Realized after 8 years of book club debates I was pre-judging authors based on their dedication page

Last Tuesday during our discussion of a crime novel, someone pointed out that I kept rolling my eyes at the author's thanks to their family, and I had to admit I was dismissing the whole book before page one. Turns out I'd been scanning that first page for years and deciding the tone before even reading the plot. Has anyone else caught themselves making snap judgments from something small like the font choice or the chapter titles?

2 comments

2 Comments

ray6481d ago

Haven't you ever judged a book by the dedication page sentiment more than the book itself? I caught myself doing the same thing a few years back. Now I treat the dedication like the credits at the end of a movie, just background noise that doesn't matter. But I still catch myself getting annoyed when an author thanks their spouse and kids in a way that feels too perfect, like they're trying too hard to seem like a good person. It's a weird thing to get hung up on, but once you notice it you can't unsee it. The real trick is learning to flip past that page and give the actual story a fair shake.

richard_ramirez1d ago

10 years of reading crime novels and I still flip to the dedication first. @ray648 the dedication tells you exactly who the author thinks is watching them write, and that stuff seeps into the story whether you want it or not. If they're groveling to their kids in the front matter, you can bet the book's got a forced happy ending too.