This might be oddly specific, but I hate overly verbose (or even slightly verbose) narrative text. I’m a dialogue lover, and if modern books were released as a theatre play version, I’d buy those:
>A: Says something.
B: Says something.
A: Says something.
_Some stage directions, but rarely._
C: Also says something.
But they aren’t, so here we are. =)
When a character is going through something, I prefer if they talk to a friend as opposed to launching into seven pages of internal monologue.
When the environment is weird, I prefer a character saying, “Shit, floating islands? Weird”, over several paragraphs of what hue the floating island’s north-facing edge has.
It’s quite hard, using just blurbs, marketing synopses and short excerpts, to find dialogue- and action-heavy books that are light on descriptive text and inner musings. Maybe someone around here has similar preferences and can recommend some!
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As an additional complication, I’m somewhat bored with the usual straight white stuff. I had to read lots of classics for uni back in the day, and I started having a lot more fun when I focused on Black literature, feminist literature, LGBTQ literature and other niches that stray away from “This Irish bloke is pining for his beloved”.
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Young Adult recommendations are fine, but the more adult the better (excluding erotica; _adult_ in terms of target audience).
Sorry if this is way too specific or demanding. I’m a little desperate! =)
by Power-Kraut