Have you ever wanted to send an author a really angry letter

Cee · Joined: 19 Feb 2009 Posts: 198

I finally read the Bronze Horseman trilogy after hearing about it for years. (Spoilers to follow!) I could hardly put the first book down. I can't remember the last time I was so completely consumed by a book, I could barely shower or eat or do anything except read. One of the best novels I've ever read. The second was also good. And when I finished the third book, The Summer Garden, I wondered what the hell had just happened. Alexander, wonderful Alexander, turned into a bullying, drinking, cheating, screaming, raping, abusive coward?! Tatiana a total doormat who basically functioned as his housekeeper and sex slave? These were the characters I had wept over in the first book?

Has an author ever ruined the characters or a book so badly for you?
_________________
"When the day shall come, that we do part," he said softly, and turned to look at me, "if my last words are not 'I love you' -- ye'll ken it was because I didna have time."

JamiSings · Joined: 28 Dec 2010 Posts: 94 Location: Costa Mesa, CA

I think everyone has from time to time. I really felt like writing Sherilyn Kenyon for instance and telling her that she needs to find another way to work out her issues than torturing her heroes. I'm sick and tired of reading about heroes who had horrible lives and heroines who had great ones. Mix it up a bit, girlfriend!

And lately I've really wanted to write angry letters to any author who has her characters having sex with each other without getting to know each other and their sexual histories first. I can deal with it in historicals because people still thought bathing in gin, taking mercury, or having sex with virgins would cure them - and sometimes in paranormals though lately it's been getting to me there too. But anything contemporary - um - hello? Ever heard of this thing called HIV?! How about herpes? Geez!

I'm reading Lord Of The Vampires and was very tempted to throw it against the wall because Jane almost has sex with him within ten minutes of meeting him. I'm sorry, vampire or not, I wouldn't want to have sex with some stranger without making sure he wasn't carrying some undead version of genital warts first.
_________________
~Jami~

library addict · Joined: 06 Dec 2008 Posts: 1215

Not quite to that extreme, but I really liked Murphy in the first two books of Nora Roberts' Born in trilogy and felt he turned into a jerk in his own book.

Kathleen Korbel taking the last book of her contemporary Kendall family series and setting it in a paranormal faerie realm did not make me a happy camper. I think in that case though if I decide to reread the first four books in the series I will just pretend the fifth book doesn't exist Razz

I cannot read Brockmann any more after the fiasco that was Dead of Night. But while that book ruined the characters for me, it was more the author's behavior online that made it so that I cannot even read my earlier favorites in the series.

Cee · Joined: 19 Feb 2009 Posts: 198

JamiSings · Joined: 28 Dec 2010 Posts: 94 Location: Costa Mesa, CA

Oh, I always forget other authors here because I think "Well, this is a ROMANCE site" - however, I REALLY want to send some angry letters to Patricia Cornwell. First off, I want to know why she has it in for us fat people. She makes her characters more repugnant than the serial killers. We're not all bigoted psycho slobs. Second - Lucy's a lesbian, now she's straight, now she's a lesbian again. What's up with that? And how come Scarpetta is ALWAYS right and NEVER ages? Chick must be close to 70 by now but she always looks 40.

Woman ruined a perfectly good series.
_________________
~Jami~

xina · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 6627 Location: minneapolis

No, not really. If I have a problem with an author's writing (or, nowadays...online behavior) I just stop reading their books. And to be fair, the Simons series is not romance. She took us years into the marriage of a beloved hero and heroine and showed us what happened in that marriage. I wasn't happy with Alexander at times, but she wrote him as a human being with problems, not a shiny romance novel hero who is perfectly perfect, forever and ever. Scary...isn't it? Smile

_________________
"As you wish"
~The Princess Bride

Tee · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 4045 Location: Detroit Metro

JamiSings · Joined: 28 Dec 2010 Posts: 94 Location: Costa Mesa, CA

Cee · Joined: 19 Feb 2009 Posts: 198

dick · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 2248

I've sent one to an author, but it was to suggest that she have somebody
proofread her text so she could get the cases of pronouns right. She never got them right. And I once suggested to the an author, on these boards I think, that she really didn't understand the passive voice.

xina · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 6627 Location: minneapolis

Tee · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 4045 Location: Detroit Metro

Kristie(J) · Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 12:54 pm Post subject:

Hopeless_Romantic · Joined: 21 Jan 2010 Posts: 114 Location: U.S.

I've had the strong desire to write an author a couple times, but after reading your experiences I realize my issues weren't quite as severe. Smile

My problem is that the books I got upset with are vintage and the authors are dead. Confused

The book I had the most aggravation over was "Bride for Sale" by Jane Corrie - he was so mean (not like some of the historicals, not physically, but verbally). He had to marry her to keep his family home and even though she made it plain she didn't want the marriage, a crush she had on him when she was young caused him to assume that she was in on her father's plot so the "hero" made her stay in a suite of rooms in the old servants' quarters and she wasn't even allowed to be in the other rooms in the house. She collected her meals from the dumb waiter and ate in her room. He even flipped out when she used the phone in his study, but when she stayed at her father's house for a few days while he was away, the "hero" came to collect her and threatened her to come 'home'. He also talked about her "knowing her place" and being beneath him (because her father's money came from . . . *whispers* "trade". Rolling Eyes

Then - at the end, not one word of apology or even acknowledgement, and she "fell in love" with him in a half page (two paragraphs, tops) and I'm not kidding. I was actually steaming when I got done and had to rant to my poor mom. Smile

That was as close as I've ever come to throwing a book across the room!
_________________
Close-Up Merman's Kiss http://th06.deviantart.net/fs10/300W/i/2006/102/5/b/A_Merman__s_Kiss_Detail_by_Barbiedoll.jpg http://images.epilogue.net/users/emerald/mermans_kiss_emerald2006.jpg

Lynda X · Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 1249

I think it might be useful to an author sometimes to hear from the public--both positively and negatively. If I were an author, I'd like to hear compliments (I mean, who doesn't, huh?) and sometimes Amazon reviews don't really tell the whole story negatively.

I often write authors what I love about their writing and to my delight, they often write back. It must be boring and lonely sometimes, just to be in front of your computer.

I've written only one furious letter and that was to Suzanne Brockmann. I loved her series about the military and bought her books in hard cover--something I do every now and again, but never lightly. Anyway, I think it was "Into the Storm" that had a serial murderer and I STILL can't get some of a details out of my mind. I sent her and her publisher a copy, mainly because I thought that it was such an ugly departure from her usual that she should have warned her readers. I admit I am opposed to vivid torture in books and movies, as I believe that it is terrible for the individual, our country, and the world. I never heard back from her, and I've never bought another book of hers.

To me, it's not enough, if you have something that really bothers you, just to stop buying an author. I think you almost owe him/her a reason (I'm assuming here that the reason is NOT just that you think he/she has deteriorated or you no longer enjoy him/her). So, yeah, I'd write Cornwell. Your issue is one she needs to look at, as it may well not only further prejudice, but also affect her sales.