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How realistic do books have to be?

How realistic do books have to be?

Hello !!

While being at work, a question sprawn into my mind- and so let’s have a bookish discussion today ☺️ (seems like it’s been a while! Ahah)

 

How realistic does books has to be, for you?

* I’m not talking genres who can get away with creating their own world here, like fantasy or scifi.

 

Love me some contemporaries!! And yeah, I have this thing were I need to relate to the MC in one way or another to enjoy said book — as i’m definately the kind to prefer characters over plots any time.

But what about the “realism” facet of them? Because when you think about it.. a book is not meant to be “something real”, although it definately still am in my mind, don’t get me wrong! But in itself, it’s a creation of fiction- so does it matter if it doesn’t reflect the reality, in the end?

 

Something that I saw alot, in many different ways that I kinda like is when the author create their own “website” or application or even technology that we don’t have (yet!). For exemple here, you can think of the website to pair «suicide partners» in I was here by Gayle Forman or my heart and other black holes by Jasmine Warga.

We can even go beyond and create our own fandom and the art relayed to it, like a whole TV show, from Ashley Poston’s once upon a con serie, or a webcomic from Eliza & Her Monsters by Fancesca Zappia… the bad with thoses though, is that we generally end the book wishing thoses elements has been real so we can consume them too 🙊

 

Other elements are kinda complicated; specially when talking about personal experience, thus having a kind of “controversy” on them.. as it can feel real to some, but feel completely absurd and irrealistic to others.

This is where I usually take it with a grain of salt in reviews, because everybody doesn’t feel things the same way nor has really experienced the same things.. such as mental health related feeling or even relationships with others.

 

I do need that kind of tangible realistic sense to my reads though, because we know that my concentration span & imagination is far from what it was.. So the more made up the book is, the more difficulty that i’m having while reading it – needing to read far slower than other genres would need me to, and needing to reread a sentence multiple times to actually figure out what’s happening there.

 

 

  • Is there specific things you like the realism factor on?
  • Do you, on the opposite side, love it entirely made up and far from reality as possible?
  • What genre is better or worst to play on the realism, or lack there-of to you?

8 thoughts on “How realistic do books have to be?”

  1. Honestly, I’m fine with made-up stuff, but what I find the most annoying is when kids in contemporary have “different music tastes” that are just clearly the author placing their childhood music in the book. Not every MC needs to love 90s/80s music, and it’s honestly… not that original. It just doesn’t feel realistic to me when the characters sound like they come from a different time, yet are supposed to be teenagers in 2019!

    1. This.. sounds wierd indeed xD although this *can* happen if their parents got them into it- iknow my bestfriend were like that, because her mom listened to alot of 80’s music (she’ll be 27- so a year older) .. but them on their own??? Erhmm- we got a problem.

  2. I need the emotions and the resulting actions to be realistic otherwise the book doesn’t resonate. Some license can be taken with processes and details of normal life, but if it’s too outlandish then it’s distracting. I do often enjoy a bit of magical realism, but that’s different as it’s intentional.

    1. Yeah, I get what you mean! One must not go too overboard with the « not realistic ».. or else you’d mainly just wonder what the hell for the entire novel xd

  3. i love this discussion, kristina! i really liked what you said about more fantastical books causing you to read slower — i’ve always wondered why i read sff books slower than contemporary, besides just feeling like the writing voice in contemporary is just a lot easier to read, but you’re right that i have to process a lot more “not real” info from the book. i think i personally prefer fantasies for the escape factor, even though it may be a bit more difficult to get through!

    1. Surprisingly, im reading a fantasy right now and i actually can’t get myself to stop reading 😂 definately a great escape factor indeed- although they aren’t much better than us in my book hahah (celestial war over pandemic but you know xd)

    1. That’s fair! Ahaha as long I can relate to a character, i’m all good!

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