How Spoilers Can Ruin a Reading Experience
Even though I may think everyone has seen the movie Psycho, or must at least know about it, I would not, for the life of me, give away the ending. Same goes for The 6th Sense or any other movies or books with great plot twists. And even though we know that romance books inherently end with a “happily ever after” I wouldn’t tell someone HOW the couple got together.
All of those things are “Spoilers”, they spoil the experience for someone else. That person won’t get the opportunity to have a first-hand experience of the story, the way the author meant for it to happen, if someone gives part of that story away. It takes from the reader (or movie watcher), it takes from the storyteller and it takes from the story experience.
I understand people like to share their experience of a story and it’s so fun to do so. My online community has a place for each series, then each book, and people go there to discuss the books and characters. But, we always ask people to be certain they write “SPOILERS” if they are going to give anything away.
Reviews should also say if there’s a spoiler in them. It’s common courtesy. I do see reviews that warn people of spoilers and I really appreciate that.
Spoilers are just that, they spoil the experience. Maybe there needs to be a place specific for readers who have already read the book, like an online book club? Does anyone here know of a site that is only for book discussions AFTER the book has been read?
All of those things are “Spoilers”, they spoil the experience for someone else. That person won’t get the opportunity to have a first-hand experience of the story, the way the author meant for it to happen, if someone gives part of that story away. It takes from the reader (or movie watcher), it takes from the storyteller and it takes from the story experience.
I understand people like to share their experience of a story and it’s so fun to do so. My online community has a place for each series, then each book, and people go there to discuss the books and characters. But, we always ask people to be certain they write “SPOILERS” if they are going to give anything away.
Reviews should also say if there’s a spoiler in them. It’s common courtesy. I do see reviews that warn people of spoilers and I really appreciate that.
Spoilers are just that, they spoil the experience. Maybe there needs to be a place specific for readers who have already read the book, like an online book club? Does anyone here know of a site that is only for book discussions AFTER the book has been read?
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Marianne
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Feb 03, 2016 06:54PM
When I review a book on the Goodreads site, just below the field for the review there is a box marked "hide entire review because of spoilers". It is really easy to tick; I wish more readers would USE it. What really bugs me is when people review a book BEFORE it publishes and don't tick that box.
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momokaachan wrote: "When I review a book on the Goodreads site, just below the field for the review there is a box marked "hide entire review because of spoilers". It is really easy to tick; I wish more readers would ..."Thank you! This is extremely helpful for people to know. Including me!
I'm always careful when I leave a review to never give details of the story line at all. I only leave how the book and/or story made me feel. If it surpassed my expectations.
Even though I'd never reveal the end of a movie or a TV show, when I read any kind of fiction I always look at the ending ---especially of a series-- to see how it ends Before I read the story as --to me-- if it has a sad, or unpleasant ending --especially with a series-- I always feel I wasted my time reading it.
