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?

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      My worst beta reader said I needed to do exactly that, and further, said "a shower scene with details is inevitable."

      The main character was a half-starved refugee girl.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Just to spite him I did have a shower scene, one that doesn't describe anything about the character's body except the layers of toxic grime finally falling away before hurrying out and almost choking with enthusiasm on the first "real" meal she could remember.