Musing Mondays is a book meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading, and it basically just poses some insightful question about your reading style... today's question is:
Do you care if the book’s storyline is unrealistic? Will you keep reading, or will you set the book aside?
This depends. I love fantasy/paranormal/supernatural plots just as much as I like YA that takes place in a contemporary, believable setting. As long as the characters are acting in a realistic way (their actions make sense based on how the author has developed their personalities) and events take place in a logical way, then I will keep reading the book. What I probably could not stand is if a character started acting completely contrary to how they've been portrayed, or if events get so ridiculously unbelievable that I can't even take the story seriously anymore.
Another thing I will add that really bothers me is when I am reading an historical fiction about events that really did take place in the past but the author has changed everything around and sort of "tampered" with history to create their own twist on what happened. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with creating a new story out of past events, but personally, as a history major and history-obsessed nerd, I just can't stand it, and will most likely stop reading a book if it starts saying a bunch of stuff that runs contrary to what really happened-- I feel like it isn't doing history justice. (One major example would be The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory- I just couldn't like this book because I know that half the stuff it covers never could have taken place.) Maybe because these kinds of historical fictions deal with real people, I think we owe it to them to portray them as they really were and not make things up, because it warps people's perceptions of who they were in real life.
That's just my opinion! How about you? Do you mind reading an unbelievable story?
I would have to agree with everything you said. I don't usually like to leave a book unread but if the situation is completely contradicting how the character is portrayed then I just get annoyed and have to quit.
ReplyDeleteI have been lucky enough to not come across this that much.
Neri,
ReplyDeleteThe one book that stands out in my head right now that I just could not get into because of unbelievable characters was You by Charles Benoit. I did a review on this book, and while it did have some really good aspects to it and quite a few people loved this book, I couldn't get over some of the characters- they were too over-the-top, and that was a major turn-off for me. I finished the book but it definitely was not a favorite!
Thanks for the comment :)
I completely agree with you about the characters! it's a major flaw to me, sometimes I stop reading cause it ruins the book.
ReplyDeleteHere's my answer: http://readingromances.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/mondays-events-ii/
I agree. It depends!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think, whatever the genre, it is important that people act in a way that seems real. Maybe human nature is the constant.
For me the storyline can be completely unbelieveable as long as the characters stay true to it. Consistancy is the key to keeping me reading!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you about historical fiction. I generally have no problem when the book doesn't deal with real people, but when you start tampering with, for example, my Tudor queens, I'm likely to get upset if you deviate too much from the real history. There's so much cool stuff to be done with many historical figures without making up all kinds of crazy things!
ReplyDeleteOkay with historical fiction I agree that playing around with it can be annoying especially to someone as gullible as me who might believe what she read to be somewhat true.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy a great story, so if it's told well, I would probably keep reading. I don't have to agree with a character's morals or behaviors, either, as long as they are consistent and true to themselves. History in high school didn't appeal to me, so I do enjoy reading historical fiction, but have no idea what is accurate and just enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you exactly. I can go along with the storyline as long as the author is consistent with the personalities he/she created. Great post.
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