On First Books Followed by Second Books

 

Jodi sent me this: 

http://www.gayleforman.com/blog/2011/03/08/the-spoiler-conundrum/

Gayle Forman about spoiling the first book by talking about the second book.

So I read it.  Yes. 

                 And if you're scratching your head and thinking, Gayle Forman, I know I know that name, here's one place you may have seen it:  http://robinmckinleysblog.com/2010/08/14/friday-the-13th-or-ya-is-not-a-dirty-word/

                 She had just written an excellent blog on the Gosh! Adults read YA! Imagine that! phenomenon (and she was a lot politer about it at length than I was able to be even briefly*) . . . and she is also the author of the (note:  YA) novel IF I STAY, which is wonderful and brilliant and a major tear-jerker**, and which Jodi and I both had trouble figuring out how to review because it's another one where pretty much everything about it is a spoiler.  (There are gazillions of rave reviews about it out there, and all of us had to choose our own little tap dance about this.)  Jodi was much more virtuous about merely saying 'it will make you cry but read it anyway' than I was;  I gave you (and am giving you again) the set up which is that Mia's parents are killed in a car accident that leaves her and her little brother dangerously near death in hospital.  The title refers to the choice she has to make:  is she going to struggle back from her coma and re-enter the land of the living, with the almost unbearable struggle with her absolute loss and her severe physical injuries that would entail . . . or is she going to let this world go, and follow her parents?

NOTE THAT WHAT FOLLOWS MAY COUNT AS SPOILERS.  IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IF I STAY YET, STOP READING THIS BLOG AND GO SHAMPOO THE CAT, OR ENTER THE DETAILS OF YOUR STASH ON RAVELRY, OR PRUNE THE GZUMBLEBERRY TREES.  Or, of course, fish IF I STAY out of your TBR pile, and start reading. 

            There's a sequel to IF I STAY.  It's called WHERE SHE WENT.  Hmm. 

Forman writes:

Because of course, the very existence of WHERE SHE WENT is basically a spoiler. Though I tried to fudge it for a while, by saying it was a book that takes place three years later and is from Adam's point of view (I figured that vagueness, plus title, could mean Mia decided to depart this fair world), now there are ARCs and jacket copy floating about. It is pretty darn clear that the book is about Mia and Adam. Not the ghost of Mia and the human Adam, though Adam does spend a fair amount of time battling ghosts. Not an angel Mia. A flesh-and-blood Mia.

Forman also says that when IF I STAY first came out, she tried not to tell anyone anything—that ideally a reader would sit down with this unknown book and be blown away by what happens—like poor Mia herself is.  You should be shocked by the accident.  Yes, you should.  But . . .

            . . . I think you will be whether you know it's coming or not.  I agree that you want to plonk, plonk, plonk plonk, plonk, plonk spoil as little of a story as possible when you're recommending it.***  This is really my argument against (plonk, plonk etc) what happens to books in way too many literature-study classrooms:  taking the poor things apart like pickled frogs in biology lab, and labelling all the bits.  You're not going to be able to put it back together again.  Most books won't stand that kind of vivisection—I think. 

            But at the same time . . . the story's the thing.  Not the plot—again, I think.  The story, which is to say the telling.  The kind of spoilers that show up in book reviews—including blogs, chat rooms and publishers' advertising—won't wreck that.  They may muddy its hems a little (and I have a whole rant about plot-summary flap copy).  Have I spoiled LOTR for anyone by telling you how THE TWO TOWERS ends?†  I doubt it.  It's the long, long, long weary exciting life-or-death thing that gets you (or doesn't), not so much the individual adventures along the way.††   I'm also someone who doesn't think there are any really new stories—just retellings of old ones, juggled around and jigsawed a little differently.  It's how you retell your chosen old hoary tale that matters.†††

            I admit I'm a little startled that Forman has (apparently) given quite so much of WHERE SHE WENT away.‡  I'm sure she and her publisher went round and round about this and they decided the buzz was going to be worth the spoiler.  And she's such a good writer I'm sure they're right.

            I of course think daily‡‡ about the first book-second book thing, and how much (or not) you can say about the second without massively spoiling the first.‡‡‡  It annoys me a lot that I can't occasionally whiffle a few intriguing snippets of PEG II at you here§, but for reasons plain to anyone who has read the first one, this is not a good idea.  Which  is to say that that my searchanddestroybots are still programmed to hunt down and pitilessly seize anyone caught giving the ending of PEGASUS away to anyone who hasn't read it yet§§ . . . but a good story survives givings-away.  Or why would anyone reread anything? 

* * *

* But then I'm twenty years older than she is and my patience has worn thinner. 

** It's an interesting phrase, 'tear jerker'.  I have an apocalyptic vision of gremlins with burning tweezers.  

*** Whereas if you're saying 'don't bother' I am very grateful for every detail.  Especially how it ends.   Is the prom queen swallowed by the giant boa constrictor?   Does the alligator from the wrong side of the swamp marry the prince? 

† No.  Because everyone reading this blog has either already read it, or can't deal with Tolkien and isn't going to. 

†† There are stories that are pretty dependent on their plot twists.  Anybody not know the secret of, say, THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD?  You'll probably want to go back and reread it when you find out.  Well, I did.  But then I read stories as naïvely as I possibly can.  If I can see the ending coming—especially in mysteries—I grow cranky, because I feel the author isn't doing her job.  In fact I had to give up reading Christie because I got so I always did know who the murderer was.   And there isn't much to Christie except the plot. 

††† Some more overtly retold than others (says the woman who has retold Beauty and the Beast several times).

‡ I didn't watch the video.  Either video.  I'm okay with the existence of WHERE SHE WENT, but I don't want to know any more before I read it. 

‡‡ Hourly.  Minutely.  Secondly.  Aaaaaugh.  

‡‡‡ Although the end of PEGASUS is a bit like IF I STAY ending a page or a chapter before Mia decides.  Where PEGASUS ends is clearly still the middle of the story.  I don't think Forman had to write the next one—except, of course, that she did, because the story came to her and said Write Me.  I'm Talking to You.

           And while nobody dies in PEGASUS I make no promises about PEG II.  As I keep saying, it isn't up to me. 

§ Authors are supposed to have blogs because they're marketing tools.  Ha ha ha ha ha ha.  I'm sure reading about bells, roses, knitting, hellhounds, music and the rest has enormous (positive) effect on my book sales.  Blergh.

§§ Those captured will be relentlessly locked in small dark rooms with no chocolate, yarn or books.