Trouble with Wimpy Friends!

[puppeteergirl.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

I have a friend who read The Thief (once I assume) and then began to read QoA, but did what I would NEVER do...she quit reading after the hand scene!!! Okay, actually she quit during the whining, but still! Now, I found out about this quite a while after she tossed QoA aside. I've told her that she needed to read on, that it gets WAY better, but I somehow have a suspicion that she never gave the book a second glance. 

Any suggestions about how to get her to read on? 

Has anyone else a similar problem???
 

Comments

[zeonn.livejournal.com]

Tell her she has to read it all the way through once, and that if she still hates it at the end, then you'll buy her a drink! :D

Z

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

I think plenty of us had trouble with it.

Love for Gen is a torturous thing. *g*

I actually forgot there was a Queen of Attolia, the first and last time I know of my attempt at denial succeeded. I read the WHOLE thing a second time before realizing that I'd actually finished the time before, and because I had King to look forward to, I read it eagerly despite knowing the worst--and it was good.

You can always reassure her there are plenty of people who have been converted, but the saddest thing in the world must be said here--she doesn't have to like it. She may never do so.

I think bribes are good, though.

And if all else fails, maybe skipping to the King will bring her back 'round. ^_^

[traboule.livejournal.com]

I had a similar problem with a different series of books (my friend was put off by the apparently callous hero...more fool her) which I solved by giving her the last and most romantic of the series.

If your friend is tough enough to start at the end and work backwards, you might try that; it seemed to work all right for my friend, who is now a pretty big fan of this other series. Sometimes the more squeamish need a good reason to root for the apparently mean people. ;)

[coyul.livejournal.com]

Your method is what I did XD; I read King before Queen because I couldn't find Queen and couldn't wait. I suppose knowing that everything ended up okay, despite the loss of the hand, was what kept me hopeful through that part. :D So I second this suggestion.

[bookaddict88.livejournal.com]

Does she like romance? If so, tell her about that. (Though admittedly, if the hand thing struck her that much, the romance might take some getting used to...).

I think your best bet might be having her skip to KoA. It's my favorite book of the three. Gen doesn't spend as much time wallowing in self-pity/depression in it, and seeing Gen and Attolia together might make her like the romance more. And then if she likes KoA, reading QoA might be easier.

[sleepingfingers.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, QoA almost made me stop reading the series myself. And, being a bad reader that I am, I read on for the romance--but I skimmed the middle of QoA and read the end, when things picked up. You might be able to persuade her to do that (if she's not made an enemy of skimming, that is)? Or, you could perhaps persuade her to skip QoA altogether and read KoA, because that surely makes up for anything, really.

(Personally, I don't include QoA in my re-reads of the series; it's wonderfully written, but I would only ever read that willingly again when I'm feeling masochistic. =|)

[peanut13171.livejournal.com]

"I don't include QoA in my re-reads of the series"

Ditto. I keep meaning to, but I can't get past the hand thing. Glad to know I'm not the only one here.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Ah, that sucks. The hand thing made me want to read on even more. I mean, aren't you dying to know what happens to him next after that?! Besides, one of my favourite things about Megan Whalen Turner is that she does horrible things to her characters. That's the mark of a great writer. :D

Then again, I know the whole chopping off of the hand thing makes some people squeamish, so it might not even be about the pain of the character, but more about the actual action. Personally, I winced more when he ran head first into that board. Ouch.

[puppeteergirl.livejournal.com]

"I mean, aren't you dying to know what happens to him next after that?"

Exactly! It kind of annoys me that my friend apparently didn't care enough about the characters to find out what happens to them. *sniff sniff*

[thelasteddis.livejournal.com]

I was wincing like I had a twitch through that whole thing. Especially when he has the huge head injury and his head, like, runs into the back of the chair and he passes out. I could list the others points, too, but it would take too long.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I think the running into the board thing really got me, because I - well, I didn't run into a board, but I walked head first into a metal sign once, and man did it hurt. I thought I might have had a concussion. So if it hurt that bad banging my head against a metal sign when walking, I can't imagine what it would feel like to bang your head straight into a board while running. :-S

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

Bribe her with cookies

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I winced when Gen lost his hand, but I've read too much Dorothy Dunnett to give up when a character suffers horribly any more. At least Megan doesn't torture infants and children -- that's the one thing I still can't bear in Dunnett, even if it's realistic that the bad guys really would be that bad sometimes.

On the other hand, getting your friend to read the Lymond Chronicles so she can meet a really ruthless author and realize that MWT could have done much worse is probably not the solution to this problem. :)

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

there you go, Megan - a benchmark for the next book. See if you are a really great and truly ruthless writer, like Dunnett.

*does not advocate such ruthlessness for anyone, much less in books for kids*

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Stop it, peggy.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

I had exactly the same problem, Puppeteer! My friend (who I know would absolutely LOVE the book if she would just read it) read Thief but refuses to read QoA because she knows about the hand thing, and she "has a thing about dismemberment." It frustrates me, and I keep trying to explain that the hand scene isn't graphic, that the story ends well, etc., but after many attempts to persuade her, I have given up. I think the more I bug her, the more pressure I exert, the less likely she is to someday see it on a library shelf and think, "Well, maybe I should try it after all."

So I'd say, back off and give her space. You can't make people read the books you like -- they have to make their own decisions about that. It IS annoying, though, when you know they'd love it...

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Having said that, maybe you could get her to read KoA first, and then see if she wants to go back and find out how the characters got there!

[puppeteergirl.livejournal.com]

Back off? Well, since as I hardly see her nowdays, what with work on my side and school and piano (2 hours a day) on hers, I guess that won't be a problem.

I thought that if we could find a new common interest it would be easier to spend time together, because we'd have something to fangirl over. Pfft. *headdesk*

[hemisofia.livejournal.com]

My friend couldn't even finish The Thief because she thought it was rather boring!!! I kept telling her it gets better in the subsequent books and she kept telling me she would finish The Thief but after a few months I'm beginning to suspect she never will :(

[cleo]

You really can't force your tastes on your friends (I suppose you can, but really, there is a point at which to stop). If she doesn't want to read on, that's her loss.

[jesusphreaq.livejournal.com]

This EXACT thing happened to me.

Jessie: "I quit because it was too sad. Maybe if there were any romance in the books I'd enjoy them more."
Me: "... THIS WAS THE BEST LOVE STORY I'VE EVER READ."
Jessie: "Wait, what?"

And then I convinced her by reading to her some of the key scenes. She got really excited and she's looking forward to giving QoA another shot.

Also, since a lot of people here are put off about cutting off Gen's hand, I thought I'd opine that I love QoA, I love rereading it, and I can't imagine a better way for the books to go. =D

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I love QoA, I love rereading it

Me, too. As much as I hate hate hate violence/torture in most books, rereading this doesn't bother me, nor does it in the Miles books. No idea why.

[sclerotia.livejournal.com]

I have re-read QoA many times, but have only read the 1st bit a couple of times. I skip over the hand part and just re-read the rest of the book. Why torture myself by watching Gen get tortured. QoA abstainers should try this. (I can tell where to start, now, because I have re-read it so many times the pages are dirtier on the edges beyond that point.)

The same thing works for Bujold's Memory. I can hardly stand to watch Miles being as incredibly stupid as he is at the beginning, but it is otherwise an excellent book, worthy of re-reading.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I'm that way with Brothers in Arms where Mark is tortured so horribly. Read it the first time, skipped over it after that.

[ladymoon-kora.livejournal.com]

At least your friend would read The Thief...I can't get my friends to show any interest! And if she stopped at the hand part, I know that I have read that book like four times and it never gets much easier-I still get upset. The beginning of KoA was hard too, because Gen seemed so incompetent, but I got over that. Just keep trying to persuade her, she'll go back.