You Should Expect the Unexpected

I guess it's good in a way that jerks write stupid comments about my books on Amazon or Goodreads; it gets me fired up to talk about something that isn't political because you know people don't like that.  (But they also don't like talking about writing, or TV, or movies, or comics, or action figures, or really anything.  Unless it's on their blog.  Then it's OK.)

Where was I?  Oh, yeah, someone posted this terse "review" of Bridal Shop Swap:

Besides being a huge spoiler, as in literally it spoils the end of the book, it's also another of those dumb things people say.  "was expecting..."  So because I, the author, didn't do what you, person I don't know, wanted months before you read the book, I'm somehow to blame for you not liking it.  Yeah, sure, that makes sense.

More to the point, though, is the issue of complaining because the end wasn't what you expect.  What would be the point of reading or watching TV/movies if everything ended the way we expected it?  The whole mystery genre would be pretty much kaput because the killer would always be who we expect.  M Night Shyamalan wouldn't have a career...so it's not all bad.

Still, the point is, it wouldn't be any fun if everything ended the way we wanted or expected.  The Empire Strikes Back would have sucked if it had ended Happily Ever After instead of the bad guys pretty much winning.  And there wouldn't have been that shocking twist about Vader being Luke's father.  What fun would that have been?

The thing is, it's not even like the two people broke up at the end.  He turns back into a guy but they agree to try it that way for a while and see how it works out.  They go off to have some coffee together.  So it's not even a sad ending or bummer ending or anything.  It's just not the Happily Ever After this person wanted.  2 stars seems really harsh for that but people don't think about things like that.  Or they use some bogus system like Andrew Leon.  Ugh.

Anyway, I've said before that I really hate this crap where people want everything to end Happily Ever After.  In this case it's taking it to an extreme because it has to be THEIR Happily Ever After, which I really have no way of knowing.  Conversely sometimes people want the person who swapped to change back at the end, even when, like with Girl Power, it doesn't really make sense.  That just muddles things further because how am I supposed to know which side is going to comment and/or rate the story?  I really have no way to know which randos will show up.

In the end I always just do what I want, which is what I think is best for the story.  Sometimes that has unfortunate consequences.  It really shouldn't but that's the world for you.

Looking at A Hero's Journey, I saw this review from 2014, which was kind of the same thing:

The thing is, I never promised you a bad guy "with freaky powers" or a good guy "with lots of tricks."  If I had promised those things and did not deliver then you'd have reason to complain.  Dinging my book because of things you wanted that were never promised is a dick move.  

By the same token, I never promised the other story was a lesbian romance.  It's not even filed under that category.  Why can't people just take the book for what it is?  If you want these other things, then here's an idea:  write your own fucking book!  That is advice that people give:  write the book you want to read.  You want a lesbian romance?  Go write one.  You want a bad guy with "freaky powers" and a good guy with "lots of tricks?"  Go write it!  And leave me and my books out of it.