'Women's books' written by men, does it influence your decision to buy/read?

[futuristic1]

Obviously, I'm generalising/stereotyping in what I call 'women's books' but I've read a couple of thrillers recently with female protagonists - I think also first person females too - written by men under pseudonyms:

The Girl Before - JP Delaney
The Woman in the Window - AJ Finn

I read a review of the Woman in the Window and it said the author used the pseudonym because it was felt fewer women would otherwise buy the book.

I find it doesn't really bother me at all - if the book is good, if it grabs me when I read the first few paragraphs, I pretty much put it out of my mind.

I don't know how I would feel if it was really obvious that it was written by a man though - whether it would put me off the purchase or stop me even picking up the book. If it had been,

The Girl Before by Terry Williams for example...

Does it affect your decision making before purchase?

I really hated The Girl Before by JP Delaney and I won't be reading any more by him.

It wouldn't have put me off if he'd used his full real name.

What did put me off was all the awful Fifty Shades sex, which I felt was unrealistic and overdone, and the totally dull characters.

I did not feel that he really did justice to any of the characters, male or female, and I guessed what was going on.

It was just a massive disappointment. There is a better book also called The Girl Before, by an author called Rena Olsen. I'd recommend that book, and her as an author, and feel quite sorry for her that her (IMO) far better book has had less attention than the JP Delaney book, which is bloody awful.

It's a different type of book but William Boyd's Brazzaville Beach is a fabulous book with a female main character, and I feel he writes women very well.

I really liked the JP Delaney book and knew the author was 'believed' to be a man. It was very telly-ish in its plot though.

I'll keep an eye out for the Rena Olsen book - sounds good.

Also haven't read any William Boyd as I'd thought he was a 'blokey' writer! Will investigate further!

Memories of a geisha was written by a man. I read it years ago and didn't really think about it at the time. Maybe if I read it now it would be in mind.

I read books by both men and women, but think I might be a bit more put off if it was a book very clearly marketed at women, although I dont know if that's entirely fair of me. What would put me off both those books you mentioned is that the titles sound kind of like they are piggy backing off the success of other female led thrillers with similar names, and I would anticipate that the plot would be a bit derivative. Again, maybe that's a little unfair of me!

Agree with pps that some male authors write women very well. From my experience, it is often badly done in thriller type books - sometimes a bit of male fantasy creeps in!

Khaled Hosseini and Kazuo Ishiguro are two male writers that wrote women well imo (that I can see on my bookshelf, there must be more but I can't remember who now).

I agree Squishy. Martin Amis wrote a really good woman cop/detective in Night Train - one of the best I've ever read.

Thinking about JP Delaney The Girl Before - the bits that really made me step back were when the women tenants met the architect and all went Phwoarr!! All the lust stuff just didn't feel right/true for me. I don't think men think of women internally like that either - in the moment.

I suspect the best thing is to write a woman exactly as you would a man, without any special consideration or 'angle' on what 'a woman would do'.
Especially if it's a character driven novel with a focus on internal thought.

I was half way through Memoirs of a Geisha when I realised it was written by a man and it did spoil it a bit for me. It seemed to explain why some of the characterisation was a bit unreal.

I've read some books written by a man with a female protagonist and it really hasn't mattered. Some authors write effortlessly- sometimes it's a bit too "try hard".