rainwaterspark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rainwaterspark) wrote2022-01-02 04:46 pm
rainwaterspark) wrote2022-01-02 04:46 pm
Book talk: random edition / Plotting fantasy novels
An Acquired Taste by Kelly Cain
Genre: Adult contemporary romance
I rarely force myself to finish books that I don't feel enthusiastic about. I still don't know how I managed to finish this one.
I liked the premise—I love romances that revolve around cooking competitions. But this competition stretched the limits of credulity, since it involved contestant families literally building a restaurant for the finale. Really? What kind of cooking competition would have that kind of time/money to do something like that?
Mostly, I didn't care for Rowan and Knox's relationship, which seemed to be entirely built on misunderstandings. I have a lot to say about the misunderstanding trope, and I'm not against it on principle. The thing is, I'm fine with romantic conflict due to misunderstanding if the misunderstanding is reasonable and if there's a good reason the two characters can't or won't communicate properly. If they won't talk to each other just because, that's when the trope falls flat for me.
Somehow, I haven't learned my lesson because even though this book was the meh-est of meh to me, I'm still going to give the sequel a shot. Sigh.
The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith
Genre: Adult, fantasy
This is looking like a DNF right now.
Between this book and Innate Magic by Shannon Fay (which I also DNF'ed), I'm starting to seriously wonder if Amazon's fantasy imprint (47North) just does not understand how fantasy plots are supposed to work.
This book has been on my Kindle for years (literally), and once in a while I make an effort to try to switch books on my Kindle from "Unread" to "Read". For a while, I didn't understand why I kept stopping in the middle of this book; the magic system is quite unique and I really liked being immersed in the French vineyards.
I think I understand why I've had a hard time finishing this book now.
It's because of the plot.
The main drive of the protagonists, Elena and Jean-Paul, is to save the failing vineyard at Château Renard, which has been cursed so that it's produced bad vintages for the past three years and is on the verge of financial ruin. Sounds good so far, right? Then there are also subplots involving who cursed Elena to be trapped in the form of a frog for seven years, as well as a criminal witch running around practicing dark magic in town, and Elena's ex, whom Elena assumes is the one who cursed her.
There's something that's done by many writers, and that's to constantly have things go wrong so that the main character(s) end up in more and more dire straits that they have to get themselves out of, increasing tension in the story. I learned something new today, which is that apparently, this technique can be misused.
The plot just kind of...careens from zero to a hundred, causing intense mood whiplash and stress for the reader. I mean, I read plenty of action-packed books, thrillers, and even violent books, and yet this book has caused me a level of stress I've rarely felt while reading. It goes from a kind of slow-build romantic fantasy plot, taking the time to explain its unique form of magic, to suddenly chase scenes and arrest scenes and murder that comes out of nowhere.
Now that I think about it, maybe false arrests for murder are what cause me a lot of stress in books. But in any case, the way this book's plot is constructed makes it hard for me to have a good time, because it feels like things happen almost completely at random and there's no slow build of tension, it's just things suddenly escalate at mach speed to the worst scenario.
Sigh. Looks like another book that I won't be able to mark off as read in my Kindle.
***
I came back to edit this post because The Vine Witch annoyed me so much that I started thinking about fantasy plots.
It boggles my mind that both Innate Magic and The Vine Witch (which were both published by 47North) don't follow the three-act structure. And it's not because they're doing something else innovative with plot structure, because they both also have issues with passive protagonists, or at the very least protagonists who don't drive the plot.
The three-act structure gets a lot of flack, but I believe it's the starting point for so many stories for a reason. It's emotionally satisfying to read about a protagonist who wants something, takes actions to get what they want, and faces an ultimate test over what they want.
Further, most readers want to know where a story is going when they start reading. That's why genre conventions exist and why people will sometimes rate a book negatively if it doesn't match their expectations. If I don't know where a story is going, it's hard to feel motivated to keep reading, because it's like wandering lost in a forest without a destination. Maybe some of the scenery along the way will be nice, but if you don't know where you're going, isn't the journey likely to feel like a waste of time?
Let's start with The Vine Witch. When the story starts, the reader thinks Elena's goal is to revive her failing vineyard and figure out who cursed her (and possibly get revenge). So far, so good, right?
Except that plot goes off the rails. Elena gets caught up in a blood magic investigation that leads her to randomly bump into her ex, who has been built up as the main antagonist and the person who probably cursed her. Except he dies off in the next chapter and she's suddenly arrested for his murder. Then the plot turns into her trial/subsequent escape from prison/her love interest's capture by the murderer...
Basically, the protagonists are not accomplishing their initial goal, because their goals are constantly changing in a way that is completely unrelated to the initial goal. I literally don't even know what the inciting incident is. Major plot events start happening to the main characters (such as the arrest), which makes the main characters seem passive.
This plot is literally a mess.
Innate Magic was kind of the same. It was slightly better in that there was a central plot, more or less, but it was just buried by a lot of side activities that, while eventually related to the main plot, made the plot feel unfocused and meandering and rather slow. If you take the inciting incident as the moment when Paul meets Hollister, the man who eventually helps him get on the list of candidates to become the next Court Magician, that doesn't happen until 25% of the way through. (Although I'm not entirely sure if that's the inciting incident, to be honest.)
It also had a problem with a passive protagonist—Paul doesn't really end up taking proactive actions to become Court Magician, he just ends up stumbling into a person who does it all for him because he wants Paul for something else.
Passive protagonists and lack of plot structure seem like something that would get you weeded out at the agent level, to be honest. It kind of boggles my mind that these books still got published when the fantasy market is so competitive these days.
Genre: Adult contemporary romance
I rarely force myself to finish books that I don't feel enthusiastic about. I still don't know how I managed to finish this one.
I liked the premise—I love romances that revolve around cooking competitions. But this competition stretched the limits of credulity, since it involved contestant families literally building a restaurant for the finale. Really? What kind of cooking competition would have that kind of time/money to do something like that?
Mostly, I didn't care for Rowan and Knox's relationship, which seemed to be entirely built on misunderstandings. I have a lot to say about the misunderstanding trope, and I'm not against it on principle. The thing is, I'm fine with romantic conflict due to misunderstanding if the misunderstanding is reasonable and if there's a good reason the two characters can't or won't communicate properly. If they won't talk to each other just because, that's when the trope falls flat for me.
Somehow, I haven't learned my lesson because even though this book was the meh-est of meh to me, I'm still going to give the sequel a shot. Sigh.
The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith
Genre: Adult, fantasy
This is looking like a DNF right now.
Between this book and Innate Magic by Shannon Fay (which I also DNF'ed), I'm starting to seriously wonder if Amazon's fantasy imprint (47North) just does not understand how fantasy plots are supposed to work.
This book has been on my Kindle for years (literally), and once in a while I make an effort to try to switch books on my Kindle from "Unread" to "Read". For a while, I didn't understand why I kept stopping in the middle of this book; the magic system is quite unique and I really liked being immersed in the French vineyards.
I think I understand why I've had a hard time finishing this book now.
It's because of the plot.
The main drive of the protagonists, Elena and Jean-Paul, is to save the failing vineyard at Château Renard, which has been cursed so that it's produced bad vintages for the past three years and is on the verge of financial ruin. Sounds good so far, right? Then there are also subplots involving who cursed Elena to be trapped in the form of a frog for seven years, as well as a criminal witch running around practicing dark magic in town, and Elena's ex, whom Elena assumes is the one who cursed her.
There's something that's done by many writers, and that's to constantly have things go wrong so that the main character(s) end up in more and more dire straits that they have to get themselves out of, increasing tension in the story. I learned something new today, which is that apparently, this technique can be misused.
The plot just kind of...careens from zero to a hundred, causing intense mood whiplash and stress for the reader. I mean, I read plenty of action-packed books, thrillers, and even violent books, and yet this book has caused me a level of stress I've rarely felt while reading. It goes from a kind of slow-build romantic fantasy plot, taking the time to explain its unique form of magic, to suddenly chase scenes and arrest scenes and murder that comes out of nowhere.
Now that I think about it, maybe false arrests for murder are what cause me a lot of stress in books. But in any case, the way this book's plot is constructed makes it hard for me to have a good time, because it feels like things happen almost completely at random and there's no slow build of tension, it's just things suddenly escalate at mach speed to the worst scenario.
Sigh. Looks like another book that I won't be able to mark off as read in my Kindle.
***
I came back to edit this post because The Vine Witch annoyed me so much that I started thinking about fantasy plots.
It boggles my mind that both Innate Magic and The Vine Witch (which were both published by 47North) don't follow the three-act structure. And it's not because they're doing something else innovative with plot structure, because they both also have issues with passive protagonists, or at the very least protagonists who don't drive the plot.
The three-act structure gets a lot of flack, but I believe it's the starting point for so many stories for a reason. It's emotionally satisfying to read about a protagonist who wants something, takes actions to get what they want, and faces an ultimate test over what they want.
Further, most readers want to know where a story is going when they start reading. That's why genre conventions exist and why people will sometimes rate a book negatively if it doesn't match their expectations. If I don't know where a story is going, it's hard to feel motivated to keep reading, because it's like wandering lost in a forest without a destination. Maybe some of the scenery along the way will be nice, but if you don't know where you're going, isn't the journey likely to feel like a waste of time?
Let's start with The Vine Witch. When the story starts, the reader thinks Elena's goal is to revive her failing vineyard and figure out who cursed her (and possibly get revenge). So far, so good, right?
Except that plot goes off the rails. Elena gets caught up in a blood magic investigation that leads her to randomly bump into her ex, who has been built up as the main antagonist and the person who probably cursed her. Except he dies off in the next chapter and she's suddenly arrested for his murder. Then the plot turns into her trial/subsequent escape from prison/her love interest's capture by the murderer...
Basically, the protagonists are not accomplishing their initial goal, because their goals are constantly changing in a way that is completely unrelated to the initial goal. I literally don't even know what the inciting incident is. Major plot events start happening to the main characters (such as the arrest), which makes the main characters seem passive.
This plot is literally a mess.
Innate Magic was kind of the same. It was slightly better in that there was a central plot, more or less, but it was just buried by a lot of side activities that, while eventually related to the main plot, made the plot feel unfocused and meandering and rather slow. If you take the inciting incident as the moment when Paul meets Hollister, the man who eventually helps him get on the list of candidates to become the next Court Magician, that doesn't happen until 25% of the way through. (Although I'm not entirely sure if that's the inciting incident, to be honest.)
It also had a problem with a passive protagonist—Paul doesn't really end up taking proactive actions to become Court Magician, he just ends up stumbling into a person who does it all for him because he wants Paul for something else.
Passive protagonists and lack of plot structure seem like something that would get you weeded out at the agent level, to be honest. It kind of boggles my mind that these books still got published when the fantasy market is so competitive these days.