I love reading! I always have. I read a lot when I was younger, and I am falling back in love with it as an adult. I plan to read at least 30 books this year.

Unfortunately, not every book that I have read is good. Some books sound good on the synopsis, but then turn out to be terrible. Today, I want to share some of my criteria of what makes books bad. These are all based on experiences of books that I have read in my lifetime that stick with me because they were bad. These books could have great plot lines, but some of these characteristics pulled me out of the story. In fact, I just read two books I didn’t like back to back.

1. Racist author voice- I’m not talking about books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or To Kill a Mockingbird. Those are books that have elements of racism that directly contribute to the plot or the characters. In fact, To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite books of all time. I mean in books that have the author’s voice coming through, and the author is racist. Hate is geared toward a certain race, even in narration. It pulls me out of a book really quickly if I feel the author talking rather than the story talking.
2. Unlikeable characters- I need someone to root for or agree with. I don’t have to be directly represented, but I need someone I can support. If I can’t find a character I like, then I am probably not going to like the book. The characters need to make decisions and have thoughts that make sense to their personality.
3. Chekov’s gun- If you are unfamiliar with this trope, this is where a tool is given that has a convenient use later in the story. For example, I read a mystery book recently. In the first scene of this book, the main character is conveniently cut down by a madman with an axe. He spends most of the rest of the book in the hospital, and the madman is never seen or heard from again. To me, it’s a sign of poor writing if you can’t work elements into the story.
4. Told not Shown- One of the best parts of reading is feeling immersed in the world and story. Good books can have me in outer space, a fantasy land, back in time, or wherever the story takes place. But a bad book will tell me about the story rather than showing me. Going back to that mystery book, it wasn’t until the very end that we were told that one of the crimes was committed because of a lover. There was no lead-up, no clue, and no hint of the character being motivated by love. And there were sections that were told from the criminal’s point of view. It really pulled me out of the story because it just felt random. On that note…
5. Relevant details at irrelevant times- Part of receiving details of the character or the story means that they need to come at certain times. I read a book last year that did this. In one of the first scenes, as the main character gets out of bed, she steps on a mouse skeleton her cat left in her slipper. The author took that moment to tell us that this character was plus-sized. While it may have been an important detail, it just felt like the wrong time.
6. “Not like other girls”- This one, I feel, has become more popular recently. This is the idea that the main character is different from all the rest. I don’t mean different personalities. I mean that everyone else feels wooden and only the main character is fleshed out. Another way to think of this is if the side characters only exist to interact with the main character. It may feel like the side characters just conveniently show up when the plot needs them. Good books will have the characters feel like they have a life outside the main plot line.
7. Same synonyms- I know some authors will use the same words as a form of repetition to hammer the point. That’s fine; I love learning new words. But if you use the same word to describe different scenes, it simply feels repetitive. That mystery book that I mentioned used the term “chiaroscuro” at least three times in different scenes. I had to look that term up. It’s a technique in painting that contrasts really dark backgrounds with brighter subjects. The author could’ve used other terms to describe this technique, or they could’ve used the same word to describe the same place at different times. The use of the term multiple times for different scenes drew me out of the story and had me wondering when I would see that term again.
8. Reference to specific body parts- Oh man. My mom and my aunt will know exactly what book I’m talking about with this one. This one was a free book that I read on vacation one year, but it still sticks with me even now because of this issue. The plot had sounded so good, and I was intrigued by it. HOWEVER. The author made mention of every single female character’s breast. This was supposed to be a mystery or a thriller. So the mention of this specific body part on every female character just made the book absolutely terrible. The author made it feel like they were more concerned with what the characters looked like, rather than what they could do. I can understand if the detail is relevant to the character themselves. For example, in the book I am currently reading, the main character has silver eyes. She is the only one who has these eyes, and they often unnerve the other characters. That’s not the issue. Features can be important for the character and the plot, but I don’t need to know what size clothing they wear or how exactly their body is shaped.
9. Over/under audience level- One of my favorite writing tips I ever received came to me in college. I was writing a psychology paper that had a lot of acronyms and specialized definitions. This person said to me, “If it’s not common knowledge, then you need to explain it.” I have read books that don’t explain complex topics (I’ve mainly had this experience in nonfiction, but this can happen in fiction as well). And I have also read books that explain even the simplest of topics. Unless you are teaching a character how to do it for the first time, I don’t need to know how to swing a sword. But I may need instruction on how a magical sword works.
10. Overload of information- This one kind of goes back to being told. If you just give me so much information at once, it completely draws me out of the story. I remember I once tried to read The Scarlet Letter when I was in high school. I couldn’t get very far because the first at least ten pages was all description of the town and setting the stage. I understand it’s a classic, but I just felt so overwhelmed of information. There was no way I could keep it all straight. Nonfiction books do this a lot. I enjoy reading historical nonfiction, and they can just feel like they need to get all the information out at once. I’ve already read two nonfiction books this year, and they both did an excellent job of presenting the information in a way that didn’t feel overloaded. It bores me when authors, both fiction and nonfiction, feel the need to describe every detail of a setting. If the information is kept in relevant chunks, it is a lot more manageable than if it’s just dumped on the reader all at once.

I’m sure that I could think of more reasons, but these are current things that I’ve found that make a book bad. I’m not usually constrained to a genre. In May and April I read stories set in 1920s Pennsylvania steel, Viking times, outer space, feudal Japan, and modern-day London. I also read a nonfiction book about pirates in South America. I’m currently reading a fantasy romance. But these ten characteristics have stuck with me as ways that make a book stand out in a bad way.

I hope that you read and enjoy the process. Reading is so worthwhile! I’ll probably do a recommendation list in a couple of weeks once the school year is out. Find books that are great for you rather than books that are bad!