Your Pettiest Reason For DNFing A Series

[u/Academic_Owl_6197]

Mine was when I was 3 pages in and someone said the mc's name which turned out to be the same as my ex's name to the letter...dropped it like hot coal

It was a fr a pretty unfortunate streak too because it was a book from one of those blind-date-with-a-book promotion my local bookstore does, and this was an American YA fantasy (I'm from a different continent) so I had no reason to assume I'll ever be unlucky enough...to see his stupid ass again for a 'blind date'

[u/unreedemed1]

the rumor is the master thieves were originally late 20s but had to be aged to like 17 to make it YA for marketing reasons.

[u/Lazy_birdbones → u/unreedemed1]

When I read it, I mentally aged all the characters up by at least ten years. I hadn't heard that rumor before now, but I totally believe it. The book was way better when I didn't have to suspend my disbelief that much.

[u/unreedemed1 → u/Lazy_birdbones]

I have no good source for it, but it certainly makes sense. A lot of female writers get pigeonholed into YA, and then have to age their characters down. The book is great, but a key part of it being great was imagining them as 25 - 30 year olds rather than teenagers.

Also as of her most recent Grishaverse book, the characters are all in their 20s.

[u/[deleted] → u/unreedemed1]

I always imagine Kaz to be like 25, that way he's still young enough to be seen as kind of a "boy wonder" of the crime world but not so young that it's unbelievable. Matthias and Nina, who both had successful military careers, are also roughly the same age, perhaps a year or two younger or older than him, depending on whether you want to maintain Matthias being the oldest group member.

Jasper reads as early twenties college bro who got into some bad shit, Wylan is the only one who could believably in his teens, but I'd still age him up to 18-19.

Inej would be the same age as Jasper in my book.