That moment when someone in book club says the author "didn't develop the characters" when they just missed the subtle clues

Our club spent an hour debating a mystery novel last night where half the group claimed the twist came out of nowhere. I pointed to three specific passages on pages 47, 112, and 189 that foreshadowed it, and suddenly the argument shifted to whether the clues were "fair." Has anyone else dealt with readers who blame the book instead of their own skimming?

4 comments

4 Comments

kimmurphy2mo ago

Just read an article saying most "bad twists" are from readers ignoring setup, not bad writing.

lilya762mo ago

My friend ranted about this for an hour after people missed her book's twist lol.

the_elliot1mo agoTop Commenter

kimmurphy hit on something real. I had this one book where the main character kept noticing a specific brand of car everywhere, and I thought it was just weird background detail. Then the twist came and it turned out the villain owned that dealership chain and was tracking people through their service records. I almost yelled at my own book because I literally read that setup on page 42 and dismissed it as filler. Now I try to notice when an author repeats something small three times or more - that's usually a dead giveaway they're building toward something. It's wild how much we skip because we think we know where the story is going.

sean_cooper582mo ago

Oh man that is so frustrating when people miss the subtle setup and then complain it came out of nowhere! @kimmurphy is totally right that it's usually a reading comprehension issue.