Distasteful Books

[Aeinna]

Have you ever come across a book that actually made you angry or you thought to be in very bad taste? Also, what would you find to be distasteful in a book?

I can actually remember the one book that pissed me off enough that I actually ripped it up and thew it away. It centered around a man kidnapping a woman, raping her not once but twice. That alone is enough to make me sick to my stomach but what made the book worse is that he raped her, she fell in love and married him. Then to top of it, he got angry with her after they married and he raped her again. And they lived happily ever after.

I came across a book today that got really good reviews and I decided to read it. By the time I got to the middle of it, I just rolled my eyes and stopped because of course, the "hero" was rapey. The whole no means yes relationship that seems to be coming out of every genre is getting on my nerves.

Rapey men would be at the top of my list of bad writing. I have to add that coming in at a very close second would be writers who make overly dramatic/angsty characters.

I wish more people wrote like C.S. Friedman and if anyone can recommend anyone like her, that would be awesome.

[Esfires]

You could check out goodreads.com

[Aeinna]

Bah to Esfires, what do you find offensive in books?

Example:

Two people are in a dangerous situation. Person A is well equipped to deal with said dangerous situation. On the other hand, person B is not at all and would be hindrance. A says to B, go run or hide and let me deal with this but B decides to be a total fucking jackass and jump into the mix without being able to offer any help.

That is just bad writing to me. It ends up being drama on top of drama and it is retarded. Like they have no other way to fuel their book besides for the stupidity of their characters.

[Boxy Brown]

Have you ever come across a book that actually made you angry or you thought to be in very bad taste?

[Draconian]

I lol'd.

[VKhaun]

My Star Trek technobabble rant... plot points replaced by "Oh!", "I'll use the thingamajig on the shitamafield rays!".

Also things solved by evidence/clues the reader wasn't aware of. Suddenly revealing that the main character noticed something about the foot prints earlier when he saw them, but didn't mention it and it wasn't narrated. They were simply referred to as 'foot prints' and the book moved on until it needed to try and make a character seem smarter than everyone else.

Generally leaving the reader out of the plot kills my interest. Kind of like Soap Operas where it's just a long series of introducing new ideas... but she was his BROTHER!!!!, but he wasn't really her sister, he was THE GARDNER!!!... that's not a plot, that's replacing a plot with a series of revelations that do not involve the viewer. The ship was going to be destroyed but he used the thingamajig to counter their shitamafield rays!!!.

Also, what Boxy said.

[ofrm1]

Have you ever come across a book that actually made you angry or you thought to be in very bad taste? Also, what would you find to be distasteful in a book?

Atlas_Shrugged.jpg

The philosophy, the plot, the characters, the writing, the length.

[dr.wang]

I read one of the Forgotten Realms books where half the book is just about some barbarian (not really a barbarian because was trained to- fuck it never mind.) getting drunk in a tavern and being a bouncer. Because thats want I want to read a book about someone's nine to five job of hitting people and bitching about his life.

Also, everytime a writer makes a big deal over the speed of a character in a fight in fantasy setting like everyone else in the world is a dumb ass for not saying "Hey, I bet speed would help me in this sword fight!" No shit! and of course the writer thinks that having big muscles would slow you down, because you know, that show that works, I guess.
On that note, anytime Kitanas make to look like god weapons that can slice through anything and kick everyones ass.

Anytime the writer tries to be smarter then the reader, I see this shit a lot in superhero comics where they try to be realistic and by realistic having everyone use the word fuck like they are reviewing a Newgrounds game or having the heroes act like total jiz rags for no reason.
On that note the following comic book 'writers' need to fuck off and die.

Mark Millar, Wanted sucked and everything he writes screams of trying to hard.
Jeph Leob, canceled the Avengers cartoon, helped ruin the Ultimate Universe killing characters off screen is something that should be punishable by death.
Garth Ennis, had one good comic, Preacher, tries to reclaim that glory, fails.
Bendis, not really guilty of the stuff I was bitching about, he is just a fuckaweful writer.

[Asquiol]

Twilight made the rapey "hero" popular, at least in part. Cause being a 100 year old man that breaks into a 17 year old girl's house and stares and her while she sleeps isn't rapey at all.

It's only natural for authors to take it to the next level.

[Boxy Brown]

Tasteless story of a drug addict who fakes his way into hospitals to get his fix.

[Aeinna]

Whoa, people actually read Ayn Rand?

Twilight made the rapey "hero" popular, at least in part. Cause being a 100 year old man that breaks into a 17 year old girl's house and stares and her while she sleeps isn't rapey at all.

It's only natural for authors to take it to the next level.

I wonder if you are right. Rapey men have always been in the romance genre, cause ya know, nothing more sexy than a man with a god complex who thinks its his right to lay hands on you. But I remember a time when paranormal books were... paranormal. Around the time Laurell K. Hamilton knew how to write. Unless I am missing something, between the early to late 90's, if you got an urban fiction book, it usually wasn't filled with stupid characters having stupid angsty problems followed by equally horrific sex scenes, like the way it is now.

You could also lay blame on Laurell K. Hamilton, considering how popular she still is.

[Zavon]

There was a book called Kushiels dart that I had to quit in disgust.

[Esfires]

I find too much sex tasteless in books. It can be done well, and has been, but too much of it today is just the author living out his or her adolescent fantasies and fetishes.

On a more general note, I've found myself moving away from cynical and/or depressing stories. It's not that I mind a story being sad, but I'm coming to hate stories about bad people doing bad things. Instead, I want to read about good people in bad situations, or about bad people struggling desperately to be good, even if they don't always succeed.

As for the lighter details, like heroes with too much power or characters that behave stupidly, I moved away from those types of books a long time ago.

[Graveworm]

I read one of the Forgotten Realms books where half the book is just about some barbarian (not really a barbarian because was trained to- fuck it never mind.) getting drunk in a tavern and being a bouncer. Because thats want I want to read a book about someone's nine to five job of hitting people and bitching about his life.

I believe the book you are referring to is actually a Dragonlance book, and I believe it was the first book in the second trilogy involving the main characters of the Dragonlance story. In the proper context the story is much more palatable:

Spoiler!

The story is about one of the heroes of the first trilogy dealing with alcoholism brought on by trying to come the terms with the fact that his little brother is an archvillain.

That being said, I've never actually read the book (I stopped after the first trilogy because I had book ADD back when I used to read regularly), so I can't actually say if the story was good or bad.

[Aeinna]

I find too much sex tasteless in books. It can be done well, and has been, but too much of it today is just the author living out his or her adolescent fantasies and fetishes.

On a more general note, I've found myself moving away from cynical and/or depressing stories. It's not that I mind a story being sad, but I'm coming to hate stories about bad people doing bad things. Instead, I want to read about good people in bad situations, or about bad people struggling desperately to be good, even if they don't always succeed.

As for the lighter details, like heroes with too much power or characters that behave stupidly, I moved away from those types of books a long time ago.

The too much sex I feel dominates the paranormal/urban fantasy genre and mainly it is women who have this flaw. I can not remember the last book by a man I read that had graphic, constant in your face sex. Over the last several years there has been this surge of women who decide to take all the flaws of the romance genre, throw in a werewolf or vampire and think its good writing.

Please tell me the books where bad people were doing bad things. I am fed up with overly moral, wishy-washy pansy characters who bitch and moan for pages up to the whole book over shit they have to do. Oh noes, I have to kill someone who is going to hurt me or mine and wont stop until they are dead, boo hoo boo hoo. C.S. Friedman is one of the few people who makes characters that own up to their shit and get stuff done.

Another annoyance of mine is women who write men and have no idea how to. An example would be that a few months ago I read a book where the main hero was talking to a woman and he said, "I hear you sister". This woman was not his sister, it was meant in the slang form. It threw me off so much I couldn't finish the book.

[Zavon]

The too much sex I feel dominates the paranormal/urban fantasy genre and mainly it is women who have this flaw. I can not remember the last book by a man I read that had graphic, constant in your face sex. Over the last several years there has been this surge of women who decide to take all the flaws of the romance genre, throw in a werewolf or vampire and think its good writing.

Please tell me the books where bad people were doing bad things. I am fed up with overly moral, wishy-washy pansy characters who bitch and moan for pages up to the whole book over shit they have to do. Oh noes, I have to kill someone who is going to hurt me or mine and wont stop until they are dead, boo hoo boo hoo. C.S. Friedman is one of the few people who makes characters that own up to their shit and get stuff done.

Another annoyance of mine is women who write men and have no idea how to. An example would be that a few months ago I read a book where the main hero was talking to a woman and he said, "I hear you sister". This woman was not his sister, it was meant in the slang form. It threw me off so much I couldn't finish the book.

I hear you, girlfriend.

[Aeinna]

Did you snap your fingers and do the black girl head bob too?

[Zavon]

Did you snap your fingers and do the black girl head bob too?

[Aeinna]

And would you take a man seriously if he acted that way in a non-joking manner?

[VKhaun]

And would you take a man seriously if he acted that way in a non-joking manner?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...myMvbXX8#t=83s


Ever watch that show True Blood?
Lafayette is a BAMF.

(Edit-- of course the rest of that 7min clip is him getting messed up... but you get the idea.)

[Aeinna]

Not sure what your point is VK. Maybe I should have been a little more clear. Would a woman be sexually interested in a heterosexual male if he used slang terms toward her like, sister?

Speaking as someone with a vagina, that would be a big fuck no.

[Wulf]

Not sure what your point is VK. Maybe I should have been a little more clear. Would a woman be sexually interested in a heterosexual male if he used slang terms toward her like, sister?

Speaking as someone with a vagina, that would be a big fuck no.

Only a black dude with a super deep voice can pull that line off without being gay.

[Boxy Brown]

Only a black dude with a super deep voice can pull that line off without being gay.

Truth.

[Dumah]

I find books that lack sufficient rape, or outright omit variants of it are distasteful.

Then again, I don't really read books; just books on tape. They don't make books on tape that are books on rape. Maybe that's where I'll start my new business. My first book on tape will be called "The Rapes of Grath." I can provide the voice of John Wayne Gacy and tentacle, just need a volunteer to do the voice-over for the illegal immigrant who is short on rent money because he/she foolishly blew it all on medication for his/her sick grandma, and is in deep with the Alabama mafia.

[Alex Mars]

Wait....rape or grape?