This probably wont mean much to the people who have never read any of Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series, but I’ve just read a letter from her, addressed to her fans, giving away spoilers in her upcoming G.C book.
I’m in shock.
Seriously, I haven’t felt this bad about a book since Watership Down.
I’ve always loved Karin Slaughter books, because she is a master story-teller, who has this wonderful ability, which enables her to write gritty, hard-hitting fiction, in addition to having a plethora of fantastically developed characters.
Jeffrey Tolliver and Sara used to be married, then he cheated on her and she divorced him when she found out. A big part of the series has been about the two of them finding the path back to love and trust again. These two characters, and their relationship were central to my enjoyment of the Grant County books.
Which is why I just can’t believe she’s done this to her faithful readers.
Well, fiction or not, I’m not a happy bunny. It was a cheap trick meant to cause maximum emotional impact on the readers who have bought this series faithfully over the years. Cheap and crappy, and I’m not having it. Screw it, I’m with Jane.
Dionne Galace
July 20
1:59 am
I’ve never read these books, but I was outraged on Jane’s behalf. I think I actually went “arrrgh!”
I was betrayed once like this before. BY CHARLAINE HARRIS and her Roe Teagarden mysteries. I’m still hurtin’.
And I’m afraid she’s going to do the same thing to Sookie. 🙁
shiloh walker
July 20
2:06 am
I don’t think I’ve read them, but I do have one of them somewhere in my (massive) TBR pile. BUt I might pass it on. I don’t want to get emotionally invested after reading that letter…
Jane
July 20
2:19 am
I don’t really understand her justification. She had to do it. It felt right. It was the only way to go with the story?
I don’t get it. I think I need someone to explain it to me in short words and big letters because the letter didn’t. The letter only made me angrier.
I love the label though – “You and me we’re through”.
As for Harris, she did a similar thing, as Bam referenced, in her Roe Teagarden series with a Fool and His Honey. Read the reviews for that book. Then Harris couldn’t sell another Roe Teagarden book. Oh, she tried, but it was a big fat flop.
Rosie
July 20
2:26 am
I haven’t read these books either, although like Shiloh I have one in my own massive TBR. I don’t get this. I really, really, really don’t get the letter she wrote.
She obviously knew this was going to bug her fans and did it anyway. Also, as a person whose had personal loss reading a book about it doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun.
She does all this and then asks for the readers to trust her. Pffft!!! Yeah, right.
Casee
July 20
2:31 am
I don’t read the series, but I read the spoiler. If I was a reader, bitter and angry would even being to cover it.
Take that Cameron Dean vampire trilogy. I read the first two books. When I found out the hero died at the end of the third, I wasn’t touching it with a 10ft pole. And that was only after two books.
azteclady
July 20
3:15 am
On the one hand… what the effing hell????
On the other… thank you for getting the word out–I’ve been wondering what budget magic I needed to do to get yet another series in my TBR pile (gotta read them in order, you know), and would have HATED with each and every molecule of my being to find this out on the sixth book!
Ack!!!
My condolences, Karen, Jane, and other fans, on the loss of what seems to have been a really good series!
Kat O+
July 20
5:50 am
Only Joss Whedon is allowed to do something like that! Also, Harry Potter comes out tomorrow and I’d better not be feeling like that cat in the picture after I read it.
Laura
July 20
6:47 am
I’m very grateful to Jane for getting the word out, because I have read the other books in that series, and now I will save my $26 for something else. Maybe it’s just my own bitterness about a good series crashing and burning, but her letter sounded a bit….gleeful. “Look what I did!! And you, my faithful readers, have to eat the sandwich I have served you!!”
Karen Scott
July 20
7:51 am
For those people who haven’t read this series, the nearest comparison I can make, is if Nora Roberts did the same thing to Eve and Roarke. Oh the carnage that would reap.
Dionne Galace
July 20
8:28 am
For those people who haven’t read this series, the nearest comparison I can make, is if Nora Roberts did the same thing to Eve and Roarke.
Oh, god. Oh, god. *taking a deep breath*
Dear Nora Roberts,
Please, for the love of everything that’s ever been good in this world, please don’t ever do the same thing to Eve and Roarke. I don’t think my heart would be able to take it. It would, I think, be the death of me.
Love,
Bam
Dawn
July 20
8:38 am
OK… I have to say that I found the whole having to go to 60million web pages and sign in blood before reading, kind of amusing.
However, I can understand what those of you who have invested time and emotions in reading about this couple will feel about it.
Actually, I can’t think of any reason why an author would post such a spoiler.
Anonymous
July 20
11:31 am
Kim Harrison did the same. In her latest hardcover, she killed the hero. I threw the book against the wall and I’ll NO longer continue to read the series.
Mary
Kristie (J)
July 20
11:35 am
I can rest easy that JD (aka Nora) would never do this to Eve and Roarke. First, she writes ROMANCE and second the outrage would be heard ’round the world.
Although I’ve never read Slaughter, I can sympathized completely with the feeling of betrayal that Jane and Karen and all other fans of this series feel even if they are classifined as mystery rather than romance. It seems by the comments that she has taken the time to build a romance in this series and that just seems a betrayal. It will be interesting to see though if it engenders the same kind of outrage among mystery fans as it has among romance/cross mystery readers.
Karen Scott
July 20
11:52 am
Kristie, Patricia Cornwell tried doing exactly the same thing in her Kay Scarpetta crime books, but the readers must have voted with their money, because two books later she made amends.
I remember feeling very angry about this at the time, and I wasn’t even as emotionally invested in Kay and Wes Benton as a couple as much as I was Sara and Jeffrey. Uggghhh, I’m beyond irritated.
Oh, and I’m glad to hear that La Nora has no plans to do something similar to Eve and Roarke, that would be the biggest tragedy evah.
Kate R
July 20
12:55 pm
I haven’t read the books, but I tried to click on the spoiler link (of course) and …without knowing any content think that is the funniest damn way to have a spoiler link ever. I laughed when I had to put in the codes.
The rest of the situation may suck, but actually getting to the spoiler is pretty damned creative.
Kate R
July 20
12:57 pm
and the very last page you get after clicking through the series starts with. . .THIS IS A SPOILER
“Please do not copy, duplicate or otherwise disseminate any of the contents of this letter. If you do, you are a total jackass and I hope you get herpes.”
Casee
July 20
2:39 pm
Is Karin Slaughter considered mystery? I’ve never read her, but I was comparing it to Iris Johansen’s Eve Duncan series. If she killed off Joe Quinn I would be beyond angry and disappointed. I would most likely never buy another one of her books.
Anji
July 20
3:27 pm
I can’t find it on her website, I guess she took it down. Thanks to the time difference, I didn’t get to see it. Is it posted anywhere else?
anji
July 20
3:46 pm
Ok, I’m stoopid, I just figured it out. But OMG! I’m just glad I never got started on the series – and I won’t.
I have to agree with Dawn, I don’t understand why a writer would actually post such a spoiler…
Sarah McCarty
July 20
4:08 pm
Anji- It was a forced download so pretty much everyone who read it has it on their computer if you really want to read it.
Shelia
July 20
4:30 pm
Karen, “off topic”…my grandmother has several cats. The last time you posted with the WTF Cat, I told her about the ugliest cat I had seen…she thought it was impossible because one of her cats is spl-ugly. I’ll have to take my laptop with me and show her this post so she can see it.
Anyway, back to your post. I’m not familiar with the author’s books. I guess I would feel that way if it were characters from a series that I’ve been reading since book one like JD Robb aka Nora Roberts “Eve and Roarke.”
Verilees
July 20
11:27 pm
The Aurora Teagarden fuss didn’t kill the series off. I know she wrote at least two book in the series after that although I don’t know how well they sold– Last Scene Alive (2002) and Poppy Done to Death (2003). When Sookie took off (2001) her publishers only wanted more paranormal and I heard her say at a signing that she was not likely to revisit either of the earlier series– dearly as I would love another Lily Bard book.
Gail
July 21
11:51 am
Dang it! Now I’m seriously ploting how I can get Karen to hate my writing. Stomping off scowling and trying to get the “naughty writer” hat on.
LesleyW
July 21
12:29 pm
I’m another fan of the series who is bitterly disappointed with the way things have gone.
For me the books were about Sara and Jeffrey’s relationship, even with all the other awful things going on in Grant County they brought some spark of hope. I’m even more pi***d because I bought the last two GC books in hardcover.
Well I’d just about filled up my bookcases again following the last cutting-down-cause-I’d-ran-out-of-room. Guess I know where I’ll be finding more space from now.
I’d feel the same way if Suzanne Brockmann ever did it to Jules.
Desiree Erotique
July 21
10:51 pm
Ok, indulge my ignorance over the emotional impact of this issue: I click on the link and get to a page that says,
“Looking for the spoiler page? Really? It’s a spoiler, ya know. A big one.
You can’t get angry with me if you learn something you don’t want to know just because you don’t have any self control.”
I am presented with two links, one that says: “Nope, I’m here by mistake”, the other “Yes, that’s what I’m here for.”
So, hovering me mouse over the links its apparent they go to two separate pages on the net. So I must ask – if anyone wants to avoid some bitter disappointment by reading a spoiler, why would they click on the YES link? What’s the big deal?? Its like I am allergic to blueberries, and the sign says blueberry field RIGHT, blackberries LEFT and its up to me to choose which way to go. I don’t go and complain about the Blueberry farmer because I skipped merrily into his patch knowing what was there and got myself a good case of hives- it was my educated choice, right?
Livia
July 22
3:56 am
Desiree, I believe the point is not that they’ve been spoiled, BUT that they are disappointed with the author’s writing choices. It’s not a ZOMG I’ve been spoiled! issue, but one where a lot of readers are bitterly angry at the writer for the decisions that she made.
LesleyW
July 22
8:53 am
Desiree – When you buy the book it tells you about the letter at the end. The letter is an explanation for why KS has done what she did. The idea is that you read the letter after you’ve read the book and then you’ll feel okay about what’s happened.
I think all the spoiler stuff is there for people who’ve read the letter before the book.
The letter didn’t make me feel better, if anything it annoyed me even more.
Desiree Erotique
July 22
5:56 pm
livia and lesleyw – Okey dokey. I guess we all have a right to be annoyed with our favorite authors. Goodness knows I have been a couple of times. As far as the spoiler thing, I wouldn’t do it, but I reckon its just that I wouldn’t want to judge another author who does.
Have a great day everyone 🙂
infogenium
July 24
3:49 am
She is a fantastic writer both her Grant County books and the stand-alones have good plotting, great characters – not all likeable (which I enjoy in books), some really gross violence, suspense, humour and hot sex. So why oh why…
Judith Rochelle
July 25
7:59 pm
Okay, I’m with everyone here. I read the series, have not bought the latest book, but if I’m reading y’all right, I have no intention of doing so. I’m disappointed in Kathy Reichs for the same reason – I invested myself in the relationship between Tempe and Andrew for several books and then she leaves their relationship up in the air. S***! And Perri O’Shaunnessy, who killed the relationship between Paul and Nina. And Jaames Patterson who can’t quite let us be happy with Joe and Lindsey. Call me a sappy romantic, but if I want angst I’ve got plenty of it in my own life. I think authors owe readers emotional comfort. I keep adding to my Do Not Buy list the authors who lose sight of that.
shiloh walker
July 26
2:05 am
I think authors owe readers emotional comfort.
I’d have to disagree with that. Not trying to piss anybody off here and I totally understand why people aren’t happy with the book and the author.
If this series was romance, then yeah, she’d owe a happy ending, but it’s not romance.
I think what an author owes a reader is the best story he/she can tell. Readers aren’t always going to be happy with it and yes, the reader’s idea of the ‘best story’ isn’t always going to be the same as the author’s.
But unless she sets out to write to write a romance, that HEA is not guaranteed and a happy ending is probably the only way to give emotional comfort. From what I’ve heard about these books, they are pretty gritty and graphic, so I wouldn’t read them expecting comfort. Of course, that is just my opinion.
Now when an author takes a risk like this, she needs to be expect some unhappiness and outright disapproval. There will be flack and it would be unreasonable for the author to expect otherwise.
But an author doesn’t owe a reader emotional comfort any more than a reader owes it to an author to buy their book. We like it when readers buy our books… a lot… but it’s not something owed to us.
The author had the right to take a risk with her book just like readers have the right to not be happy with it.
If emotional comfort was a requirement for writing a book, many many books never would have been written, books like Romeo and Juliet, Stephen King’s The Green Mile or that very depressing book, The Lovely Bones. Those are all well written stories, even compelling, although I hated The Lovely Bones. But they in no way offered any kind of emotional comfort.
Even the Bible isn’t guaranteed to comfort everybody that reads it.
Okay… I’m done, and again, I’m not trying to piss anybody off, but I did feel the need to address this.
azteclady
July 26
2:38 am
Shiloh, I completely agree that the only thing a writer owes his/her readers is his/her best writing–no more, no less.
However… I had been toying with buying Ms Slaughter’s books, based on recommendations of them as being both “gritty and graphic” and having the relationship between the two main characters as a very important part of the books.
So I would have gone into the series with certain expectations which, from the buzz, seemed warranted, and which would have been dashed–rather cruely, IMO, YMMV–in this last book.
Is that betrayal? No. After all, these books are not marketed as romance, right?
And yet…
Would I have been pissed? You betcha I would have!
shiloh walker
July 26
5:49 am
Azteclady
Oh, I completely agree. I would be sincerely pissed if I’d read the books and this happened.
I’ve gotten mad and dumped several formerly fave authors over the way they wrote something (usually takes more than one or two books to lose me, though) and some I just gradually lose interest in.
As it is, I don’t really plan on reading the series just because I don’t want to get attached
Mireya
July 27
1:43 pm
Is it me or is this type of thing seemingly becoming a trend? Not going to say what that “thing” is as it could be considered a spoiler 😉
Anyway, I don’t read series with recurrent main characters. I tend to prefer “stand alone” books or series. However, I do feel for those of you who do and have had to deal with this sort of situation. I think I’ll continue sticking to stand alone books and series *shrug*
Changing direction | Her Hands, My Hands
April 14
11:01 am
[…] Karin Slaughter killed off a main character. It was, let me tell you, quite the shock, and caused more than a few waves. (And hey, please note that Ms Slaughter, who lost a decent number of readers, wasn’t even […]