my tastes have changed but I don't know what my new tastes are

So I just finished a fantasy novel that was recommended to me as a possible comp title* to my own book. I’ve really struggled with how to explain my book to people in the past so I’m always hopeful that my next read will help me out. It’s called The Bone Shard Daughter and I’m going to talk briefly about it in a spoiler-free way and then continue into heavy spoiler territory. I’ll warn you before I ruin the book for you.

This book was recommended to me because of a concept called memory games, or identity amnesia. In the Bone Shard Daughter (which I’ll shorten to TBSD), the main character Lin can’t remember her past prior to an illness. My own book begins with my character losing her memory in a magically-induced way, something she apparently agreed to but of course, she can’t remember why she would do that.

I found TBSD somewhat lacking. It builds a lot of mysteries but it actually only answers a small portion of them, presumably because it wants us to read the subsequent books in the trilogy.

I can’t decide if this is a personal problem or something that deserves to get scrutinized. Simply put, I do not want to have to read an entire series. I want to read and enjoy one novel, and if I liked it, I would like to read more. Am i alone in this? Even trilogies that i like, such as The Broken Earth, end up spending too much page-time dithering rather than moving (in my opinion). It’s pretty simple to see why: they’ve stretched one story out over too much pace space. Thinking back on series that I loved as a kid, like the Tamora Pierce books, I find myself noticing that they weren’t all just one story; they were episodic stories centered on the same character. This is more or less true about Harry Potter, too, and while I could go into long, boring detail about harry potter’s failings, they’re compulsively readable books. Television writers seem to understand this in a way that I don’t think all novelists do. I’m desperate to know if I’m alone in this opinion, so please, comment below.

Okay, getting back to TBSD. This is really three separate stories, two of which converge somewhere after the midpoint (kinda) and the others of which meet at the very end. I found myself significantly more interested in Lin and the mystery of her memories than with the other two plotlines.

The other plotline was ostensibly a sapphic love story between a peasant and a noblewoman, but it wasn’t really about their relationship so much as it was a vehicle for other plot devices.

All of this rather neatly summarizes something that I have been frustrated with in fantasy for quite a while, even within my own book to some degree: I just don’t care about plot machinations. I care about characters. I care about what makes them people: what makes them tick and what they want, why they want it. It seems anyone can overthrow an empire these days. but not just anyone can fall in love with their mortal enemy and betray what they stand for to ensure a future together. (Ugh, my heart!)

Okay, I want to talk more about TBSD but to do that I have to talk about the reveal around the 2/3rds mark of the book. You’ve been warned! It’s a pretty interesting reveal! If you have any interest in this book, you really shouldn’t keep reading — which is part of the problem with this book.

SPOILERS BELOW!

When I got to the reveal, I cackled and set my kindle down and had to go to bed. It was pretty shocking and I found myself pretty delighted by it.

But then nothing happened regarding it, and I found myself realizing that this would be a better book if it had given itself room to grapple with such a fascinating idea, rather than saving it for the end.

All through the first 2/3rds of the book, Lin grapples with the fact that using bone shard magic hurts someone, somewhere, to the point of prematurely ending their life. She learns that this magic is integral to her own existence and she thinks… literally not at all about the human lives that are being sacrificed for her existence. It doesn’t even cross her mind! I found myself truly and utterly baffled at how little she cared, given that she thought about it in every chapter prior.

At no point does Lin consider reaching inside herself to see what the commands are, or draw herself a new one to ensure her own free will, or anything. she just… decides things are fine because her father is dead? I know there are two books left in which this can be explored but for it to not even come up as a thought, as a moment of wonder? I couldn’t comprehend it.

There is also something to be said for a reveal ruining the readability of a book. I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, the first time you watch The Sixth Sense it really is pretty shocking. But how many of us have re-watched it multiple times since then? (Actually, I did rewatch it not that long ago and was amazed at how much the truth stands out upon re-watch; but I don’t need to watch it again any time soon.)

My general feeling is that knowing what’s coming shouldn’t totally destroy a story, because seeing how the truth is unravelled should still be a good experience.

There is a spicy in reveal in my own book, actually. But I don’t think it ruins anything if you already know it. It is something I intend to ask my beta readers about, though. (Speaking of which, I will write soon about the excruciating agony and boundless joy of having friends who are reading my book and who have different opinions about who my main character should end up with.)

Expect a post in the near future about Dune. I’m about to go watch it, having DNF’d the book not once but twice. I’m sorry, sci-fi lovers. It just wasn’t for me.

* comparative title, or comp title: a tool of torture in the publishing industry. No, uh, actually, it’s a very useful device for explaining what your book is about, and it’s required for querying. I tell people my book is a refreshed Dragonriders of Pern with the spiritual conviction of His Dark Materials, for people who love Spirited Away and other Ghibli films.