Book Review

Spoiled… How Rotten!

October 20, 2020 /

This Post Does NOT Contain Spoilers!

Is it obvious that I’m a little salty about a spoiler I came across? Let me give you some background.

So, I’m pretty good about staying away from spoilers. I somehow managed to only have ONE thing from the Avengers franchise spoiled, and I couldn’t tell you anything at all about the new Star Wars movies (I’m not joking… I’ve stayed so far away from it that all I know is the name Rey and that Adam Driver plays a bad guy and has a lightsaber that looks like a sword). I do this for a reason. I. Can’t. Stand. Spoilers.

I will say this. Movie spoilers are a lot easier to handle than book spoilers. But, I digress. Spoilers are such a struggle for me. I have a few friends who like to be spoiled? Like, they would prefer not to be surprised and all, which I can understand on an objective level, but still… I don’t really get it at all.

For me, when I come across a spoiler (particularly for a book. Like I said, movie spoilers are easier for me to handle), I end up procrastinating reading. Most of the time, the biggest spoilers are character deaths, and if I know it’s coming, I simply won’t want to read. I don’t want to see it happen, or deal with the emotions that I know I’ll be feeling.

Which is interesting. I don’t ever have an actual problem reading about a character dying. Yes, I will cry, and I’ll probably close the book and sit quietly for a moment, but then I’ll open the book up again and continue on. AND I’ll reread the book without any problem (if I think it’s worth rereading). It’s just that initial read, I have to go into it blind.

I think the biggest problem is not knowing how it happens. When you’re reading and learning about big plot points in real time, you know what’s going on and things generally make sense. When you are rereading a book, then you know everything and nothing is left up to your overactive imagination/fears. When you only know ONE thing in a 400 page book, something that probably only takes about a page to happen, there is about 399 pages of the unknown, and the entire time you are reading, you are stressing and worrying about that single page… 

I’m ranting. Long story short, I was scrolling through memes a little while ago and I came across a singular “Friendly Reminder” meme (which is 100% always NOT a friendly reminder, but a sad reminder) that mentioned the death of one of my favorite characters. I did not know this character died. Therefore, I knew it would happen later on in the series. And now, the book I’m currently on keeps hinting at this character’s death, and so I keep putting off reading the book. It’s a problem. I’m supposed to be doing a read along with my younger sister, and she is now so far ahead of me because I just… can’t bring myself to read.

What do you do in situations like these? Do you simply soldier on? Do you DNF (Do Not Finish, which is out of the question for me because I want to read this book…)? Do you do a little detective work to figure out how the spoiled plot point happens?

Also, just because I’m curious, how do you feel about spoilers?

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