Pardon Me, But We’re No Longer in High School 37

I am having the hardest time figuring something out. You know me, I analyze stuff to death, not the least of which are my own reactions.

First book:

I started reading this book and in the first chapter, the protagonist mentally ridicules a secondary character for his appearance. I was immediately turned off.

Second book:

In the next book I started, the protagonist mentally ridicules a fat woman, saying that her stomach looked like a forward facing butt. I was immediately turned off.

I don’t like characters who ridicule other people for their appearance. It makes them shallow and petty in my eyes, and I have to like the characters in a book.

I’m sure my reaction has something to do with being fat as a teenager, and having to watch my weight all my life. I’m sure it has something to do with wearing thick glasses, braces (before they were cool), and having acne before Proactive. Plus, my hair was always oily. I was a mess. I was insecure, low on self-esteem, and wanted to live in a subterranean tunnel rather than actually talk to anyone. (I’ve since blossomed. Ahem.)

But back to the books. I started thinking about authentic characters. I want my characters to be real people. I don’t want them to be perfect. Don’t all real people make fun of people because of their appearance?

Do we?

If you’re wearing a beanie made of foil, and chanting, “The aliens are almost here!” I might wonder at your mental stability. I’m not going to make fun of you because you have a goatee and I don’t like goatees or that inch of hair below your lip. (Soul patch?) Doing so strikes me as being very high school and immature.

Although, there is a woman on one of the reality repo shows who is very overweight. She also sports numerous tattoos. But the crowning glory is the piercing in her bottom lip from which a ribbon hangs. She almost tempts me to say something.

However, if a character in one of my books is cruel, it’s almost always the antagonist.

That’s where we come back to the beginning.

It’s one thing for a character to look at someone and be startled by his appearance, or make a comment that “she’d never seen anyone quite like him.” It’s another thing for that character to be so cutting in her mental ruminations as to be cruel.

The reviewers of the first book never seemed to think that the heroine was out of line with her thoughts. The second book is touted as “clever, witty, and downright hilarious.”

So, tell me what you think.

• Does it turn you off when a character thinks ill of someone else because of their appearance?
• Do you think it’s okay to criticize people for their appearance?
• Do you have to like the protagonist in books like I do?

Fool Me Once, Shame on You. Twice? 26

Parts of this post were originally written in March, 2010, but I’ve revised my thinking a bit. (A friend once asked me if every opinion I had was up for review. The answer? Yes. As I learn more, or think about something in greater depth, I often change what I think.)

~~~~

If I want to read a book on macrame, I’ll buy a book on macrame. If I want to read a suspense, I’ll select a suspense. It’s a little disconcerting to be reading a suspense and have the heroine abruptly announce that, as a Christian, she has a higher purpose, one that most non-Christians wouldn’t understand.

It’s like being hit upside the head with a day old halibut.

I went to the publisher page and realized that I’d downloaded a book labeled Christian fiction.

So, what’s the only recourse in this instance? From now on, look at the publisher before I download a book.

What happens, though, when you buy a thriller, and it turns out to have a really horrible scene of animal cruelty in it? Or you buy a romantic suspense and it turns out to be a blood and gore fest?

How can publishers/authors label books correctly? Is it always a gamble? Frankly, I’m beginning to think so, because gore, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.  Perhaps a book by a Christian publisher is the same way. One book might be preachy, while another is delightful and soul-warming. It’s all a matter of personal preference.

Sometimes, a free chapter will give you a clue about the book, but not always. Maybe recommendations from friends count most. Or maybe just being familiar with an author is a better answer.

How about you? Do you ever get one thing, when you thought it was something else entirely? How do you find books that are true to their descriptions?

In Case You’re Not on Facebook – My Wicked Fantasy Sale 4

Avon is doing a March Madness sale, choosing random books that begin with M. Of course, My Wicked Fantasy is one of them.

From now until 4/2, the ebook is on sale for $1.99.

Here are the links (and, I understand, it’s available on Sony, too):

Here’s the Kindle link if you’re interested.

And the B&N link