Books That Aren't Good or Bad
This blog post is going to be a little bit different than ones I've done previously. It isn't going to be a book recommendation, or a book unrecommendation, but something in between the two. I'll be talking about a few books that I think are just... meh... and how to improve them or how I would have liked to see them written instead.
Disclaimer: The following are entirely my own opinions. While my opinions are always factually correct, I can't force you to agree with them (yet). If you think I'm right, great. If you don't, that's alright. My point is, you can enjoy whatever books you want, and if you really liked or disliked one of the books I mentioned, that's totally fine.
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
This book feels like several books ripped up and glued together. Maybe I'm not sophisticated enough for it, but it just feels like the author tried to squeeze too much into too short of a book (and the book is a pretty fair length as it is, at around 443 pages according to wikipedia). It was popular a few years ago, and for good reason. It's filled with science-fiction, action, excitement, and has some very interesting ideas inside. However, to me, it feels like there are two different stories here, which are that of the Thunderhead, and all-knowing AI that (sort of) rules the world, and that of the Scythes, whose job it is to kill (or "glean") people because humans have become basically immortal. They aren't mutually exclusive, but they don't do a good job of including each other, either (in fact, neither is allowed to communicate with one another). Each feels like its own separate science fiction story, which is fine to include together, but the book is definitely more narrative or plot focused than it is on world building and science fiction, so I got pretty annoyed as I read the book. It was certainly very interesting nonetheless, but I feel like it could have offered a lot more than it did if parts were excluded, or if it were lengthened to fit all of the ideas in properly.
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
You're probably familiar with this graphic:
I think everyone has had to memorize it at some point or another. If you've been living under a rock until a few weeks ago, here's a brief explanation. At the start of a book, you have exposition, which sets the plot up, as seen in the rising action. As the plot moves along, you eventually reach the climax, which is the big confrontation against whatever problem the main character is out to solve. After the climax comes falling action and denouement, which wraps everything up and puts a nice little bow on top of the book. Sometimes you'll see that as a "moral of the story", but it's less common. You can have multiple climaxes in a book, but this is generally accepted amongst 3rd grade teachers as the standard. If this is the standard, this is what The Pigman's graph looked like:
The plot is really great, except.... it's very skewed. Almost all of the action happened at the end, and for a book that's only a few over 150 pages long, that means the majority of the action happened within 30 or so pages. The size of the book helped compensate for this difference, but the book is pretty emotional so when you have that much stuff within so few pages it loses a lot of it's meaning.
Conclusion
Really, there is no lesson in all this. Both books talked about are really good, and I know lots of people that enjoy them. I'm not an author, or an editor, or know anything about writing books. I just like criticizing things (and I have to get a post out soon so...).
- William King
I agree with Scythe, and I haven't read Pigman but the image you included describing the plot represents so many books I've read. I don't have a problem with this format if it's done well, but let's be honest most of the time it's not. Great post, I like criticizing things too :).
ReplyDeleteI haven't read either of those books but I have read a lot of books that are in that category of not good or bad. I'm of the opinion that being in that category is bad but as long as there are some interesting ideas the books aren't terrible.
ReplyDeleteI understand where you are coming from with this post. There are definitely some books that are just kind of okay, but not super amazing in any way. However, I would argue that Scythe is a good book and that the world building is good as it is. Part of the whole idea was that the AI doesn't have influence on the Scythes and vice versa, so that they can be separate and neither has control over the other (also there are a lot of other details in the book as well).
ReplyDeleteGood post. Personally, I haven't read either of these books, but I have seen Scythe around libraries and bookstores. The description didn't really call to me so I skipped it. Even though I haven't read it, the points you bring up sound reasonable, and maybe the concept would've been better if split into two different things. I've read a lot of books that have a plot structure similar to The Pigman, and I agree that too much stuff within a few pages can be pretty disappointing.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really interesting post that says a lot about how certain novels can be improved if an outside eye looks at it. I've read a lot of "in-between good and bad" books over the past few years, and there are so many other ways that I could improve things like the endings, the tying off of the plot, and other parts. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI haven't read "The Pigman", but your description of how the plot is laid out makes it sound similar to "The Scarlet Letter". "The Pigman" seems like a more extreme example from your description, but both books seem to be backloaded with most of the action happening in the last few chapters.
ReplyDeleteI really like this! We don't talk enough about things that aren't good or bad. It's usually a recommendation or denouncing. I like how you pointed out the good and bad parts of each book which balance out to make it "meh". I also love that you had some ideas on how to improve the books.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read either of these books but I can empathize with your disappointment. Some stories can have really interesting worlds or characters, but either the plot just does not get interesting and nothing good is done with those interesting aspects. Good job with this post!
ReplyDeleteThis was an interesting and successful idea for a post, reviewing books that aren't really good or bad. I appreciate how you dissected what went right and what went wrong with these books. Most of the books that I found not good or bad have premises or beginnings that are interesting but cannot really carry the plot beyond that.
ReplyDeleteThis post was interesting, especially because the books that get talked are the ones that are really good or really bad. Also the very skewed plot in The Pigman, really shows how this novel got put on the neither good or bad list. Overall very good post!
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