Vaginal Fantasy Book Club discussion
2012 Archives
>
Apr 2012: P.O.V.
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Karo
(new)
Mar 30, 2012 05:26PM
Random flip-flipping POVs is a pet peeve of mine. I can get behind a novel that tells the story from alternating POVs, divided into chapters. But when the author just switches things up without warning? No me gusta.
reply
|
flag
(It's the latter in this book, right? It's been a while since I read it.)
Yeah it's early in the book. The first line of the first POV switch was really awkward. I thought Rhys, who's Rhys? From Mina's POV, he was previously referred to as the Duke. I think she may have mentioned his full name earlier but it wasn't reused over and over. It was a startling switch. I even stopped and re-read it and was "O okay I get it now, POV switch." Usually I am okay wiht POV switching if it is done in a logical flow. For example, the Song of Fire of Ice series has 31 different POV characters (by end of 5th book, but thankfully only like 9 of them are consistent) but George RR Martin does it chapter by chapter and at the end of a "scene". So each chapter is a fully explained story line. What was weird about the first POV switch was it happened within a single chapter and broke up the investigation scene into two parts. A part we know from Mina's view and then a part we know from Rhys's view. I'll probably adjust to the switches by the time I finish the book, but I totally get what you are saying.
I didn't have a problem with the POV switch - I think it was necessary in order to 'soften' some of Rhys' behaviour. The reader gets to know that his hurtful behaviour tends to be out of ignorance (either of society, Mina's very public personal history or Mina's feelings), rather than out of something uglier.
@Daeja I agree with you that it allows us understand the motives behind his behavior. I actually like that. However, the issue for me isn't the fact that the author chooses to tell the story from both Mina and Rhy's POV, it how she does it. I'm a little further now and I encountered a POV switch in the middle of a page of dialogue. Very disorienting. I'm only on chapter 8 and there is commonly a few POV changes per chapter. They all tend to be in the middle of a scene. It makes the story hard to follow. I'm hoping that by the end of the book, I will know the characters well enough to pick up on the transitions without having to reorient myself to continue reading.
@Fushigifox I have to get my brain in a new state as well. I do think the author does a good job and making each POV distinct. It's just her transitions that are awkward and hard to follow. I have to stop go "Ok Rhys now" and continue reading. I do like the book, but it's distracting me. It is one of my pet peeves with books though, so maybe I'm oversensitive to it.
I agree, I would have like to have their POV's split into different chapters. Just randomly switching jolted me at first but I got used to it as I read more. It's just a little disorienting.
I really liked the switch in this book. The first time it was unexpected, I was so used to Mina by the time and I actually had some problems the first 2 pages to get into this world. But still the switch was nice, it made him more approachable, which is very important to the storyline and especially their relationship and the believability of it. Imagine the whole book would have just been Mina's POV!
@Christine I agree that having to two different POVs is good, it's just how it's done. I see Rhys is a totally different light.
The POV swapping was so necessary, especially for the end of Mina's time on the Terror. Miscommunication abounds in their relationship, and the author shows how it happens in an interesting fashion. Without Rhys' POV, we'd have just thought him a 2D alpha asshole.
@Daeja I'm in agreement with the motive. I think without the POV switch it would have taken me a lot longer to warm up to Rhys if I ever did. Especially like @Michele said about the end. Without the POV switch Rhys would have come across totally horrible and we wouldn't have been able to read the miscommunication between the two. It would have also made the rape scene totally unforgivable as well. Hell, even with the POV switch I still had trouble with that one. That being said, I agree the switch was pretty jarring at first. I however was able to roll with it and didn't really affect my reading very much. Still the author probably could have done a better job with signaling to the reader when to expect the POV shift.
I did find the switches to be rather jarring, sometimes it would be just a bunch of pronouns and it takes a moment to figure out where you are. I found the Rhy's POV to be rather shallow in the beginning, it was more focused on him telling the reader that Mina would be "his" and that he must have her, but didn't try to reason out why or give any context to why he would feel that way.
I can appreciate that the author would want to keep some of the mystery from the reader, but I wonder if more hints could be given, or if it would have been better to postpone his POV. It really irked me that his POV at the beginning of the novel was obscured where later on the author was more open in sharing his backstory and feelings.
I just finished the book. I agree, that the POV switch was necessary because it allowed me to understand Rhys better. The transitions were more distracting in the beginning of the book when the relationship between the two lead characters is more formal. It gets less jarring as they become more familiar with one another.@Amanda good points regarding Rhys' POV. Especially his first few POV parts. I could see how they could be considered fairly shallow, however I think by the end of the book his POV were more than just "she's mine" (although that was still pretty constant throughout). I don't think there is any reason defined for why he initially must "have her." Maybe it was just initial lust that turned into something more.
I'm near half way through the book and I agree that it's a bit disorienting at first to figure out the POV, but I'm starting to get used to it. I also agree Rhys has been initially quite shallow (though it did make me giggle at how silly he sounds to me when he says such things as "I'll shag her blind".) I'm feeling like he's finally starting to show his ability to be a gentleman, and I'm looking forward to seeing his relationship with Mina grow, which I assume means her letting her guard down a bit (but hopefully not too much... I like her toughness.)
I didn't mind the POV switches, but it was distracting having to read ahead a few sentences every time there was a section break to check whose voice to read it in, then start again. It maybe would have been better if she'd reserved section breaks for POV changes?Also, I have to admit that while I loathed Rhys for being such a massive jerk, I did enjoy the POV switches for the sheer smut...
LadyCello wrote: "I'm near half way through the book and I agree that it's a bit disorienting at first to figure out the POV, but I'm starting to get used to it. I also agree Rhys has been initially quite shallow (t..."Why did i picture austin powers while reading this comment?
I agree that it was a good way to soften the reasons behind Rhys' actions, but it was really hard to follow. As I was only able to get it as an audiobook from my library, it was REALLY hard to track who was thinking. I had to back up and start chapters again a few times...
Jessica wrote: "I agree that it was a good way to soften the reasons behind Rhys' actions, but it was really hard to follow. As I was only able to get it as an audiobook from my library, it was REALLY hard to trac..."Oh gosh, that would have been so difficult! They could have at least swapped to a different person or something.
The POV shifting didn't bother me at all. I enjoyed getting Rhys' view of things every now and then, and there were indications (space between the paragraphs, etc.) every time it switched so I was never lost. It wouldn't have bothered me to stay strictly in Mina's POV either, but I thought this was handled fine. At least it didn't hop into everyone else's head too! I hate when they do that.Gotta say the steamy parts were a LOT steamier when they include Rhys' POV :-D
Kamil wrote: "LadyCello wrote: "I'm near half way through the book and I agree that it's a bit disorienting at first to figure out the POV, but I'm starting to get used to it. I also agree Rhys has been initiall..."I never actually counted how many times Rhys said "shag" in the book, but it was quite a lot. Almost as many times (I think) as Mina said "Oh Blue Heavens!"
The first POV change threw me for a loop. I actually clicked back (on my Kindle) trying to figure out who Rhys was. But after the first, it didn't bother me much. Though I much preferred reading Mina's story. Rhys was too cave-man like for my taste.
Rebecca wrote: "The first POV change threw me for a loop. I actually clicked back (on my Kindle) trying to figure out who Rhys was. But after the first, it didn't bother me much. Though I much preferred reading Mi..."Exactly what I was thinking.
Bori wrote: "I didn't mind the POV switches, but it was distracting having to read ahead a few sentences every time there was a section break to check whose voice to read it in, then start again. It maybe would..."I totally agree with this. I see why the shifts were necessary; without them, the book would have been too "rapey" to be enjoyable. But they weren't very skillfully done. Having said that, the fact that a few sentences clued me in to the narrator of that particular section speaks volumes about Brooks' understanding of characterization. Mina's sections were clearly different from Rhys', which is harder to pull off than it seems. Lots of authors try to tackle multiple POVs and fail spectacularly--I don't think Brooks is one of them.
Ashley wrote:...why the shifts were necessary; without them, the book would have been too "rapey" to be enjoyable. ... a few sentences clued me in to the narrator of that particular section speaks volumes about Brooks' understanding of characterization. Mina's sections were clearly different from Rhys', which is harder to pull off than it seems. Lots of authors try to tackle multiple POVs and fail spectacularly--I don't think Brooks is one of them. "
Ansolutely, once I got into the rhythm that they spoke in and words they would use it wasn't much of an issue. As characters they were very distinct.
I wonder how Brook accomplished that? Only writing from one POV a day? She did keep them very distinguishable.
The only thing I hated about the switching points of view was that it was random. I like better organization. The second was Rhys was referred by a few names and it took a while to get use to that.
I usually enjoy multiple points of view, but not so much in this story. It does make more sense though, the farther I get into it.
Normally switching of POV's drive me nuts, specially if it lasts whole chapters.. and at first it bugged me with trying to get to know Mina, and the break to Rhys' mind was off putting... But as the chapters went on I'd want to know what Rhys was thinking and there he's be and then it'd switch back just as fast.
