Misleading Blurbs

Isn’t it the worst when you pick up a book that you’re really excited about reading  because the blurb made it sound absolutely amazing, and when you finish the book, the book didn’t live up to the blurb’s awesomeness?

It’s like someone wrote the blurb, only to realise the alien-robot battle that was promised didn’t make the final cut, but decided to leave it in there anyway!

On the other hand, has anyone ever tried to write a blurb, either for a book you love or for something you’re writing yourself? It’s super hard. Trying to make everything sound awesome or mysterious is difficult, especially when the blurb and the title is all the reader has access to in the five minutes it takes for them to decide if they want to buy it on not.

The one thing I’m really bad at is giving a synopsis of a book. Here’s what it’s like if I try explaining ‘Fearsome Dreamer’:
“So, there’s this girl and she’s an apprentice witch living in this medieval town and then she goes to this boarding school and has some weird dreams and there’s no such thing as Europe and..”
My friend is completely confused, and I haven’t even told her about the angsty romance, or the monster in the castle, or the virtual reality.

I guess the moral of this story is: I shouldn’t be employed to write blurbs, because when I try and explain a story, it comes out more as a blur rather than a blurb.

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