I’ve noticed a lot recently that many people will review a book and say that they disliked it or will call it poorly written because “nothing at all happened in it”. While I think this is probably true for a lot of books, I see it a lot where I don’t think it’s true.
I feel like many readers now a days are only hooked by a book if there is constant action/major events occurring and don’t care for minor character development, worldbuilding, scheming, behind the scenes planning, figuring stuff out etc. (this is also true for things like movies, video games etc.)
As an example: I recently read the poppy war. Which I’ve only ever heard amazing things about. I liked it, but thought it was overhyped. The entire series is just constant action and trauma. Which I didn’t really care about because I didn’t get connected to any of the characters due to almost zero character development other than Rin.
Another example being mistborn. I liked book 2 way more than book 3 because there’s a lot of development about the world at large and also with characters like sazed tindwyl and the ventures. And ten-soon. But book 2 is often described as the worst one when I honestly think book 3 is. Book 3 is almost all action but little substance.
I understand people have different tastes that’s fine, I’m just curious as to why it seems that the taste described in this post seems to be the overwhelming majority as of late.
by True_Turnover_7578
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People say the same thing about movies. “Nothing happened.” Yeah, dumbass, it’s a slice-of-life movie. The plot was not the point.
I find a lot of reviews to be about the reader’s expectations versus reality. You picked up something expecting a thriller, but it was actually kind of slow? I can understand being disappointed, but that’s not the fault of the book so much as the marketing. The book still might be great, but you wouldn’t have chosen it if you knew what it was like beforehand.
I think misleading marketing is responsible for a lot of these types of reviews. At the same time, people love to complain. Reviews that miss the point will never go away.
Or, maybe…. Instead of everyone being wrong… You are just identifying that you prefer slower reads with less action. And the people you are reading reviews by, prefer faster reads that have action.
You’re right but I don’t know if there’s anything new about it. It takes effort to engage with a more complex work and for most people, that’s just not really what they’re looking for out of their reading experience.
I don’t want to come down too hard on action lovers. We like what we like. But I loooove books that are low action, chill, slice of life.
A lot of people lack the critical skills to actually digest and analyse a text or movie. Their reviews basically boil down to “I didn’t like it” with no ability to articulate why. And it’s not their fault, that’s absolutely a learned skill and particularly when you feel passionate about something it can be hard to express yourself in a cogent way. I try to treat them as someone who has english as a second language. Like, they have fully formed and rational thoughts in their head, they just can’t express them in a way that makes sense or that we can understand.
I think what we often see are the cases where folks vocalize when the contents of a story don’t align with their expectations. I know when I read Poppy War, I expected it to be less of a main character-based story and more of a fantasy war saga, but I realigned myself once it became clear I’d mostly just get to explore Rin and others through her lens.
I see a lot of this with literary fiction, because it’s such a mixed bag how authors will create and structure stories. I’m one who enjoys stories that maybe don’t go anywhere but are told interestingly/beautifully, but for a lot of others it begs that same question: what’s the point?
It doesn’t matter what genre or story you’re reading, the main thing is how you’re experiencing what the author is conveying. That’s the point, and I think people online mostly tend to vocalize when that experience isn’t in alignment with their reading tendencies and interests.
I think this all depends on who you talk to and what portions of the book-readers sphere you interact with, because I’m tired of the emphasis I see put on worldbuilding haha
Thats the problem im having with darius the great deserves better. Landon initiates over and over and darius has a boner constantly. The 1st one wasnt something amazing but it had substance and a real story. This is giving glorified wattpad though
Since you do read Fantasy – what about Cozy Fantasy? That’s pretty much the opposite of action packed novels with a life or death situation waiting for you at every corner. And it is a very popular sub-genre. Before the romance genre invaded Fantasy it was THE biggest trend …
So no, I don’t think the majority only enjoys novels with a lot of action. It might well be though, that these types of reviews are the “loudest” and get the most attention.
People are far too focused on plot nowadays. Plot doesn’t really matter much, it’s just a palatable way to deliver prose, themes, and character arcs to the reader. It’s a tool. It’s not the point of the book though. That’s how I feel about it anyways.
Action thrillers and high intensity stuff is not a novel idea that has only just taken people. It’s always been around. The concept of pulp fiction magezines is over 100 years old in fact. People have been making simple and entertaining books like that since print has been an effective and cheap form of production relative to what it once used to be.
This is not a “nowadays” problem. People have always liked it. You’re just seeing the appreciation for it en masse because social media is able to deliver the most vocal opinion which does happen to be a popular one sometimes.