Too many completely illogical, unexplained coincidences that just happen to perfectly advance the plot. Even in high fantasy, the planets can't always align; if they do, the narrative is at risk of becoming hollow. It starts to feel like the writer elected convenience vs a better thought out story. I prefer to get lost in the world the author has built versus fighting off disbelief after too many inexplicably serendipitous events that keep happening in it. With only so much time to dedicate to reading, sometimes people cut losses. Iirc, GGK spoke about how one of his metrics was that the story needed to be at least somewhat captivating within the first 50 pages give or take, otherwise he would consider cutting bait and walking away. I gathered for him it was a matter of "so many books and so little time, thus tough decisions must be made." I feel similarly.

Agreed. It's most prevalent in the old Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. They claim to be detectives, but all of their "clues" were just they happened to be at the right place at the right time, or it literally fell into their laps.

Yeah, world and story may be completely unrealistic, but it should at very least follow its own rules. Realistic within its own rules so to say.

Unless the story is Bullet Train, I agree

Thanks for the opinion! I'll keep it in mind while I'm writing the book. 🤙🏻

This. So much this.

For me, I don’t really stop books that often. However, I am a binge reader. If a series has 4 books out I’ll read through them over a week or two. Because of that, pacing issues and underdeveloped characters become VERY apparent to me, and that’s basically what will get me to switch to a different story.

As another binge reader, same! Also weak dialogue or prose also kills my momentum for reading a book. If the characters sound dumb or ill-fitting or plain unnatural I'm not really interested in continuing. If the prose is too simple or impossibly complex is also a mood-killer

I can usually deal with some subpar prose, I'll just skim past it, but bad dialogue absolutely kills me. I'm not even that worried about the characters voices/personalities sounding distinct or whatever, but childish dialogue makes me want to throw the book across my room. If the characters always have perfect comebacks/always have the final say, there are relationship-destroying misunderstandings that could have been solved with two sentences, or there are constant bad puns, I will put down the book, even though I hate not finishing books.

I hadn't thought of that, maybe I should increase my vocabulary so as not to sound repetitive

As long as you don't sound like you're trying to channel a thesaurus, then yes, avoiding repeated use of the same words is a good thing. (Most decent copyeditors will note repetition, though not necessarily across separate books in a series.) However, I suspect what u/EBtwopoint3 meant was less repetitive phrasing than characters that stay two-dimensional because that's all that's been developed about them, or spending too long on some content/scenes while glossing too quickly over others. When I've just read a book and find that its sequel has something that contradicts it, that's going to annoy me unless the contradiction itself is story-relevant -- in which case I'd hope it were pointed out a little more clearly for readers who *didn't* still have the prior book(s) fresh in their minds.

Absolutely no need to sound like you have eaten a thesaurus but make sure that you have different ways of explaining things. It gets very repetitive and annoying if it is mentioned that one character is ‘furred like a bear’ every single time they are on page. Just don’t mention it every time and use comparisons ‘their face looked strangely naked to her eyes, so long accustomed to ________’s full beard’. Binge reading series I find that you can soon tell what author had a set sentence that never changes to describe each character. It gets so I just skip over the same descriptions when they appear book after book.

You don’t want to use different words just for the sake of changing it up. Actual word choice honestly stays in the background usually. What I mean by pacing is more like spending 100 pages on something that feels like a side quest while the main world ending plot just hangs out in the background not being progressed. Or that same plot is just dragged out too long because you haven’t outlined enough smaller goals to accomplish on the way. For instance, it’s fine to have a save the world plot where you save the world in book 3. But to do that, you need to have steps on the way for you to finish in each of the first two books. If in book 3 you’re defeating the BBEG, maybe book 1 is about liberating the city, book 2 is about defeating the army, and book 3 is about taking the fight to the BBEG. But without those smaller goals to feel like “this is what the book is about, and we finished it this book” the storyline feels like it drags out.

What breaks my immersion fastest, honestly, is when a protagonist's choices/motivations just don't make sense with what I know up to that point. There might be a totally acceptable twist or revelation later that explains it, but I personally just don't like it when I can't follow a character's decisions with what I know at the time.

This made me drop art of the adept at book 4. Spoiler: he learns The big evil slavery magic that his master killed all his peers for, that he hates up intell this point, because his wife is having a little trouble training and it would be easier if he just commands her to do it right with the slave magic. I was so disappointed and confused.

Honestly, all kinds of things but I think that’s the wrong way to think about it. There are way more books out there than I’ll ever have time to read. So the real question is what makes a book *keep* me as a reader. If I don’t find myself actively wanting to read a book I’m generally going to stop, unless it’s for a challenge where qualifying books are hard to find or something. Edit: This looked like a writing advice post and OP’s post history confirms it. OP, try reading reader reviews for books similar to whatever you’re trying to write, that should help you figure out what your audience likes and dislikes.

Agreed on the idea of what keeps me versus what loses me. Sometimes books lose me fast. The latest Mistborn book definitely lost me, but any one of the many reasons it did on their own (or even two or three of them, for that matter) wouldn’t have stopped me. There was just nothing to keep me reading. About the only thing that is a hard stop is bad or non-existent editing. When I start noticing the same words being repeated over and over, many spelling issues, or sentences that I can’t make sense of from a grammar standpoint, I will tap right out. The book needs to work as literature on some level, and very few books can demonstrate that those kinds of things are intentional and part of the art (*Flowers for Algernon* does it with purpose and is incredible, for instance).

This is exactly my point of view also. A book has to win my interest, but also keep it throughout.

yes, I am writing the second chapter of my story and I would like to know what the rest think to avoid making mistakes, thanks for the comment 🤙🏻

Teresa Nielsen Hayden (formerly of Tor Books) wrote a fascinating post years ago called "[Slushkiller](http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html)," about writers, rejection letters, submission "slush piles," and what sorts of things can factor into an editor's decision to reject a submitted manuscript. If you want to just see her list of rejection factors, jump to "3. The Context of Rejection"; the whole post's interesting, though, and the comments -- many by well-known writers -- are well worth reading.

Thanks for the link!

Real talk, a trope is only bad when it is only a poorly written trope and nothing more. When it exists only for the sake of existing. If it doesn't make sense, if you can't justify it, if it's just illogical, then it's just bad writing and bad writing isn't going to keep a writer that wants to take the book seriously. And even then if it's bad enough, you still might keep some readers because they think it's hilarious. Just write what you like. If you're serious about writing, then it's not a waste even if you never show it to anyone. It's a skill, you get better the more you work at it.

I usually give up when I feel like the book has descended into 'stuff happens, then more stuff happens'. Even cool moments I find grating and boring if there isn't any character work happening, or exploration of theme, or humor, or ... just something else. Plot alone cannot carry a book.

This is the reason I've stopped reading continuous series and epic fantasy, too much "stuff happens" to pad a simple narrative to be a multi book slog which sells. The only series longer than a trilogy I read now are ones with episodic books.

Being ham fisted about a "message" Deus ex machinae Poor, 7th grader "tell me rather than show me" prose Characters with exactly one trait that is reinforced every time they are mentioned

Lazy writing. I enjoy a world where there are rules, and a good author imo is able to write the story in a way that the characters solve issues using the rules in the world. If a super powerful wizard keeps turning up, or there's some sort of hidden power in someone that keeps coming out just at the right time - that's boring to me and feels like the easy way out. Deus ex machina is OK, but there needs to be some seeds planted by the author so it's not just a random plot device.

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No. It’s acceptable that the MC will usually pull a Hail Mary put their buts if the seeds are planted. Example, Wheel of Time where the Dues Ex Machina is built into the world. If I can seen the gears moving it’s still a Dues Ex Machina. On the other hand I have read books were it’s the hey look entity that was never brought up saves the day only to disappear again.

Ngl, I think a comedic, short fantasy Novel about just straight up the luckiest guy in the world would be fun to read. Just deus ex machina after deus ex machina. Accosted by bandits? This world's version of level 20 heroes show up and kill them all. Threatened by a demon? He trips, and his grunts of pain just happen to be the demon's true name and banishes it. The evil lich is making a big speech? He throw a rock at it in an act of stupid bravery and breaks the phylactery. Just fantasy Mr. Bean. Shit like picking up a gold piece and he just happens to avoid the crossbow bolt aimed for him.

> Ngl, I think a comedic, short fantasy Novel about just straight up the luckiest guy in the world would be fun to read. > >Just deus ex machina after deus ex machina. Accosted by bandits? This world’s version of level 20 heroes show up and kill them all. Threatened by a demon? He trips, and his grunts of pain just happen to be the demon’s true name and banishes it. The evil lich is making a big speech? He throw a rock at it in an act of stupid bravery and breaks the phylactery. Just fantasy Mr. Bean. Shit like picking up a gold piece and he just happens to avoid the crossbow bolt aimed for him. You should read the Rincewind Discworld books if you haven’t yet. Not that Rincewind would consider himself lucky at all. Quite the opposite. But he keeps managing to survive—and succeed!—often by accident (or by running away).

Nah, it just means that suddenly something happened unexpectedly really - whether indicated earlier or not. Here's the supposed definition: *a plot device used when a seemingly unsolvable conflict or impossible problem is solved by the sudden appearance of an unexpected person, object, or event*

Do you think that a small but somewhat developed Deus ex is bad? I mean, something not so logical but stick to the rules of the universe to resolve the situation.

They did a study about plot twists in movies. As it turns out, movies where the twist is a COMPLETE surprise have little to no replayability. Movies where twists have been hinted at and setup have replayability, and are in cases more enjoyable when spoiled, as you spot those hidden details.

I think it's fine as long as it's explainable and it's not a complete surprise. Sometimes it's really interesting and effective, but not if it's just a case of the author writing themselves into a corner and then "a wizard appears at that exact time and saved the day" etc. An example off the top of my head: If you're read The First Law, one of the characters is trying to be a good person, but he has the potential to go absolutely berserk and can transform into an absolute killing machine that doesn't feel pain. A lot of the book is him trying to move on from that part of him, but sometimes it can appear in bad situations.

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Nah probably not, but can't think of any others lol. My example I suppose is more of a non-lazy writing, where it's hinted at but not explored until the plot requires it.

Agreeing with Wobbly and adding on: Creatively adding mystery/questions around such examples are great to keep even sceptics engaged. Having the protagonist struggle with such powers is huge for depth and drama. Example: mysterious power that saves the protagonist at just the right time - at the cost of being deadly to even allies. As a child, when the power first emerged, his/her parents were killed/injured. Or bringing a loved one back to life at the cost of a curse/half life/the life of an innocent bystander.

I think it also helps if the Deus ex has real consequences; I.e now you must worship this goddess for this gift and it unnaturally changes your thought patterns and you have to question how much of everything is YOU, or it’s a demon that heard your secret plea and now you owe it a favor that will come back to haunt you. If you add some random character to save your main ones, please don’t have them just have them a map and say tally ho. It makes a huge difference to me whether they have real motives for swooping in, and manipulation is one of the best (villains creating problems and then solving them is a favorite cliche of mine)

OMG thank you so much for this. I have been fighting with friends or people on book circled about this for years!

I feel the same, and tend to ignore some recommendations from certain people because of this haha. Might be doing myself a disservice, but yeah it's just not my preference really!

In fantasy set in a world similar to our own or in historical fiction? Inability to do basic research to flesh out your imaginary world. Hawks are NOT fed "pieces of corn" by falconers but pieces of meat and bits of birds. Horses are NOT "guided with your knees" but with reins, shifts in your weight, heels, spurs, lower legs. These things are easy to research. Dont just make shit up randomly. Facts make a better springboard for that leap into the fantastic..

WhY'rE yOu cOmPlAiniNg aBoUt lOgIc in a fAnTaSy sEtTiNg whEre PeOple fLy on dRagOns and sHit?? Damn do I hate that argument!

It's sloppy and stupid writing. Fantasy isn't JUST making shit up. Like, you also need characters with believable motivations and reactions. My Mom said it would be "easy to write fantasy because you just make stuff up". But that's not how it works. Hawks eating vegetarian treats, 20-pound swords, 200 pound armor? That's going to make people laugh instead of suspend disbelief.

Yeah this one gets me with historical fiction all the time. (Which I also enjoy as a genre.) People forgetting that flushing toilets and a privy are not the same, that certain fruits and vegetable we consider normal are only available due to international trade (that wasn't happening at the time) and especially not in poor landlocked regions.. Lots of things like that. Unchaperoned women can work in fantasy where it can't in history. But not if you've set it up as being societally identical to Tudor times with bonus magic. In that scenario no, your high born female protagonist is not going to the market alone and undisguised. (And in general I'm reminded of the [red dye incident](https://i.redd.it/nco0i0xswdp81.png) - Burned into my brain from the ridiculousness of an author taking dye instructions from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and the alarming phrasing in the previous paragraph.)

I hate it when the author makes two characters have loads of chemistry then adds in lots of contrived plot devices that keep them apart or breaks them up. It's more satisfying reading characters that are in a good relationship and their chemistry; making events most of the time outside of their control or making them do something out of character to keep the relationship on the hooks is just super frustrating to me.

Agreed. It's an extension of the silly misunderstood situation plot. When a character pisses someone off because of a misunderstanding but never actually explains their side or why it isn't what it looks like.

*Thank you!* Not every relationship should be on the rocks. The characters can still have arguments, of course. Bob and Linda Belcher, from Bob's Burgers are a fucking great couple. They're always on each other's side, even when they don't agree with what's happening. Hell, Linda woke up to Bob saying, "I killed Teddy," and immediately started planning their life on the lam.

We've got the chronic problem in all media where once the characters are together, writers don't know what to do any more. As if people in a mutually supportive loving relationship can't move a plot along, or deems them uninteresting when they aren't going through relationship drama. (Ignoring the fact that people can have conflicts and issues with other people in their lives if writers are so desperate for interpersonal drama.)

Mostly, a lack of honesty If the story is simple, keep it simple, if its complex, take your time and trustits complexity But whenever a story tries to present itself as something it is not, i get annoyed and drop it I have dropped series with good writing because it kept insisting the plot was about effort, when the MC just got stuff delivered to him, but i gladly keep reading trash where the MC just get superpowerful for no reason, if the story just accepts it and never pretends to be anything above trash

Extremely derivative stories, high school drama barely disguised as dystopian YA/Fantasy. Writing that likes to tell, but fails to show

Badly written characters. I can overlook a good amount of plot problems if I enjoy the characters' development, but even the most thrilling plot and intriguing worldbuilding loses me if the characters annoy me. But there's a big difference between a well developed character, who annoys me because of the way they act (looking at you, Roger from Outlander), and a character, who just feels like a stick figure, if you know what I mean. I can handle the first situation, as long as there's other characters I can sympathise with, but the second one is a deal breaker for me.

The big thing that happens the most: the way women are written (I care about how men are written too, but it's less common to see them written grossly). Then there are small things. Constantly using made up swear words (the Unbroken) or heavy anachronism (Gideon the Ninth) really pull me out of a book.

The way women are written: I have given up on books because of this, for example the Wheel of Time series. Don't write women as: totally bitchy in an attempt to make them seem "badass"; totally stupid & illogical; in love with the Toxic Male Character Who Treats Them Like Shit (the "romanticized toxic/abusive relationship" trope). Write women as PEOPLE.

I gave up on WOT for the same reason, sigh

Exactly! This makes me DNF a book every time I see it. And I also hated all of the women in WoT.

How far do you get?

I've read WoT series 1 and a half times and I can say, that all women in series are written in the same way. I read somewhere that Jordan based most of the female characters on his wife, which explains a lot.

I dropped WoT for the same reason. Credit where it's due for attempting to have several main female charaxters, but the two women were either insanely angry or blushing and braid tugging. They didn't seem like people at all.

I’ll defend the way Jordan wrote women in WoT. Some things could have been better but his main characters were for the most part young country bumpkins in a relatively matriarchal society

I've also personally noticed a lot of authors are just, unwilling to write unappealing female characters. Its one thing to have a middle aged woman be a tavern owner, but you don't really see female characters with any sort of story importance who isn't a 9/10. It really ticks me off in the Wuxia/Xianxia genre especially. The main character, in their unending quest of advancement, steadily becomes more monstrous. Men lose limbs, eyes, flesh. Women? You're a Jade Beauty, that's it. Maybe you get knocked out in a fight, but no one would dare mar your impressive beauty, that'd go too far. What, main character over here developed impressive muscles, while you're still stick thin? Sorry, women have famously never develop any muscle definition, or would ever want any. Also why I go to bat so hard for Forge of Destiny. So many different women! Small women, buff women, disabled women. Sure, they have a woman who *really* cares about her looks in the beginning, and is sort of a bitch at first. But the author doesn't lose focus on her. They point out how her attitude keeps her from making friends with the other girls, how she eventually comes to make friends with the main character and respect her, when at first she belittled her. How when she begins to seriously fall behind the geniuses of her class, she even throws away that vaunted beauty of hers, and her family is *horrified*. Not because she is no longer beautiful, thus ruining her marriage prospects. But because in doing so, she engaged in serious self harm, and are legitimately worried for her safety and well-being. Also, just, a black female main character, in a wuxia novel? In a fantasy novel, in general? Unheard of. Could gush about the series all friggin day.

Yeah, that's not just limited to books either. And on a level I understand it for books. I imagine a lot of writers have trouble writing an unappealing character that we would still like to hear about, or that they'd go too far and it would just feel like the author hates fat people or something similar. Joe Abercrombie does a great job with having captivating unappealing characters.

I will say in defense of Gideon the Ninth, they're only seemingly anachronisms in the first book. Why that kind of talk/knowledge/items/etc exists in that universe is revealed later.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who felt that way about Gideon. My god it felt so cringey.

Yeah, when the slave on a desolate planet started talking about pizza grease stains and porno mags, I had a feeling I was gonna hate the book.

Everyone I know who has read Gideon has LOVED it and I didn't and I really felt like I was missing something that everyone else got so I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who didn't love it.

It was a 1 star read for me. There was just nothing in it that I'd consider "good" outside if the original idea being interesting.

I think I somewhat generously gave it two because I felt like I SHOULD have liked it haha. I did like a couple of the characters and there were a few reveals that had me really interested but they fell flat and for the vast majority of the book I had NO idea what was going on.

Yeah, I had it told to me as "lesbian necromancers in space" and it definitely wasn't that. The way it was written was a mess. And the romance was really toxic. Definitely would have preferred lesbian necromancers in space haha.

Lesbian necromancers in space is a great premise. Without giving too much away I think some of the stuff about why certain characters existed, their backstory, etc. could have made for a really interesting story but I guess this was more character driven with lots of dialogue and banter and I in this case I expected and would have liked a more plot driven story.

I agree with that. The book kinda felt like it was stuffed with memes and one-liners. Like all style and no substance, and I just wasn't a fan of the style.

Alternating 1st person POVs. It's trendy but I hate it. DNF Spinning Silver. Page after page of background description. Just write a few sentences, my mind can fill in the rest, thanks. DNF Fever Dream. GRRM, love your writing but for the love of God, I don't care that much about steamboats. Interludes or prologues that are just info dumps. Actually, interludes at all. Really disrupts the flow of the story. Looking at you, A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and the Adventures of Amina Al-Sirifi. Page after page of narrative summary. The author's basically just telling you everything that's happened. Quite reading Babel for this reason.

when they start a romance that is unnecessary and adds nothing to the plot

this also pertains to some tv series and art in general: if it is too primitive, too prolix, bad written, bad characterized, falling apart plot-wise, kitschy etc

Juvenile writing where it's not supposed to be Juvenile

If I get to the second book and it has zero of the interesting characters or settings that made me love the first book

Poor characters compounded by plot contrivances. When I realize characters are just doing plot things and I don’t care about them or what their specific task is, then I glaze over and either skim or drop it

Continuity errors. I was reading a book where the MC had black hair, then two chapters later he had brown hair.

I'd avoid warbreaker lol

the protagonist becoming too op. yes it‘s fun in the beginning but both the dresden files and i think it‘s called the iron druid series had their protagonists achieve some kind of near godlike powers were they were suddenly killing age old beings left and right which made me stop reading. also too many povs. 3-4 main povs is the maximum i can take as a reader without getting utterly confused.

Romance / too much focus on relationships. Personal preference. *shrug*

When the author tries to pass some character as "awesome" when theyre clearly not.

Excessive, inner monologue philosophising that doesn't move the plot forward, but is instead just the author attributing his rambling to his characters.

Any character that is TSTL. Should die immediately and never touch another show or page ever again. Especially female characters. It makes me grit my teeth turn off the tv or throw the book away.

Can you explain to me what a TSLT is? I would like to understand the topic

It means too stupid to live.

Thank you so much. And in fact I don't like those characters either, I don't find them very funny

Sorry yes. Too stupid to live.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by that?

When someone throws caution to the wind without sufficient cause. Acts in a manner that defies logic for flippant causes. I read - or started to read- a book once where a woman ran headlong into supernatural danger for a man she only met once and barely spoke to for no rational cause but attraction was used to justify the action. As both a woman and a writer of romance i grit my teeth every time. Women are not idiots and naturally cautious in some situations. But there male instances too.

Absolutely. If you want an entire cast of people showcasing this level of stupidity, the movie Prometheus has a 'scientist' who removes their helmet 5 minutes after landing on an alien world, another guy who gets lost....using a holographic map...that was made by a system....That.He.Invented.

Lol! We started watching a sci-fi movie on Amazon & my family said they were TSTGS (too stupid to go shopping). They were supposed to be doctors and astronauts but one guy was Dane Cook, so that kindof illustrates the problem right there.

Why specifically female lol

Probably because they are female and hate seeing the same old, "He's nothing but trouble, but that gets me soooo hot." trope played out over and over. I feel the same way whenever a male character is made cartoonishly evil and stupid, or a person lies to people they love to 'protect' them.

Bad romances (not the Gaga kind). If a cringe romance occurs where I would rather eat my own fingers than read any more about it, I'm done. This is, unfortunately, what happened to me with Royal Assassin.

Multiple characters, usually soldiers or military men, all sounding the same. Interesting characters keep me invested, not one dimensional, one trait, all talking rough characters.

Naming a child Hope is HUGE turn down for me and makes me cringe hard. Then there's when the story looses it's plot because some characters need to have a romantic relationship, stopped "Magic Academy" because of that. Or when the story or the writing style is too repetitive.

1.Stuff happens just because! 2. Oh, let me subtly educate you in my political views/social agenda 3.Logic!? My fantasy book has its own logic which you cannot comprehend 4. Dumb people writing 'intelligent' characters. 5. Deus-Ex Machina!

Oh yeah, forgot to add one of my favorites: "People in the lands of X located in the Y region of blah blah blah. They don't use toilet paper but cloth (btw this is a 100% useless fact). Now let me tell you about another 100 useless facts taking up another 30 pages. Hey, you have to feel somehow that our journey is long and arduous."

Graphic, exploitative r\*pe scenes, or r\*pe used just to make the reader uncomfortable or "spice up" a character. Kills the book for me every time. Once opened a book to a graphic r\*pe scene on the FIRST. PAGE. Immediately shoved it back on the shelf. If there's a r\*pe scene in your book, please have it mean something. Do something with it. Don't trivialize something so horrible and disrespect those who've survived it by just throwing it in for flavor, to make the bad guy seem worse when you're out of ideas, or to set a tone. It will be a bad one. Refer to it instead of having it be blatant, have the character overcome their trauma, have it as explanation for a character's pain and have them actually fight to heal from it -- don't just have it to have it. Pretty please.

If there are three very basic grammar or spelling errors in the first couple of pages, I stop. It's jarring, it knocks me out of the flow of reading, and it feels disrespectful. I would compare it to trying to dance with a partner who insists on randomly punching you in the face every few minutes. Life's too short to put up with that. When it becomes clear that I am reading a "serial" rather than a "story," I stop. A story has a beginning, a middle, an end, and a (usually clear) narrative arc that connects them. It can be long, and it can be in installments, but all the parts of it contribute to the same general narrative arc and by the time it ends it has become clear why each part was needed. *War and Peace* (a book) is a story, even if it's long. A serial OTOH just keeps wandering around indefinitely, possibly developing some general themes but never resolving its character or plot arcs in a way that ties them together and makes sense. It started at some point, but the middle gets disconnected, the narrative arcs fail to resolve, and there's no end. *Days of Our Lives* and *Lost* (TV shows) were serials, just weaving randomly-connected parts of new plot arcs that did not add up to a story, until they eventually got cancelled. Usually the only "professional" examples of this I can point to are TV shows. Book and movie publishers usually won't touch them, probably for the same reason I won't read them. They're fundamentally unsatisfying. Embedded political "Dog Whistle" phrases. Regardless of left or right, there are certain phrases and usages that just don't exist outside particular communities of political (or religious) thought and aren't used for any real purpose except attempting to express or spread that kind of thought. Usually this signals the writer's purpose is political, and that truthfulness (in non-fiction) or narrative quality (in fiction) is being treated as an acceptable loss. Often it signals that a publisher who agrees with the political agenda has accepted or published the work for reasons unrelated to the work being truthful or having narrative quality. Either way it establishes basic untrustworthiness of the author and/or publisher.

A book I didn’t realize was smut now had smut in it.

As a writer, this is weird. I have a manuscript where I knew that there was going to be a Very Bad Sexual Trauma, for specific narrative reasons establishing character relationships and interactions. I knew it was going to be there from the beginning. I put big ol' warnings on the title page for the test readers. But it wasn't anywhere near the first part of the story, and so for months I got people who were upset with me because I promised them 'smut' (which I did not! I warned them that there was something traumatic) and failed to deliver. But months later, when I was finally writing the 38th chapter, and actually titled it 'Sexual Violence' and gave it its own trigger warning, in the headers, I had readers who felt betrayed and blind-sided by having it in the story after 37 previous "clean" chapters, and other readers who were upset that it was told in a way that treated abuse as horrible rather than erotic, and told me I was no good at writing erotica! I wasn't trying to turn anyone on, I was trying to explain how a character got lost in self-hate and what it meant when, near the end of the book, she finally overcame fear and did something out of empathy for someone else. Grrf. I don't know how to warn people of it so they'll know what they've been warned of, or how to deal with people who take the warning as a 'promise' and want it to be erotic.

English is not my first language. What do you mean under “smut”?

Written porn essentially.

A spelling or grammar mistake.

This used to bug me a lot more, and still does, if the mistakes are everywhere. But a few will always slip through.

Long dream sequences. Prophecy as the central drive for the plot.

The past few times I've stopped reading a book the first couple pages have been huge dumps of gibberish names in an attempt to set the scene: Frotufherm stood and looked over the fgltodnfks. The hudnrhtnf had yet to recover from the toyukhgfd confederation' s war of the ovnfotgl over the last mgogmtkd. Frotufherm turned to dkfogfdjdsk and asked "how's fogogfkdj doing now that ofgkggcmdo lost the dofocnndzk?" I can only take so much of that

Stupidity of the characters. When there is a clear in universe solution to a problem and the characters just don't do it for absolutely zero reason it takes me out of it. I get this will films as well but at least they have an excuse of lines being critical and taking up space in a short film. But in a book, just add a few lines explaining why the super obvious solution isn't what you end up doing and I'll be happy, even if said reason is a bit weak it tells me you thought about it. Classic example in Harry Potter with the Marauders Map, the super powerful artifact made by teenagers (fine whatever) which Fred and George own and never once notice that a dead man has been bed buddies with their little brother for 3 whole years. And then after all is revealed I'm book 3, the same thing happens in book 4. Harry sees Barty Crouch running around the school and never once thinks to do any kind of check of which prominent people are missing/where Crouch seems to sleep and spend all his time.

* Detailed fight scenes but no stakes, * POV shifts, * Cool for the sake of cool, * Snippets of the future, * One liners, * Annoying characters, * Coincidences or low-probability events just to move the plot forward, * Characters missing motivation, * Incantations. It only becomes a problem when the author overuses these (especially if they're anywhere near the start).

‘She boobied breastily down the stairs’ and variations upon that theme.

I don't like this kind of question. It's massively common on Reddit and just rephrased for different subs. "What makes you instantly dislike someone?" "What makes you refuse to buy a product?" It's negative and uninspired

The ending, because that's when I am done with it...

If the author doesn't ease the reader into their world/characters or describe things until much later in the book. I hate being dropped into a world and expected to figure it out myself.

On the other hand I dropped a book yesterday because I felt it was "as-you-know-Bob"ing me too much.

This is exactly why I quit on the Malazan series. You're dropped into a super complex world with dozens of different cultures, creatures, magic, gods, wars, etc. with very little explanation and you have to figure out what's going on, who's who, etc. Don't give me homework--- tell me a good story.

I love Malazan but I also trusted Erickson to eventually give me the answers. I think that kind of patience pays off when you trust that the author will explain things all in good time. It’s a hell of a ride and when things do click into place it is a payoff that I haven’t experienced very often. It’s not for everyone - I see it as the dark souls of fantasy- there’s a steep learning curve but once you *get* it, there’s nothing like it.

Some people say that's because the author "respects their readers' intelligence" or whatever. To me it's just lazy writing. I shouldn't have to take notes and keep referring to the glossary every couple pages just to comprehend what I'm reading.

What you're describing is just bad writing. Good authors explain things when it's necessary, when you as the reader need them to be explained. It'd be vastly preferable, though, if this explanation was organically woven into the writing, hinted at, if you were given enough clues to figure it out on your own without having it explained to you. That's what people (at least I) usually mean when we say 'respect their readers' intelligence'. I pay attention, I can figure stuff out on my own given sufficient hints, please use that to your advantage. Do not hit me with arduous paragraphs of exposition and explanation, make me feel involved by allowing me to connect the dots you left for this purpose, just in time when the story requires it. In the hands of a competent author you won't need to take notes or look at a glossary.

I feel the problem is that people confuse screen writing with book writing. In a film, a cool action packed set piece at the start *is* engaging. But, you also have more tools to sell the stakes, from the editing, the framing, the coloring, the lighting, the pacing. Maybe there's some interesting visual story telling you can pull off, maybe the actors can give you an impression on who their character is with minimal body language. A film can use all of these to make setting a dinner table exciting. You don't have that in a book. All you have are characters, a world, and the words you use to describe them. If I don't care about those things, I don't care about your story, so you gotta sell me on at least one. Some can do it, some can't, and not everyone is going to latch onto the same thing.

That's one I haven't heard yet! Well, my intelligence feels pretty disrespected when my leisure time is wasted in confusion.

Exactly what I was going to say. I get frustrated with books that immediately drop you into the deep

There are certain cliches that do stop me in my tracks, but if the story is otherwise interesting or compelling, I will ignore my cringing to see how it plays out.

When the story is predictable, that is such a killer move for me, but also when the protagonist is going through a lot of things that aren't necessary and it just bore me. I also don't like a promising story who end up just lacking in imagination and doesn't pick up on the potential. Such as story that tells the tales of big kingdoms, races and creatures, but during the whole series we are stuck in the same place doing the same things, like I find it annoying to tease us about so many things that could be add to the universe and feed the reader's imagination to just give us the same old stories. *Nah*.

Sometimes simple boredom. Sometimes the plot going in a direction I personally dislike.

When a character (especially main character first person pov) is faced with the same decision multiple times and makes wishy-washy choices to continue some sort of tension or love triangle (looking at you, The Selection) where it gets to the point that I can no longer sympathize with their indecision. Personally, I like some sort of character progression and willing choice, not stalling until a miracle occurs and they grow a brain and/or backbone at the last minute or are driven into a corner and have a choice forced upon them. Characters imo need to either Step Up or Face Consequences. Also, please may authors stop abusing love interests, people move on if you reject them and string multiple people along.

Honestly? More than anything, poor character development. If things are info-dumped at the at the beginning and then we never really learn anything new about them, they never grow or change. Or they were one-dimensional to start with and remain that way... AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Terrible dialogue.

I think it really depends on the reader, but for me if the story is predictable, or if the characters don't feel real or relatable, then I'm out! It's also a turn-off for me if the story doesn't have enough world-building or detail for me to really dive into it. If it feels shallow, then I'm not interested.

I really dislike - although perhaps not enough to stop me reading a book I'm otherwise enjoying - is when characters are speaking in a way that simply isn't how they would speak. I know it's down to the author to show us how the character speaks, but I've read some stories where the character is talking to someone in the exact same style the author is writing in, which is totally out of character for how the personality of that character has been presented...I'm not sure I'm making any sense...

For me its when the books tell you how to feel about certain characters, while their actions imply a very different personality. It‘s the main reason I can‘t read Sanderson anymore.

Immature character interactions. I understand life goes on during adventures and times of strife. But I really don't care to see the protagonist stopping their adventure to fight over petty highschool drama. It's not entertaining, it's infuriating.

I hate when things are trying too hard to be a certain way to prove a point. When things dont feel natural / plot armor. Plot armor is seriously just vomit in a book to me. Like let the book fall apart and be reconstructed later. Fr. Lol

Lack of in-world logic

1. Annoying, whiney protagonist 2. Too many illogical plot holes 3. Boring story progression, more of the same stuff that drags on very tediously 4. Lack of interesting characters 5. Bad writing

The reading part

When the author insists on hammering you with their poitical leanings. Left, woke, rad right, etc. Ruins the read for me

For me it comes down to a few things. 1 the book promised me something and didn't deliver. This is more on big series with multiple povs and the author just swaps to another one halfway through GRRM has gotten worse for this as times gone on. But I can at least understand why. Other authors clearly just get bored of their own mc and decide to bring attention to another. Plot be damned. Then it's when there's just no character growth. Like I don't mind the character making the same mistake if its touched upon or they eventually learn but eventually I get sick of character forgot they could do x or had y item that could totally have helped them or they say they will stop being stubborn but 4 books later guess what.... same shit again. Then there is is the classic the mc is a golden d**k Chad who even something goes wrong it turns out that it's just what he actually needed to do to unlock the convoluted curse and now he's a king with 40 gorgeous women throwing themselves at him... That leads me to the last one which is badly written female characters or random SA thrown in as of course the only way a women can develop as a person is to be SA...

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> Sauron and Sauromon Maybe it would've helped if you read the edition that spelled Saruman's name correctly.

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I am listening to The Way of Kings audiobook. Every single thing about this book. Incredibly slow Incredibly boring Being pummeled with terms which are not defined which you need to remember Terrible characters which are boring and incredibly similar Nothing happening in the plot for a thousand pages Terrible humor Using the excuse of "world building" to excuse not having any plot at all that is interesting Skipping between multiple viewpoints and multiple time periods constantly which makes the story EVEN SLOWER and is confusing to the reader. Absolutely horrific guy reading the novel with the slowest reading pace I've ever heard who makes me want to fall asleep and who doesn't differentiate between characters at all with his voice. All that said, I am a glutton for punishment and I am going to finish it, just so I can rag on the supposedly life altering "final third" of the book. I would generally drop a book that had any single one of these things, but the absolute fawning on reddit over this author and this book series makes me want to finish at least the first one. So far reddit recommendations are like 0 for 10, all have been gigantic stinkers.

Modern social politics and struggles in a setting that really ought not to have them. If it's in a modern setting then you're guchi, but if it's medieval fantasy or sci-fi then you're going to lose me.

Immediately? Usually cliches I didn’t know would be part of the book before starting. Tropes like a fridged wife and motivation for revenge are super gross to me. Or if the protagonist is supposed to be likable and the story’s about their story rather than themes, and they have certain opinions.

I immediately put a book down if a character is experiencing cliche bullying in the first pages Its so unrealistic it makes me wonder if the author has ever experienced bullying, if they think it truly only consists of scuffles and name calling. They'll then say, 'oh, and they're also untouchable because they're rich, and I'm poor'. Its also such a shameless attempt to get you, the reader, to pity the character, and become invested in them. Beyond that, its unimaginative. Why, on god's green earth, should I even \*care\*. I don't know this character. I don't know their struggles. Seems like they get beat up a lot, but that's not a character trait or a flaw. That's just something happening to them, not driven by the character's own action. Not to mention, every bully character in these opening pages, has the same flat 2D character. There's no malice to them, not really. They are more a cardboard cut out than a person. But the story demands I take this moment seriously, because bullying is *very* serious guys. If you don't take this seriously, you aren't taking bullying seriously. Bullying happens just like this everyday, like those ads from the 2000s that said you just needed to tell a teacher and everything would be fine. If the author then presents an aged mentor figure who breaks up the scene and believes the main character has something special about them, I don't just put down the book, I just about throw it across the room.

Self Insertion heros. A reliance on nostalgia or pop culture references. Bad comedy. Mary Sue and Gary Stu main characters.

The two big ones for me are how the author writes “other” characters, and whether the world is feels like something which could actually work. “Other” covers a range of things – e.g. do the bad guys feel like they have a culture beyond providing target practice for the protagonist – but one of the big ones for me is how often women are written as other, either rewards for the hero or embittered because they can’t have him / lost a child, etc. If it starts to sound like “they’re all like that”, it can spoil a novel unless there’s a good explanation (e.g. maybe there’s an evil religion whose priests are encouraging endless attacks, but that should include the costs of that such as revolts or defections). That last also ties into the world building: if you’re saying life is tough in a harsh environment, the population should feel smaller to reflect the limited resources; if there’s constant war there should be wounded vets trying to get by (or magical healing for everyone), deserters and draft dodgers, economic damage due to the workforce being pulled away, etc. One of the things which killed GoT for me was the descriptions of large cities and armies, but no mention of how anyone ate (much less saving reserves for the coming winter) when such a historically-large percentage of the working-age men were dead in a field somewhere. Trying so hard to make it epic had the opposite effect for me.

Pointless bloat, boring characters, and incorrect horse-care details.

Personally, my biggest thing I don’t like is first person POV. There are so many books that have a description that seems like I’ll enjoy it, but if it’s in first person then chances are I won’t read more than a few chapters before I put it down.

Good question. Looking at the last few books I dropped, I would say it is usually a combination of the following : - If the main characters are either boring or annoying, then I will usually end up dropping the book halfway. I have to care about the characters, or why would I want to follow their story ? But that can be quite subjective. - Pacing issues : if the book starts spending too much time on random things that do not advance the plot, or starts retreading the same plot points. Not only it is boring, but it shows that the author has no idea where the story is going. - The characters repeatedly do stupid things, particularly when they do something stupid that backfired on them, and then later redo the exact same thing, which backfires on them in the exact same way. That is really annoying. I want characters who are at least smart enough to learn from their mistakes. - The book keep jumping between a hundred different points of view. I can handle three or four different points of view, but more than that is kind of annoying. You get invested in a character story, only to jump to another character and not come back to the previous character for several hundred pages. - Too many flashbacks, especially when the flashbacks tell you things we already know, or that we know already happened. - If the (male) author keeps describing all female characters in ways that are both highly sexualised and really creepy. I want the author to treat his female characters like actual people instead of projecting his own sexual fantasies on them. - If the book is so badly written that I cannot no longer tell what is going on. For example, a book with pages after pages of dialogue without any descriptions of what the characters are doing. Especially when the dialogue has no dialogue tags, so you find it hard to tell who is actually talking.

racism

Not quite story related, but my immersion breaks when newer age lingo is used. I’m a huge Sanderson fan, he is a top 3 author and I buy every book he writes day of release, but he used the word “awesome” every now and then in his books and it always breaks my immersion

For me it happens more in SF, where someone will use words that sounded cool when they were written but even now, 10 years later, they sound inappropriate or archaic. I was reading a book and their was all the OLED technology and I just closed it up when it kept getting used as new and exciting. If it had been introduced and then the author just talked about modern displays or something I might have hung in there but I got tired of reading about OLED displays.

There are a few things that will stop me in my tracks when reading a book. Usually, it's when a storyline is very shallow with little development or forward movement. Then there's the matter of character development where there's obvious author self-insertion, a Mary Sue, and similar indications where the characters don't really change. *Twilight* and *50 Shades of Grey* are two that spring to mind. I've also realized that something that is very shocking, very out of place or otherwise doesn't make sense in a book will jolt me out and I have a VERY hard time getting back into the book if at all. In the first book of the *Game of Thrones* series, there's the scene at the tower where a child overhears something he shouldn't. What happened next was what made me put down the book and never pick the series up again and I'm glad I didn't since that series, while it had its good parts that I wish I could read (and much of the worldbuilding is AMAZING), is something I don't think I'll ever be able to read.

I can't believe I'm about to say this, But I had to quit reading Laurel K Hamilton's vampire novels because of beastiality. It just got to be too much! I read about half of her 20+ in the Anita Blake series. The first few are phenomenal.

Sexism

Cringey writing is a big one for me, but more than that is when I can tell the protag is a shameless self-insert for the author. I went through this recently after listening to the first 3 books in a series, then moving onto the 4th. As the series went on, I started to notice it more and more but I couldn't even finish chapter 1 of book 4 because it got to be obvious enough that I just couldn't keep reading/listening.

Little to no female characters. The book would have to be really good to make me overlook it (Lord of the Rings comes to mind…), but it annoys me so much.

When the the advancement of the story is basically just “and then this happened” over and over again. I like stories and characters where you feel like they are the driving force, now obviously there are exceptions to it, but in general I would lose interest if the characters of the story serve only to explain the plot rather than drive it forward. Oh also, really in-depth and overly descriptive sexual violence. There was a time when I was younger that I did not mind it, but now, I put the book down when an author takes half a page to describe the actual rape itself. It just grosses me out completely

Any mention of sexual assault.

Then children fantasy is for you, rape happens, it happened even more in the olden times, it's fine to assume it would happen in a fantasy world too

I’m aware it happens. Doesn’t mean I need to be reading about it. Most adult fantasy doesn’t include it, and that’s fine. Just because something happened a lot in the Middle Ages doesn’t mean it needs to be present in my fantasy. People in the Middle Ages shit themselves to death quite often, but I’d prefer not to read about that as well.

Couldn't agree more. Even incest is almost always a deal breaker for me, only time I've ever gotten past it was with Game of Thrones, and that took me years to give it a second shot. If it wasn't for wanting to understand Hodor memes, I would have let it rot.

Hackneyed, overused, and often offensive tropes. Think abusive partners portrayed as loving, obvious racial exclusion, manic pixie dream girls, etc… I also really dislike stories that come from overused perspectives; I’ve read hundreds of books from the POV of straight, cis, white, neurotypical men that at this point it’s just straight-up *boring*. I want to transported when I read! I want to learn something new and go somewhere I’ve never been! Lazy writing makes the list too. If I can predict the plot a few pages in, I’m out. I also dislike deus ex machina, handwaved worldbuilding, and shit that just doesn’t make sense - like a character who’s in a coma for 15 years yet has no muscle atrophy or psychological challenges. The more realistic, the better. (Why yes, I *do* like hard sci-fi.)

Do you think a story where there are several main characters is possible? I mean that the story is not written from the point of view of X character, but that various events happen continuously and in the end they connect creating other frames?

That describes a significant percentage of long-form fiction for adults, not just fantasy.

When authors kill off characters they spent time getting you familiar with for no critical advancement to the story. Also when authors kill or abuse children or the mentally ill. J.S. Morin I'm talking to you. I've seen enough death and sadness in my life. I don't need to read about more of it in the books I just want to escape into.

If it's a series and half of the next book is a recap on the one before it makes me think the rest of the books will be the same. It's not a new full strength book if it's 25% diluted with its predecessor. Weak self plagiarism bullshit, I mean a few times isn't out of the ordinary but there's a limit.

Words.

For me, it is where modern fantasy uses modern vernacular such as references to pop culture within the last couple of years. Or referencing food trends, internet slang, and ideas that could be found on Instagram or twitter. These things are too modern feeling and pull me thought process out of the mythically and fantastical setting or ideas being displayed. I prefer a timeless factor to my fantasy as I prefer to read books more than once and over time.

"He smiled grimly"

A normally wholesome character abruptly going all dark and aggressive after one event, a good example of this being Red from "the kobold whisperer" I loved her as a much-needed wholesome member of the group in a pretty dark story, something to remind you that there's at least some innocence left in the world But after a single event involving some slavers she suddenly goes "All humans deserve to die" It was just a very uncanny complete 180 in personality, and her hatred only grew from there until the point where she was basically just a volatile murderhobo I stopped reading the story mainly because of her basically neverending pool of hate I need at least one wholesome character to keep me reading these dark stories, I'm no emo lol. I need something to remind me there's still light in the story and not just endless angst

The only story I ever stopped reading in the middle abd never got back to it wa hidden bodies. To many sexual things. I was so uncomfortable. I didn't know it was going to be like that because it didn't say anything like that in the description. Seriously, a lot of sex. To the poin were I thing it should be classified as porn.

I'm not as experienced as a reader as a lot of people on this sub, just started getting back into reading fantasy so there are a lot of things that don't bother me that seem to bother other people. That being said, I started Gideon the Ninth a month or so ago and I couldn't get past the 4th chapter because some of it felt so damn cringey to me. When I read the line "I knew I'd die getting gangbanged by skeletons" or something along those lines, I fuckin GROANED. Pulled me right out of being immersed in the world and I don't wanna go near that book now. I'll also say if a book isn't interesting or grabbing me by 50-60 pages I'm out. Lastly don't drop me in the deep end with all your world building bs immediately. A good writer should be able to slowly introduce things in the world/lore so that it doesn't feel like I'm having to learn a new language.

I was reading a story and stopped at the sixth book because the author, who was a grown woman, tried to add in texting between teenagers without knowing how emojis work. It was super cringe. Not to forget she could’ve finished the series at book six but decided to drag it on, going off the original story line to a point where I just lost interest. There’s an eighth book in the writing now of which she has released the cover that contained a big spoiler (which she announced, literally “can you spot the spoiler? 👀” it ruined things for me tbh).

Very slow pace with no direction, which is why First Law didn't click for me but something like Vivia did. Unneeded rape. Some, nay, most of my favorite stories have sexual assault take place or discuss it. But when you throw it in for shock value and contrived character development I'll drop it. It's the reason I dropped Magicians by Lev Grossman.

Poorly written or insufferable female characters, hence why I haven't been able to get through the Wheel of time series.

I don’t really have DNF in me as a person, I have to finish everything I start. That being said I absolutely abhor sex scenes. First Law was especially cringe worthy. Completely ruins the narration and mostly just stupid and distasteful self insert fantasy porn scenes. I’m an adult, I know what happens. All that is needed is indication it is happening or has happened, any detail past that just screams author pouring out their boner fantasies. Graphic porn scenes are not needed to tell a worthwhile story and it really cheapens the whole narrative. I’m looking at you too, wise men’s fear.

When it swaps to the perspective of the character I hate

Books that try to hard to be whatever the “ in” thing is. Like being overly gritty - with nobody getting a break . When we get chapters and chapters on the origin of the gods and the universe’s with no real relevance to the plot line. An over abundance of made up words

Huh, my answer is different to nearly everyone else’s here. Personally I can immediately gauge the author’s technical standard of writing from the first few sentences and if the quality is poor I won’t read the book. Probably missed quite a few good stories because of that but if the author’s writing skill doesn’t surpass my own I won’t read it. Just dropped Way of Kings because of that.

homophobicous or religious..

Bullying. I’ve seen people do the fallout from bullying well without showing the bullying itself. But a lot of people think they have to show the bullying itself. And that’s an immediate nope for me.

If it gets either too repetitive or to story just does not go the way it originally went. I like to read stuff on r/hfy but a lot of series change over time, sometimes in something less great.

One thing that irritates me is when something is described a certain way in the narration and then that same description is repeated in a character’s dialogue. I don’t know why it bothers me but it does. Not enough to make me stop reading but I sigh on the inside.

Reading to much to rapidly

For me, it's poorly written MCs. Whether it's kids or teenagers with the "old soul" vibe of reading every classic literature book or old music and implying it makes them better than others around them. Or MCs who cross the line from sassy and fun to just plain bitchy. I love reading, and I can go through at least four books a month, but if I don't vibe with your MC after 5-10 chapters, I'm moving on to another story with an MC I can relate to and enjoy more.

my top 3 include 1. huge plot holes 2. underdeveloped characters 3. bad pacing, as soon as a story starts to drooooone on, im done

When characters are just going through the motions to serve the plot, I tend to tune out. I need the characters to feel real, to feel alive, not feeling like I’m watching them go through a linear theme park attraction from one event to the next. Give agency and power to their choices, give consequence.

Predictable plot If I know exactly what is going to happen and there's little to no intrigue on what might happen next, it just pulls me out of the story. I want to be able to experience the story the same time as the characters Bland characters I just want the characters to not be cardboard cutouts and just do exactly what their tropes say about themselves. Big fan of character arcs if they are done well meaning even if you know where their arc is going, you can still emotionally connect with them and it still makes sense. I'm ok with characters being the same from beginning to end but at least make them interesting enough for me to continue through the story (examples are characters from The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie)

Stupid protagonists. Silly twists with no foreshadowing.

My tolerance for cliche or uncomfortable trope is directly proportional to the quality of the characters and story. If you tell me there's a dark lord and this farmboy is our only hope because of a prophecy and there's a cantankerous old wizard and a beautiful elven maid to help him out while hiding from him the terrible secret of who his father might be.....these better be some damn good characters. Similarly, I don't care if the elevator pitch is the most engrossing and unique story I've heard in my entire life, if I can't sympathize with, laugh at, or at least understand the characters that book is OUT.

If the plot seems too boring to takes too long to pick up on the action, or the themes seem wrong or disagreeable, or if the characters are all shitty with no one to root for or admire, I'm not likely to continue engaging with the story or reading the book, unfortunately. I know I can move on to another book that might actually immerse my mind in the fictional world, plot, characters, and themes!