Annoyed over a book.

[gateslacker]

Yesterday, I went to the library to find the next book in the Twilight series but there wasn't one available. So, instead I checked out My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, a rec from a co-worker. The very first page in, I am guessing the requisite plot twist. Every story or novel has to have one, after all. However, the book is very well written and  I discard my first assumpton only to find, in the end, that,  yes, she went there. I am annoyed. Not because it ended in a way I didn't want it to, even though it really did, but because the set up for the plot twist was so contrived that it almost seemed tacked on. Even though I responded emotionally to this development in the expected way, I find that the whole thing completely ruined, for me, what had been a very well written story. Really, why does everything have to have that unexpected plot twist? I am so accustomed to seeing them that I now guess them most of the time. I'm not saying that all stories should be without them and I have read/seen many that were handled well, whether I guessed them or not. (The Time Traveler's Wife comes to mind). I don't know. Is this another indication that I am becoming too hard to please?

Comments

[ruralstar.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm reading such a variety lately that I haven't noticed the tired old plot devices many writers use. Maybe you do expect more. In an age when any old yutz can self publish maybe higher expectations are a good thing!

[gateslacker.livejournal.com]

Well, this book was a best seller and it was very well written. It has also been or is being made into a movie. It just really rubbed me the wrong way.