Laura D Durham

I hate when authors think that readers are stupid. One of the things I’ll point out in my book reviews is repetition of facts. As if readers can’t be trusted to remember things.

And I hate when authors think that readers don’t remember and then try to change the story.

An example of this is found in True Blood, the kinda-sorta adaptation of the Sookie Stackhouse novels by the amazing Ms. Harris. I’m not complaining about how the the screenwriters forgot her story. I liked some of the changes they made (Lafayette lived and was fabulous!) and other changes I loathed. But I went with what the author said: “They don’t tell me how to write my books. I don’t tell them how to do their tv show.” So they introduce Hep V and everyone is all, “What the hell is that? What? That’s something I am shocked to hear about!”

Now, at the time, I admit that pissed me right off and I paused my streaming viewing to rant for a couple minutes on the fact that Hep V was introduced in the first season! A fangbanger had it and Sookie stopped Bill from drinking from him. Then Bill explained to Sookie and the audience that it was a strain of Hepatitis that effected vampires, making them slow and sick (and therefore easier to kill) for a few months. Sure, ok, I’m binge watching with the wife and we’ve gone through five seasons in as many weeks. However, Netflix had already become a thing when this show was out, so the screenwriters would have known binge-watching was something they’d have to be conscious of. I’m offended they would think this would be forgotten.

So, fine, my bad. The first season referred to Hep D. Not V. Easy mistake to make. It had been a few weeks, after all, since I’d seen that episode. But it had stuck out in my mind as both an interesting story bit as well as being underwhelming by it’s negligible effect on and threat to vamps.

But the fact that every character was horribly shocked by a blood-born disease for vamps was ridiculous. They knew about Hep D. The more realistic reaction would have been to make a comparison to Hep D (thereby reminding the audience that they are not talking about the disease that is nearly homophone to the new disease), to brush it off as being not so scary since Hep D wasn’t that bad, and/or to be shocked that it could be a lot scarier than Hep D. To act as if the idea itself was new and strange was stupid. And insulting to those of us paying attention and invested in the story.

Books do it too, and it’s the quickest way to toss me out of the story. When I’m reading, I’m building a world out of the material you’re giving me. You can’t hand me straw when you’ve been giving me bricks and tell me no it’s been straw all along. You have to stay consistent. But you don’t have to repeat it over and over. If it’s been a while, or a detail that might have been lost in a greater scene, then yes, please do shine a light on it. But if you’ve told me something twice don’t say it again. If you do, I’m going to assume that I am not dumb enough to be your intended audience and DNF your book, pronto and with extreme prejudice.