I'm finding the reviews on Amazon, if I lick on the LOW ones, will give me interesting insights into a book. I've managed to discard many that would have pissed me Right Off, if I'd stumbled onto the bothersome parts without warning.
UNCOOL. This is the second time in the last few weeks that I've heard of someone being surprised by a rape scene. The other one was somnophilia rape, too. *RAEGS AT THE WORLD*
Hmm. Maybe it's because I have no serious trauma in my life, but I've always actually been surprised at the stringent attitude fandom has towards warning for possibly triggery material, because movies & books don't have those warnings. Not that I'm saying you're wrong, of course.
- Gratuitous death of a helpless animal. I once stopped reading an otherwise enjoyable mystery after a sweet, elderly cat was killed for no reason other than to torture the protagonist. Pets should be off limits for such things.
- Gratuitous death of the protagonist on the last page. I once read a book that ended with the death of the main character and his girlfriend in the last sentence of the last paragraph of the very last page.
This is why I skip to the ending of every single genre book by an author I don't know to make sure that at least #2 doesn't happen. Juvenile, perhaps, but y'know, life is too damn short for me to invest several hours of my life with a character who's going to end up dead at the end for no good reason.
LOL oh my god this has happened to me, except it was a lesbian sex scene within the first 10 pages. which is fine, except for the fact that THEY WERE BOTH 80 YEARS OLD AND IT WAS DESCRIBED IN VERY, VERY GRAPHIC DETAIL
I feel your pain. I've only had a few books that have done that, since almost everything I read is first looked up on tvtropes or Amazon and then run through my friends. But every single time I decide to try it out without a background, something traumatic happens in the first few pages. I should learn from this...
I'm actually pretty amazed that for all the hand-wringing over warnings in fandom, no one seems to have stepped up to create a Wiki-style resource where people can submit warnings for mainstream books/movies/tv/etc.
(I support warnings 100% and think they're absolutely necessary; not just in fandom, either. I suppose I am just feeling cynical about many people's real intentions when they participate in online debate/discourse. >.>)
Enforced content warnings on books would be a spectacularly bad idea because of the huge potential for censorship (plus, spoilers), but a socially driven online database editable by anyone would be pretty great, IMO, since it could also warn for spoilers. I personally care about not feeling like I've been hit by a train than I do about some author's ~intricately crafted plot~, so. >.>
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I'm finding the reviews on Amazon, if I lick on the LOW ones, will give me interesting insights into a book. I've managed to discard many that would have pissed me Right Off, if I'd stumbled onto the bothersome parts without warning.
Stasia
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I would be horrified, too.
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- Gratuitous death of a helpless animal. I once stopped reading an otherwise enjoyable mystery after a sweet, elderly cat was killed for no reason other than to torture the protagonist. Pets should be off limits for such things.
- Gratuitous death of the protagonist on the last page. I once read a book that ended with the death of the main character and his girlfriend in the last sentence of the last paragraph of the very last page.
This is why I skip to the ending of every single genre book by an author I don't know to make sure that at least #2 doesn't happen. Juvenile, perhaps, but y'know, life is too damn short for me to invest several hours of my life with a character who's going to end up dead at the end for no good reason.
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(I support warnings 100% and think they're absolutely necessary; not just in fandom, either. I suppose I am just feeling cynical about many people's real intentions when they participate in online debate/discourse. >.>)
Enforced content warnings on books would be a spectacularly bad idea because of the huge potential for censorship (plus, spoilers), but a socially driven online database editable by anyone would be pretty great, IMO, since it could also warn for spoilers. I personally care about not feeling like I've been hit by a train than I do about some author's ~intricately crafted plot~, so. >.>
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