Petty things that have put you off a book

[RosieLemonade]

I have just finished a book based in 2017. Teenagers called Tim, Paul and Sarah. It really took me out of it.
Anyone been put off a book for a petty reason?

Anything where there’s ‘padding’ across a room involved.

I'm a teacher and school inaccuracies drive me mad. Do some research! Notes on a Scandal features teachers going out for lunch to an Italian restaurant. As. If.

Dont get me wrong, I’m still a big fan... but it’s always irritated me that in the first Harry Potter book they refer to it as a Put Outer.... then in later books it’s almost like JKR realised that was a rubbish name and thus renames it the deluminator. I just feel a short sentence explaining why all of a sudden it’s been renamed wouldn’t go amiss!

The lazy period dialogue in Lucinda Riley's Hothouse Flowers. It's a long time since I read it but it's full of things like 'Hello Bunny old boy' and 'be an awful darling and fetch my shawl'. Actually that's probably a bit too good. Terrible book in general in other ways too.

Also Gone Girl (which I love), calling a character 'Go' - really interrupts the reading experience.

I gave up on a book when the (American) characters British wife said she was going to "fix them some dinner".

I know it's petty but what British person has ever "fixed dinner"?!

@Maireas

I'm a teacher and school inaccuracies drive me mad. Do some research! Notes on a Scandal features teachers going out for lunch to an Italian restaurant. As. If.

Ha, I’m not a teacher but I remember thinking WTF NO at that bit 😂

Any particular other school inaccuracies that crop up a lot? I should take notes

(Along with a reminder never to use the word “pad” instead of walk :o)

School inaccuracies include - teachers having endless time in the staffroom to chat, leaving at the same time as the students, giving lifts home, talking tight up until the bell. I could go on. I gave up on a book set in the 2010s when a teacher asked another one to take their class while they went somewhere!!

right

Like PPs I find the constant "padding" about very irritating. Another pet hate is "grab" Recently read a book in which no one ever picked anything up, ordered a cup of coffee or put a coat on. Always "grabbed" Seems impolite to me...

@MrsDoctorDear

Someone on here pointed out how many female characters 'pad' around the house and now I can't unsee it. Women are padding about everywhere!

Probably me!! I'm always harping on about it on these threads.
As soon as 'she pads' anywhere it's game over for me, pile of shite.

Damn you Doctor Dear! You've ruined me!

I’m too fat to pad anywhere. I definitely plod. :o

I have wondered how things have changed in the 20ish years since I was in school. I definitely had a couple of lifts up the hill to the bus stop (felt like the coolest person ever 😳) but I can’t imagine that happening for DD now!

Badly written sex scenes. I started what looked to be a supernatural academy series and oh dear god it was appalling. Initially it drove me mad that the protagonist was the most beautiful girl in school and the coolest and the strongest and everyone wanted to be her but of course was totally unaware of this and periodically would be crippled with insecurity so everyone could reassure her. Then she suddenly announces she'd been assaulted previously but on the next page is suddenly having a fivesome with penises (penii?) in every orifice. She also "exploded" into orgasm at least eight times per quickie.

Have you ever seen the bad sex awards? I can’t remember the proper name but I read the list one year and oh dear lord.

Re 50 shades I’d like to add the lip biting and the inner goddess. FML.

One that irritates me is writers using ‘prone’ when they mean ‘supine’. Prone means lying face down but I often see authors using it when it’s obvious that the person is lying on their back, not face down.

Oh and describing wine as ‘the icy liquid’.

I need to find it because there are so many appalling sex scenes. Why do they always "reach their climax" simultaneously? And there's never any awkward "nope, not there, bit more to the left" etc.

Fifty Shades brought me out in a rash it was so bad

Turns out it’s just called the bad sex in fiction award! I thought there’d be a funny or possibly rude name :o

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/bad-sex-awards-fiction-worst-best-ever-shortlist-winners-best-literary-review-morrissey-a8664331.html

I hate it when all the characters names are slightly pretentious and not of the time ie current day set novel with adult characters called Felix and Hero
when you know they would probably in reality be Gary and Karen .

Started reading a chick lit book just yesterday that I bought from a supermarket (Katie Fforde). Few pages in I thought it didn't sound "modern" it was actually wrote in 1995 but republished 2020.

Breath that "ghosts", hands that "card his hair" (always makes me think of a nit comb), both very fan fiction.

Anything without punctuation.

Have yet to RTFT but I hate when authors type the character's accent. Drives me bonkers.

"I'm goon t'chippuh"

Instead of us using our imagination and knowing that it's the same as the character with an x accent saying "I'm going to the chippy"

James Herbert's books have incredibly awful sex in them.

I think it's The Rats there's a "moist cave" reference. Also somewhat uneasy references about youth and a possible incestuous relationship.

@GreenHairThingy

Have yet to RTFT but I hate when authors type the character's accent. Drives me bonkers.

"I'm goon t'chippuh"

Instead of us using our imagination and knowing that it's the same as the character with an x accent saying "I'm going to the chippy"

I found Wuthering Heights incredibly hard work for that reason! 😳