Pages of Starlight: Giving Authors A Second Chance

Friday, August 7, 2015

Giving Authors A Second Chance

Lately I've been giving a lot of thought to author second chances. I'm usually one of those people that, if the first book doesn't work for me, I don't try the same author again. But, what happens if you miss out on something really good because you didn't read another book of theirs.

Honestly, if I hadn't given Marissa Meyer a second chance, I would have never found out how great The Lunar Chronicles is because I really didn't like Cinder. So that was a second chance that worked wonderful for me. Then there was the time that I gave Falling Kingdoms a second chance and really started liking the book. Great second chances there.

But what about loving the first book you read by an author and the second book is one of the most disappointing reads you've ever come across? Should you give the author a second chance? (Or would that be a third chance?)

Or what about hearing amazing things about a different book by the author? Do you give it a go?

I honestly love the idea of giving author's more than one book to draw you in and make you a fan - after all, everyone is allowed a clunker and what if the first book I read was that author's? But in practice, I'm terrible at it.

I feel that if I don't like one book by an author, chances are I won't like any others - so why should I bother when there's so many books whose authors might be my next new favorite?

What do you think? Are you good at giving authors more than one book to impress you? Or are you good at giving authors a second chance when a book disappoints you? Or are you like me and love the idea - but have a hard time doing it?

I'd love to know! Tell me how and why and any specific books/authors you've done this with.

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nikihawkes 21p · 501 weeks ago

Great topic! It's actually something I've been thinking about a lot lately. I think it comes down to WHY I didn't like a book that will determine whether or not I read something else by them. If it's just an issue with story and choices the author made, I'm totally game to pick up another book/series by them. If it's a problem with the writing, like a lack of world building, character development, etc., then I'm really hesitant to read anything else by them (especially considering all the amazing unread books still sitting on my shelves ;-) ) the most recent example I can think of is Jennifer Estep. I abandoned the final book in her Frost series because I just couldn't take the repetition and lack of any real substance anymore. Simultaneously, I decided that, even though I enjoyed the first book in her Spider series, I wouldn't continue on, fearing that it would wind up frustrating me for the same reasons. To another one of your points, if I read an awesome first book, but the second one let me down, I almost always give the author one more chance because I know that at least at some point I've enjoyed them (most recent example for that is Rebel Belle and Miss Mayhem by Hawkins... Although that's kind of cheating because I loved her Hex Hall series). In any case, as guilty as I feel about abandoning the series/author I always have to remind myself how many unread books I have from authors I absolutely adore, and then I feel better. :-)

PS, I enjoyed both Cinder and Scarlet, but hear I haven't seen anything until I've read Cress, lol.
My recent post Tackling the TBR [4]: August 2015!

2 replies · active 501 weeks ago

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AmyAelleah 80p · 501 weeks ago

Good point. I'd never really thought about the difference between the books that cause me to give the authors a second chance and the ones that don't. For me, the two big things are probably writing style and characters. I've read books whose writing style actually gives me a headache, so certainly I wouldn't be reading any more by that author. I'm personally a fan of more unobtrusive writing than anything else. As far as characters, that's really the make or break part of books for me. And unless it's a series with all the same characters, it's also something that changes with every book which leaves me with lots of problems deciding if I should give the author another go. There's this author (Jen Turano) who writes historical/christian/romance books. I loved her first book, but the three books of hers I've read since I've just been increasingly more disappointed with. Mostly because the characters/plot all follow the same pattern. So I totally understand not being able to read Jennifer Estep anymore because of repetition.

Yes! I thought Cinder was merely okay, liked Scarlet a lot, but I absolutely LOVED Cress. To me, this is a series that just kept progressively improving and also a great example of why I don't want to just stop if there's a chance the book/series/author might improve for me.

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nikihawkes 21p · 501 weeks ago

Yeah, if I can't even understand what the author is trying to say half the time (seriously, how do some of these people get published?) I'm definitely not willing to read anything else by them ha ha. If I find myself not connecting with the characters, I will usually still be willing to continue on with the story, but it doesn't usually get high priority.

I know what you mean about series that change POV characters with each book… It just seems to suck the fun out of reading them sometimes because I tend to latch on to whoever gets the first perspective. I really want to continue on with Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series because I absolutely love to the first two books, but I don't know that I'll be excited to read about other characters, even though she's a superb writer. That problem almost seems to go off topic though, lol.

Okay, fine. I'll read Cress! You've convinced me haha. I don't know why I've been stalling for so long…
My recent post Tackling the TBR [4]: August 2015!

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A Backwards Story · 501 weeks ago

What I do--books such as Falling Kingdoms, The Selection, Red Queen, etc--if I didn't really enjoy parts but saw potential and think the author will have grown (oftentimes, the first in a YA series these days is an author's debut), but am not sure if I will ultimately SUPER like the series but just enjoy it, I skip reading the second book the following year, and then I re-read book one and first-read books two and three when the finale came out. That way I don't re-read the first book more than once! (I forget a lot and often have to re-read).

There are definitely some books I won't re-read or continue because I know I won't keep going--I was so excited for The Maze Runner and The Jewel, but they weren't for me. There are other books that I thought the first book was OKAY, but when I re-read it later after loving the series more, I loved the book so much more on the new read, such as Throne of Glass and The Girl of Fire and Thorns.

So if I see potential, I'll come back! :)
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1 reply · active 500 weeks ago

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AmyAelleah 80p · 500 weeks ago

You know, I never gave the fact that so many YA series are by debut authors much thought. You've got a good point there - and a lot of authors do improve with their second book. It sounds like you've got a good plan there. It wouldn't do me much good because I'm not really one that rereads books before the next in the series comes out - but that's definitely an interesting idea.

I've had the same happen to me with my opinion of the first book being colored by later ones. Sometimes the first book is, as you said, merely 'okay' but later books are so awesome that whenever I do finally reread the first book, I like it a lot more.

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Friday, August 7, 2015

Giving Authors A Second Chance

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