Let’s Get Chatting…#6

~ Maisy

Hiya!
Today’s Topic is Novellas
Let’s get chatting…

I chose this topic because I have recently fallen in love with reading novellas or shorter books and have encountered some disinterest for them in the book community so I thought it would be a great topic for a let’s get chatting!
If you haven’t seen one of these kinds of posts from me before (I have done 6 of them) it’s where I pick a topic that is weighing on my thoughts and I chat about my opinions on it – you guys then respond with your thoughts and opinions below – very simple! As always, keep it kind but I know you will because you guys are amazing. Anyway, let’s get chatting…

Is it just me or have you guys seen distaste for novellas in the reading community – not just book bloggers but readers in general – cause I have! I love them, you can have all the great things of a big novel but because it is condensed it is far more fast paced and action packed. I think the writing is better in some cases because they have less to edit and less to focus on rather than hundreds of thousands of words. It’s great to fit in around my studies to pick me up unlike a big book that I start and then don’t have the time to finish which just always leaves me feeling down.
I personally think that a lot of the dislike for novellas and short stories in general comes from a size thing – that book can’t be good if it’s only 50 pages. Uh, sorry! Hell yes it can! Size doesn’t matter 😉
I have read a lot of books that are average in length that suck – I have also read a lot of short stories that suck and I can say I am always less mad when a short book sucks because at least that way I haven’t wasted days on something I didn’t enjoy.
And I have read some shorter books that I adored, just like I’ve read average length books are amazing – the quality of the content is definitely not decided by the quantity.

I’ve heard the argument that you don’t get the same level of immersion or depth when it is short but I personally do find that. I am not a fan of fantasy novels that spend 100 pages telling me about the government of the made up place – you know? Maybe if that was a genre I read I would feel differently about Novellas but because I mainly read romance novels you don’t tend to require world building; all the words can go on plot and characterisation which are far more important things for me as a reader.

Do you guys feel similarly? If not, what are your gripes with Novellas?
I have missed doing more discussion based posts so please show this some love if you like the fact that it is back too! ❤
I hope you enjoyed, and I will see you soon for Review Sunday!

Published by Maisy

21, YA and NA Book Blogger, besides books I am a lover of musicals, Disney and makeup. Aspiring Writer of YA fiction.

14 thoughts on “Let’s Get Chatting…#6”

  1. It does matter how long or short a story is for me. It usually can down to if I feel like reading a certain book or not.

    J.D Salinger is known for Catcher in the Rye, but he has written shorter works which I find underrated. His short fictions are Franny and Zooey, Nine Stories, and Rise Hight the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. I don’t Catcher in the Rye that much, but I like Franny and Zooey, After reading it I was like whoa…J.D Salinger CAN write.

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    1. I have never read Catcher in the Rye but a lot of my friends have as they had to do it in school. I presumed that Salinger wrote other stuff but you never hear about them so I might have to check them out! Thanks xx

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  2. This is such an interesting topic! Usually, I’m not the biggest fan of novellas, but that’s because most of the ones I’ve read are spin-off novellas from other series, and I feel as though you can tell they were mostly written to milk the series for all it’s worth 🙈 Many barely add anything to the story or the world and just repeat easter eggs as fan service, so I never end up particularly impressed 😅 Still, I definitely agree that there are some really great novellas out there and that you shouldn’t write them off altogether! My favorite one that I’ve recently read was Emily Tesh’s Silver in the Wood. Sooo good!! 😍😍
    So yeah, thanks for the great discussion topic!!

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    1. Yeah! I totally feel the same when it comes to spin-off novellas. I tend to enjoy them because of the fan servicing but then also I don’t because it is clear its been written to milk the series. Ive never read anything by Emily Tesh! Ill look her up and stick some of her stuff on my TBR 🤗🤗 thanks xx

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  4. I personally find myself turned off by books that are too voluminous rather than the reverse, which is mostly due to time. It’s why I’ve never read War and Peace. And some of my favorite classics are considered novellas and are accepted as quite masterful works of literature, like Turn of the Screw by Henry James and Jekyll and Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. As readers we like what we like, and a good book is a good book regardless of its length. 🥰

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  5. I think novella’s and shorter stories are great. Some do fall down in that they try to be too ambitious for their length I think but when done right a shorter story is just as effective as a full length novel.

    I don’t really like reading plot heavy focused novellas because I do like character work and there isn’t enough time to explore the characters so I prefer ones with simple stories that deal more with the characters than events. I read Caroline’s Heart by Austin Chant recently and it’s a wonderful story – what it does in 96 pages is perfect, I don’t know what it could have done in 300 pages that it didn’t do in those 96.

    Also, novellas are great when you want something you can read in a night!

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