Wednesday Chatter #2: Characters Not Showing Their Age

Wednesday Chatter is a weekly feature at Ruby's Books where we'll be talking about anything and everything related to books and reading. Click here if you want to see what we talked about in the previous weeks

 

Over the years I've read a number of books where I couldn't feel like the characters where acting or talking or thinking according to their age. Either they are adults acting like children or kids/teenagers that make me believe they're way older than what the story first tells us.

This bothers me a little, because it's confusing and it pulls me out of the story a little. How can I fully relate to a character if I'm not even sure his age is real? Every single time I read about a character like this, I'm reminded about the Weasley twins trying to enter the Tournament.

Luckily it seems some authors decide to "age" their characters, so they appear much older than they really are. I don't think I've read books in which characters act like they're a lot more younger. It would be a little too awkward if that happened.

Don't get me wrong, if the "don't act like your age" thing has something to do with the plot, then I'm okay with it. Think spies. But if it's something that has nothing to do with the actual story then I'm confused. A five year old shouldn't talk like a ten year old, a teenager shouldn't be acting like someone in their mid-twenties and so on. And it's not about those moments or scenes where sometimes the brain decides to go offline for a few precious moments/hours. I've had those too and I think everyone has those moments. And I'm not talking about geniuses either. I'm talking about constantly not believing the characters have the age they supposedly have.

What actually confuses me the most is the why behind this. Is it a choice made by the authors to make their characters act like this (symbolism maybe?) or is it just an "oops"?

What do you think about this? Does it bother you? Or do you ignore it?

Wednesday Chatter #1: When to read reviews

Wednesday Chatter is a weekly feature at Ruby's Books where we'll be talking about anything and everything related to books and reading. Click here if you want to see what we talked about in the previous weeks

Since I'm a very chatty person (and yes, I ramble a lot. There, I said it) I thought it would be a good idea to start this feature. I was also curious if I'm the only one feeling a certain way about... well, bookish things.

This week's topic is about reviews and when to read them. 

A few days ago I was talking with a friend of mine about book blogging and book reviews and, knowing I enjoy writing reviews, she asked if I also read reviews. I have to admit I am a very weird person. Though I enjoy writing reviews about the books I read, I am very particular about the reviews I read. That doesn't mean I don't read them at all, I do read reviews. But I read them only after I've read the book in question.

I realized it was better for me not to read reviews ahead of time when I was very young. I was about 13 years old and me and a very good friend from school (let's call him D) were doing a The Three Musketeers read-along. D is a booklover since he was very very young, so by the age of 13 he was a really fast reader (I think even know, he reads a lot faster than me, if that's possible). So, of course, he was about 3-4 chapters ahead of me. Every day for about...two weeks, while we were taking the subway on our way home, we would talk about what we read the day before and change opinions and arguing about what would happen next. At some point, I realized D wasn't playing fair, because he already knew what was going to happen. So I, curious as ever, started begging him (more like nagging) to tell me what was going to happen and tell me his what he thought about it. That ruined the book for me and I could never finish it. 

I realize that what D was giving me was a huge pile of spoilers instead of a review, but for me, it's basically the same thing. As soon as I read someone else's opinion about a book, my feelings change even before I started reading it. I notice things I probably would've ignored otherwise, while other details are lost to me. 

The main reason I do like to read reviews is because I want to see if someone else spotted the little details that I did, or to see if I'm the only one hating/loving certain things about the book. 

If I stumble across a review for a book I've never heard of before, I will read a small part of it. So my brain gets something along the lines of

I loved this book because....(skip this part, skip it, skip it!); I didn't like the fact that (skip, skip, skip). Recommended to fans of (insert genres or similar books).

What about you? Do you read reviews before or after you've read the book?