And This Got Published?

[redheadedfemme]

 While shopping this morning, I picked up a copy of Christopher Pike's "Thirst," about a teenage vampire, and started leafing through it.

This didn't last very long. The first three pages consisted entirely of exposition--the most godawful, mind-numbing, speechifying exposition I have ever had the misfortune to read. I remember the protagonist complaining about her hair being like blonde silk, and the depressing experience of everyone taking her for an eighteen-year-old until she opened her mouth, when presumably all of her actual five thousand years of existence came tumbling out. 

This is a published novel, mind you. 

Good books, in my experience, start with a scene and dialogue. I'll never know if this one was good or not, because I promptly put it back (while muttering under my breath about "what terrible writing!"). It's also made me wary about ever glancing through anything by Christopher Pike again.

Until now, I don't think I've ever experienced an "I can do better than that!" moment. But I certainly did today.

Hell, I can do better than that in my frakking sleep. 

Comments

[nycshelly.livejournal.com]

I've read wonderful books that started with exposition. Well written exposition, mind you. I have to admit that sometimes, I'm tempted to stop reading, but I've been rewarded more times than not, thankfully, by sticking with them. The Stolen Child by Keith Donohoe was one such book. In fact, it's become one of my all-time favorites. But the book you mention does not sound like it was well written.