Cause I'm Weird That Way

Dennie, had an interesting comment over on her SFC post today:

". . . let me add, because I am the way I am, if I read the back cover blurb, my mind goes into hyper-drive and I will immediately make up the rest of the story (impatient much!?!) and I get stuck on what I think will happen while reading it and cannot enjoy the book–no one has ever called me normal."

I do something similar, not in terms of what I expect to happen in the story, but the tone/or voice I expect the story to be told in. I remember reading a excerpt from a very dark paranormal once, and was eagerly awaiting the book's release. When I finally got my hot little hands on it, the first couple of pages in one of the main protags POV was snark city. i couldn't reconcile the mile-a-minute wise cracks with the later scene I'd read that had been so horrific & emotional. Who knows, maybe that scene was actually a deleted one, or maybe the author was able to seamlessly meld the two disparate tones, but I do know that I've never read further in that book. it was a DNF. And that's not the only time that has happened to me.

I'd almost equate my response to expecting a traditional HEA/HFN ending, and having a Casablanca ending instead. wft? Kinda ballsy of me to want the author to write in a certain tone, but there it is.

Now here's where things get sort weird. I think I'm sensitive to author voice in that way because for me, when it comes to fiction/prose, words, tone, phrasing all have flavor. Literally, it's like an elusive taste on the tip of my tongue. I can't say that one author's voice 'tastes' spicy, etc. It's not as definitive as that. It's like the way you'd *almost* be able to taste a food you're craving, or you had last night. When the voice is off, it's like salt in lemonade. When it's right, it's like warm butterscotch on creamy vanilla ice cream. See? See that reaction you just had to those two food descriptions? That's it, that's how I get about authorial voice. Weird, uh? Recently I found out that while this experience might be weird, it's not so uncommon. It's called synaesthesia and related to the way some people see colors when they hear music.