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Determining Spoilers and Triggers
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Trike pretty much just explained my love of rereading Arcadia. It's 10x more fun when you know what's coming down the line. I get to enjoy how very clever it is every time I read it. And man, it would royally suck to have that one spoiled. It would ruin everything.
I’m digging up an old thread here- Sarah Kozloff wrote an interesting article for Tor around Spoilers and Spoilerphobia: hereCurious what others thought if they read it? I cringed when she boldly claimed “Plot doesn’t matter!”. I’m sure I misinterpreted what she means but immediately thought, Well, I’ll probably never read one of her books....
Mod
Everyone gets to determine how to consume and appreciate art for themselves and I call bullshit on anyone who says that other people's preferences interfere with society's best interests. Like, find you friends who don't care about spoilers if you wanna talk spoilers. Use the tag system and discuss away, it's not like the internet can't accommodate both.
I could see it being more difficult in classrooms, and I think there we have to decide what's most important. Students shouldn't take a class about movies if they can't talk about movies lol. And teachers should help contextualize things if that's conducive to students learning--we watched many movie clips in classes before we discussed concepts they explore.
I guess what I'm saying is that this issue is never going to be universally satisfied and it's always gonna be a conversation with the people "in the room" so to speak. All we can do is set expectations, guidelines, and have open communication.
Allison wrote: "Yeah....nah.Everyone gets to determine how to consume and appreciate art for themselves and I call bullshit on anyone who says that other people's preferences interfere with society's best intere..."
Yeah. I laughingly agreed with her friend regarding The Sixth Sense. I don't think I've ever watched it again since the first time. I'm also not much of a re-reader.
I do think she had interesting points about expectations existing as spoilers as well as spoilers as they relate to socioeconomic class/privilege. (I have never once had HBO until this year and have felt painfully over the years being excluded from those conversations surrounding Sookie Stackhouse, Game of Thrones, and others).
Mod
I just read the article earlier today and there might have been some valid points, but overall tone seemed rather condescending to me. I understand the part about film/book discussions in class. You can't properly analyse anything, if you're not willing to discuss everything, so no one should complain about spoilers in this kind of situation. A full list of works should be provided prior to the class, though, so everyone has a chance to familiarize themselves with the material.
In any other situation, many of us cannot fully enjoy the story, if someone recklessly reveals major plot points/twists. I'm in this group and I cannot fully enjoy a story, if I have stumbled upon a spoiler.
But actually, it was one of the comments that annoyed me more. Someone mentioned that people should be careful with spoilers only immediately after release. If someone didn't get to a book/film within the first 2 weeks, it means that they don't care about it enough and shouldn't complain about spoilers. That was so extremely privileged...
I can't believe I never found this thread until now. >_<Anna wrote: "I've managed to avoid actual spoilers for everything that matters to me. I really dislike it when people talk about a book in an otherwise non-spoilery way, but then they say something like "that twist was so unexpected!" or "when you get to the end your mind will be blown!" or "wow chapter 17!", etc. That will drastically change how I read the book and I think it lessens the enjoyment of discovering those twists and surprising moments yourself, same as any other spoiler.
I often don't even read the blurbs, they're too spoilery sometimes. I like going in as blind as possible."
It's like I wrote this myself. ^^
I do try to avoid spoilers as much as possible on my own, and I'm very conscious of providing clear spoiler warnings in my reviews, though I almost never check the box to hide the review - I figure people can read as much of the review as they are comfortable with reading, should they choose to.
I appreciate when others do the same in their reviews, and are conscientious about posting spoilery content to their feeds and social media info.
I am of the opinion though that there are no statutes of limitations on spoilers. A book (or movie, or TV show, etc) is always going to be new to someone who has yet to experience it. I don't care if it's 1000 years old - the individual human person will be experiencing it for a first time at some point, and their experience shouldn't be needlessly ruined because other (inconsiderate) people think the product is "old enough" and now it's fair game for full on spoilers that will ruin the experience.
Oh wow, past me was so lucky! Now I "have to" read blurbs all the time. Fortunately I read so many that I tend to forget what they said and even which book they're about. I guess I could populate mod polls based on which books have the prettiest covers :P Ooh, I should make that a mod poll theme! *starts planning*I saw the article in the newsletter, but I didn't read it, because I don't really care what someone thinks about spoilers. Like Allison said, it's nicest to take everyone into consideration, it's not so hard to make sure you're not spoiling things for others.
Anna wrote: "Oh wow, past me was so lucky! Now I "have to" read blurbs all the time. Fortunately I read so many that I tend to forget what they said and even which book they're about. I guess I could populate m..."LOL that's why I have a real problem doing group read moderation in my groups. I don't want to have to read and vet all the books based on their blurbs! *Worst Mod Ever*
I remember when Justin Cronin's The Passage was new and the "It" thing, and I was so excited about reading it because of the Post-Apocalypticness of it... and then someone ruined my anticipation and changed my whole feeling about it by telling me that it contains (view spoiler). COMPLETELY different book now. Sigh.
I still enjoyed it, but it really changed the reading experience to know that going in. :/
PS. I would totally be down for a pretty cover BOTM. :)
I even read reviews now, gasp! See all the sacrifices I make for the group!! :PI haven't read Passage, but I looked at the spoiler anyway, and WHAT XD Now I kinda want to read it?
LOL! It's a good book - but TW: It's pretty brutal!
I'll probably forget about it in about 3 minutes :)
I've never seen an actual fist fights over this topic but I have seen bitter arguments, bitter arguments indeed.
the great thing about the rewatch of "The Sixth Sense" is watching people who haven't seen it during the big reveal. I too am in favor of a lifetime "No spoiler" rule.
Allison wrote: "Yeah! I do think that's worth thinking about. Even time. I almost always get to see movies before my friends with young children, because I have more free time and it's not a huge production to get to a theater. My rule of thumb for assuming something has joined the lexicon by cultural osmosis is 1 year after a bestselling book has come out, 1 month after a movie has made it to dvd/streaming services, and 1 month after a season ends. And I generally ask first anyways, but you know, like I love you 3000, I expect most folks at least know what that's from now, even if they haven't seen it."Didn't recognize the phrase so looked it up. I dislike not knowing things most people know, and stuff.
Turns out I'd both seen the film, and recognized the scene after looked it up. I'd no idea the phrase had caught on as a catch-phrase like that one about drinking a milkshake (I've never seen that film, though recognize the phrase; I think the only reason I'd see the film is to find out why oil men were making and offering each other milkshakes).
Right, sorry. I prefer not to be spoiled. It's vaguely interesting how there's this article that includes stuff about not carrying about plot; and I go look at reviews for that author's work and a few reviews seem to indicate that, yes, the author really did, in fact, not really care about plot.
"the great thing about the rewatch of "The Sixth Sense" is watching people who haven't seen it during the big reveal. I too am in favor of a lifetime "No spoiler" rule."
I've only seen that film once. And I watched it months after it first appeared on the screen. Though I did see it on the screen. By myself. If you want a vaguely spooky feeling inside yourself, vauge creepy crawly feelings, see something like "The Sixth Sense" for the first time in a huge theater by yourself.
I agree with this here:
"I am of the opinion though that there are no statutes of limitations on spoilers. A book (or movie, or TV show, etc) is always going to be new to someone who has yet to experience it. I don't care if it's 1000 years old - the individual human person will be experiencing it for a first time at some point, and their experience shouldn't be needlessly ruined because other (inconsiderate) people think the product is "old enough" and now it's fair game for full on spoilers that will ruin the experience."
I find this topic fascinating. Just think, for those of us born prior to 1970, when we came into the world, the only way something would be "spoiled" is if a friend bought a copy of the book, (or saw the film, etc.) read it, and then revealed plot details to us over the phone, or if someone else did that to them, and they passed the spoiler onto us, etc., unless the book was important (and old) enough that the plot was laid out somewhere like an encyclopedia, etc. Even reviews in newspapers and magazines back then prided themselves on being non-spoilerish. It was sacrilege to give away especially how a work ended. Reviewers of that era seemed to devote a lot of time and effort to critiquing the writer's style, prose, analyzing themes explored, etc. but not giving away the goodies.
Today, I still prefer reviews that adhere to the concept "less is more". Tell me all about everything else in terms of the book, and even the author - the perspective they right in, the social issues they explore, how controversial the book title is and why - just don't reveal too much about the plot, and we are golden. It's an art form, but I believe one can still craft a review that will absolutely make me want to buy the book, without telling me what happens in chapter thirty. Not saying that I don't appreciate reviews that provide more detail than more cursory aspects, just that a good reviewer for me knows how to convince you to read (or not to read) a book if they do it right, absent of real spoilers.
I have always felt the whole concept of spoilers is a gambit that we human beings should consider whether or not we need to fight to overcome. I just don't know how, lol (hey, never look to me for answers, just more questions haha). Anything new and big in the 21st century comes with spoilers attached. Well what's the point of spoilers really? I think, to increase the hype, drive sales, and make you so worried over the possibility of being spoiled that it drives your fervor to get the book / see the movie, etc before you get spoiled. To make you do everything to avoid being spoiled. Sounds like a virtual impossibility, most of the time.
I seems as modern humans we can't seem to bear the disappointment of knowing ANYTHING about some blockbuster that a million people have seen or read, despite the onslaught and prevalence of social media, and everyone being obsessed about spoilers. An unrealistic expectation, perhaps? That's for the individual to judge, but we all know about spoiler etiquette, and how upset many of us are when someone has broken protocol. We're upset because for so many of us, the experience is ruined. We are shattered. We've worked so hard NOT to hear anything about this sensation EVERYONE is talking, tweeting, blogging, etc. about. And after all our hard work, someone has dared to burs our bubble. How can we possibly enjoy the movie / book / etc. now?
I tried to be partially "spoiler-proof" with a new, wildly popular book I really was pumped about. Call it a social experiment, just to see if I could do it. I went ahead and purposely found out what the ending (just the ending, which was also the climax in this case) was of that something I really wanted to read was. To see how badly it changed the way I might read it, and then I forced myself to buy the book anyway.
I have to admit, I was surprised by the results. All I knew from my spoiler-seeking was that one of the secondary characters dies at the end, because that was the main point of most of the spoilers I read about the novel. But it was still a big knowledge to have. It was also a character I had grown attached to. A character who seemed to have a bright future, and had just finally found happiness in love. I was sad, but I was keen to know HOW they died, because they were one of the more powerful fighters in the series, and one of the smartest ones at staying alive.
So what were the results? How did I feel? Do I believe I enjoyed the book LESS because I knew one of my favs was going to get offed? I honestly have to say, it was a relief, in some ways, to know. Perhaps it decreased the drama, and intensity of the climax. Perhaps it INCREASED it, as I prepared myself for the heartbreak I knew was going to inevitably come, as I found myself feeling "it's going to be hard to read this, I don't wanna look"! I still did not know if everyone else I liked would make it out alive. So I was still tense about that too. Perhaps even MORE tense and excited because my fav had pretty thick plot armour, or so I thought. It drove up the suspense, as I fretted over the fate of all my other favs.
Keeping in mind this was a very "targeted" spoilering. I ONLY looked into the outcome of the final battle near the very end of the book. I did not know what happened before throughout the book (i.e. another favorite character got axed, but that was not explained in the spoiler, because it happened early on in the novel).
Anyway, it was an interesting trial run, to see if I could still read and enjoy something after I purposely spoiled it for myself. In some ways, it was like taking control of the situation, because it was self-induced. Was I successful? Does that mean I can just be ok with being spoiled, at least in small doses, after my analysis?
NO WAY! I don't think I could do that again, lol, and I never did, but it was good to try. To be honest, I truly don't know what the impact was - if it was better or worse to be spoiled, and I don't think I will ever really be able to assess it. Is being surprised, the wonder of discovery, the anticipation of NOT knowing what happens, the main joy of reading? Or is knowing SOMETHING ok? Can knowing SOMETHING actually make the reading experience enhanced, in some way? I'm not sure....
What I do know is, I'm just too scared to try it again, lol! I am thoroughly back to trying to insulate myself, whenever possible, from spoilers.
What do others think? Should we be trying to overcome the whole concept of being spoiled, at least to a certain degree?
What I'm curious about is how people who are very spoiler-averse (people in this discussion who put themselves in that category can help me with this!) deal with re-reading a book. Do you just not do that? If you do, is the experience different? Better, not as good, just as good but not the same? Or does it depend on the book?
Depends on the book obviously! I reread a lot, but I wouldn't reread a thriller that's 98% twist, what would be the point? With other books it's fun to see clues about things that are coming, or to just enjoy the ride again. Or sometimes the book is so complex you're still learning lots on multiple rereads.
I don’t re-read a lot, but those I do, it’s because I don’t remember plot details, or the ending, or how we got to the ending, or who did it, or how, or perhaps it was so mystifying that I cannot recount it after a while and need to revisit it, or it was so packed with info between the lines that I couldn’t absorb everything on the first read and have to read it again for all the things I missed. So I am in fact not spoiled :-P
Margaret wrote: "What I'm curious about is how people who are very spoiler-averse (people in this discussion who put themselves in that category can help me with this!) deal with re-reading a book. Do you just not ..."I am a huge re-reader. My lovely wife laughs at me, because you could not pay her to re-read a book more than once.
There's nothing for me like picking up a book you loved, and re-visiting it a few years later. Especially re-reading series - that's actually one of my favorites. For me it's like visiting with an old friend, who are catching up with what's been going on in their life, or revealing you something about them you did not know. There's always some new info to acquire. But I always discover something I missed, or did not grasp, with a re-read. Especially if it was a real page turner, where I blew threw some relevant dialogue with my first brush, to get to the juicy parts. I already listed my top 5 books of all time in that post - I can say I've re-read those books dozens of times.
As long as the re-read has some distance from the original read (I'd say about at least a year) it works for me.
I also think re-reading depends very much on the book. I tend to re-read humorous, anecdotal stuff because like a good joke, it never gets old. I probably read all books written by Marc-Uwe Kling several times over, simply because they are rather short and always fun. They probably don't translate all too well though. The Witcher short story collections are something I return to every once in a while, too.
I've also recently started re-reading some of the books I have fond memories of from my childhood and youth. Things like the Harry Potter books, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings, essential stuff really but stuff I read many years ago.
Generally though, I don't re-read too many books. It really depends. I think The Library at Mount Char might be a good candidate, because I still feel like: "What the hell did I just read?"
Margaret wrote: "What I'm curious about is how people who are very spoiler-averse (people in this discussion who put themselves in that category can help me with this!) deal with re-reading a book. Do you just not ..."I'm a huge re-reader, and, as you say, spoiler-averse. :)
For me, the two things are entirely and completely separate. I don't want the surprise and experience of a book to be ruined by someone else giving away what happens. I don't want their interpretation of events, or their summary, etc... I want the story to speak for itself and share what it has with me directly.
With re-reading, I don't feel spoiled just because I know what's going to happen... I may have read it, but that doesn't mean I KNOW it. Re-reading is an entirely different experience. You may know WHAT happens, but there are often nuances or insights that are gleaned on re-reads that you wouldn't notice or otherwise see on first "OMG WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT??" reads.
For instance, I've been a lifelong Stephen King fan (until about 2013 anyway), and have read every one of his books, many multiple times. And every time I have read them, I have a different experience. A lot of his books tie together, and so reading them in a particular order, or with insight from other books changes it up, makes it new, lets you see a perspective that maybe wasn't clear before.
Or, maybe I'M the one who has changed. As I get older and read other books, learn and grow as a human person, my perspective changes, and therefore the way I read does. I am likely to get something very different out of books now than I would have years ago...
Then there are books that are... just wonderfully multifaceted and layered and mysterious, which just don't give up all of their secrets at once. Those are good to re-read because you can then better understand all of the pieces, or appreciate the technique/skill/nuance that went into it, knowing what the whole picture looks like.
Sometimes it's just intended to be a comfort read... but most times I end up getting more out of it than that.
Hans wrote: "Generally though, I don't re-read too many books. It really depends. I think The Library at Mount Char might be a good candidate, because I still feel like: "What the hell did I just read?""Can confirm. It is worth re-reading. :) I just re-read this one and it was very helpful and made SO MUCH MORE SENSE on re-read! lol
Becky wrote: "Can confirm. It is worth re-reading. :) I just re-read this one and it was very helpful and made SO MUCH MORE SENSE on re-read! lol"I kinda liked how it didn't always make a lot of sense the first time around though. It was like: "Ok, I have no idea whats going on and why, but who cares, somehow I'm having fun." Admittedly, one of the craziest books I have read so far.
LOL I know what you mean, Hans. I actually felt that it felt... less complete, in a way, on the re-read. Some of the things that stuck out to me so vividly on my first read were just fly-by mentions on the re-read and I wanted more. I will say that on the whole, it made more sense, and I definitely got more out of the characters' stories because of that, but now I'm like "SEQUEL WHEN??" hehe. ;)
Yes, please! And to get back on topic, it's also a very hard book to spoil because it's nearly impossible to explain it to someone who hasn't read it in a way that would make sense. All you can do is throw in keywords like "serial killer with pink tutu", laugh maniacally and hope it gets people interested :)
My husband found a Youtube channel that talks about various movies on streaming services, and he was so excited about it because he never knows what to watch. Me? I'm like mehh. I don't want a summary from some guy. He tries to be vague, but then he'll be like "The twist in the second half is mind-blowing!" and then I'm just like... THANKS. Now I'll be waiting for that, and the entire time I'll be sitting here trying to guess what it is, instead of just WATCHING THE MOVIE. Or another one, where he mentions a "slight supernatural element" to the story, and I'm like "UGH! It's not something included in the description of the movie, and not something that's obvious about it, so WHY WOULD YOU MENTION THAT??"
Like, I get wanting to make lists and encourage people to find hidden gems or underrated movies, and I appreciate that, but I'm not trying to have the experience ruined by vague hype-spoilers.
I also don't get the appeal of all those Youtube channels that explain a show, a book or a movie. I get reviews, I write reviews myself and I think it's ok to give some hints at what the whole thing is about and why I liked or disliked it in a review.And if something is as hard to describe to people as for example The Library at Mount Char, throwing in some random bits of crazyness is also kinda ok, especially if it's a thing that is self-explanatory within the first couple of pages.
But yeah, there are people on Youtube who will actually outright spoil the whole thing as if people were too stupid to read or watch the book or movie or series for themselves. Same goes for those "ending explained" channels. There are really very few books/movies/series that are so complicated that after watching them I thought: "Huh? I don't understand it. Could somebody please explain this to me in 20 minute Youtube video?"
Oh I don't mind if someone does a critical analysis or in-depth review, and I even like watching/reading those, but I just don't want to know too much BEFORE letting the book or movie speak for itself as to what it is or about. I actually looked for one of those "ending explained" videos on Saturday after I watched "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" on Netflix. I read and loved the book last year, but the adaptation ending was very different from what I remembered about the book, and I was curious what the director's decision represented.
I am totally in favor of those kinds of things and really enjoy them a lot of the time, but they should be opt-in on the watcher's/reader's part. :)
Inception had a confusing ending. However, as a member of a Survivor/Amazing Race/Project Runway and other reality show spoiler/discussion forums, I found it was kinda interesting to watch the show and figure out why a certain person got the boot.
Becky wrote: "Oh I don't mind if someone does a critical analysis or in-depth review, and I even like watching/reading those, but I just don't want to know too much BEFORE letting the book or movie speak for its..."Ok, if a story is very multi-layered and offers multiple ways of interpretation, of course I like to discuss it with people to see what they are thinking or maybe watch someone's interpretation on Youtube. Many of those "ending explained" videos often seem to state the obvious though or pretend to have the one definite answer, at least in my experience. I'd agree that they are not all like that, but I prefer discussions when it comes to interpretation.
If an author or director makes a video to explain their intent, that's another cup of tea of course.
The beauty of the interwebz is that there is no shortage of content out there, so one person's explanation isn't ever the end-all-be-all... Not even the creator's. Heck, I've seen people argue with JK Rowling on twitter over Snape's motivations. And she created him. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I also think the danger of those vague spoilers run the risk of not feeling like a “mind blowing twist” in the end and lead to disappointment.I read a few reviews like this for The Couple Next Door and upon reading everything felt pretty obviously cut and dry with no major twists. Maybe because I was expecting “a mind blowing twist”? But what’s a twist to some might not feel like a twist to others after all. A lot of it depends on reader expectation which will vary reader to reader.
Especially with long running series I have made the experience that one person's mind blowing twist is another person's "yeah, saw that coming three books ago".
I think I tried to answer this post back in 2017 when Allison originally posted it but couldn’t find the time. Probably because I can't write just a few sentences like a normal person! I still don’t have the time, but I have lots of opinions about spoilers so I’m going to post anyway so that I don’t have to try again in 2023. :) I didn't have time to read/re-read all the posts, so apologies to anybody if I seem to be parroting you without giving any credit; it wasn’t intentional!Going back to Allison’s original questions and comments…
Whose responsibility it is to avoid spoilers?
I guess I lean more toward it being the responsibility of the person who doesn’t want to be spoiled, but I do think the people with the spoilerly knowledge should make some effort to avoid blatantly spoiling things. The context of where/how the spoilers are revealed also makes a difference. Giving spoilers for a book in a thread or a review about that book doesn't have the same effect as casually revealing a spoiler in a general conversation thread, especially if the reader doesn’t even know what book you’re talking about until after you’ve spoiled it. If I don't want to risk being spoiled about a book, then I avoid any threads or reviews specifically about that book, but there have been times my eyes have absorbed a spoiler before my brain could tell me, "Noooo, don't read that!" because it came unexpectedly.
Also, since new people are being born every day who haven’t read the books that “everybody” knows, I don’t think there’s any statute of limitations on spoilers. Just because a book is old doesn’t mean people who haven’t read it yet don’t deserve a chance to be surprised by it when they read it for the first time.
But the thing is, even if we lived in a world where everybody masked their spoilers, everybody has a different opinion about what a spoiler is. So you can’t rely exclusively on other people to protect you from spoilers because they might not think they’re revealing a spoiler. I’m more averse to spoilers than most. I won’t even read book blurbs or friend reviews before I start a book. If I plan to read a book someday, I avoid any book-specific threads about that book and I’ll either avoid or skim friend reviews for it depending on how soon I intend to read it myself. If I’m not going to read it in the near future, I’ll skim a friend's review for just the opinion-based bits and skip anything that speaks too directly about the book. If I’m going to read it soon, I skip the review altogether. In either case, I go back to read the review after I’ve read the book myself. When I’m participating in a group read, I avoid even the non-spoiler threads until I’ve finished the book because people often reveal more information than I would want to know, not intentionally trying to spoil anybody, but because they have a less strict definition of what a spoiler is than I do.
What constitutes a spoiler?
Pretty much anything. :) I don’t want to know anything until either the book reveals it to me or I guess it myself based on the context of the book. Not even the little things, not the information in the blurb, not some minor aspect of the character that hasn’t been revealed yet, nothing. I like to have the chance to figure things out for myself. If I feel like I know what’s going to happen because of some outside information, I feel like I’ve been spoiled.
For me, the issue with spoilers isn’t only about having a surprise revealed, although that’s a big part of it. Knowing even a small piece of what’s going to happen makes it easier to guess what direction the story will need to go in to get from point A to B. This makes the book feel more like a commute to work than a road trip to some cool new destination.
Triggers
I like the way Allison does it in her reviews, putting the trigger warnings in spoiler tags. I think this is the best of both worlds, allowing people to see them or not depending on their preference.
Once in a great while I’ll mention something if it stands out even to me, but for the most part I don’t try to provide trigger warnings because I don’t want to give people a false sense that I’m somebody they can count on for that. I’m not. I’m the opposite of that. I can understand why people might want trigger warnings for some things, and I can definitely understand why people who are better attuned to triggers would be happy to take the time to make notes about them and provide them, but I’m not triggered by much personally and I don’t always notice or remember the things that others might consider a trigger.
Personal Rules
For the most part, my personal rules about revealing spoilers is to try not to reveal anything about the plot itself that happens past the first several pages of the book, maybe a chapter or two unless they’re long chapters. I don’t get out my book and verify what page the thing I’m talking about is on before I write it though, so I might violate my own rule sometimes. Aside from plot specifics from early in the book, I try to be generic in my unhidden comments. I might complain about a character being whiny or something like that, but I won’t reveal outside of spoiler tags what specifically they did to make me call them that.
If something happens really early in the book but is meant to be a surprise, I usually try to avoid giving that info away too. The problem there is that sometimes something that seems really obvious to one person will be a complete surprise to somebody else, so even when I try to be careful I might accidentally reveal something that somebody else would have wanted to be surprised by. This is why I avoid reading reviews even from the many friends I trust to avoid spoilers if I plan to read the book myself soon, because I think it’s impossible to write a review that’s completely spoiler free unless you only talk about things completely unrelated to the book. “So I read book X. My cat was sitting on my lap and he purred while I pet him. Then I twitched a little and he bolted because he thought I was about to get up. Then I realized I was hungry, so I got up after all. My cat is precognitive.”
There are some books for which I have a whole lot of spoilery things I want to say, so I usually combine those inside one big spoiler tag near the end of my review where I spill my guts about everything I want to say, regardless of how big of a spoiler it might be.
And then the more recent topic of re-reading…
I rarely re-read, but that’s less about already knowing the story than it is a burning curiosity to find out what the next unread book on my list is going to be like! There’s so much stuff I want to read that I have trouble giving up my reading time to re-read something. I’ve done it a few times, though. If I like something well enough to re-read it, I was probably extremely attached to the characters and so I’ll enjoy reading those character moments all over again, and I’ll probably appreciate the earlier character moments even more because I’ll already have that attachment that it took me longer to form the first time around. I also feel like I catch more clues and hints the second time around when I know what’s going to happen and can recognize the building blocks the author laid more easily. Sometimes I react differently to certain parts of a story than I did the first time around because I know what’s coming next. It's a different experience, but I don't feel robbed of anything by knowing what happens next because I already had the chance to experience that the first time around.
Anna wrote: "I really dislike it when people talk about a book in an otherwise non-spoilery way, but then they say something like "that twist was so unexpected!" or "when you get to the end your mind will be blown!" or "wow chapter 17!", etc. That will drastically change how I read the book and I think it lessens the enjoyment of discovering those twists and surprising moments yourself, same as any other spoiler."Somebody took the master class on necroposting a few weeks ago, I see. ;) This is cool though, since I hadn't seen this thread before and there are some interesting posts.
I hadn't considered that saying a book has a twist in a specific chapter might ruin it for someone. I hope I haven't ever done that, and will deliberately avoid it in the future! A number of my reviews talk about a book's "flow," where it goes quickly or slowly for me, which isn't quite the same, I think.
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I think that the best is to avoid even reading blurbs and/or people talking about a book. I remember getting a spoiler for the end of GOT in a Litsy post. I told the person she should have used a spoiler tag.I consider Triggers more tricky. I once read a book and didn't feel it had any Trigger content until a Booktuber made a list of triggers for the book and didn't like it because of them.
and spoilers can be kept - most people who saw The Crying Game did not give away a certain plot detail.
Beth wrote: "I hadn't considered that saying a book has a twist in a specific chapter might ruin it for someone. I hope I haven't ever done that, and will deliberately avoid it in the future!"I don't mind if reviews do this, because it's up to me to decide if I want to read them. But if someone introduces a book to me by telling me about the twist, they've essentially spoiled it for me.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (other topics)The Library at Mount Char (other topics)
Arcadia (other topics)
A Game of Thrones (other topics)
Children of Time (other topics)
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Especially the points about going back and seeing what you missed. I used to do that ALL THE TIME when I was engrossed in [good] mysteries. How did I miss THIS??