Let's Discuss: Fool Me Once...

 

So the other day I was scrolling through Goodreads...or Edelweiss or something like that and I saw a cover for a book that I thought might have potential! It gave great thriller mystery vibes but then I saw the author and I was like oh. It was that author. The one I read years ago who fooled me into thinking I'd be getting a great YA Thriller but ended up with a YA Contemporary read where someone was murdered but the heroine didn't care until the last 3 chapters.

Fool Me Once...

Anyone ever watch Mom? There was an episode and I wish I could remember which one, but the older mom had a line that made me LOL but then I thought, yeah, that rings true to me too (sometimes). She said, "Fool me once, you're dead to me." It was laugh worthy but then it does make me think, yeah, I'm likely done with you if you lied or deceived me. But let's just focus on using that line with books and not outside the bookish world.

If I pick up a book that has a cover that screams murder mystery or thriller, I expect to get that kind of story. Instead what I got that one time was a murder fairly early on, like maybe within the first 50 pages. But then I had to read 200+ pages of absolute boredom as the heroine goes through her everyday life and striving to get in with the IN crowd and get the IT guy as a boyfriend and literally, NO ONE CARED that their fellow student died! And then suddenly the last three chapters, which maybe was >50 pages left the heroine decides it's TIME TO SOLVE THE MURDER!

And I was like what the freak took you so long?! I mean, yeah, let's leave behind the idea of a teenager solving a murder the police can't solve, because yeah, in these YA thrillers, the teen usually figures things out which is the point of the story, I get that. I like that even. But why the heck did it take you 200+ pages to finally get around to solving the case?! It drove me nuts! This was back in the days where I didn't DNF so easily and plus I really wanted to know whodunit! I mean the heroine might not have cared, but I did! Lol.

So now when I see the author continuing to write books that have covers that give you that creepy thriller murder mystery vibe, I draw back. BIG TIME. I can't even bring myself to read the cover description because I am literally wondering, what mundane, everyday lifestyles will this character go through and how long until they decide to solve the murder? I mean, yes, I know, we should give second chances. And I have totally given some authors a second chance.

But when the burn was THAT bad? I find I can't quite muster the strength to give said second chance. I was fooled. BIG TIME. I was fooled into thinking I'd be reading a thriller. A murder mystery with the killer walking among us. And I didn't get that. I got a murder. Then I got a whole lot of not caring that someone died and we just went on with our lives and then I don't know, maybe a few weeks later, we decide it's time to solve the murder! I mean seriously?! Will there even be any clues for you to follow other than one tiny scrap you just remember having picked up that night it happened?

Okay, so this turned into another rant. Lol. But yeah, there are times when I feel like an author fooled me into reading their book by making me think it was one genre but then ended up being another entirely.

Have you ever felt like an author fooled you? And not in a way that turned out positive in the end? Did you ever get that author a second chance? With a growing TBR pile I find I can't be quite so forgiving these days. Lol.