing the plot forward) but do they really have to last a whole chapter?  Boooorring.

Also, writers that harp on about "my trilogy" this and "my trilogy" that, and you find out each book is 60,000 words long.  That's barely a novella.  George RR Martin's latest book is 330,000 words long.  Now THAT'S a novel.  If you're going to write one book and split it into three in order to try to boost sales (which I have no problem with, btw) at least admit it.

Self-written poetry dropped into novels.  It's almost as if the writer is saying, "look at me, I'm not just a novelist, I'm a poet too".  And if it's not self-written, then the writer is usually trying to show off about how well read they are.


Chris Ward


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## JackDAlbrecht (Sep 24, 2011)

Sherlock said:


> Torture, child abuse and animal abuse make it a no-go for me. I also never pick up a book that involves a serial killer.


This... That is about it for me, i am not all that picky


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## Flowers4you (Apr 3, 2012)

The biggest turn off for me is when I can tell the book ideas were totally unoriginal, and it's obvious when someone is writing purely for money.

I also REALLY dislike "Filler Pages." Those parts of a book where you have to totally skip over. I don't like when authors do this just to increase a page count.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

I think mostly it depends on the book and how everything else works in it. So something that might bug me in one, won't in another, because the author somehow either made it work, or balanced it with something else. 

But I don't like brutal gory torture and killing stuff. I am talking details, especially anything pertaining to eyeballs. I can't explain it, but eyeballs, I can't even say it      

Its not that I don't read books with murders in it, I totally flove the JD Robb "In Death" series which of course is following a cop in future New York and there is plenty of death and blood. 

I cannot take any animal abuse. Just can't do it. It makes my physically ill and I would never pick up another book by that author. Ever. 

But I also get turned off when I hate all the characters. I need some kind of balance, there has to be something there, even in a villain. But when I don't even like the main characters, that is a turn off. 

And characters and locals that feel half baked. I want to get a feeling of where I am and who they are. I want to be able to paint a mental picture and if I don't get enough, when everything is 2 dimensional, I get turned off. 

And one of my biggest pet peeve is a book that changes genre mid way through. I cannot stand that when a book is marketed as one thing and sold as one thing and then it turns out to be something else. Its deceptive and I won't touch that author again with a 10 foot pole. I have found that especially in romance when authors want the sales, so they throw the category on there and its nothing but. Sometimes I don't even know what its suppose to be. Its like trying to dip into many pots, but not finessing any of the dishes.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

I cannot remember a time when a character did something that turned me off so much I stopped reading a book.  Badly written sentences can get me to stop reading it, however.


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## Baron of Cleveland (Apr 3, 2012)

I just thought of something else: Novels are usually a turn off.


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## jabeard (Apr 22, 2011)

Really lengthy and irrelevant asides.

I remember in one novel, there was a lengthy short story embedded into a novel that otherwise had nothing to do with the story. The whole initial point was just to demonstrate secondary channel hacking, yet we end up with these guys reading this story for a decent number of pages. I kept thinking, "Oh, so this story will become relevant later." Nope. Chekhov's Anti-Gun.


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## Stuart S. Laing (Mar 9, 2012)

it seems clear that the most common 'turn-off' is explicitly detailed violence and anything vile happening towards children, something else I would agree with. I'm not saying that these are subjects which shouldn't be used as a device in a story but sometimes less is more.


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## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

For me, it's definitely protagonists who are right _all_ the time.

But I'm in the minority. Most people aren't crazy about Mary Sues in concept, but a lot of them find a specific few of them to be a guilty pleasure. After all, they're often charming.


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## SadieSForsythe (Feb 13, 2012)

I think my biggest turn off is inappropriately placed sex scenes. For example if some is hurt or endangered (time when in reality sex would be the farthest thing from your mind) and the characters choose this moment to give in to their carnal desires. Additionally, books that havn't been properly edited and are full of errors. They distract me.


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## KTaylor-Green (Aug 24, 2011)

SSantore said:


> All of the above! I don't like excessive torture or extremely explicit sex or violence. If the scenes are short I skip over them and get back to the story, but if a major part of the book is filled with sex and violence, I rarely read them. I do read the J.D. Robb future detective books, so I guess that blows my entire statement!


LOL But Nora ( J.D.) does it so well!


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Probably the thing most likely to make me quit reading a book that is otherwise reasonably well crafted is characters I don't care about. It's not that I have to _like_ every character (though it probably helps some if I like the protagonist), but I have to be interested in finding out what is going to happen to them.


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## eloisejknapp (Apr 3, 2012)

balaspa said:


> I cannot remember a time when a character did something that turned me off so much I stopped reading a book. Badly written sentences can get me to stop reading it, however.


I was reading through the other posts and was surprised no one mentioned this sooner. And if they did, I apologize to whoever I missed!

Trying to chew through terrible writing will end a book for me. After all, you can't make it very far in a book if you can barely read it.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Factual errors on the major subject(s) of the book. It's one thing to not have accurate info on tangential issues or pursuits or topics...but to have errors...even minor...in the basic subject areas of the book? I'm done.

And it's not like I'm an expert on many things...nor even close...but I read alot of books based on epidemiology, for example....and when background or scientific info is wrong and I notice....done. All credibility goes out the window.


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## Rogerelwell (May 19, 2011)

Bad spelling.  Poor grammar.   I'm okay with some errors but if there are many then it starts to get on my nerves, especially where such errors disrupt the storytelling.

Continuity issues sometimes get me as well, though in some cases I find them amusing.

What gets me as an 'indie' author is when I see books from established, conventionally-published authors that have bad continuity errors.  I read a book recently from one such author where one character in a passage changed twice over three pages (when the passage was supposed to be about that particular character throughout) and then, later, the spelling of another character's name changed three times in the course of two pages.  That really annoyed me (as it would if I'd been the author too). 

In the main, however, I read novels for entertainment and I have quite a high tolerance threshold, as long as the story and characters are interesting.


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## AnelaBelladonna (Apr 8, 2009)

Political and religious opinions shoved down my throat.  I will stop reading it immediately.


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## ramsey_isler (Jul 11, 2011)

I detest love triangles. They seem to be all over the place in today's pop fiction and so often it feels it's just there for the sake of alluring teenage girls.

Even when I was going through the process of publishing my own book, The Remortal, I had a publisher actually ask me to change the gender of my main character to female, and insert a love triangle with two characters who weren't exactly the loving type as I'd written them. I declined his offer.

The last book I read that was guilty of this offense was The Hunger Games. The Gale-Peeta-Katniss dynamic did not work for me at all, and I felt it had been inserted mainly for commercial reasons instead of adding anything to the plot except annoying "Do I love Peeta? Do I love Gale?" scenes in Katniss' head.


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## DH_Sayer (Dec 20, 2011)

Grammatical errors. It'll make me put it down--or worse, sneer at the author--faster than anything. It might be a problem.... There should be an SA (Snoots Anonymous)

DHS


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

headofwords said:


> Poppy Z. Brite is a wonderful writer. I know what you mean, though, it's in there because it has to be. I'm not a fan of vampire fiction, gay or otherwise, but Lost Souls and Drawing Blood are great books. If they'd come out in the last couple of years they would probably have been way more successful.


I thought Lost Souls was awesome (in fact I must go and dig it out and re-read it), but Drawing Blood was dreadful.

But what turns me off are characters telling each other what they already know or describing what they look like!


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## Arclight (Jan 6, 2011)

1. Excessive use of adjectives.
2. Story lines that do not get to the point.
3. Story lines that stall mid-way through the book.


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## Brenda Sorrels (Mar 13, 2012)

Too much "filler" annoys me...by that I mean endless paragraphs of description and or slow moving dialogue.  I like the story to clip along...


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## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

I mostly read mysteries and thrillers and really get turned off by books that have no motive or a weak motive; unfortunately I've read the entire book by this point and it's such a let down to get all the way through and be let down by a crap ending.


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## gina1230 (Nov 29, 2009)

Too descriptive.  I don't care what shade the color of grass is.


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## manhattanminx (Mar 10, 2012)

If the writing is bad, I don't read past the first page. I was the same way when I edited for a lit mag. 

Bad writing annoys me.


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

NogDog said:


> Probably the thing most likely to make me quit reading a book that is otherwise reasonably well crafted is characters I don't care about. It's not that I have to _like_ every character (though it probably helps some if I like the protagonist), but I have to be interested in finding out what is going to happen to them.


I can forgive a lot of sins--continuity errors, a few grammatical/spelling errors, uneven pacing--but lifeless characters--I can't forgive that. If the character is a two-dimensional paper doll that never comes to life in my imagination, it doesn't matter how well-written the book is or how well-plotted--I could care less. Some writers can breathe life into their characters and some can't. The ones who can't--I put their books down within the first chapter usually.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Most of my peeves are covered.

1. I don't care what the furniture looks. If there is a paragraph of description, I'm skipping it.
2. Polished sentences...and nothing happens...for pages...chapters...entire books of a series...nothing....happening...but all very pretty
3. Dull characters.


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## Malweth (Oct 18, 2009)

I'm very good at suspending my own beliefs for a book (or movie, tv show, etc). Much better than most -- people talk about story line inaccuracies in TV at work and I probably never noticed the faults.

If a book manages to invoke incredulity in me, it has gone way too far. As I said, it's difficult. Dan Brown in "The Lost Symbol" is the best example of this from recent memory.


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## Bigal-sa (Mar 27, 2010)

JimC1946 said:


> Poor word usage, grammatical errors, and misspellings turn me off real quick when I see them on every page. I won't keep reading a poorly edited book that was not proofread.
> 
> Continuity and inconsistency will also cause me to give up on a book. For example, in one book, someone left their "revolver" behind when they drove to a distant city. Once they reached the city, they reached for their Glock. Two problems: 1. They left the handgun behind, and 2. Glock doesn't make revolvers.
> 
> One thing I miss about printed books is that I can't (won't, actually) fling my Kindle across the room!


My feelings exactly!

I also hate 'ya' and sentences ending with 'already' - these also make me want to hurl the Kindle into another dimension...


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## D.A. (Mar 29, 2012)

When an author is too lazy to devise a creative way to relay important exposition and so one character tells another things they would already know.
And/or any cruelty to animals and I'm gone.


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## NS (Jul 8, 2011)

I can stop reading a book for many reasons. If the book is boring, I'll close it. Lack of motivations. All characters should have motives for their actions. Cheesy dialog.


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## RubyRoyce (Feb 25, 2012)

Repetitive words, phrases or motives (without stylistic motivation).

When I read a certain verb or adverb more than five times it drives me nuts. Unless it's something like "said" or "gave". If you get my meaning.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Bad writing or things that just don't make sense - like unrealistic character behavior or dialogue. You'd think they would be simple things to avoid but sadly, they're not. I recently started a freebie and put it down within the first two chapters because the first chapter was written in present tense, yet for one sentence, the author jumps back into past tense.    Then the second chapter was just trying way too hard to make the dialogue witty and clever (but it wasn't). I felt strongly enough about how badly written it was that I rated on Goodreads despite only reading two chapters.


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## Rebecca Burke (May 9, 2011)

All of the above, especially descriptions of dreams--aargh! Unless they are used in a way that is dead-funny, and that is rare.

I'm always bugged when an author will have a character reading a book that is unlikely or too big a reach given everything else we know about that character. In a novel, everything means something, so authors can't just willy-nilly pick a book to have a character read unless they want us to read something into it (sorry about the bad pun).

I also hate it when characters don't use common technology to solve problems. If using a cell phone or GPS or looking up something on Google, etc.,  will "save the day," then the author better make sure a character does these things or we are going to take a dim view of the whole operation. 

I could go on, heh, but don't want to risk sounding like a nitpicker.


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## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

manhattanminx said:


> If the writing is bad, I don't read past the first page. I was the same way when I edited for a lit mag.
> 
> Bad writing annoys me.


Absolutely. Does anyone listen to musicians who can't play their instruments ... no! Then why read writers who cannot use language well?


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## Cynthialil (Jan 30, 2010)

I have a weird thing - I can't stand books with names I can't pronounce. I know that's silly but there's something about tripping over the name every time I hit it that bugs me. I also don't like similar names unless it's part of the plot. 

Finally, for series novels, I come for the characters i love, so don't give me two pages of them and the rest of the book on people I don't care about.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Cynthialil said:


> I have a weird thing - I can't stand books with names I can't pronounce. I know that's silly but there's something about tripping over the name every time I hit it that bugs me.


I find this really trips me up in a lot of fantasy books.


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## Joseph_Evans (Jul 24, 2011)

My biggest turn off as soon as I open a book is if it's written in a first person narrative. I really struggle unless it's third person and I have no idea why. I think I like my personal space and I don't like feeling as though I'm in somebody else's body. I like to be watching the narrative play out from a distance.


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## A.A (Mar 30, 2012)

When nothing happens - when you're just reading through a series of unrelated, wandering scenes.

Also, overhashed characterisations and plot-lines ... oh how I hate these ....

Tired of seeing male and female characters that are polar opposites. 
Tired of the grizzled, alcoholic cop/spy brought out of retirement/disgrace for a new mission. 
Tired of the woman who's been 'hard-done-by' by men and finds a new life. 
Tired of the teen girl who thinks she's 'nothing much' and then gets the attention of the 'hottest guy in school'.
Tired of the elderly man who hates his doctor and is disillusioned by life.
Tired of the man who speaks about women as objects (to make the man sound 'tough' and 'manly').


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## Math (Oct 13, 2011)

Product placement.

Don't have it on kindle, but someone, if you can - do a search for the word 'iPhone' in Dan Brown's Lost Symbol. What is wrong with 'cell' or 'mobile' or 'phone'?

Shameful. Should have a frickin' iPhone half-buried in sand on the cover, with a *'Symbolism LITE' * APP on the screen. Shameful.


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## Eliza Baum (Jul 16, 2011)

purplepen79 said:


> I can forgive a lot of sins--continuity errors, a few grammatical/spelling errors, uneven pacing--but lifeless characters--I can't forgive that. If the character is a two-dimensional paper doll that never comes to life in my imagination, it doesn't matter how well-written the book is or how well-plotted--I could care less. Some writers can breathe life into their characters and some can't. The ones who can't--I put their books down within the first chapter usually.


^This.

I also hate present tense. I have to _really_ want to read the book to get past it.


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Most of my peeves are covered.
> 
> 1. I don't care what the furniture looks. If there is a paragraph of description, I'm skipping it.
> 2. Polished sentences...and nothing happens...for pages...chapters...entire books of a series...nothing....happening...but all very pretty


THIS!


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## sheiler1963 (Nov 23, 2011)

ramsey_isler said:


> The last book I read that was guilty of this offense was The Hunger Games. The Gale-Peeta-Katniss dynamic did not work for me at all, and I felt it had been inserted mainly for commercial reasons instead of adding anything to the plot except annoying "Do I love Peeta? Do I love Gale?" scenes in Katniss' head.


Oddly enough this dynamic worked for me because it wasn't about a mooney eyed teenager missing her sparkly boyfriend. Katniss is a character who always questioned her feelings and motives toward Gale and Peeta and looked for ways to keep them both in her life w/o having to make a commitment. She loves them both, but can't commit to marriage and making babies because she won't bring children into a world where the Hunger Games exist. In that vein love and marriage are off the table on not on her radar. Then she meets not just one, but two boys who have the right stuff. That creates confusion between what is natural, and the current reality of Panem. What's a girl to do?


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## B.A. Spangler (Jan 25, 2012)

Too many names … might be my limited capacity to remember things, but too many names where they don't particularly move the story forward.

Now where was it that I put my Kindle. Dang Memory.


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## gina1230 (Nov 29, 2009)

bxs122 said:


> Too many names &#8230; might be my limited capacity to remember things, but too many names where they don't particularly move the story forward.
> 
> Now where was it that I put my Kindle. Dang Memory.


Oh, I hate this. If the author introduces an abundance of characters all at once, by the end of the chapter, I'm ready to move on to another book. I also hate complicated names that I can't figure out how to pronounce.


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## psychotick (Jan 26, 2012)

Hi,

For me, well I'm a shallow reader. I like happy endings and good heroes and the bad guy getting his just desserts. So when they kill off the hero or a really enjoyable character that bums me out, and there had better be a damned good reason. 

Other then that, mostly the stuff others have mentioned - gross out acts etc, torture what have you. I don't need to read that, I don't need to have it in my head. I'm quite happy with having the act alluded to without having to read the gory details.

And one more, bleakness. I can't stand a book where you read through it and it just gets darker and darker, as in you run out of both hope and enjoyment.

Cheers, Greg.


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## SadieSForsythe (Feb 13, 2012)

Cynthialil said:


> I have a weird thing - I can't stand books with names I can't pronounce. I know that's silly but there's something about tripping over the name every time I hit it that bugs me. I also don't like similar names unless it's part of the plot.


I don't think it is weird. I feel the same way, and this is the second time I have come across this gripe this week. So I don't think we are alone.


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## Guest (Apr 12, 2012)

Yeah, torture porn and lack of motive really kill it for me. Stephen Leather's The Basement is guilty of both - don't want to spoil it, but the whole book reads like How-I'd-Be-A-Serial-Killer unpleasantness, capped off with a killer who is ridiculously unbelievable. Not a fan. 

I'm also put off by bad sex scenes when they don't advance the plot in some way, but *any* action scene that doesn't offer anything original or reflect the motives of the characters can do the same. One of my favourite examples of getting around this happens in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash - you think there's going to be a huge descriptive car chase, but instead he just writes 'Everyone gets into their cars - and then it's just a chase scene.'


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## Guest (Apr 12, 2012)

Ha! And also the unpronounceable names thing! I hate when clans are called stuff like the Kw'lynn or whatever. Stephenson also has a go at that in Reamde. I love Neal Stephenson.


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## Darin_Calhoun (Jul 26, 2011)

If you make promises to the reader that you don't keep at the end.


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## jabeard (Apr 22, 2011)

Darin_Calhoun said:


> If you make promises to the reader that you don't keep at the end.


Can you give an example?


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

jabeard said:


> Can you give an example?


1. Strong chapters 1-3, disjointed, underdeveloped weirdness afterwards (caused by writers re-writing chapters 1-3 for agents, and then eventually self-publishing everything as is, so never dealing with the rest of the novel's issues)

2. Blurbs and categories that don't have anything to do with the book. Case in point: I have been told (repeatedly) by self-publishing gurus to always choose the "second" category of their book on Amazon as a popular genre closest related to your work. Not the actually genre of your work; just something that's close and popular.

So, let's say someone has a historical novel with a bittersweet ending. It gets classed as romance, even though the love interest dies in the end. That is *not* a romance novel, and by doing that you violate the promise you made to the reader when you classified it as a romance.

Or, let's say your blurb says Hunger Games for Christian Teens. Yet, inside, the book has no plot remotely close to Hunger Games and the only common thing between the two works is that there are teenagers in them.


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## Darin_Calhoun (Jul 26, 2011)

jabeard said:


> Can you give an example?


Yep, Dan Brown's Lost Symbol. I was so disappointed with the end I chucked the book across the room into a wall.


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## Stuart S. Laing (Mar 9, 2012)

I just couldn't take Dan Brown seriously when he claimed all his facts were just that, facts! Then has the suppression of the Templars taking place in Rome instead of Paris! That killed it for me.


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## Steven Lee Gilbert (Mar 21, 2012)

Authors that feel the need to explain everything the character is thinking. Oldest advice in the book is show, don't tell.


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## That Weird Guy.... (Apr 16, 2012)

5-10 pages of the description of a leaf. There are some books that go WAY too far in the descriptions. That gets my goat every time.


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## Suz Ferrell (Jan 29, 2012)

Characters, especially heroines who don't make me care about them, that don't engage me emotionally. To me, it's "why am I bothering to read this?" And I need the action to start before 100 pages of exposition, thank you!


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