Pulp storytelling has been experiencing a bit of a resurgence over the past few years. One of the most telling signs, at least in my world, is that not only have comic companies (big and small) explored pulp stories with some characters, but small press publishers and authors are showing up at comic conventions to sell their “new pulp” novels and spread the word. Hubby is thrilled with this because he loves “men’s adventure” stories. So I decided to give it a try.

I picked up a pulp novel from a small publisher at a local comic con. A couple of authors were at the booth and I like meeting creators, especially fellow writers. Plus, supporting small, local industries is important. Anyway, hubby was buying a couple of books there so I read the descriptions of a few, talked to the authors and picked one (it just happened to feature a female hero, which is a definite modern twist on the genre).

Now that I’ve read the book, here’s the thing – it’s not for me. I understand why hubby likes pulp because there’s a lot of action. But these aren’t exactly the best written books (nor do they aspire to be), so there are a lot of instances that grate on my inner editor and pull me out of the story. And the storytelling itself is pretty predictable and not exactly tight, meaning there are a lot of unanswered questions and plenty of inconsistencies.

I’m not saying that pulp is a bad thing, I’m just saying it’s not for me. Plenty of people like the cookie cutter style of storytelling and I’ll admit that in certain other genres I can actually get into that. But it’s really not my thing.

(If you’re curious, here’s the book I read.)