Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Entertainment and Arts > Books
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 02-17-2019, 11:49 AM
 
Location: Northern California
128,891 posts, read 11,919,090 times
Reputation: 38760

Advertisements

Sometimes, when a character in a book is killed off, I have to put the book down & leave it for a while. Last year, I was reading Pachinko for my book club, & after someone died, I had to put it down for a week, it might have been for longer, except I wanted to have finished it by the meeting. Now, I am reading a suspense murder mystery & one of the kids dies, in a drowning accident, & again, I have to stop reading that book, & will move onto something else for now. Does this happen to anyone else?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 02-17-2019, 12:04 PM
 
Location: Nantahala National Forest, NC
27,074 posts, read 11,769,290 times
Reputation: 30347
I can't think of anything off hand. Is this something new for you, is it worrisome?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-17-2019, 12:25 PM
 
Location: Northern California
128,891 posts, read 11,919,090 times
Reputation: 38760
No it is not worrisome, I am annoyed, they threw in a death when it was not needed. Maybe it will make more sense once I resume the book.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-17-2019, 03:08 PM
 
Location: So Ca
26,653 posts, read 26,614,297 times
Reputation: 24707
Quote:
Originally Posted by evening sun View Post
Does this happen to anyone else?
Yes. In Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch novels, the death of

Spoiler
Bosch's wife, Eleanor Wish, blew me away. I did not see it coming, and she was such an integral character.

I had to close the book and couldn't return to it until the next day.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-17-2019, 10:19 PM
 
37,315 posts, read 59,675,006 times
Reputation: 25340
Quote:
Originally Posted by CA4Now View Post
Yes. In Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch novels, the death of

Spoiler
Bosch's wife, Eleanor Wish, blew me away. I did not see it coming, and she was such an integral character.

I had to close the book and couldn't return to it until the next day.
Yes—that was a surprise
Spoiler
But I felt like Connelly didn’t want to include her going forward—he didn’t want the distraction or interaction story lines might require if she was around...Maddy being a young girl wouldn’t be that much of an intrusion...


There are some novels I read and do have a very emotional reaction to what happens with some characters—even if I have read the book before...
I certainly remember crying when Beth dies in “Little Women†and Ol’ Yeller was shot...
I probably over-react at times and yes—I do have to pause sometimes and sometimes I get angry at the writer’s choice to do that....
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-19-2019, 04:59 PM
 
Location: Old Mother Idaho
29,198 posts, read 22,250,239 times
Reputation: 23827
A death in a novel sometimes disturbs me. I can't remember anything at all of a novel I once read in high school except for the death of an innocent woman that happened right at the end of the book. The cruelty of that death has stuck with me all these years.

I hate stories where killing people becomes a way for the writer to solve all plot problems or an ending to the book. I especially hate them when the death is as pointless as the characters who are killed off.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-23-2019, 05:13 PM
 
8,721 posts, read 4,987,290 times
Reputation: 21195
for me the death was a dog. It bothered me for a long time. Can`t remember the name of the book though.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-25-2019, 03:57 PM
 
Location: Southwest Washington State
30,585 posts, read 25,032,601 times
Reputation: 50796
Anne Tyler’s A Spool of blue Thread has an unexpected death near the end. Tyler invested quite a bit of the book in the character, so the death was a shock. But I think this was in service to her story.

I do not remember putting the book down for a bit, though.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-25-2019, 09:15 PM
 
Location: In the Redwoods
30,286 posts, read 51,826,004 times
Reputation: 23660
I was literally just discussing this today with a colleague, when I said it was silly how upset I got over the death of a video game character... but he said it's no different from book or movie/TV characters, and how invested we get in their lives. It's weird, isn't it?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-26-2019, 02:06 PM
 
Location: North America
4,430 posts, read 2,683,452 times
Reputation: 19315
Quote:
Originally Posted by evening sun View Post
Sometimes, when a character in a book is killed off, I have to put the book down & leave it for a while. Last year, I was reading Pachinko for my book club, & after someone died, I had to put it down for a week, it might have been for longer, except I wanted to have finished it by the meeting. Now, I am reading a suspense murder mystery & one of the kids dies, in a drowning accident, & again, I have to stop reading that book, & will move onto something else for now. Does this happen to anyone else?
I'm a fairly dispassionate consumer of fiction, but the more a character's death impacts me, the better. To evoke emotion, to make one feel, is the highest praise I can give to a storyteller.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Entertainment and Arts > Books

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top