Reviewing with River

Do you look at the plot, the characters, and the way that the author puts words together? {/c}For a first time through, I try to just read without any of those things in mind. However, if I stumble trying to do that, I will stop and look for the reason why. My preference is for character driven stories and I love a sentence done with panache.

Do you like stories that have a lot of action or a lot of character development?
I think that developing characters requires action. People are what they do.

Do you like authors to use a lot of complicated words, or very simple words?
That depends on the story. Sometimes, like in a science fiction story , big word meaningful words fit. I a story about a kid kicking stones down the stream, big words are out of place. Also, it is pretty easy to tell when someone is abusing their thesaurus.
There is an episode of, Friends, where Joey is writing an article. He asks Monica (maybe it was Rachel?) to read it and she mentions that he uses the same words too many times and loans him a thesaurus. The result is hilarious, of course, as he tries to find smart alternatives for almost every word.

Words need to fit the venue, the character, the narrator and the audience.

Vickie___________________________________________