Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a writer. I've been writing fan-fiction and original stories since elementary school, and now I'm taking up a creative writing concentration alongside my English degree.
It's safe to say I'm dedicated to the cause.
As a writer, I must also be a reader. After all, the only way to better one's craft is to see how others have challenged the restraints of genre and form, either successfully or unsuccessfully. Writers also have to stay up to date with what is being done in their respective genres in order to stay relevant.
As both a student and as an avid writer, I read a lot. I read more than 60 books in 2018, and my goal for 2019 is 51 books. I read older texts mainly for classes, and a lot of the reading I choose for myself is contemporary. If you're looking for me in a bookstore, you're bound to find me either in the poetry section (which is never large enough, but that isn't a rant for today) or surrounded by young adult fiction. I have my preferences.
These preferences make it hard for me to truly be blown away by anything that I read anymore. After all, I have years of practice analyzing writing both inside and outside of the tropes that make up their genres. When you know a genre as well as I know young adult, you're bound to get to know the cliches like the back of your hand.
So imagine how terrifying it is when someone comes to me, telling me about this new amazing book that they're just finished reading and I'm not a fan.
It's happened plenty of times. Maybe the characters are flat. Maybe the writer's sense of time is confusing. Maybe the dialogue never quite sounds right, or there are too many trophy aspects that have been done too many times before. Maybe the reading is just too predictable because of how much it depends on the writings that came before it.
I try to be delicate with how I tell people that I don't think this book they love so much lives up to its greatest potential, but I often end up becoming some sort of monster. How dare I take the joy of reading away from someone? How dare I judge what they like when no book is perfect? How dare I be so pretentious? Shouldn't I know that all books are works of art in their own right?
I know all of this. After all, I wouldn't be a reader or a writer if I didn't. I've been taught this since my very first college English classes. I'm not saying that these books are inherently bad (except in a few very specific situations, in which I have very specific issues that usually relate to how a person of color, LGBTQIA+ individual, or neuro-divergent person is portrayed). I just think that these books could have been better if the writer had deviated from what had already been done.
So don't get mad at me for having a less than stellar opinion of something you love. I just want to see writing get better.
