idrinkkombucha OP t1_j4u8qeo wrote on January 18, 2023 at 7:57 AM

Reply to comment by horrifyingthought in World War Z - not good by idrinkkombucha

That’s fair! But even without expecting to be scared, I think the story relies on the flawed narrators too much and lacks a plot and character development, which negatively impacts my engagement with reading, because essentially, I don’t care.

horrifyingthought t1_j4ubpvp wrote on January 18, 2023 at 8:37 AM

... that just means the book wasn't for you. Doesn't mean the book was bad. You wanted a single protagonist in a scary story. The rest of us were excited to find incredible world building through the eyes of many individual participants.

gardenomette t1_j4ucdso wrote on January 18, 2023 at 8:46 AM

Just because you like it, doesn't mean the book is good. Goes both ways. No need to be condescending.

BlacktailJack t1_j4x3vt8 wrote on January 18, 2023 at 9:41 PM

I have some trouble seeing how the person you're responding to is being condescending, unless you're reading into that ellipsis pretty hard (which is possible! punctuation in text-based communication has become so loaded linguistically, in fascinating ways.) This person hasn't told OP that they can't feel the way they do, just that their experiences aren't universal or objective, and they weren't especially impolite about it (again, unless we're choosing to read a significant amount of tone into that ellipsis.)

That said, I agree with your initial statement. Of course subjectivity goes both ways; it's a functional impossibility to determine if a piece of media is objectively good or bad, because no media can be interpreted through a totally unbiased lens. OP's perspective is valid, just stated in a way that's probably gonna rankle people who enjoyed the book.

superhappy t1_j4yar2r wrote on January 19, 2023 at 2:35 AM

That’s like saying you don’t like a movie with an ensemble cast because you like movies with a focus on a single character. That has nothing to do with the quality of the film, just your preference of structure? It’s like saying you hate Rashoman because it has multiple flawed narrators recounting their side of the story - it is kind of a meaningless critique.

idrinkkombucha OP t1_j4ybbeu wrote on January 19, 2023 at 2:40 AM

Not at all. I loved ‘The Stand’ and other novels with a diverse and large cast. The difference between those stories and this one was - the story. Those had cohesive stories with a plot that built and arced. This book had zero story and no focus and no movement, just endless exposition.