I didn’t like it…

Hello Dear Reader!

Today I want to spend some time musing about a book I recently read. As you may have guessed by the title, it is a book I didn’t care for much. In fact, I didn’t finish it. I probably should have, and I might go back to it at some point, but I just felt so “meh” about it that I didn’t want to stick it out when I have so many other books in my TBR pile.

The book in question is The Innkeeper’s Song by Peter S Beagle. This discussion will contain spoilers. The book follows multiple points of view. The story is a bit convoluted, but I’ll try to explain it as best I can. Tikat and Lukassa are a young couple in a rural village who are in love when Lukassa tragically drowns in the river. Lal is a storyteller and a pirate, who brings Lukassa back to life and takes her along on her adventure. Tikat, heartbroken, follows after them determined to get Lukassa back. Lal and Lukassa run into Nyateneri, a woman with a magical fox. We learn that both Lal and Nyateneri studied under a mysterious and powerful wizard who has no name and are trying to find him to help him because they sense he is in trouble. All three of the woman (Lal, Nyateneri, and Lukassa) end up at the Gaff and Slasher Inn where trouble ensues. Nyateneri has assassins after her, the stable boy falls in love with all three woman, Tikat eventually shows up, the fox eats the chickens, and chaos ensues.

I don’t mind books that have a slow start, but this one takes quite a while to get going. We get to a point near-ish half way through the book and we have yet to find the wizard. For some reason there is a bit of a foursome orgy. It’s very mild and non-graphic compared to what is popular these days, but the whole thing reads awkwardly in my opinion and feels disconnected. During this scene we learn that Nyateneri is in fact a man who has been glamoured to look like a woman to throw off his assassins. We do eventually find the wizard and learn that his most promising student is basically out to become an evil deity and only the wizard can stop him.

This is about where I stopped reading. I just wasn’t drawn in or engaged. The writing was good from a technical standpoint. Each character’s point of view was written with a distinct and unique voice. Like much of Beagle’s writing, you get a hint that there is much more going on than what is being written on the surface level. It has pretty good reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. But for me, it just wasn’t hitting the mark.

And here is where I want to muse for a little bit.

If this was the first book I had read by Beagle, I probably would never pick up another book by him again, because I was struggling that much to get through it. (Sorry Beagle) To me, this is really shocking because The Last Unicorn (also written by Beagle) is probably one of my favorite books of all time. I also really enjoyed I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons. I’d still like to read Tamsin.

So this got me thinking even more. I think it is reasons exactly like this that people (mostly I’m talking about creatives here, but this could apply to anyone) are afraid to take risks. “What if I fail? What if people don’t like it? What if it sucks?”

Which got me thinking even more. I really want to start giving authors more of a chance. Weirdly, I like trying new food. Don’t worry, I’m going somewhere with this, I promise. Even though I don’t have a very distinguished palate, and I’m incredibly boring when it comes to the foods I eat most often, I still want to try new foods. When I try something and I don’t like it, I always make it a personal policy to take what I call “a second no-thank-you bite”. Just to make sure that my initial impression was correct and I don’t, in fact, like what I just tried. Sometimes I still don’t like it. Sometimes I surprise myself and think that maybe that new food could grow on me and I might actually like it, despite my initial impression.

What I think I would like to do, and what I may recommend to other readers is to have a “second no-thank-you” bite when it comes to books. Case in point, I am not a Sarah J. Maas fan. (Please don’t come at me, I like what I like, I don’t what I don’t, and I make no apologies for it. You are entitled to like whatever books you want.) I started with A Throne of Glass and did not enjoy it. I read the whole book and was just not overly excited about it. Everyone said “Oh, try ACOTAR, A Throne of Glass was her first one, she was so young when she wrote that, ACOTAR is better” etc. So I took a second no thank you bite, and tried ACOTAR and said to myself, “Yep, I did not like that as much as the first bite, I don’t think this author is for me.”

But that might not always be the case. Sometimes it will be, but sometimes… sometimes you may find yourself really surprised by your second bite. Maybe it’s a book, an author, a hobby, a style of art, whatever it is, try it out. And if you don’t like it, maybe try it again just to see. And if you still don’t like it then you can walk away and never look back, but sometimes our first experience isn’t always our best and a some things deserve a second shot.

Feeling that point is sufficiently made I want to switch gears a bit and talk about trying new things from the creation perspective.

Creating stuff is HARD. And if you manage to create something and are successful with it, it is easy to want to stay in the pattern of success that you have created. I have seen on social media time and time again, artists get stuck creating a lot of the same content because that’s what brings viewers and followers in. Then they feel trapped. They are terrified to try anything new because it may mean they lose followers, so they end up feeling miserable and unhappy. Believe me, I get it. It can be scary as shit to branch out and try something new.

Do it anyway.

I have all kinds of little short stories and writing exercises lying around from when I’ve wanted to try something out. To me, it’s kind of like trying a new style of clothing on. You may like the way it fits, or you may hate it. It might be super cute but uncomfortable at first. No matter how it fits or if you keep it or put it back on the rack, it never hurts to try something out. It doesn’t mean you have to stay there forever.

Having gone through the recent experience of reading a book I didn’t love, I can see why it could be downright terrifying to try writing in first person when all your books up till now were written in third person. Perhaps you have an established audience and your income, your ability to pay your bills, is riding on your next release being a success. If A + B = C, and that works, why would you want to try D + Z = UNKNOWN? That would certainly give me pause to try something new.

Nevertheless. I am giving you permission, even encouraging you to try new things with your creative endeavors. Even if you just do it for yourself, even if you don’t share the results with anyone. I’m willing to bet you’ll learn something new and grow from the experience, which will improve all your creative output all around. A + B = C is going to start to feel stagnant after a while. You may begin to feel bored and frustrated and stuck. You’ve got to try new things to keep growing and improving in your craft. Even if it fails spectacularly, you’ll have learned something to make the rest of your work better. Find ways to experiment. Play in the sandbox. That’s what it’s there for. Don’t worry about if someone is going to hate it or not, because “just in case second time no thank you” bites exist.

Anyway. I think I’ve rambled enough, but perhaps something resonated with you. My main takeaways from reader The Innkeeper’s Song, which I’m sure were not the intended takeaways, but they were meaningful to me just the same are: “Give things a second chance” and “Try New Things”. Hopefully you can see how these go hand-in-hand. If you don’t like how an author writes fantasy, you may love how they write speculative fiction. Or you may not like their work at all. And at the end of the day… BOTH OF THOSE OUTCOMES ARE OK. You may like painting with watercolors, but not with oils. Or you may love them both. AND THAT’S OK. :) It’s OK to like what you like.

If your cozy genre is romantasy, great! I would encourage you to step outside and try something new every once in a while, just to see if your tastes have changed or maybe there is something new you’ve never tried before that you find that you love. But if you don’t like any of it and you want to just stay a romantasy person forever, that’s ok too. In my opinion, life’s too short not try try all that life has to offer, but it’s also too short to be miserable trying to force yourself to choke down something you genuinely don’t enjoy. It’s all about balance.

Till next time Dear Reader, go try something new, maybe take a second no-thank-you bite, and know that however things turn out, there’s no wrong way to go. :) <3 Tiff