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Last night, I read the first few chapters of J.K. Rowling's book, The Casual Vacancy. I know I'm three years late, but my stack of books to read is more ambitious than I am.
While I worked through the pages it occurred to me that the book had a LOT of characters and was written to appeal to someone who likes character-driven novels. Being character-driven restricts her audience from the majority who prefer plot-driven books.
Out of curiosity I checked Amazon this morning.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Casual-Vacancy-J-K-Rowling/product...
Please scan the one-star reviews.
A very smart woman once said to me (a few day's ago), "It's not about you." It seemed to be some sort of rule with her. It's obvious that most of these reviews have almost nothing to do with the book and everything to do with the reviewer.
The next time a BC-cretin (yes, there are some) leaves a less than five-star comment about one of YOUR stories compare yourself to Rowling's overall three-star rated offering.
Still not convinced? Here's a real one-star review for the first Harry Potter book.
1Not Wortth the Try
ByDebra Tuckeron June 19, 2015
Format: Paperback
I was hesitant to try it out because, the summary isn't interesting. The only good thing that happens to Harry is attending Hogwarts. What made me read it was I read something that she spent 17 years designing the world. (While I found that cool at first-don't get me wrong; it's still is-that's probably because the novel got rejected about 12 times.) Until the fourth or fifth chapter, the Dursleys sucked the fun out of reading it. Later on, the main protagonist made it unpleasant to read. I was going to give this two stars until I read part of the biography. I usually wouldn't care ,but J.K. Rowling said "the idea fell into her head". I'm not against getting inspiration from other authors, but she's essentially trying to pretend The Worst Witch doesn't exist. (Not only has the book series been around since the 70s, but once this came out, that got pushed under the rug.)
The only two characters I really like are Scabbers and Snape. Scabbers got thrown up against a train window, but he just went back to sleep. I like Snape because, he didn't feel as though he had to be nice to Harry just because Voldemort didn't kill him. (Then again, that was due to his father so I doubt my own argument a little bit.) I'm glad they just agreed to say Voldemort towards the end. It got annoying and repetitive to read You-Know-Who.
I kind of like Hermione. At first, I liked her because, she didn't feel the need to kiss up to Harry. Also, she has sense and brains. I just kind of dislike how she began to hang out with Harry and Ron just because they saved her. I also kind of like Neville because, he stood up to Draco and his friends. (I'm also including the triumvirate Harry's apart of.)
The Dursleys wouldn't have angered me if they suffered more consequences. Vernon punched Harry in the ribs, but no one reprimanded him. (You'd actually be arrested for that.) The son, Dudley, even killed a tortoise for not having his second room back, but nobody calls the police. While Petunia was vile, she's not as bad as some of her relatives. Harry Potter's the main reason why I hated reading this. He has a nice personality, but his life was miserable, and he usually didn't get punished. He does receive a punishment ,but since mostly everyone forgave him by the end of the novel, he might as well gotten a pass. The only thing that me annoyed about the owls was she didn't try to be realistic with their sleep patterns. (Not every owl species is nocturnal.) If she wasn't going to bother, she might have well used a different bird species. (Some cultural depictions see ravens in a positive light.)
Or . . . try this one-star rating for To Kill a MockingBird
1Snooze fest ...
By Michael on May 7, 2015
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Skip this "classic" since the plot is outdated and the story is boring. I could tell this story in a few sentences.
I hope someone sends Michael a rebate of the $5 he spent to put the book on his Kindle.
Comments
Well....
....the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about? (Oscar Wilde) :P
Love, Andrea Lena
Andrea's right
ignorance and silence is much worse than zero star comments.
Expections
As Angela Rasch commented, there are different types of stories, such as the character-driven and plot-driven. And bad reviews are the result when readers expect one and get the other. I suspect many of the stories on BC are character-driven. Look at Bailey's and Angharad's stories for example.
The question that comes to my mind is are there ways to tell them apart? Words used in descriptions, keywords used, etc. I certainly have been surprised by getting one when I expect the other. There are certain authors on BC that I expect to write plot-driven stories, just based on their prior work. To get a character-driven story from them is a surprise. I'm not complaining, authors can write either type or both, they are not restrained to one category. Just looking for a telltale mark, some kind of head's up before starting reading.
PS: I don't care for Rowlings or "great American literature". Rowlings writes stories I'm simply not interested in, I'm also annoyed at the use of terms from her books being used as if they have any meaning outside of those books. Like 'muggle', as an example.
I read all those great American books as part of required readings for lit classes. TKAM is one I didn't like at the time and wouldn't read for enjoyment at anytime.
So yeah, I'd give both a low rating if I were rating them. But I'm not so I won't.
YMMV
I went outside once. The graphics weren' that great.
TKaM
In my opinion it is a great book but I agree with you, I wouldn't read it for enjoyment. Especially not this week.
The Casual Vacancy and other stories
Is (IMHO) about as far from Harry Potter as you can get. Some of my friends from the R.H. side of the pond didn't get it at all. Then they saw the BBC TV series.
A good number of critics wanted Casual Vacancy to be HP Mk2. When it wasn't they effectively 'downvoted' it.
If think that Ms Rowling was brave to write something so different from HP. She was probably expecting some bad reviews.
I try to not to write the same sort of thing or in the same universe with my stories. Some work, some don't but that is life. As such I have to accept the good with the bad. Sometimes life sucks. Sometimes life is good like today when I released a very complicated bit of software that I've been working on for three months and it worked in Production (in Japan) first time.
Bad comments
I can only think of a couple readers who said unkind things to me. They are entitled to their opinion.
Opinions
... are like descending colons. Most everyone has one and they are usually full of compacted fecal material.
Portia
giggle
opinions are like a**holes, everyone has one and they usually stink.
that's my way of putting it.
:)
Stupidity is a capital offense. A summary not indictable.
I've always thought that plots are driven by characters ...
... since stories are usually about people (or people surrogates) either doing things, reacting to things others do, or attempting to overcome obstacles thrown at them by the universe. If these people aren't complex individuals who are human enough to hold a reader's interest, readers won't really care when the world is saved, the evil mastermind is defeated, or the mysterious MacGuffin is retrieved.
Just my opinion, of course, since I AM a people person. *grin*
Randalynn
Perhaps the good ones Randalynn
Its hard to come up with a decent example of plot driven TG stories without stepping on somebody's toes, perhaps some of the one-handed stories where the whole idea is to get the reader to a certain place using any means.
An example of plot-driven stories would be a lot of the sci-fi pulp fiction. Many of them were about the wiz-bang gadgets with each author trying to outdo the other. There was very little character development beyond the stereotypes, boy genius, inventor/mentor, loyal sidekick not quite as smart as the genius but good with his fists in a pinch, the girlfriend, etc. The gadget developement was the main driving force - something faster, harder, more technical than what was available before.
I'm thinking a lot of romance fiction is that way, whatever situation is needed to get the girl and boy together and usually in bed. Not much character-development beyond love-struck girl and suave, muscled, shirt-off man to take the heroine forciably but willingly to be his. Your standard bodice-ripper.
Not that these are always bad, I've found myself enjoying the stories by H. P. Mallory. Take one smart, sassy girl, throw in one or more hunky guys, add magic background, season with angst and sexual tension and mix well with some kind of magical threat. Sound corny but actually kinda fun. But the character development is minimal, usually just enough to advance the romantic goal.
Plot-driven stories are a means to reaching a desired goal. Whatever else is secondary to that. I see it here on BC, done well they can be interesting stories to read. But when the story ends you know precious little about the people involved.
I went outside once. The graphics weren' that great.
My outlook on it
They have the right to have their opinion, and to express it. What they NEED is the Privilege of having it matter to you.
If I need to critique someone posting, I'll use a pm more often then not.
even in there, I at least attempt to be using constructive criticism rather than obnoxious rants.
Stupidity is a capital offense. A summary not indictable.
this is just me
I used to play RPGs. There were two types of RPG play; thinker games and hack/slash games. I just happened to play one game that about drove us all crazy. Every 30 to 45 minutes there was another plot twist that made you re-think everything you had believed up to that point. I'll just use his initials; JDR ran a serious thinker's hack and slash game. We played for almost 96 hours taking naps and two peoples cases, shifts, until the end. One thing about that system we played that I liked was that the characters had a history. There was a reason why they were the way they were. The game was Cyberpunk 2020. I read all of the HP series and loved it. If the kudos are 8% or more of the total hits of my stories, I think I'm doing ok. I'll admit; I'm not perfect and I make mistakes in details. It happens. I just keep trying to do what i do. There will always be at least one negative post or message. Can't please everybody after all you know. Roll with it the best you can.
quidquid sum ego, et omnia mea semper; Ego me.
alecia Snowfall