Sometimes I really struggle to read a book because it’s either boring, weirdly written, etc. Books like these will usually take me way longer than usual to complete and are harder to pick up in general. However, once the book is over, I have a great appreciation for it either due to the ending or just the growth of the characters. An example of this would be My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones. Took me forever to read it but I found that I had actual emotion attached to it by the time I finished it. Anyone else experience this?
by haras098
5 Comments
I have a great appreciation for American Psycho and am glad I read it but didn’t find it easy to get through at all.
Plow through the Dark Forest Theory. Really hate most of the characters but stay for the plot and it’s amazing. At the end, I don’t want the book to end
When I read Frances Hardinge’s *A Face Like Glass*, it happened to be the only book I had taken with me on a solo camping trip. I wasn’t really vibing with it, but I stuck with it out of a lack of options. The prose was actually very good for a middle-reader novel, but it was too.. absurdist? It felt disjointed and silly in a way I couldn’t connect with, even being well aware that it was for younger readers when I picked it up (it was an ARC, worked at a bookstore at the time and as such did a lot of reading outside my usual preferred categories.)
Then I got to the last few pages, and they completely recontextualized the entire novel. Loved the entire concept after that, and the long game sold the entire thing to me in retrospect.
Proust’s _Swann’s Way_ and Céline’s _Journey to the End of Night_ we’re both like this for me.
(On the other hand, Cervantes’ _Don Quixote_ and Enriquez’ _Our Share of Night_ were satisfying and fun throughout the time I spent reading.)
Blood Meridian. Glad I read that one but I almost put it down for good about halfway through due to sheer volumes of horrible violence. That said, it’s worth sticking with since for the lyric prose and payoff for many of the characters.