For me, shitty style / lazy writing make me put a book down immediately. I was raised on the worship of style you find in writers like Flaubert or Nabokov (who also happened to have deplorable political views) and I can’t shake it.
Others commented here recently that making every female character in a story into a sex object is a bad thing.
What are some reasons you’ll put a book down after you’ve spent at least a little time giving it a try?
I'm very particular about description. If they use racist tropes like food analogies or only focus on describing non-white people, I'm going to notice.
I also hate it when authors use shorthand. Don't just call it a starship and then leave it at that.
What do you mean by food analogies?
'Her skin was dark like rich chocolate' things like that.
Oy vey. I thought you meant something like, hinting that someone is italian because they like pizza.
"Her skin was a pale and glistening with sweat, like some fresh mozzarella melting on a pizza."
Karen wrapped her mayonnaise-colored hands around the ceramic mug and Iifted it to her nonexistent lips. Her Tide Pod-hued eyes narrowed when she realized she'd forgotten to ask for a manager.
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