Reader discussion: The Spoilers

Public reader discussion about The Spoilers in the WeRead Catalog by Rex Beach.

Spoilers are a big no-no everywhere but they seem to be a little extreme in the fantasy world. How do you feel about spoilers?

By Reed_Shadow

I totally get why people don’t want spoilers, and I do try really hard not to ruin stuff for anyone. I just wanted to toss out a few thoughts. For me, small spoilers and those vague, “you’ll see” type comments don’t really bother me. What I don’t want is anything big, like major plot stuff. Honestly, I feel like with older stuff (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, that kind of thing) people should be able to talk about it more freely since it’s been out forever. If you haven’t read/watched it yet, at some point it’s probably not that important to you anymore. I guess maybe like 10 years should be a decent cutoff. But if someone tells me they haven’t seen/read something, then I’m not going to talk like I can say whatever. At the same time, I feel like a lot of people are way too strict about spoilers, and then I second-guess myself because my “chill” take might be the unpopular one. So I’m genuinely curious—how do you all feel? Is it really necessary to tag/hide spoilers even for minor stuff in places like Discord or when it’s more private? Or should we be a little more relaxed as long as we’re not messing up the main story? I mean really insignificant things, nothing that changes anything. Like, I had a friend who hadn’t seen or read Wheel of Time yet. I told him I thought it was weird that >!in the show they give one of the characters a wife right away, but that isn’t in the books!< and he got super mad at me and called it spoilers. That’s what made me wonder what everyone else thinks. I know the sub rules say to hide spoilers and I follow them, I’m just talking about how people feel in general. Also, I’ll say this: the person who left the Star Wars 7 theater and screamed out a huge spoiler to the people in line… yeah, they were a total jerk. This thread has been kind of interesting though, seeing everyone’s takes. And I’ll admit I changed my mind on a couple things—I always like hearing other perspectives, even when it means I’m wrong.

Pet peeve - Why do publishers insist on spoiling so much of a book in the blurb?

By LetterCarabeen

Probably my biggest reading annoyance: when the back-cover blurb gives away most of the plot. I’m in the second half of a thriller right now and somehow I still haven’t made it to the second paragraph on the back because I’m already basically being told what’s going to happen. Like, I know a character is going to get kidnapped and I even know who, and I can tell the whole “twist” is supposed to be spoiled out of the book before I get there. I usually avoid blurbs for that reason, but this time I figured I was far enough in that it couldn’t hurt. Still, it doesn’t make sense to me why they do it. Edit: it’s been really fun (and honestly a little surprising) reading what everyone thinks about it. A lot of the explanations totally click, but I didn’t expect how many people seem to actually like spoilers or super detailed blurbs. And then there are others who get annoyed at people who don’t. Thanks for the comments—I've learned a lot.

Did you ever spoil yourself?

By RestlessBlue72

Ugh, this happens to me constantly—like especially with book series. I’ll start looking stuff up online at some point, just to get more info on something, and then I somehow end up ruining it for myself. Next thing I know, I’ve seen a big plot twist or found out someone dies / betrays someone later on. Am I the only one who does this? I’ve basically had to stop searching for anything while I’m reading, otherwise I can’t help it.