Bookish Blabber #4: Becoming A Good Book

Becoming A Good Book

"Oh, that was such a good book!" - said every reader ever.

Okay... so what's good about it. I mean give me something more. Back in December I participated in the Best of 2014 Blog Hop and asked entrants to tell me what made a good book. I got tons (okay, like a hundred or so) responses. Most of them fell in these categories...

Is it characters?

All characters, the people we speak aloud to with words of reader wisdom as we flip through the pages. The people we cheer for, fan over, ship in our dreams, and dream about. These characters can make or break a good book. When the connection is not there I'm not invested and therefore... down with the ship.

I won't even begin to mention things like author murder and our characters leave us. Does this make or break a book for you?

*sniffles* moving on...

Is it good writing?

Does the syntax grind your gears or make you feel light and fluffy. Is the prose so on point that you could marry the book? We could go into diatribes about what is "good writing." For me good writing at a minimum does not distract from the story. I've been distracted by sentence structure, use of slang, and other items to where I'm missing what's going on. On the other hand, I've been completely immersed and taken away by good writing. I can feel the world, dream about it in detail, get goosebumps reading an intense paragraph and other goodness. For me the ultimate good writing comes from quotable passages. If I can pull a sentence or two, take it completely out of context and then still fall in love with it, relate to it. That's winning.

Honestly, when I think about good writing I am reminded of this scene from Dead Poets Society. The rules. They're all bull. Rip it out!

Interesting plot twists?

I'm a plotter. Some people really need to connect with characters and I need a good plot. I want to be surprised, I want the couple NOT to get together in the end. I want someone to die, I want big conflict, I want a classic whodunnit. Lucky for me mysteries and thrillers are getting some YA spotlight time this year. Something that can get in my head is sure to please.

What about you? Do you throw the book if the ending is crap or there's a major cliffhanger?  

Witty, clever, romantic dialogue?

I'm such a sucker for good dialogue. One of my favorite books from last year was Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg. What did this for me was between the chapters she filled the space with very memorable dialogue from the narrators in the present tense. I had feels every time and it prepared me for the next chapters to come. In other novels the dialogue can totally make a character's personality, right princess?

“What were we talking about?”

“How I’m the love of your life.”

“Obviously.”

- Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg

The feels?

Ahhh... the proverbial feels. I'm a glutton for punishment and gravitate towards books with heavy feels. The kinds of feels that leave me in my big reading chair in the fetal position. Combine this with good writing and solid characters, I'm a goner. Just put a blankie over me while I grieve. Last book to make me cry was about a week or so ago, Maybe One Day. It hurt, it still kinda hurts.

There's also good feels. Frisky, romance feels. Humor feels (often sought after the sad feels). But feels are required in all good reads, IMHO. If I'm not feeling it then... pass.

ALL. THE. THINGS.

The ultimate good book combines several of these traits. I'm connected/invested in the characters, I'm intrigued in the plot line. I'm shedding a tear or hoping for kisses. I'm doodling quotes in my journal and seeking gifs to explain my reading journey. It's not an exact science or there would be a chart for it. At the end of the day I think about these things... 

Did this book extract any strong emotions from me?

Do I care about anyone in this book? Are they my new book boyfriend/girlfriend? Are they a OTP? 

Where there stakes, risks, a hint of originality? 

How motivated was I to finish reading it? 

Do I need to debrief and discuss with others? < This is a big one! If I feel the need to spread the word and discuss the finer points, I'm in deep.

So tell me... what makes a good book?