Give That Author a Second Chance!

Do I judge books by their covers?  Absolutely.  If I am browsing the shelves without a list of specific books to check out, whether or not the cover catches my eye is the one factor that determines whether or not I pull it off the shelf and read the blurb on the back or inside the front cover.  I have even been known to have chosen a book online based on the blurb, and when I pull it off the shelf and see the cover, put it right back where I got it from.  (Speaking of which, I am extremely disappointed with the cover of Kendare Blake's new book, Ungodly.  I mean, if I hadn't already read the first two books in the trilogy, and if I hadn't already known that the series is great, I would have NEVER checked this book out.  But I digress....)

Do I judge authors by their books?  Well, yeeeeessss.  Like, do I read one book and go, I do not like this author one bit and decide not to read anything else by them?  I have, in fact, been known to do that.  And I have just recently thought that maybe I shouldn't jump to conclusions so quickly.

Now, there are some authors out there who are super consistent.  Take Ann Rinaldi, for example.  She writes historical fiction and she has written a lot, and it is consistently about 3 to 3.5 star material.  Some are better than others, but none are bad.  If you want a pleasant, solid read that won't wow you but will not disappoint either, she's a good pick (assuming you like historical fiction).  Then there are others like Donna Jo Napoli, Tracy Barrett, and Brenna Yovanoff, who always churn out what can be described by the popular catchphrase from my childhood as "Good stuff, Maynard!"  (Okay, so I have read one or two from Napoli that I didn't think were that good, but they were still in 3 star territory.)  So it doesn't really matter which books from these types of authors you choose, you won't reject the author outright.

Then there are some authors who jump around a bit with the quality (like the aforementioned Kendare Blake), but nothing is really bad, so I'm always open to trying something else they've written.  This type of author doesn't get relegated to the trash bin after the first book either.

Of course, there are a few authors I've come across, like Francine Prose, that after reading just one book, I'm like, who decided to publish this stuff (that's the nice word) and why do I keep finding it online in lists of recommended books to read?!?!?!?    Those are the authors that I can't imagine EVER picking up another one of their books FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER.

But..... in the past few months I have come across some really bad books by authors who I've liked some of their earlier works (for example, Carrie Ryan).  And I've come across one or two where I wasn't too impressed with the first book of theirs that I tried (translate as: I didn't finish reading it), but I either made the mistake of checking out two books at the same time by an untried author (this would be Cat Winters), or I accidentally didn't make the connection that the author of a book I was looking forward to reading was the same as one I didn't like the first time (namely Bethany Griffin).

What I realized at this point, was that sometimes the author puts out a book that is a fluke, either in a good or bad way.  Maybe they had a stupid idea for one book and a great idea for another, or they spent a long time writing one and rushed through another, or they had great advice on one but not the other, or maybe they were just particularly inspired with brilliance or found a muse or something and managed to put out something AMAZING when they are usually just not so great.

Here is my point:  What if I had read the author's not-so-great book first?  I never would have known that I would really enjoy the other three books she had written.  If I had judged poor Bethany Griffin after starting and not finishing her series The Red Death Saga (Okay, so I actually did judge her.  I just didn't realize it was the same author until I was super excited about reading her other book - see my blog post here), I never would have read The Fall, which I absolutely loved.  So after I read Darkwater (see same post), I thought, well Catherine Fisher's other book, Incarceron was a best seller or whatever.  Should I risk reading it?

And the answer I have to give myself is, yes.  Give that author a second chance.  Because you know what?  Maybe it will be another book that starts out great and then heads downhill fast.  Or maybe it will be bad from beginning to end.  Maybe it will be just a so-so book, but hey, most so-so books are entertaining enough to be worth the time spent reading them.  And who knows?  Maybe it will be another fantastically amazing book that I wouldn't want to miss for anything, but would never have the pleasure of reading if I just wrote off the author after one not-so-great encounter.