Kasey Cervantes: "Dear Carmen Maria Machado: On First Impressions and Confusion"

Dear Carmen Maria Machado: On First Impressions and Confusion

By Kasey Cervantes

As I stroll through the library in the fiction aisle, two factors run through my head that decide whether I should pick up a book from the shelf. One of the most prominent factors that come to mind when deciding what to read are recommendations from friends, teachers, or family. If I see that author’s book when I am at the library, I will most likely pick it up from the shelf. Another factor that goes into selecting a book is a unique spine cover art. There has been instances when a unique spine cover art catches my attention from a rows of books causing me to pick up the book off the shelf just to learn more about it. Usually after picking up a book, I read the summary of it on the back cover. Though, sometimes books have quotes of how spectacular this particular book is on the back cover, which I highly despise. I hate when books have these quotes because I want to know what the book is about, not what other people think about it. Then, if the summary sounds interesting, I read a couple pages of the first chapter to see if the book is interesting. Since, the first chapter sets the tone for the rest of the novel, it is important to make it pull the reader in. If it does not grab my attention, I will most likely put it back into the shelf and move on.

When purchasing books online on Amazon I usually rely on the reviews of other people. I often read both the five star and one star reviews on a book before purchasing a book I saw on my recommended list produced by Amazon. I do this because I like to know why this book was spectacular or awful for some. If they are good reviews on the book, I’ll go along and purchase it.

After being a couple of chapters into the book, I think the worst thing an author can do is confuse the reader with either weird world building details or weird actions that the characters perform. For example, in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the story at certain points completely lost me. I often questioned myself on what exactly was happening in the book. This caused me to reread sections of the book to attempt to make sense of why a specific character is performing an action or even what that specific character is doing. Though, if I still cannot understand it, I move on. However, if what I skipped is very important or if I keep on getting confused by the author, I decide at that point to not finish the book. Since, I no longer understand what is going on. A good way to avoid confusing the reader in a book would be to elaborate fully what the character is trying to express. An author can do this by utilizing dialogue to describe the world and keeping characters’ personalities consistent. If the story goes back in time or in the future, an author should be explicit about that.